Cooking with Kids: Process not Perfection

The girls and I made banana bread the other night as an early Fathers Day present for their dad.  Now that I've left my job, I feel a lot less stressed in general, and I had a really good time just observing how much the kids enjoy the process of creating something new..

Exploration with Bottle Caps and Lids

When I realized how many bottle caps and lids we throw away on a weekly basis (3 gallons of milk, 6 bottles of soda water, 12 squeezable applesauce pouches, etc...), I started saving them.  It wasn't long before my little collection had grown large enough to provide an entire morning's worth of entertainment for L and E (34 months)...

Nomads Game - Story of the World Activity

I recently started reading The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times to L and E (34 months).  Before we went on vacation, we discussed history and archeology, and today we read about how ancient people were nomads.  I made up a simple Nomad Game, which the girls were very excited to play after dinner.  I wanted them to know that ancient people lived in caves, hunted and gathered food, and moved from place to place when the food ran out.  So that's exactly what we did...

Back from Vacation

We've come back from a much-needed vacation to my in-laws' house.  Their internet is slower than dial-up (yes, that's possible!), so no blogging for me.  It was nice to spend time without being glued to my computer, to catch up on sleep, and to get time alone with my husband while grandma watched the kids.  The girls did amazingly well considering that it was a new environment and they only had about 3 toys to play with for over a week.  Baby H let so many new people hold him and even smiled and giggled at them (at the same age, his sisters had a bad case of 'stranger danger' and would scream whenever someone new even said hi to them).  We visited a Children's Museum, swam in a zero-entry pool for kids, went for many walks, fed baby goats, and had lots of great family fun. 

I am now officially done working at my job!...