Cc

Michael was home today for Presidents' Day, so it was a good opportunity to "try out" having him home. It went remarkably well!

8:30 Woke up, showered. Nicholas and Katie Grace were still snuggled up in bed. It is really, really hard to get out of bed when they're so snuggly. Usually, I give in and stay with them, but this morning I won the battle against myself and hopped out.

9:00 By now, the two littles woke up as well. It was a really peaceful transition. I'm not sure why though. Sometimes, when things are going really well, I think to myself, "I really need to take a moment and mark what exactly is happening that makes this work." But then it's so peaceful being in the moment, that I don't want to put myself outside of it by thinking too hard.

9:15 Breakfast. Michael had already been up and downstairs for a while, and he created this really elaborate scene with the playsilks, blocks, and animals. He found my Lion King Broadway Soundtrack and is really into it, and that's what he created. There were five separate components to it. I took pictures; I'll have to post them sometime. He tidied up while we finished breakfast. Then he and Nicholas helped me in the kitchen while Katie Grace made her bed. I switched the laundry and we all got ready for the morning.

9:30 We skipped circle this morning, partially because we had a late start, partially because we had fun singing rhymes up when we were getting dressed, partially because Michael was home and I haven't yet worked out how to do it all with all three home. Michael looked at some books that mentioned the presidents (he seemed to really like "A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln" and "A Picture Book of George Washington) and decided he wanted to "do a report." Nicholas colored while I told Katie Grace some curled-up cat stories for the letter C. We took it pretty easy today.

10:00 Katie Grace and Nicholas built with blocks while Michael and I cracked open the Snap Circuits set he got for his birthday. We did the first two experiments, and Michael really loved it. When he was done, he drew a picture of what we did so he could share with his daddy.

10:30 We made brownies--yum!--and dusted and cleaned the living room. Everyone helped. The stars must have been aligned just so, because no on fought for a change.

11:00 Michael worked/played in his room and I kept up with the Great Clothes Sorting Project. I found about 5 sweaters for him that I didn't know we had. Whoops. Katie Grace and Nicholas started out playing together in her room, but ended up sitting on the bed and watching. Katie Grace especially has this odd sense of nostalgia when she sees the little dresses she used to wear. They both get so excited when we find things for the new baby.

11:30 We all went downstairs and played The Princess and the Dragon. We bought it this summer at the Higgen's Armory Museum on vacation, and hadn't played it yet. Even Nicholas could participate somewhat.

Noon Lunch. Nicholas wanted cold pizza (odd child) and the other two made their own sandwiches. We followed up with brownies for desert. Daddy surprised us by coming home and we got to share our brownies and tell him about our morning.

12:30 Story time. We started Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire. It was too long to finish in one setting though.

1:00 Katie Grace's turn to work on her room while the boys helped me in the kitchen. First we cleaned up the remains of lunch. Then I taught Michael how to use the child-safe knife from Pampered Chef. Last night he cut his finger because he was trying to use kitchen scissors to cut celery. :( So he washed and cut carrots and celery for the stew. Nicholas scrubbed the potatoes and put them in the crock pot after I cut them.

1:30 They ran loose while I worked on curriculum for a half-hour.

2:00 You read to me and I'll read to you time. Katie Grace is reading Birthday Soup from the Little Bear book. If we go with Oak Meadow next year, she'll have it again, but she's taking it very slowly. I think she read three pages today. Then we read another chapter in Farmer Boy. We're almost finished. I wish she would pick something else, but she wants to move on to Little House in the Prairie after this.

2:30 Naptime for me, Bob the Builder time for them.

3:30 TV off, and then snack and we got ready to go to the library. Daddy came home early and we all went, then we came home and had dinner. We made a yummy cherry pie desert with homemade whipped cream for Presidents Day. The only downside was DH had an unplanned meeting at church, but he was able to read Michael a chapter of Lord of the Rings before he left, so there didn't seem to be any hard feelings.

Tomorrow Michael goes back to school. I'll miss him!