Carlsbad, CA

 

To celebrate the end of the hot weather in the desert we ventured over to Carlsbad, CA for a break for the heat.  It was the girls first time at the beach and they LOVED it.  They DO have their Mama's native Californian in them.  :)  We spent 4 days on the coast and found the Carlsbad just may be a great annual vacation spot for us.  We were able to park the park once and walk everywhere around the village for the rest of our stay. Our resort was all inclusive and right on the beach.  So beach chairs, sand pails, shovels, etc were all there and we didn't have to haul things back and forth and it kept sandy stuff out of our room.  We had a great time.  Paige really liked the water and Hailey really enjoyed the sand.  I will make several scrapbook pages on the trip, so I won't go into anymore detail here.  It was a wonderful trip! 

 

 

Playgournd on the resort grounds

Cool tree we found.  We went with our friends who also have 2 girls. 

Our view for much of our time in CA.

First time toes in the ocean

Michaelmas 2013

Paige's Dragon Bread

Hailey's Dragon Bread

Dressed to kick off Fall

St Michael taming the Dragon

We made Dragon Bread at DMS this year and attended the Michaelmas play and assembly.  It was a beautiful morning to celebrate and recognize that as we head into darkness after the Autumn Equinox we have our inner good to get us through. 

Locomotives

 

Brian is beginning to take up the hobby of building a "rideable" train that will run on a 7.5" gage track.  He is currently building each and every part in Solid Works software so that one day (probably sooner that I think) he will begin actually building this K-36 locomotive (like the one that runs in Durango).  He also found a Steamers Club that just happens to be the 2nd biggest in the nation.  The club has 18 miles of tracks. 

Sooooo....he took us out there to ride the trains!  It was really fun.  We rode a train and then Hailey was such a big girl and did the Engineer School and got to drive the train herself!  It was a fun afternoon for us. 

 

First ride

Signing the log book

Signed their names

'All Aboard!"  Learning the switch.

Forward

Backward

Halloween Box

 

Auntie sent a huge box of Halloween stuff for the girls this year.  It included cups, candy & a ton of books.  They LOVED it.  Thank you Auntie!  

 

Hailey so excited for CANDY! 

To Do List

One day as I working with Paige during Learning Time at home, I was met with some resistance and struggle.  I talked to Mrs. Hart about it who said she was experiencing the same from Paige.  Her solution was to create a To Do List for Paige to get done everyday.  It's still in Montessori form, in that she can choose what she does first and so on.  But it's really helping to keep her focused and get her learning in.  In that three weeks since this has started the list, she has discovered that she LOVES the movable alphabet box and even one day spelled the word, "PUMPKIN."  This is where she is given an object, (ie, rat, mop, pig, etc) and sounds out the word by grabbing letters for the sounds from the abc box.  She then writes the words out on paper.  Mrs. Hart says she's ready to start four letter words but is letting her relish in the pride of being able to complete a list of three letter words easily. She is also learning the decimals and is understanding counting by 10's.  She can then add numbers to equal these numbers (ie, 8+2=10, etc).  I'm really proud of her successes and want her to enjoy learning and school as much as Brian and I do.  Fingers Crossed!!!

Catching up

 

I haven't posted for a while, so these are just some pictures of play time to get the blog caught up.  

 

Hailey prepared her own snack.  She got out the plates & food.
Chicken, carrots and Ranch dressing.

Playing tea party

Silly, snuggle sisters

Our Fall display in our yard.  They helped to set it up.

Playing.  All the animals were having a picnic at the ocean.

This actually got to me and made me teary as they looked in awe and wonder
at this holiday display at Lowe's. 
It truly reminded me of a scene in a LHOTP episode "Christmas at Plum Creek"
where Laura and Mary are looking in the Mercantile window. 
My girls looked at this and each object for quite a while. 

Here's the scene from LHOTP that reminded me. 

Coloring by Paige

 

These are  couple pictures that Paige colored for me and I had to save:  

 

She did this one at school.  It's our family.

She did this one a couple weeks after we lost Woolly. 
I think she did a great job of coloring him, she even included his black saddle.
Both girls still say they miss him.  It's weird that they always
mention it in the car on the way to school.  I'm not sure what triggers it.

Back to School Night

 

Since Hailey started school mid way last year, this was her first Open House/Back to School Night.  I made it a point that Brian attend so she could show him her classroom.  Both girls had such fun showing him all around and what kind of works they could do.  

 

Fine motor and geometry with Dada

Paige naming the continents

More fine motor with Dada.  Stringing beads.

Works presented to Mama and Dada to take home.
I will treasure them forever.

Learning Time

We had a super great learning morning today.  The girls worked on their sounds, matching, sorting, sequences, logic, patterns, writing and reading.  I am really amazed at the logic and sequences part.  I got a workbook for them that mirrors the CogAT test which is what our school district uses to test for their gifted program.  I figured I'd beef them up on some of it to just see if they could test into the program early.  They both are taking off with the exercises!  They are getting them on the first try.  We'll see how the rest of the book goes, but they seem to be getting it.  Paige even got in some piano practice today. I love mornings like this!  Note:  The rest of the day was filled with dance class and pure play. 

Reading and coloring exercise

Paige sequenced how a snowman
would be put together

 

Hailey sequenced how a pumpkin
would be carved

12 years



 

Brian and I celebrated 12 years of marriage on Sept 7.  Since we had a great weekend before, we decided to just go to a nice lunch.  My mom also had an event planned for herself that evening so we made it easier for her to only need to watch the girls for the afternoon.  We went to a local restaurant called Vintage 95 and had delicious cheese and fruit & drinks with savory sandwiches for lunch. The restaurant gave us some very good champagne complimentary to celebrate the occasion.  We had great conversation and time together.  

 

 



Play time

 

These are just some pictures of the girls playing the last two weeks.  They are doing so great and being able to play by themselves now.  I am getting so many things done while they play so nice.  From emptying the dishwasher to laundry to actually putting together two scrapbook pages while they were outside.  It's nice and I'm so happy I spent the time with them when they were little teaching them or allowing them to  just "play" because they can do it for themselves now.  Their imaginations are wild. 

 

Rediscovering the sandbox now that the weather is cooling down.

While preparing dinner, Hailey thought the
broccoli looked like an ice cream cone.

Coloring so nicely

They asked to go puddle jumping since it was raining. 
This is the "puddle" they chose.  Hmmmm.

They played with homemade playdough for about an hour and half.

Hailey's 1st Night Away

Nanny with the girls

Hailey is finally old enough (in our opinion) to spend a night away at Nanny's!  I think all parties involved were so happy for the experience.  Nanny kept them all night and all the next day.  They got to swim, paint, watch a movie and play with all of Mama's old toys.  Mama and Dada got to go on a date and the next day, Mama scrapbooked all day and got all the way through November 2012 and Dada learned Solid Works to do Mechanical Engineering stuff.  (Yeah, we're nerds with our selfish time).  It was a great weekend had by all. 

Changing Bed Sheets

 

Both girls were given the task to change the sheets on their beds.  The succeeded and even put the pillow cases on their pillows!!!  They were so proud of their working hands.  

 

Hailey putting the pillow case on her pillow

Paige putting on pillow case

Paige so proud of her bed

1. Both girls on Hailey's clean bed

1st Day back at Waldorf

 

We were late getting started this year because the first week of Waldorf, Mama had surgery the day before and the second week, Hailey was sick with a 12 hour stomach bug.  We finally made it and felt right at home.  It was wonderful to be back.  The rhythm of the morning is the same and so homey.  Here's Hailey in front of the sign but more interested in the bug crawling than having her picture taken.  Only Hailey attends Waldorf this year since Paige has outgrown the Parent/Child class which stops at 4 years old.