Healthy Cookies

Today Katie helped me to bake the afternoon snack. We call them "healthy cookies." They are made of shredded carrots, mashed bananas, sunflower seeds, chopped nuts, raisins, honey, and a little flour.

The Garden Gets a Teepee

We had a sleepover last night with our good friend Samantha, so here are the girls in the morning, along with Emma R.

(L to R, Samantha, Emma, Jo)

And we were later joined by Dylan.

In the afternoon the kids enjoyed the swings.

Katie gives Josephine a ride . . . Josephine looks blissful.

Later Katie helped me to finally erect the bamboo teepee for our garden. Things are starting to come together for spring. We hope to eventually grow some green beans on it.

Ryan and Katie pose in the now completed teepee.

Here's the garden . . . a work in progress.

Later on Katie and Ryan helped me to freshen up the front planters with new plants.

The finished products:

Bubbles and a Rainbow

Today was the last day of Winter Break . . . back to school on Monday. But until then, there's much fun to be had. Wet and rainy days are perfect for making bubbles. With all the humidity, the bubbles last longer, and when they land on the wet ground, they don't pop right away.

Here's Lucas busy at work making plenty of bubbles.

Ryan shows off a big one that he caught again afterward.

And then later on we discovered a rainbow in the sky.

Lucas ran outside to get a look at it.

Fingerpaint!

Today we made fingerpaint out of cornstarch, sugar, water, and food coloring.

Ryan painted pictures of characters fighting with light sabers.

Katie created an outdoor scene with a flower.

And Josephine just enjoyed the feel of the fingerpaint and watching the colors mix on the paper . . .

. . . as did Ria. Ria loved fingerpainting, and her art extended up her arms, onto her face, and all over her shirt. I took care of her big brother Iain when he was her age, and he would have nothing to do with the "finger" aspect of fingerpaint. He would only use it if I would give him a paintbrush or a popsicle stick.

Later on Katie gave Josephine lessons in cursive handwriting.

Candles and a Perfect Mud Pie

It is now day two of our week off of school for Winter Break.

In the morning Eden read to Josephine.

Later we made candles using the gel wax we got from Dylan's mom . . . thanks, Sandy!

And then of course we had to shut all the curtains, turn off all the lights, and test them out.

And then at the end of the day, I found a perfect little mud pie in the back yard. It made me smile. I just had to take a photo.

No School . . . Butterflies and Other Bugs

It's 3 a.m., I can't sleep, and I'm two months behind on the blog, so what better activity right now, eh?

We had no school this week, and it is a typical cold and rainy February. To take advantage of the rain and help to nudge spring along, the children made coffee filter butterflies. They took coffee filters cut out in the shapes of butterflies, colored them with washable markers, and set them out in the rain.

The rain transformed them into gorgeous tie-dyed butterflies.

Here Claire and Josephine are filling up little pots with dirt and grass seeds. In about a week there should be some beautiful spring-like grass.

And then later in the day we made soap. I had a bunch of leftover orange soap from a previous pumpkin soap stint, so we made shapes using ice cube trays, and then we buried some plastic insects as well--reminiscent of amber.

Valentine's Day . . . and Jo's Half Birthday

Today is not only Valentine's Day, but also my dear sweet Josephine's half birthday! But unfortunately she woke up with a fever and a terrible cough. Needless to say, she stayed home from school, and after school, when Holger and Eden came over, Josephine stayed in her room looking at her Valentines from school and watching DVDs on the portable player.

Meanwhile, in the diningroom (a.k.a. the studio), Holger and Eden were busily creating.

Stefan, Master Painter

This morning I took care of Stefan, Niels' two-year-old brother. He kept taking out the paints from the children's studio, and I would over and over redirect him to crayons, markers, basically anything less messy than paint. But he seemed so determined to paint that I finally had to give in. He loved it, and stated with joy each color as he added it to his paper . . . "Orange! Red! Blue!"

Fairy Beds

This afternoon Georgia and Anna went out into the backyard and collected a basket full of sticks. I then trimmed these sticks and hot-glued them together to create a little fairy bed for each of them. Afterwards, they glued silk leaves, feathers, and ribbons to them to decorate them. Here is Georgia's bed before being fully decorated:

And here Anna works on embellishing her bed:

Funny Glasses and Cornstarch Packing Peanuts

Holger spent his morning laboring over a pair of very lovely eyeglasses.

And this afternoon was very light--Josephine left immediately after school for a ski trip with her father, leaving me with just Eden and Jacob. There was a package on the front porch, and fortunately it was filled with not only what I had ordered, but also . . . cornstarch packing peanuts!!! These are wonderful! With just a little bit of water, they stick together and can be used to make really fun constructions. Here is Eden with hers:

And here Jacob works away at his creation, combining the peanuts with colored popsicle sticks.

The Boys

There was great jubilation when we arrived home from school today at the same time that Iain's mother pulled up to drop him off. Iain was thrilled that he was joined by not one, but two boys--Ryan and Lucas!!! They ran around the yard for a few minutes out of sheer excitement and then asked me to get my camera so I could document the wonderful event.

Niels Joins Us!

Today we were joined for the first time by Niels. Niels loves Legos, so the entire morning was spent with Josephine, Niels, and Holger creating a little world of their own.

Feathers! . . . and a Crazy Backyard Train

This afternoon Ria explored the ultra-soft texture of colored feathers.
She was spellbound . . .

And out in the backyard, the kids created a "train" of a bike, two scooters, and a jogging stroller, all connected by hula hoops. With great effort, they actually were able to accomplish a few laps around the yard.

Morning Creations

This morning the kids got straight to work with construction paper, hole punches, and large rolls of brown paper. They were so busy and self-driven! Here are Georgia and Dylan at work on the floor.

And Holger drew a fantastic picture for his mother (too bad I didn't get a shot of it first) and then wrapped it up for her.

Another Emma and a Happy Iain

This morning we had a new addition . . . Emma R.! Here Emma and Josephine make collages out of clear contact paper and paper cut-outs.

Meanwhile, Iain worked on a Tinkertoy invention/creation that I'm sure had a very interesting name which I have completely forgotten by now.

First Attempt at Water Globes

Today the kids tried their hand at making water globes. They ended up with some really fun creations. I'll certainly have to find some more materials so we can do this again another time.

Here is Orianna's "fishtank" globe:

And Katie made a globe with a mysterious piece of white plastic and lots of silver glitter: