Harold The Pink Elephant

As I mentioned in my previous post, while we were visiting The Eric Carle Museum, Reagan wrote and illustrated a book.  Here it is:

Winter is the Warmest Season

 These two beauties are loving all of the snow we have had.

 Wow am I grateful for Reagan.  She takes Kate outside and plays and plays and plays until Kate is cold.  I should back up a bit, because before they even go out, Reagan gets Kate all bundled up with snow pants, warm socks, boots, a coat, hat, and mittens.  I don't have to do any of it.  I've said this before, but Reagan is an awesome big sister.

 The girls decided to use their beach toys in the snow.

 Boo and Kelly hung out with them.

It was the perfect day for reading Winter is the Warmest Season, a great book that celebrates all of the warmth that winter brings, such as hot chocolate, grilled cheese, mittens, blankets, and a warm house.

Pumpkin Soup

Kate and I are in love with the book Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper.  How did I not know about this book or this author?  Anyway, we adore everything about the book, everything.

Don't you just love the gymnastics leotard with the rain boots?!!

Every time we read it, Kate mixes up a pumpkin full of pumpkin soup.  She did this 100% on her own, without any prompting from me.

Today I decided to look on Pinterest for a recipe for pumpkin soup, and I found one that looked good; it's vegan too, so I was very happy.  I had all of the ingredients, so we went right to work.

The soup is delicious, but cooking with Kate is lots of fun and a million times better than a great bowl of soup!

U is for Umbrella

Kate likes to do alphabet printables now.

 I had no idea Kate could draw such straight lines.  I was so impressed!

 I helped Kate make this umbrellas craft.

 It reminds me of my favorite page from Yellow Umbrella by Jae Siu Loo.

Kate has really enjoyed this book.  I always know she likes a book when she takes it to bed with her.  The very cool thing about this book is that it is wordless and the pictures do an amazing job telling the story.  The even cooler thing is that this book comes with a CD of music that makes the book an even more enjoyable experience.

I had planned on making rain with the hose if need be, but there was no need.  The weather cooperated and gave us a little rain so that Kate could use an umbrella!

To finish U for Umbrella, Reagan, Kate and I made lemonade and we added little umbrellas to all of the glasses.

N is for Nose

I could not resist some silly nose cups right in time for the letter N.

The cups are all named.  The one Kate chose with the nose ring is The Artist.  I hope this is as close as she ever gets to a nose ring.

 Reagan had The Starlet, and Ellie had The Yenta.

I could NOT convince Collin to try a cup.  He thinks they are gross and made it clear that he will not drink out of a cup with a nose on it!!!

Dad tried one though; he chose The Leading Man.

So funny!!!

 Kate and I read these nose themed books.  The Little Bunny book has scratch and sniff pages.  Kate enjoyed this, but she found most of the smells to be too strong; she did like the strawberry fragrance though.

Mystery Reader

I was the mystery reader in Reagan's second grade class today.  Mrs. DiMarzio asked me for three clues about myself, and this is what I offered:

1. I take a lot of pictures
2. I like to bake and make fun food with and for my kids
3. Two of my children go to North

Mrs. DiMarzio read the clues to the class and asked the students to guess who it might be.  Reagan, and a few of her classmates, guessed that it was me, and Reagan seemed happy to have me there when I walked into the class.

She has an amazing class with so many nice boys and girls; it was a pleasure to spend some time with them today.

I read Snowmen At Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, and then I gave each of the students a foam snowman shape with sticky back pieces for them to add to create their own snowmen.

The whole experience was over so quickly, but I'm glad that I was able to be there.  Little moments like this mean so much to me!

The Pirate Girl's Treasure

We had so much fun with The Pirate Girl's Treasure, An Origami Adventure, by Peyton Leung and Hilary Leung.  The pirate girl heads out on a quest to claim the mysterious treasure left for her by her pirate grandfather.  She has quite the adventure full of obstacles like a mountain, lightning, a shark attack, and more.  The book is fun, but we loved that the last few pages include directions to retrace the steps of the pirate girl's adventure in origami.  

The book was perfect for our small celebration of  Talk Like a Pirate Day.