Wordless Wednesday

Preschool Easter Party

This morning was the Easter/Spring party at Nursery School. It was quite a busy, busy time. Somehow, amid all the excitement, the Easter Bunny stopped by! While the kiddos were eating their snack, he entered the other room and hid a whole bunch of eggs. As they were busy hunting, that little rascal bounced into the other room and left their goodie bags! Such glee upon discovery! Too bad I was busy most of the time "escorting" the rabbit and so I missed the hunt.

Mmmmm, tasty treats!
Look what I found!!!

Now that I've found them, I'm not going to let them go.


When we got home, the Noodle wanted to investigate the content of her bag a little more carefully. She was THRILLED to discover not only a Pooh Bear toothbrush but also some toothpaste. Once again, these seemed to be more noteworthy than the foiled eggs and rice krispie butterfly! What a peanut :)

What is it about that grass?!

And, of course, the toothpaste.



After nap, we have an appointment at my salon. We'll see how that goes...the last time we went, it was ugly...really ugly. I'm banking on the fact that she's a year older which will hopefully make a world of difference! Stay tuned!

Train a child well

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it"--Proverbs 22:6





Those who know me, know that I love to read. It is actually pretty obvious, even if you don't "know" me (all you need to do is take a look at the sidebar of the blog--ha ha!). Growing up, my mom always had a book that she was reading. Come to think of it, not much has changed...she still always has a book close by! Some of my fondest memories come from us reading together. From a very young age (like 4,5 and 6), she would even read me chapter books. Some of our favorites included: the Ramona Quimby series, Mary Poppins, The Wombles (British), all of the Winnie the Pooh series and even older books that she had enjoyed as a youngster--Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, is one that comes to mind. I have no doubt that her influence on me made me into the reader that I am today.

We have been noticing that with increasing frequency, the Noodle has been independently picking up books and "reading" them herself. Now, I'm certainly not going to say that she is a prodigy and is already reading, but she is definitely displaying all the wonderful signs of emerging literacy. She will retell stories to herself while "reading" the pictures or she'll take it upon herself to read a book to her doll or stuffed animal or perhaps she'll even "read" a memorized story with a predictable verse. Other times she'll pick up the newspaper or a magazine and browse through those. Most importantly, she is doing this on her own, without any prompting from us. Sometimes I'll wonder what she is doing, because she is so quiet...and then walk in to find her reading. It brings a smile to my face everytime!

She's also become much more interested in letters and numbers. She'll point to words and ask us (or she'll do it herself with the letters she knows)to spell them out, letter by letter. When we get to the end of the word, she'll run her finger under the word from beginning to end while we say the word, which is the beginning of understanding the concept that letters make up words. During church, as a diversion and to help keep her focused, we'll frequently track with our finger during a prayer or a hymn. Now she is doing it too.

Learning to read is such a complicated procedure--for anyone. The process certainly begins waaaay before a child begins his or her formal schooling. It is a beautiful thing though, to see a reader emerging--much a like a flower slowly opening its petals.

An "egg-cellent" time

With Easter a week away, it was time to meet up at church for the annual Easter Egg Dyeing party. We started off strong with all the kiddos actively involved and interested in dyeing the eggs. Then, one by one, they started to drift away....no surprise, the adults were left to finish the job. Running around the church hall and playing Ring around the Rosie ends up being much more entertaining I guess!

Wordless Wednesday or "Shhhh, babies are sleeping".

Looks can be deceiving

So officially it may be the 2nd day of Spring, but with the wind whipping off of the Lake today, it certainly didn't feel like it. Mind you, we didn't realize HOW cold it was until we were already at the park...that sun can be deceiving. The remaining snow/ice on the water and the white caps further out should have been a pretty loud warning. Oh well. We still had fun flying kites and playing on the playground. That's March for you around these parts!

Around and around

There's something about spinning that kids just LOVE to do. I know my OT friends would say it is all due to their emerging vestibular (inner ear/balance) system. I use to love twirling around too. I found lately though, that when the Noodle wants me to spin her, I cash out WAY before she does--like 3 or 4 times around...max. Gotta hand it to her for stamina; she could just keep going and going--around and around and around she goes...!




Isn't the falling down the best part?!

Kiss me, I'm (NOT) Irish...

...but I certainly am cute!!

Tea party, anyone?

Like a kid in the candy aisle

...no, make that the toothbrush aisle at T*rget. Whenever we go, the Noodle begs to go look at the toothbrushes and toothpastes. I guess to see the various characters. We were running low on her toothpaste and her toothbrush was looking a bit "tired", so she was in luck today. She carried her toothbrush around(in the package) for the rest of the evening. Doesn't take much to make her happy. I'll keep it that way :) BTW, it was a double score because she picked C*rs for both. Ca-chow.

Show us those pearly whites

The Noodle had gone to the dentist last fall, but while she sat in the chair and opened her mouth, it wasn't an official cleaning--they just looked around and gave her the once over to make sure there weren't any cavities that were evident by sight. Since she had done so well with that visit, they told me that when I made my 6 month appointment, to schedule one for her too and they'd do an actual cleaning. Today was the day. I went first and she sat next to me, watching and taking in everything. Then it was her turn. Boy, was she ready! Before they had even started, she had her mouth open and kept it that way until they were all finished. Picking the flavor of toothpaste was fun (bubble gum) and when she was finished, she picked a pack of cards from the treasure box. We're so thankful that this milestone went by without any fanfare or drama!

Clean, healthy teeth all around! Yeah!!

The New Dining Room

I had talked about how we were re-doing our dining room here . J had finished the woodwork and painting a few weekends ago, but he hadn't had time to complete the flooring. Over this past weekend that was accomplished too. He had his faithful assistant there with him throughout most of it. In fact, she decided she wasn't going to nap on Saturday because she didn't want to miss out on any of the good stuff.

The messy, but necessary job of patching plaster.


I've got my eyes on you!


The complete disarray of the house.


Daddy's never to busy to give his girl a hug!


Clean-up patrol.


Actually, it is more fun to float this stuff around and dance than to clean it up...


Here Daddy, let me help you with that hammer.


Mmmm, that saw is a little too loud for my ears.


Just a little rest break.


The finished product!


Can you believe we chose purple? I was a bit nervous, but I think it looks great! I should know better than to question J! BTW, with the flash on, it makes the color "brighter" than it really is. The finished color is more like an aubergine.

Enjoying a snack in the new dining room and wearing her new Asian-inspired apron skirt.


She just figured out about making this face. Lovely, don't ya think?