a must

Tabor has to go outside everyday for a substantial amount of time.  He has to.  He has the need to throw rocks and hit things with a stick.  And he loves to explore, even if it is just in our own backyard.  Lately he is into making mud puddles.  Yes, he makes them.  He is trying to make a place where frogs can lay their eggs.  It is his life goal.  Kitt is his sidekick. She is at the age where she is super excited to help in anyway she can.  Tabor will say "go get me a bucket" and she is thrilled to go get him one.  It is fun to have to kids interested in the same things!

dipping chocolates

Pepper and I went over to her Great Grandparents to dip chocolates.  Pepper was an excellent roller.  On the other hand, I was a horrible dipper.  It is harder then it looks.  It was nice for Pepper to leave her younger siblings and get to help the "big people".  She felt very special to be able to help out with such a task.

stacking

I am kind of a homebody.  My husband drove our only car to work for the first 3 years we had children.  By the time we got a car I felt like I was dying to go anywhere.  After a week or so of having a car I realized I don't use it near as much as I thought I would.  We don't even get in the car 3 or 4 days a week.  We spend time in the "forest" everyday.  In the summer, outdoors was an all day event.  Since "jack frost" has arrived it is more like 1 to 3 hours.  The more time we spend outdoors in the morning, the more pleasant the kids are in the afternoon (especially Tabor!) I just invested in wool socks and bogs boots.  If I can keep them warm, I can keep them out there longer, which keeps my afternoons more pleasant.  In the afternoons we read books, cook, read and do lots and lots and lots of art projects.  Pepper draws several detailed pictures EVERYDAY.  When we do go somewhere it is usually to one of the many grandparents we have in the area.  We are so blessed!  Okay that was just a brief up-date on our daily/weekly rhythms.  

This (thanksgiving) weekend we have been staying at Grandma's.  One of my favorite toys at her house is her stacking blocks. Stacking blocks of different sizes is a great way for preschool age children to do math.  Pepper has super organization skills and is a bit of a perfectionist.  Therefore she turns all the blocks so the same color is facing the same direction (notice the blue side facing the picture).  Kitt stacked for a while and they kept falling over.  So she found a couple Lincoln Logs and made them into drums. We observed that the big blocks and little blocks made different noises when you drummed on them. It has been a nice relaxing morning.  Now Pepper and I are off to make Christmas candies.

teaching kitt

While Kitt was napping today the "rest of us" planted some root vegetables and spinach in our garden box.  Tabor asked why we always plant while Kitt is sleeping.  I told him it was because she didn't know where to dig, or how much water to put on the baby plants (she throws dirt and dumps buckets of water everywhere). When she woke up Tabor said Kitt come with me... and he had her practice pouring water and digging in the dirt, so next time she will be able to help us.   She does this everyday but Tabor felt like he was teaching something new.

 

Whenever Kitt makes mud she says "doggie potty" and plugs her nose.  I think it is so funny because she makes the mud herself so she should know where it comes from.  It makes me chuckle.

 

While I was enjoying getting messy with Kitt Tabor decided to clean things up.  He brought out my mop and bucket so he could clean out the turtle.  He is such a good worker.  Always busy.

anacortes

This week we went camping in Anacortes with Grandpa & Grandma.  The beach was covered in sea snails and sea anemones.  We found a dead fish and fed it to the sea anemones.  We also caught crabs.  The State Park campground was fabulous, it was right in the woods. We got our feet dirty and had a great time!

baby fish

 cousins cousins and more cousins have been in town.  we have had a blast.  we went on a couple hikes and made several trips to the beach but there has not been as much nature study as we had gotten use to.  it feels good to get back into the nature walks in the morning routine.  on a recent nature walk pepper ventured into a "pond" to catch little fish.  they were super fast. so we decided to come back and bring dad.

so we did! he used a net to catch 18 baby fish (salmon we think) and put them in a tank.  we let the kids observe them for a while and then we let them go in the river (which was 50 feet from it).

P.S. Pepper is not mad in the middle picture, she is just making a silly face.  and tabor insists on wearing that swimsuit that is 3 sizes to big for him.  he has a few in the correct size but they do not have sharks on them so they are not options in his mind. 

 



last week

My Heavens last week was a busy one, and unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it.  First of all we went to the Drive Thru Zoo in Sequim.  While making our way through we saw a Lama with another Lama over it, I thinking they were being frisky kept moving on.  Minutes later my sister (who had Pepper) in the car behind us said the Lama was giving birth.  Pepper saw the whole birthing experience.  She was super excited... and I was sorry I missed it!  I went back in time to see the baby take it's first steps it was so cute.  So yes, the lama in the top picture is quite literally a few minutes old!  We took our time going through the bears, elk, buffalo, zebra and many other animals.  Last week we also went to the beach- where we saw barnacles, on a hike- where we saw an alligator lizard and a tree frog, swimming in the lake- where my husband caught two ducks (one in each hand) and to my brothers wedding- not so many animals.

 

We picked up the yellow lab who has come to visit for a couple weeks.  My kids will not leave her alone.  They put a leash on her and walk her all around the house and around the back yard.  The couple of neighborhood walks we go on each day is apparently not enough for them.  Luckily for them this dog is very cooperative.

visit to the reptile zoo

Can you tell we love the reptile zoo?  It is easy to learn a lot about an animal by simply observing it. 

the rocky beach

We went to the beach with Grandma & cousins.  Since we have been to this beach before the kids knew where to look to find crabs and starfish.  They loved being the experts by showing their cousins around.

pioneer day

We went to a Pioneer Day Fair. It was awesome.  You had to do different "chores" in order to earn money for supper.  Archery, hammering & candle making were just a few of the many chores we did.  The kids enjoyed learning about people from a "long long long time ago" in such a fun way.

dogsitting

I think you can learn a lot from taking care of an animal.  We have a leopard gecko and a hamster, but they are not as demanding as a dog.  Demanding or not the kids loved the dog!  They fed it, scooped poop, played with it, "put it to sleep", walked it, everything.  They were so responsible. 

Put on your hiking shoes

Not only do I feel it is important to get into nature, but I feel it is important to exercise.   Hiking fulfills both.  Today we hiked PooPoo Point (where paragliders take off) with grandpa and grandma.  It was a fairly steep incline for the 2 miles up, but we made it!



be observant

Everyone is surrounded by some form of nature.  Even within big cities you cannot escape from the bugs, crows, etc.  I think it is important we slow down and take time to observe what is going on in the world around us.  Kids are so good at this.  Many think it is classified kids are easily distracted, but maybe it is the adults that are to distracted to notice what is really important.  Anyway, Tabor notices all sorts of bugs.  He found one digging holes into the ground. 

shelling peas

 

 These peas are from our garden. Pepper has a knack for shelling peas, she is incredibly fast.

 

cherry picking

my parents moved into a new house 2 years ago.  on the property were two cherry trees.  we went over to pick some to make cherry pie.  There were plenty of cherries on there, but they were water logged and had ants all over them.  We picked several for the sake of picking but did not make the pie.  At least we learnt the importance of taking care of your tree and how dependent farmers are on the weather! 

Waterton Glacier Park

Waterton is the perfect place to explore nature.  Not only are you surrounded by the beauty of the scenery, but also by animals.  In the tree outside our cabin was a family of great horned owls (fledglings are pictured above).  We had Ground squirrels, chipmunks and deer walk around constantly.  Tabor was thrilled to find a fawn sleeping in the grass.  I was thrilled its mother did not kick us.  And we had three different bear encounters.  Twice we saw the bears a ways up a mountain.  While we drove up to red rock canyon we saw a bear not 20 feet from us.  Good thing we were in the car!  What a neat experience for the kids! 

The flowers there were beautiful and we broadened the amount of flowers we are able to name (Indian Paint Brush flower pictured above). The kids picked our main focus... baby animals.  It was easy with the amount of fledgling/owlet, cubs, pups, fawns etc. around