Peanut Butter Pine Cones

Tuesday's P week activity was to make peanut butter pine cones.  For birds.  Both Brandt and Blythe were keen on helping and smeared peanut butter on the pine cones.  Blythe was especially excited about rolling the cones in bird food, and eating the peanut butter.  We made a pretty big mess.  I had to pick seeds out of the jar of peanut butter, wipe off sticking fingers, and vacuum up a lot of seed.  We hung our pine cones in the tree in the front yard, and we hope birds will find them and enjoy them.

 

 

 

Painting Pottery

Monday heralded the start of P week.  I have been really excited about P week for some time, because there is so much to do (and eat) that begins with P.  In the company of Tysen, Ava, Crew, Griffin, and Lyla, we went and painted pottery at Color Me Mine.  I must say, it was pandemonium.  Fun, but a bit crazy.  Actually, that sort of describes most things we do when we are together with cousins.

Blythe selected a large butterfly mug with a wing handle, and Brandt chose a bowl.  Blythe wanted to use pink and purple paint (what a surprise), and Brandt wanted to use green and black (another surprise).  They both painted well and required very little help.  I did paint a bit with Blythe, but only the inside of her mug.  We get to pick up our work on Friday.

 

The aftermath.

A Find!

I opened the refrigerator to begin making dinner, moved aside a gallon of milk, and found this.  Woody and Jessie chillin' in the fridge.  That Blythe makes me laugh.

A Big Boy

On Saturday evening, as I was making chili for dinner, I realized I was without cheese or sour cream, two essential chili toppings.  I called my friend Heidi, who lives around the corner, and asked if I could borrow some of both.  She said yes.  I was in the middle of cooking, so I asked Brandt if he would run an errand for me.  All by himself.  Even though we live in a very safe area and all our neighbors know Brandt, this is the first time I have ever sent him around the block without me.  

Brandt was thrilled to go on his own.  He came home quickly, so pleased with himself, bearing chili toppings.  Our boy is growing up.  (And getting so, so handsome.)

Stick Horses

Last week Brandt and Blythe went over to Grandma Dawn's house while I met Kent at BYU for a lecture.  Dawn had prepared a treasure hunt for them, with the first clue in Baby McKenna's shirt, another clue in  Brandy's (the dog) food bowl, and the "treasure" being stick horses.  Well, a stick horse for Brandt and a unicorn for Blythe.  The unicorn's horn is very special.  So says Blythe.

They love their horses.  They have been carrying them around, even to bed.  The second night they were home, I found them on the stairs, snuggled up under Blythe's kikis (blankets). I love that the children are passionate about them.

The Barri Make Octopi

I have been trying to get back to our alphabeting.  If I plan well, it gives us something to do during the week.  I took a hiatus during December, but I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of things.  This week is O week, and I thought it would be messy fun to make paper-mâché octopi.  Paper-mâché requires several layers, so I figured it would be a project we would work on through the week, at the end of which we would have something to hang in the children's rooms.  


I made flour and water paste, tore up newspaper, and covered the kitchen table with additional newspaper.  Then I called the children down to the kitchen as I blew up balloons.  I was ready.  And then I quickly realized that I had perhaps chosen a project a bit above my children's level.  Brandt didn't want to touch the paste.  He dipped his first piece of newspaper into the goop, then withdrew his hand and began trying to shake off the paste, flinging it all over me and the kitchen windows.  Blythe got just a little bit on her hand and then wanted me to wipe it off.  I encouraged them to go ahead and get messy--I didn't mind.


So they tentatively began.  Blythe put her strip of newspaper into the paste, then wadded it up into a small, useless ball.  I helped Brandt get two strips on his balloon, then it rolled across the table and into the pile of newspaper, adhering six or seven pieces to the side.  The balloons stuck to the newsprint covering the table, and within three minutes of starting, we were done.  We will have no paper-mâché octopi at our house.  

Undaunted, I cleaned up the mess and went to plan B.  Instead of making octopi, I would have the children put together ocean mobiles.  I printed off ocean animal coloring sheets and had the children return.  In my mind, the plan was to have the children color (whale, shark, octopus, sea horse, turtle, and fishes), then I would cut out, we would make holes and then hang the fish from dowels and make mobiles (more stuff to hang in their bedrooms).  Oddly enough, plan B did not turn out as I had imagined either.  

Brandt begins kindergarten in the fall and I have been having some anxiety about his preparation.  He doesn't write his name, he doesn't read, and he doesn't color inside the lines.  So as we began, I suggested that Brandt try to color inside the lines.  He said he could, then used the crayons to color one line within the lines of each picture.  Just the one line.  I encouraged him to do a bit more, and then volunteered to cut them out for him.  He wanted to cut himself, so he did.  Each creature was cut out, but most were missing vital body parts--the octopus had his tentacles cut off, each fish was fin-less, and the turtle had no head.  When I asked if Brandt wanted to punch holes in each one, he did, but then punched three or four holes in each animals, and then cut them up into little pieces.

Blythe didn't do much better.  She colored more than just the one line, and she let me cut several out for her, but then she, too, got some scissors and began chopping away.  Each fish was cut into small (bite-size?) pieces and strewn over the floor.  So much for mobiles.  Although plan B didn't work like I had imagined any more than plan A had, I know the children had a good time, and Brandt was able to work on his scissoring skills.

Today I sort of planned to try octopi again, this time with bread dough.  I used Rhode's, but by the time the rolls had thawed enough to form into anything, the children were not interested, and when they were interested, the rolls had risen too much and needed to be cooked.  I think I will call it good with O week projects and move on to something else. 

Although the projects were unsatisfying, our O dinner was not.  I made omelets, round cantaloupe balls (O shaped), orange pepper, and orange juice.  Okra was on the list of possibilities, but I've never made okra before, and I wasn't sure how it would taste in an omelet.  Oatmeal cookies as a treat.  Quite frankly, I am ready to move on to P.

Funny Photos

Found these photos on the camera when I downloaded pictures. 

Breakfast Study

Legs

Wood Study

 Sprite

Untitled

or

Speechless

St. Patrick's Day Partying

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and in honor, I made green breakfast.  I put food coloring in scrambled eggs and waffle mix, and well as the orange juice which sort of turned a puce color.  The eggs looked so gross, but we ate them anyway.  In hindsight, I should have put spinach in the eggs and made green smoothies, only I didn't think about it soon enough so had no spinach to make either.  Oh well.  Next year.

Puce juice, green eggs, egg tinted waffles.

Today we gathered with all the DeMartini cousins for a little party.  We decorated sugar cookies, had a scavenger hunt, and then played I Spy.  As usual, the cookie decorating was out of control.  There were copious amounts of sprinkles applied to the cookies, such that it was hard to distinguish cookie from decoration.  Tysen had the children running all over the house and yard, hunting for a pot of treats they found in the play house outside.  I had intended on buying a small leprechaun to hide for the game, but as with breakfast ingredients, I didn't plan ahead, and so we used a small green tractor instead.  I instructed everyone to look for the tractor but not tell anyone else when they had found it, but in their excitement, almost everyone shrieked, "I found it!" and pointed as soon as they saw it.  Everyone ended up outside driving around the cul-de-sac.  A good time was had by all.

Our seekers waiting in the laundry room while I hide the tractor.

I do wish someone was watching where they were going.