Josephine Is Sick

Last night Josephine came down with a fever of 103, and so she couldn't go to school today. I still took care of Ryan, Eden, and Ria, and Josephine was in quarantine in her bedroom (with a portable DVD player to make it easier for her). She did extremely well, though did say over and over that she wanted to come out to play. The other kids seemed to miss her just as much and sent in love letters and small handmade presents to her. Very sweet.

Eden and Ryan cooked the spaghetti that they had made the day before.

It turned out great . . . looked, and tasted, just like real spaghetti!

Things were very quiet as they enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

Even Ria was pleased with the pasta.

Eden held out some noodles to Ria who eagerly ate them up.

After lunch we actually watched television . . . gasp! No, television is not a regular event at my house, but the night before, I had watched and recorded an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown (great show--scientific explanations of cooking) on which he had made . . . pasta!!! We watched as he explained all about gluten and then showed the process for making handmade pasta, just like we had done the day before.

Ah, a rare photo of me (and Ria)! Eden asked for the camera and took a photo of us.

Later on Ryan got to try out the electric griddle.

Eden and Ryan experimented quite a bit with the electric griddle and the crayons, melting the crayons, making huge puddles of wax, and rolling unmelted crayons in the warm wax. When they were done, the paper had stuck to the newspaper beneath, and the result is actually quite stunning . . . something you may see in a modern museum.

Towards the end of the afternoon Eden and Ryan enjoyed board games. Here they are playing Race to the Roof.

Making Spaghetti

The morning began with Josephine and Diego playing with blocks. These blocks have clear colored acrylic "windows," so the kids experimented with shining flashlights through them. It became very interesting . . . what if two colors are put together? . . . what if an object is put on top?

In the afternoon, we made a batch of pasta dough, which basically consists of lots of flour, some eggs, a little water, and a little salt.

Here Eden adds an egg . . .

. . . and Katie adds an egg . . .

. . . and Orianna adds an egg . . .

. . . and Lucas . . . well, you can see for yourself . . .

. . . and Ryan adds an egg . . .

. . . and Josephine, who does not care to dirty her princess hands with messy eggs, adds the salt.

Then everyone watches as the ingredients are mixed together.

The dough did come together, but basically it was too dry. But it shouldn't be overworked, so it was a little late to add extra water. Next time I think we'll do the mixing by hand.

Eden helped out with kneading the extremely tough dough . . .

. . . and then took a little break to play with small plastic animals and blocks with Lucas, who of course disappeared when the camera came around the corner.

Everyone took turns making their own strands of spaghetti. Here you can see Orianna "conditioning" or "kneading" her dough with the machine, feeding it through several times.

Then the roller was exchanged for a pasta cutter, and the sheets became spaghetti.

And here we have all the finished spaghetti on drying racks, ready for tomorrow's lunch.

Because Lucas would not be here for lunch tomorrow, he wanted a sample of his spaghetti. We cooked it up and added freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Wow, hardly a scowl! That pasta must be really good.

Drawing Poems

Today Katie decided to take a poem she had written and illustrate it. Both Katie and Lucas were busy drawing at the table. Here you can see one of the many "looks" I get from Lucas regularly.

And here is Katie's finished poem drawing:

Meanwhile, Orianna and Josephine were busy outside drawing with sidewalk chalk.

Once Katie left, Josephine was so inspired by her idea of drawing poems that she took out a book of poetry, found a poem she liked, and decided to transcribe and illustrate it.

Sunrise
The city YAWNS
And rubs its eyes,
Like baking bread
Begins to rise.
--Frank Asch

A New Friend . . . Lucas

Here is our new friend, Lucas, who is in the fourth grade and just started with us today. Get a good long look at this sweet smiling face, because not too long after this picture, Lucas decided he was tired of the camera and refused to ever smile for me again and instead would scowl in jest, yet it is a scowl none-the-less.

Lucas tried out drawing with crayons on the electric griddle. Lucas loves any member of the cat family, and is currently into drawing cheetahs.

Lucas' cheetah

Then Anna got her turn at the electric skillet . . . you can see her here underneath all those wavy curls.


Anna's drawing

Pirate Parades and Gender Wars

Today in Josephine’s kindergarten class they had Pirate Day. Though this is a school event and not part of my “family child care,” I’m including pictures, as there are a few kids in her class who are also in my afterschool program.

The fun began with a parade, in which the children emerged from the classroom as all us parents stood around taking pictures. Here we see Georgia on the far left, Orianna on the far right, and the tall one is Ms. Bonnie, their teacher.

Josephine and Claire

They all stopped and broke into a rollicking pirate song . . . “There were no pirates upon the ship. Hey, ho, argh! Then one pirate got on the ship. Hey, ho, argh!”

They then marched off and into the office, where they sang the song there for the principal and office staff.

Josephine, with a pirate bandaid mustache

Diego

They then continued on to Mr. A’s 4th grade class and sang the song yet again. This class also happens to be Katie’s class, so here’s a picture of Katie watching the show.

Josephine waving to the camera

Georgia waving to the camera

Georgia, Claire, and Josephine

In the afternoon, I served snack to Jack and Iain in the playhouse and asked the girls to let them be alone. Iain had had a rough dropoff, and I really wanted to give him a little quiet boy-bonding time with Jack.

Little did I know, I was actually starting a gender war. The girls were indignant about being excluded, and in no time they had signs up on the house.

I was beginning to get a little worried about how things were escalating, but then once the boys saw the signs, they said they wanted some too. Surprisingly, the girls were more than eager to help out, and they themselves wrote and hung the signs. They then proceeded to decorate the playhouse with stuffed toy animals for the boys. Apparently there wasn’t too much animosity. Later on, Josephine even switched sides and played outside with the boys while Georgia and Eden stayed inside.

Later on, Georgia had her turn at trying out the melted wax drawing.

Here is Georgia’s drawing: