The gardens…

We headed to Encinitas today with our field trip group of homeschoolers. It was great. We always go somewhere that is really cool and the trip is always a success. Today we went to Quail Botanical Gardens, it was very cool. I wish we had gone through the gardens and ended up in the kids section last for lunch but we were shuffled over to the kids section first and it was hard to get all of us and the kids out of there to discover the rest of the gardens. The kids had fun exploring everything, there was an electric train that was a big hit, they could control it to go on and off when they wanted. They tried to stop it in certain places. Someone even de-railed it. There was a water pump and everyone tried it out, they were fascinated with how it worked. We walked around the rest of the gardens and discovered a big pond with fish, turtles and frogs. The kids liked the big bamboo sticks and slapped them in the water. We found some fruit trees with avocados, oranges, bananas… and so many more exotic fruits that I have forgotten half of their names. It was hard to go through these trees because we were all hungry and everything looked delicious. All in all I think the kids had fun, they ran around with other kids their ages and were tired out when we got home.

Hannah on the frog

Ben in a tree trunk

The water pump

Walking together

Hannah, Olivet and Noah exploring the pond

The group (most of them)Checking out the waterfall

Talking…

Noah has been such a talker lately! He talks about everything and says it correctly too. His sentence structure is correct. He corrects us if we repeat back to him (what we think he said) in a wrong way. He has discovered to art of words and talking up a storm. Sometimes I wonder if his recent fevers were a way for his body to make a transition into more speech. “I was waiting for you” He enunciates his “H” now and says “Hannah” perfectly now. He’s still working on “sh” when he says “shoes”, he says “poos”. It has been great listening to his speech change. He isn’t a baby any more.

Spanish landing...

We got out of the house this morning and headed over near the airport to Spanish landing. We walked down the path and watched the boats and the birds. Turned to the other side and watched the airplanes overhead, taking off and landing. We found a little playground and some seagulls that tried to swipe our snacks. The kids took care of them by chasing them all over the place. They eventually gave up and didn’t come near us anymore but the kids sure had fun chasing them all over. We were all getting over our colds and coughs and runny noses so they weren’t too active, but it was real nice to get out of the house and see something new.

Ben is making a heart with his hands

Ben watching the planes in the sky while waiting for us to catch up

Hannah loves...

Hannah loves to play with her brothers, Ben and Noah, they run and play together all day long.

Hannah loves to draw and write, we can always find her curled up with a pencil or pen and a pad of paper.

Hannah loves to sing. She especially loves to sign along with the music in the car, or make up her own.

Hannah loves her babies. She nurses them, walks them in a sling or the stroller, has tea with them and brings them along on various adventures.

Hannah loves purses and bags. She will carry one just about anywhere we go.

Hannah loves Dora the Explorer. She pretends that she is Dora and that Ben is Diego.

Hannah loves gardening. She loves to get her garden gloves on, her tools and get busy in the dirt. She loves to explore the backyard.

Hannah loves to dance. We find her dancing to songs that she is singing outside or inside.

Hannah loves to play fair, sometimes it isn’t and she gets upset.

Hannah loves bugs. She wants to be a bug-ologist when she grows up. She loves to spot and capture roly-poly bugs.

Hannah loves to play games with her family, she’s getting really good at some games!

Hannah loves arts and crafts. She loves to paint and create with playdoh.

Hannah loves to share with others. She also loves to give gifts to her brothers. She bought them some big bouncy balls so that they each had one to play with.

Hannah loves to help out in the kitchen. She can’t wait to peel carrots or roll dough. She always wants to watch and help out with making dinner.

Hannah loves princesses. She loves to pretend that she is Cinderella dancing with the prince at the ball. That is the only Disney princess movie that she has watched.

There's so much more that Hannah loves...

Sickies...

Ben had a fever all day yesterday through today. Yesterday he slept all afternoon, woke for a few hours and fell back asleep at around 8:30pm to sleep the entire night and wake up at 11:40 this morning! I did check on him a couple of times to make sure he was OK. He woke up and stayed on the couch until about 4:30 this afternoon when he woke up from his little nap refreshed and ready for playing. No fever all better. Amazing. If only we could all heal that quickly!

Hannah had a fever last night for about 3 hours. She's fine...unless you count the very occasional cough and runny nose.

Noah had a fever for two nights and a day. He woke up this morning without a fever and was ready to tackle the day.

Daddy is feeling better from his sinus infection but now has an annoying cough to deal with.

Mommy is feeling better today. The cold in my head is slowly progressing to something manageable and all will be well soon!

Drums...

We stayed home today, Mommy (that's me) doesn't feel good and thinks she's coming down with something. Daddy went to the doctor today and now feels much better, lucky him. We hung around the house and did go outdoors at times. The kids wouldn't let us stay inside all day... they are kids and need to get out. Noah found a wonderfully loud activity in the kitchen, I was happy that we have a pocket door to close when we need it. He was a little embarrassed when I took this picture but then wanted to see it. He loves seeing himself in pictures. 

Exactly 2 hours after I took this picture Noah fell asleep and developed a high fever... poor little guy. It's going to be a long night.

Umbrellas...

We have been searching the local stores that we frequent, and some that we don't, for umbrellas for the kids since it has been raining so much lately. They love to walk in the rain in their rubber boots, jackets and umbrellas. But their old ones broke. So we've been on the hunt for some kid ones that they like. 

Last night Ben and I went shopping together to get some clothes for him, and some new Crocs (he broke right through his last pair). We went to Old Navy to get Ben some clothes, I was really hoping for pants to be on sale and while they were...they were still expensive (because we need several pairs). The boy is so tall but so skinny so he's a difficult fit. Anyway, Ben went wild in the fitting room trying on his clothes, he loved the music and was dancing all funny - it was get-up-and-dance music and it was doing it's job!

After picking out some clothes (not enough but at least it was some) we headed for the check out and lo and behold there were some umbrellas by the register. Cute ones and  Ben picked them up right away, opened them and decided that he wanted one. They are expensive but if he wants to get one he could use his own money. I reminded him of the Valentine's money that he got from Nanny. He was set, he wanted an umbrella from that store and knew exactly which one. To top it off it was going to rain in the next day or so, so even better!

We got home and Ben was all a-twitter about the umbrellas, forgetting to show anyone his new clothes. Hannah got in on it and even Noah said that he wanted one "a yellow one". So we headed to Old Navy again this morning (we were one of the first customers-the kids were all ready so quickly) and we bought their umbrellas. As we walked out of the store it was drizzling and they opened up their new purchases and pranced around. Yes, they did almost run into people, but most just smiled as they dodged the parade of umbrellas with feet walking by.

Thank you Nanny for the Valentine money!!

Hiking pics...

In front (Ben)

Behind me (Hannah & Noah)

Throwing rocks into the stream

Observing the ducks

Being silly

Running up the hill

Daddy is sick..

Today Daddy is sick and doesn't feel well at all. I got busy and packed some snacks and got the kids in the car to go for a hike. We spent a good part of the weekend at home, so I thought it was time to get out of the house. As we left for Mission Trails, it was drizzling so I thought it might rain while we were there but it cleared up when we drove in. We walked down by the dam and we read all about what we saw. Ben was very interested in the dam, why it was there, who built it, what it did... We weren't in a hurry so we had time to talk about it. We hiked and found ourselves on the dam eating a snack while we watched the ducks swim in the water. Noah hiked the entire way, he kept saying "No I got it, I can do it, I'm big now." It was a great morning. They all know how much I want them to stop watching TV so we'll be doing this much more often now.

(I do have pictures...just have to upload them)

Snow play...

Thursday it rained hard all day and it was so cold so we figured it snowed in the mountains. It rained into Friday but the freeway to the mountains was closed so we opted to leave Saturday morning for the snow. 

When we got there, there weren't very many people yet. We found a spot very quickly and got ready to play. The kids got their snow clothes on, rain boots and hats, the sleds on their arms and we were off to find the perfect place to slide. Noah walked all by himself ("No, I'm

 OK") all the way through the deep snow to the top of the hill we found. He kept saying "The snow SO deep!" with his legs buried deep in the snow. Hannah grabbed a sled and was so excited to go down the hill. She was ready. Ben bundled up and was out of the car and halfway up the hill before we could think about catching up.

Noah wasn't too much into getting on the sled but he was definitely interested in the snow. So we walked to the bottom of the hill  and made a little snowman. He loved it. He gazed at it with his hand on his face. Hannah went down the hill on a sled by herself! She hasn't done that...well, ever! Ben joined another boy about his age and they went down the hill together. They had a blast! We also had snowball fights and everyone tried to get Daddy.

After he was done with the snow we went to the car and hung out for a while, snacking and resting. It wasn't cold so we didn't have to sit in the car and warm up, in fact Noah wanted to get back in the snow when we had already taken his pants off...so he went with his boots on and a diaper (with a shirt and jacket, of course). There is a picture below.

We can't wait to go again!

Ben and his snowman

Noah walking in the snow...

Hannah eating snow

Ben's ready

The crew

The snow so deep!

Hannah's ready

My snowman

Sewing...

Every once in while Ben will want to do something with me while the other two kids take a nap. Most of the time Hannah doesn't nap anymore but I think she is getting sick so she slept today. So Ben picked through my scraps of fabric and found some pieces that he decided would make a nice pillow. He set his machine up then got busy cutting his shape out and pinning it together. We worked on getting the (cheap) machine to sew it together but the thread kept getting caught and unravelling as he sewed. So I told him that I'd figure out where to set up  my machine and he could learn on it. So until I figure that out, the pillow will have to wait.

First!

Here's our first strawberry of the year! Hannah and Noah were cruising in the back yard today and they discovered this little gem. They snipped it off and shared it with each other. So sweet! It was so small but they each took little bites until the whole thing was gone. They wanted more...

There are others getting ready to turn red. These plants are hanging on from last year so it looks like we'll continue enjoying our yummy strawberries this year! We're going to get some more plants to put in the garden because we weren't producing enough last year to keep up with the demand for yummy strawberries in our house.

Construction!

Noah absolutely loves trucks. I can distract him with "go play with your trucks" pretty much any time I need to and he'll go. He loves the garbage truck that comes every Friday. He says "I hear trash truck" and we have to run out front to watch for it. Sometimes we have to go out a few times because he's realized that he didn't hear the trash truck but a bus going up the hill (which is still thrilling but not the same). 

Today we were waiting for Ben in his karate class and noticed that they are doing construction in the parking lot next door. So we went to watch. We saw the front loader picking up a big boulder and move it to another spot. Noah was enthralled and did not want to leave. Lucky for us they won't be finished with their construction any time soon so we can go every time we are waiting for Ben in karate.

Breakfast...

The kids love their breakfast a certain way and they are just getting old enough to start making their own. Hannah loves to help out with dinner, cutting carrots, peeling them, picking out whatever we're going to eat and help put it together. So why not give her time at breakfast too? She loved it. She cooked her eggs, scrambled and then plated it up and at them all.

Friends...

We went to the park today to meet up with some new-ish friends. They are an un-schooling family like us so we get to share our experiences with that. We are so lucky to have found these friends, their family has children almost exactly the same ages as our children! They have one older sister who is 13 and she is wonderful too. They are going to move in June...to Florida and I am particularly sad about missing these friends because it has been so much fun to get to know them! 

Today couldn't have been a nicer day. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and it warmed our bodies up from the cold weather we've been having lately. The kids played nicely together and they can't wait to get together again!

Ben and Franky (6yo)

Hannah (her counter-part is Anna!) 4yo

Noah and Bekah (2yo)

Hanging...

Sometimes I really think I have a monkey for a son. I can find him in a tree just about any day of the week. He climbs trees and playground equipment, fences, his parents and his siblings, walls and furniture. He's a monkey. This week (so far) we've been to 2 playgrounds and at both I've found Ben hanging upside down. Just for the fun of it. In the tree he was eating a snack... Yes I have repeatedly told him that he could choke on his snack/food while playing upside down. He doesn't listen, but I suppose he will know what I'm talking about when/if it happens.

Tree...

I just love this tree. It is huge and beautiful. The kids were playing under it today and I shot this picture. It came out with the sun rays shining and it just makes it more beautiful...like today. It has been so rainy that the sun rays were a welcome change. That's Noah underneath the tree.

Butterfly friend...

We had a garden visitor today. There was a butterfly on Ben's bean vines. It looked like the butterfly was just coming out of its' chrysallis because it just sat there on the bean vine. All the kids came out to watch it, Ben tried to pick it up. I had to show him how to do it so that the butterfly wouldn't get hurt. The butterfly climbed on to his finger and then started to climb his arm. Ben was a little uncomfortable with it climbing up his arm and when it got to his shoulder he was getting a little squirmy and wanted it off. I put it back on the bean plant where we found it. So pretty and it's so exciting when we have garden visitors to observe.

Hannah is posing in this picture...funny little girl

Ski pics...

Ben had so much fun skiing with Daddy yesterday. I hoped for more pictures but am glad I got! I am the one who takes pictures in my family and am always pleasantly surprised when Corey volunteers to take a shot with the camera. So I sent my old camera with him and although he said it was hard to take pictures (because he thought Ben would just take off), he did get a few. So here they are!

Some pics...

Here's Ben in the car yesterday, ready to go skiing. He was soo tired but sooo excited to go!

Hannah, Noah and I were busy painting, playing at the park and having fun with Marissa. Isn't it funny how they both painted? They are laid back in their chairs, Hannah has her legs up. They don't plan things like that.