Telling Time

C is learning how to tell time and I love the resources we are using. This large book, I Can Tell Time and Count Money, is a great tool and he really enjoys completing the pages. Half of the book is about telling time and the other half is about money. We have only used the time telling section so far.

We are also using Kumon's My Book of Easy Telling Time,


Me Counting Time From Seconds to Centuries by Joan Sweeney,

Tell Time with The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle,
and clocks, of course! C is a pro at telling time by the hour and is currently working on half-hours. I love all of these resources, especially the large book in the first photo. If you have any time telling resources that you love, please share!

The Roof Collapsed!

It has become a tradition for us to purchase a gingerbread house kit and assemble it together before Christmas. We usually do this the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we moved this year so it happened this past weekend.

We followed the directions exactly to assemble the house. In the past, we have always let the house dry overnight before decorating. This year, we only waited about an hour. Let it be known, however, that the recommended wait time was only fifteen minutes!

Everyone was having fun. The decorating was going well, and then.....

We tried and tried to fix it, but it would not cooperate. I let the kids eat some of the candy and we put the rest in a container for another day. At least we had fun decorating!

These little cookies came with the kit. They tasted horrible, but they were fun to decorate.

Next year we will let the house dry overnight. I'm happy that no one got upset about the collapse of the gingerbread house.

Let it snow!

The first snowfall of the season caused great excitement in our house this weekend.


We spent quite a bit of time putting on layers of clothing. This was strange because it was seventy degrees last week. My children are not really thrilled about bundling up so the whole process was interesting, ahem. Anyway, we made it outside and had some fun in the snow. I won't even tell you how long it took to get ready compared to how long we played in the snow. It doesn't matter; everyone had fun!

Yes, he owns a hat.

Aren't snow angels wonderful?

We then went inside to enjoy hot cocoa and make pancakes! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Sunshine On My Shoulders

I am a big fan of John Denver's music. He wrote "Sunshine On My Shoulders" during the difficult times of the Vietnam War. The song served as a reminder of the good, pure things in life. We love singing the song, and we adore this book. It is a great way to celebrate friendship and the environment in both literature and music.

I owe a big THANK YOU to Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile for writing about Sunshine on My Shoulders in a post. I had no idea the book existed. We were very happy to find it at the library.

The illustrations by Christopher Canyon perfectly convey the warm feelings of the song. The book is so beautiful. It is a pleasure to look at and sing!

We made a sunshine tambourine to play while we sing the song and enjoy the illustrations.


R painted two paper plates yellow, put a handful of dried beans in the middle, and stapled in a few hand print rays. Then she shook away while we sang about sunshine. It was the perfect day to sing this song - 65 degrees and sunny in Massachusetts in December!

You probably didn't notice, but this activity began in our old house (top photo) and concluded in our new house (the rest of the photos). I'm just happy that we didn't lose the library book in the process!

Hello from our new kitchen!

I love our new kitchen. It's white. I hope it stays that way. I also love the way the sun fills the room in the morning, not that you could tell from these photos. I love the cabinet space (see the wall of tall cabinets in the top photo), the shiny granite counters, the island that makes cooking so much easier. I am so happy here.
A house is not a home until you bake something in the kitchen, so we are looking forward to baking molasses cookies this weekend. I can smell them already!

Outdoor Fun

Kelly, R, and I ventured out into our new yard for a little while today.

R even threw a tennis ball for Kelly to catch. They both enjoyed this!

Kelly thinks the new house and new yard are just great! The rest of us do too!

Oh, Star of Wonder

This is the first picture of all three of my children in our new home. It's not the best picture but I love the way they were all working at the table together. They sat at the kitchen table for the longest time. T was teaching C and R how to draw a star.


They were both so excited to learn how to do this. Drawing a star is not easy but now they have this sample to look at anytime they want to draw a star.