A Little Jingle in Honor of Almond Harvest

In the Central Valley September signifies harvest and the season of almond tree shaking (aka season of sneezing, poor driving visibility and having to dust every other day). Here's a little rhyme Ella learned in school (she added the prop on her own at home).

"Two little almonds high in the tree.

Two little almonds looking at me.

I shook the almond tree as hard as I can.

Down came the almonds, crack!

And mmm mmm were they good."

I Just Love This...

There is a new nightly ritual in my home. On the nights Dave does not have a meeting, he and Ella snuggle up in the rocking chair to read Charlotte's Web. I love this because it shows how my husband shines as a daddy. I also love this because my 3 year old daughter cannot get enough of this large chapter book! She is surprisingly absorbing all of the story (evidenced by her everyday re-enactment of "Fern and Wilbur"). She begs for more at the end of each chapter and has had pieces of the story sprinkling her conversations with us since this new ritual started. I have always admired Ella's imagination. I love seeing her use it to enjoy the wonderful stories of my childhood!

This is pen she built for Wilbur. The yellow blankie is "dirt." Is anyone else disturbed by the meal she choose to feed Wilbur? Bacon! Perhaps she's not absorbing every detail of the book...

Thoroughly Celebrated and Serenaded

This year my birthday was fabulous. It was stretched into a 4 day event that held special restaurant lunches, great gifts and cards, one well-wishing phone call after the next, a homemade cake and about 20 choruses of "Happy Birthday To You!"

Dave knew he'd be crazy busy yesterday on the actual day, so we celebrated my birthday on Saturday. And he spoiled me-- driving me a bit of distance to eat lunch at my favorite restaurant, Panera Bread, making sure I did no work, grilling steaks and giving me a beautiful new watch. He and Ella also baked this cake together and made a big deal about the song and candles. Look at Delia clapping along!

Yesterday a normal play date at Jetta's held a surprise for me. Jetta decorated, pulled out the birthday hats and had her crew sing to me yet again (with a candle in a Stroopwafel!). She also made me feel special and sent me home with some gorgeous flowers.

On Friday I did the birthday lunch with The Ladies. It was as fun as it always is to have a little break from the kids and enjoy some adult time with my 6 other mom friends. We laughed and dished over a fun meal. Thanks to everyone who made efforts to give me such a happy day!

Expressive, I Say!

In case you didn't catch my post on Delia's vivid display of emotion from a few days ago, let me just underscore...

The bath is a place where Delia's facial expressions really come out. Here she practices her open-mouthed "Auntie Kris Face" while energetically splashing and fervently hugging her bath toys. (These are two new favorite pictures.)

Undies for Everyone!

Even though Ella has long been potty-trained, she was still wearing her training pants every day. This is because I couldn't find any big girl undies that were small enough for her tiny booty. Well, I just discovered The Children's Place (and take note, mothers of the small-bootied!) makes an XXS size-- perfect! The other day I was making the undie switch in the drawer and apparently Ella got into the pile of training pants to be packed away...

I guess all her animals are ready to be big kids too.

Our Little Cubbie

Ella has been attending Awanas at the nearby Covenant Church. Awanas meets every Wednesday night for an hour and a half. I know that she makes a craft, hears a Bible story, has a snack and plays outside with her friends (Jared, Jetta's girls, Jacob and Bailey all go too). I also know that she LOVES Awanas. Each week we are responsible for doing a lesson out of her book with her at home, for this she earns badges for her vest. She has already memorized 4 new Bible verses!

The Many Faces of Delia

We've seen a huge increase in the expressiveness of Delia as of late. She is constantly attempting to communicate: with words and sounds, with adamant pointing, with goofy faces and with her grabbing and dragging of us by our hands. She's quite the little comedian, pulling out the extreme facial expressions to get laughs. As you can see, her two top teeth are coming in and she loves to show them off with this new squinty eyes-top gum revealing smile.

Delia, where's your nose?

"My Prince Feet!"

Get it? Ella's footprints...

Geography Whiz

Yep, this one shocked us too. Ella's new favorite activity is this 50 (tiny) piece United States puzzle. I helped her do it just the first time and now she puts the thing together completely by herself. She will also say things like, "We should visit Nevada because it's our neighbor state and I want to see snakes." (There's a little snake icon on this piece.) She can identify Illinois and Michigan too.

A Sweet Start

I am so blessed to have daughters who are crazy about each other. I pray that they remain best friends for life. No one can make Delia laugh like Ella. No one is the object of more affection from Ella than Delia. Ella's every move is validated by Delia's imitation of it. Lately I've been noticing them playing together a lot more. They color, play kitchen and dress up. They dance and chase each other, giggle and just act goofy-- exactly the types of things you are suppose to do with a sister, right? Today was a normal enough morning, except that I captured some of these moments....

The day always begins with some cuddling in our bed shortly after waking up (I obviously try to stretch this time out as long as possible). Today Ella bathed Delia in hugs and kisses while she laughed hysterically.

Next we make some breakfast. Today the girls were too cute sharing their strawberry smoothie.

Then it's time to get ready and play. Today they got all dressed up to "ride the airplane to Chicago." Just a typical sweet start to our day!

The Perfect Day

What might the perfect day look like to Ella? Well, it would probably involve two of her favorite things-- friends and dressing up... like today! This morning, Jonathan came over for a few hours while Amy went to a doctor appointment. While she was learning that their baby is healthy and doing great, Ella and her buddy were playing trains and hearing stories.

******

Then this afternoon we went to the bridal shop to meet Sarah and her mom Sharon. We were trying on and picking out Ella's flower girl dress. Ella got to try on about 6 dresses and attracted the attention of every sales girl with her exuberance over wearing these ultimate princess gowns. She twirled, she marched, she danced, she sat so they'd "fluff up like a muffin" and she just gazed at herself for long periods in the wall of mirrors. It was a tough choice, but we decided on one with a train-- a favorite of all four of us. This was heaven for Ella.

Last Week's Labor Day Breakfast

So, do you want to know how we spent our Labor Day? A week has passed, but I'll still regale you with the details. (Thanks to my friend Julie for sharing the following pictures!) It is tradition to spend Labor Day at AnnaJean's dairy. She hosts a giant breakfast for all the VMs. This year we counted off at 60 present. Imagine the buffet that is set when 60 people are bringing breakfast casseroles, bacon, sausage, sticky buns, French toast, Dutch pancakes and fresh fruit! I am not kidding when I tell you that the meal I ate at 10:00am was the only meal I ate the entire day. I overheard someone say, as they were digging into their breakfast feast, "I look forward to this day all year."

We eat, we fellowship, we play ladder ball, we tour the dairy and check out the brand new baby calves, then we watch the kids roll around in the cotton seed. This was actually a first for us. The feeding of cows is apparently a science. Besides silage (ground corn), to their diet is also added all sorts of other nutrients, like almond husks and this cotton seed. The kids found the giant piles of feed in the back of a barn and had a great time climbing it, rolling down it and yanking stuck legs out of it.

Our full day of food and fun with our adopted family ended with a group swim-- the perfect way to conclude a day where we did the opposite of "labor."

Animal Loving VMs Go to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

There were a lot of reasons we spontaneously decided to check out the Oakland Zoo today. For one, Dave has been consumed with work and jury duty this week and we just needed some family quality time. For another, Ella is starting her "Self-Pronouncing Animal Alphabet" at preschool and we thought we'd give her a jump by showing her all the animals she'll be studying and experiencing as she learns her letter sounds. And lastly, we just love the zoo and thought this one might actually live up to our high standards. (It did!)

I took lots of pictures of the animals for Ella to reference through the year. I thought you may enjoy some of them too.

This first one looks like a picture of boring branches, but you must click on it to make it big (and prepare to be amazed!) It was an exhibit in a neat bug house. This cage is filled with leaf and stick bugs. This was my favorite thing we saw today. Isn't God an incredible creator?

Ella's first letter lesson is "A, A, A, A, A, A Ape...Come to the zoo for a gape!" So we were excited to find this guy.

Tortoise
Macaws

Elephant

Meercats

We got to watch these alligators eat lunch: rats!

Lion

Fruit Bat (Is he bigger than you were expecting too?)

Thirsty Giraffe

Boa Constrictor

Zebra

Happy Faces

This really was a wonderful zoo and a great pick for a family outing. Just look at these happy faces...

The last thing Ella and I did was take a sky ride over the zoo. This was a completely unique and awesome experience. We viewed giraffes and elephants from above and saw animals like lions and tigers that are usually hiding from the public in their habitats. We also caught a glimpse of the bay while we flew!

Delia gets a better view of the alligators being fed giant rats.

Delia cracked us up by running up to each of the goats in the petting zoo and yelling, "Moo!" at them. This was something she recently learned and was eager to try out her barnyard lingo.

The aforementioned amazing bug exhibit also had this fun playground.

What's Cookin'?

Summer Reading List 2008

At the end of last summer I asked you what you had read over the season. Here we are entering another school year, one that gets busy with carting kids around, attending and hosting events and loosing Dave to meetings every other night. If you are like me, you may have been able to actually carve some time out of a more lazy, relaxed summer schedule to finish a book or two! So I ask, what did you read? Would you share with us all? Once again, I'll compile a list and encourage you to check it out when you are in need of a good read.

I read two truly awesome books this summer. Yes, finishing both of these did keep me up into the wee hours of the morning, but the loss of sleep was worth it! The first was Newberry Honor winning The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt (a professor I was privileged enough to have at Calvin!). Some parts were so touching, I cried. Some parts were so funny, I cried again. While technically a piece of young adult literature, I think you would appreciate the historical setting, Shakespeare references, journey of the narrator and wit most as an adult. The second book I'll recommend is Mistaken Identity by the Cerak and Van Ryn Families. Unlike Wednesday Wars, this is not a book that is superb in plot or even writing, yet it tells a story so remarkable: of the two Taylor College girls switched after a car accident. The testimony of the families (who tell the story) ministered powerfully to me. What an incredible story of faith!

How about you? Want to share a book you read? Please give me the title, author and a quick description of the book or reason you liked it. Thanks and be sure to check back!