Finally uploaded some of the photos on the phone and there are so many cute photos... like this one. a candid shot from our road trip in October. 

Gramps!

 Two cuddly kids right out of the bath and into their Gramp's arms. I was away at a show most of his visit~ but I could tell when I returned that everyone had been having a wonderful time.  

Monday Class: "Today, our activities focused on the NativeAmericans. We gathered and ate popcorn, heard the story of The First Moccasins, played The Plum Stone Game, and made pinch pots."

Wednesday class: "Today we spent the day with the Native Americans by sharing Johnny cakes for snack, playing several games (Pa-tol Stick Game, Which Hand, and The Moccasin Game), and illustrating the story of Kayas and the Loon."

random updates

Lili & Kestrel at farm school

Monday 11/5: "Today was full of candles and fire! We heard the story of St. Martin, made observations of candles and their flames, and made earth candles. In the picture, we were getting ready to dig the holes we would use for making our candles.
I hope you have a great week and I look forward to seeing your kiddos next week!" ~ Kimberly

In other family news:

* Nene sent us the yearly halloween package & this year it was crazy bow ties and ties and mustaches. Super fun! 

* First time for Seo going #2 on the potty. M&Ms for all!!!

* Lili has her first slightly wiggly tooth! 

* Lili has been taking more and more showers on her own now.

* Seo woke up a 5:00am due to the time change this morning :( 

* We are starting to get SO excited about the arrival of our little baby niece/cousin in roughly 2 months!!! 

being silly with our new duds from Nene!

at the start of trick or treating

bribery

 I tried to bribe Seo with a lolipop (and Gita and Lil each got one too of course) while I cut his hair. It did not go over well. He still was unhappy with me as I tried to snip away, and then hair kept getting stuck on his lolipop. *sigh*
Once again I did quite a hack job due to the difficult working conditions. I am sad to say that the next time he needs a cut it might be with the shaver since there is no way I would subject a barber to what I went through!
(you can see what a gorgeous morning we had!)

this week

Seo and his best friend (and very occasionally worst enemy) Aziza

Monday:: Today was a great day for swinging and most of the kids spent a lot of time either on the swings or in the creek! We also learned about bats, ate some foods they help us have (mango, dates, and cashews - yum!), played an echolocation game, and painted a picture of the night sky. 
I hope you enjoy the beautiful weather this week! See you next Monday!

Wednesday:: Today, we journeyed to Great Britain and the National Art Museum, made our own tea, enjoyed tea and shortbread for snack, and heard the story of The Honest Woodman.  And...there is always time for play, creeks, and feeding animals!
Hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend!

This morning Alex let me sleep in a bit while he gave the kids breakfast, made lunch for Lili, nd coffee for the two of us. After I got up and dressed I braided Lili's hair (it's getting longer!). Seo naturally wanted his hair done too, so I gave him a small bun on the top of his head and bundled the kids into their carseats. On the 20 min drive to the farm school we came upon a blue heron on the side of the road who flew up and threatened to hit our car.  It swerved back and swooshed right by Lili's backseat window which thrilled her. When we pulled into the farm school driveway her friend Lily was getting their as well. She barely said goodbye to me as she and Lily-with-a-Y linked arms and walked up the road. A little boy commented that Seo's hairdo looked like a unicorn horn. Seo wasn't all that happy to get back in the car without saying hello to the goats or swinging on the swing, but there were no tears. It was a beautiful fall morning and it was sweet to get some alone time with him in the car. Lili isn't an overpowering child, but she is older and much more articulate, so she overshadows some of Seo's nuances. These small details show up much clearer when you have a chance to get him alone. He is really funny! And he is talking up a storm... you just have to be really paying attention to understand what he is talking about. 

When Seo and I got home I switched places with Alex who had been working on a wholesale order. He and Seo went for a walk and I began working on some silver earrings. I worked on them all day while Alex went and picked up Lili from school and then built us a new front gate (our old one came down when we plastered our house last month).  When I stopped working at 5:30 Alex made fried chicken, salad, and rice pilaf for dinner while I tidied up our house and did some lunch dishes. Then we sat down to a family dinner. The kids were silly. After dinner Alex got the kids all riled up wrestling, making farting noises, and roaring like dinosaurs at the top of their voices.  Awesome. Then books and teeth brushing and off to bed. That about sums up our day! 

bedtime story

Nature Studies and Seasonal Celebrations, Monday:
"Today we explored the world of goats through the story of Blue Cheese (quite a funny one!), a visit to the goats, a milk science experiment, and milk painting. Of course, since it was such an amazingly beautiful day, we had to play in the creek, too!"

Around the World ABCs, Wednesday:

"Today we continued with our Aesop's fables and enjoyed the story of The Goose and the Golden Egg. We also visited India - which seems like an unlikely location for our fable to take us, but did you know that there are many similarities between Aesop's fables and the Jakata tales? No one is sure how the stories could have gotten between Greece and India, but there is speculation that they did. While in India we visited the Taj Mahal, played two games - chidiya ud and phugadi - and enjoyed Indian spiced rice for snack.

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall weather - we certainly are!" ~Lili's teacher Kimberly
This photo is from NH. The kids playing in Micah and Camden's sandbox. Lili and Camden got along amazingly well. I haven't heard her giggle so much in one hour in a long time!

apple hats

I simply LOVE this video of Alice and Seo at the apple orchard. 

apple picking with old and very new friends

Lili's Wednesday Around the World ABC Class / Seo on a woodsy walk

"Today, we enjoyed the story of The Fox and the Crow, ate cheese for snack, and journeyed to a country famous for its cheese - France.  We we amazed by the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed a lively game of Petanque.  We improvised by using baseballs to throw and a base for our throwing circle.  The kids loved it and it would be a fun family yard game!"

Lili's photo shoot

An early morning secretive photo shoot by Lili.

 Class Update:

"Today was full of smiles as we enjoyed the beautiful weather and spent lots of time soaking up the sunshine! We collected nasturtium flowers and used then to both add color and flavor to our cream cheese for snack and we travelled back in time to ancient Greece where we played checkers - did you know they played checkers?!? We also enjoyed another of Aesop's fables - The City Mouse and the Country Mouse."

Lili catching a fish with her bare hands

The fish did live in the end.

Lili's class summery from today:

"We enjoyed such a beautiful day at the farm today! Our day was based on the story of The Robber in the Old Orchard - complete with story time in our our old orchard, searching for birds that make their home at the farm, pretending to be birds and make a nest, and having eggs for snack. We also had fun during music and watercolor painting a picture that we will use for a project in October."

apple picking with the fam

Moon Fairy Goddess (from the LAAFF festival earlier this month)

Notes from her class, Wednesday, Sept. 19th:

"We had a busy day today complete with a journey to Greece! While we visited Greece we talked about the first Olympics, participated in a mini-pentathlon, looked at olive trees, and heard the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. We also heard the version of The Wolf Who Cried Boy! We added a second form to our form drawing book - the curve and created a story picture out of the letter B. Our sound sentence was: Spin thin tin in the bin. Try saying that three times fast!
We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a beautiful day at the farm!"

lili classes

After each class Lili's instructor at her classes sends out a little email about some of the things they did for the day. It is nice to read and I thought the rest of the family might enjoy the updates on her class adventures. It is such a great place!

DAY 2: "We had a great day in class today - beautiful weather, happy kids, and lots of fun!  We started off with a group circle time with poems and movements, then fed the animals and ourselves - making a yummy spiced apple snack!  We also explored the farm and had fun playing together.  We began our form drawing book and worked with a first form.  Finally, each week we will be playing a word game with words in the same word family.  This weeks' sentence was:  he forbid the kid to get rid of the squid.  At my house, we are going to write the sentence and illustrate it tomorrow for practice with handwriting and word endings.
I hope your child had a great day and I look forward to next week!"

DAY 3:
"Have you ever give much thought to the growing of popcorn? We decided to grow popcorn this year and we harvested it last week. This week, examined some popcorn still on the cob and made popcorn for snack. We also, read a story about a corn seed thief, collected a variety of seeds, and made a scarecrow! I don't know how we fit all of that into one rainy day, but we did!"

Papa Dane and Amy news

 "Hey Mom"
"Yeah?"
"Look at this pirate booty*, it is as silly as Papa Dane! Haaaa haaaa haaaaa"

"Seo, what is your doll's name?"
"Amy!"
"Amy???"
"Amy!"


*Pirate booty: a puffed corn junk food

spider + vole

On the family front, both kids got bitten by a small vole today. They were both crying hysterically in the driveway claiming they had been bitten by a rat. After inspecting both of their upturned hands it was apparent that something with two little front teeth had bitten them indeed. It turns out (after some investigating and interrogation) that the vole is not rabid, the kids were just "helping" the cat catch it.  Alex killed with a stick so we could inspect it. The whole experience was bizzare and a little scary b/c we couldn't figure out what was going on or if we should be scared. I hope the kids learned a big lesson about touching wild animals!

sleeping

Lili hoola hooping!

We had a talk this morning about the difference between telling a lie and telling a joke. I gave the example of me asking her if she hit her brother and she says no, and then when I re-question her about it she says "Just joking" ~ that isn't really a joke. That is more of a lie.
So she was processing the difference and her response was this:
"Okay. So, I could say trees talk... just joking! Or, the sun goes around the earth.... Just joking! Or, trees have eyebrows... Just joking!" 

He is loving this book about chickens and eggs this week (Henrietta's Little Red Hen)

meet & greet at the farm school

I borrowed these photos from a new friends facebook page. Photos of the little ones at the meet & greet at the home school enrichment program we will be sending Lili to a couple days a week. I feel really lucky to have found such an amazing place so close to our home, it is less than a 20 min drive! Today we met some other families, visited with the farm's animals, checked out the inside classroom yurt, and made hand churned ice cream.
Lili already has made some friends, she took her picnic lunch away from our picnic blanket to go sit with them. :)  I think this is just the type of place where she will flourish.
Seo is truly a farm/nature boy at heart too. He could watch a chicken sitting laying an egg for half an hour and be mesmerized. I had to drag him crying out of the animal area at the farm today.
Classes start in two weeks for Lili!

early in the morning

mememre visits.