Let him eat cake!

Daniel was a little dubious at first, but really tucked in and even shared some with Mama!

The cake I made was more of a snack cake than a traditional birthday cake, but was it ever yummy! The recipe is from The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book:
YOGURT BIRTHDAY CAKE
Wet Ingredients
1 cup oil
1 cup honey
1 2/3 cups vanilla yogurt
2 t. vanilla

Dry Ingredients
4 cups pastry flour
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Mix the wet ingredients and set them aside.
3. Mix the dry ingredients.
4. Add the dry to the wet and mix well.
5. Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan and bake for about 40 minutes.

I topped it with a cream cheese frosting and we all really enjoyed it!

And now he's fast asleep in my arms after nursing and the rest of the crew is behind me listening to Daddy read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. *happy sigh*

What did we do today?

While making dinner, I realized how much we had done today! The crown and paper are from Story of the World. We made laurel crowns by gluing leaves to a sheet of crown paper, and then we played "Ransom Ceasar," which looks a lot like battleship.



The Common Birds of Eastern PA cheat sheet is out because we were trying to figure out who kept visiting our window feeder and yard while we were mixing up our Earth Bars.

A week late, but we finally made them. Each kid made a batch, so we have plenty to share. While cooking, we substituted applesauce for butter and talked about how much of cooking was actually chemistry. We also talked about the ingredients--coconut, pineapple, chocolate chips, nuts--and how they come from all over the world.

Katie Grace was reviewing greater than and less than while Michael was working on estimating. The perfect opportunity to play Flower Power, a kinder, gentler version of War.

It's hard to focus on Five Little Peppers and How They Grew when your baby brother keeps climbing up and kissing you!

We also started an art unit on portraits, baked a birthday cake for Daniel, read a book about science logs, and zipped through what's known here as The Language Arts Big Fun Hour. Another crazy fun day.

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

"How old are you?" We've been practicing this for weeks, LOL!

Cards and bags are almost as fun as gifts!

Daniel loved his cuddle baby. He couldn't stop snuggling it. And see that awesome quilt he's sitting on? A lovely church lady who is a sort of adopted grandma to our little ones made it for him. It has squares with different nursery rhymes. She made one for Nicholas with duckies when he was a baby. Daniel loved the quilt and kept crawling from end to end. I'm so awesome, my baby blanket trained himself!

His baby he cuddled, but his Sullivan Kitty from Mimi and PeePaw he pounced on, over and over again. Poor kitty, but happy baby!

I made a yummy cake, but Michael had Scouts tonight and so we're saving the cake for tomorrow night. We also decided that from now on, no outside events on birthday nights!

Happy birthday, Daniel. It's hard to believe how much you've grown in just one year.

This week's feasts and festivals

Tuesday, April 29: Daniel is 1!
St. Catherine of Sienna

Thursday, May 1: St. Joseph the Worker
May Day

Saturday, May 3: Sts. Philip and James

Corning Museum of Glass

All over our town are huge billboards advertising the Corning Museum of Glass. Kids Under 17 Free! Shows Daily! Just a Short Trip Down Route 15! I finally checked out their website and saw they had these family day programs and noticed that today they would be doing Rome. Well, what a coincidence! We're studying Rome! So we packed out water bottles and snacks and off we went.

OK, in their defense I was making them stare right into the sun. But good grief, can't I ever get a picture where all four of them are looking at me at the same time?!?!


Sweetness and light.
I'm not going to get all docent on you about the art, but there were two pieces I really found fascinating. This one, while it at first looks like a bunch of blood clots or something, is actually a family. Each "blob" is made up of spun glass letters that make up the names of the various members of the artist's family, and they're all connected.



This one is called "It's Raining Knives." Odd title, I know. The artist was living in Argentina when Peron was being ousted, and this is how she felt, like knives were raining down on her village.

Katie Grace and Nicholas made a bulla. This is supposed to ward off evil spirits. Michael refused to make one because he doesn't believe in evil spirits. Smart kid!



Making shields.
My inner eye tells me you are in grave danger, Harry!


99 Bottles of Butterbeer on the wall... OK, I think that's the last of the Harry Potter references.


All three kids with their shields, dressed up in togas with no place to go.

Nicholas loved this sculpture and really wanted to show Daddy.

A replica of an ancient Egyptian glassmaking oven.

Crawl Daniel! Crawl to freedom! A glorious ten minutes down from the sling.




Decorating a glass bottle for holding bath oil. Katie Grace is in the tub enjoying her Roman bath oil as we speak! Michael made a bottle but did not fill it with oil because--his words--"I don't want to smell nice."

And Katie Grace lost her first tooth at lunch!


OK, if you've gotten this far, I do want to say that if you're anywhere near Corning, NY, this is a great day trip. Not only is it an excellent value--kids under 18 are free and adults are $10.60 with a AAA card--but they were so family friendly it was just amazing. Now, I know what you're thinking. Who in their right mind would take four children under ten to a huge museum full of GLASS on her own? But really, it was very kid friendly. The docents were wonderful. Someone even helped me get all the kids safely to our table with their lunch trays! Lunch was pretty reasonable too, btw. And when Katie Grace lost her tooth they made a big deal over her and got her a little pouch for her tooth. They have lots of kids' programs coming up, including some exciting stuff on tap for the summer. We may just have to go back.

I've Got Several Irons in the Fire

Yesterday I looked around the dining room table and realized I had managed to spread out projects-in-progress pretty much at every seat.

We have (beginning down center):
1. Instructions for the new ice cream maker that I better figure out how to use soon before the kids rise up and revel
2. Plastic bag on chair for MOMYS project foam scrappies (did you know foam goes completely undigested through a baby into a diaper? Freaky. They also smell bad, even before they are in the diaper. Ah well, it's the project that was assigned to me...)
3. Foam numbers sorted for my now-overdue MOMYS Preschool Bag Swap.
4. Volume 2 text and activity book for Story of the World.
5. Directions, sheet protectors, and bags for aforementioned swap.
6. Already sorted and bagged letters for the swap.
7. Material and pattern for Katie Gracie Girl's new skirt.
8. Paint and little ceramic figurines the kids want to paint.
9. Flower cut-outs still in the package to be labeled for our May Calendar.
10. Birthday party invitations for Katie Grace's flower fairy party.


I really need to get that all done by our next family meal... or at least all hidden away.

She came, she saw, she danced

So, here's the actual recital (you can scroll down a few posts for a better video of the rehearsal.) We're just so proud of her. She is just so beautiful and lovely, and so graceful, and today she was so confident. But most of all, she danced with sheer joy. It was a sight to see.
Daniel was full of joy as well. Note the red cheeks (his, not mine!). I think he is getting another molar. :(
And a few of the other girls dancing.

Last But Not Least

HAPPY SPRING!

I Will Sing of Your Love Forever

It's recital day!

Today Katie Grace dances in her third recital with St. John's School of the Arts. If I haven't mentioned it before, I love this place. Seriously, love it. Her teacher is so gentle and loving. They dance to kids' songs, classical music, or Christian tunes. Their costumes are modest and sweet--Ms. Teresa, their teacher, even will often add an extra little bit of fabric to the bodice so they're well covered. You can just tell from the pictures how much they love their teacher!



Last year the little ones danced to these words:

God, You are so big
And even though I'm small
I know You're love for me
Is deep and wide and tall.
You hold me in the palm of Your hand
And still You make me part of Your plan.
God, You're big but now I see
You're not too big for me.

It was a tear jerker, every time.

This year, they're dancing to "I Can Sing of Your Love Forever".




Here is a video from the rehearsal. I am neither yelling at kids, nor are those my kids yelling. The only child I had was Katie Grace, and she's dancing. She's the littlest one on the end and in the back left. What she lacks in skill, she makes up for in joy and enthusiasm.

While the big kids had their final dress rehearsal, we decided to dump the formal lessons and take our mini-homeschoolers to the park.




The girls were swinging and singing a song that went like this:

I'm higher than a butterfly.
I'm higher than the sky.
I'm higher than a kite.
I'm soooooo hiiiiiiiigh!!!!!

Thank goodness the DARE cops weren't around.

And Daniel, God bless him, had ample chance to practice pretty much the only word he says with any consistency.

BALL!!!

BALL! BALL! BALL!

We finally got to play Dragon Tag! I invented this game (she says smugly). Basically, you stick a dragon "tail" (green play silk) in your tush and run like crazy. The climbing dome was the dragon's cave--base--for the weary.

Daddy got to come along! We're not going to be able to do co-op next year if it's still on a Friday. Part of my "organization crisis" from a few days ago was from realizing I never, ever get a break. Teaching or even just attending co-op on hubby's only day off just isn't working for us. Chip and Daniel went for a long, long walk that ended with them napping under a tree. Tres cute.




The highlight (not) of Park Day: The Tetanus Wagon. Seriously, count 'em: one, two, three, four, five exposed rusty screws sticking up through the play equipment. You may not be able to see the fifth. It's cleverly hidden, the better to pierce little feet.Mrs. Hillman tried in vain to cover it with some spare wood we found.
I flagged down a parks truck (and let me tell you, they looked a little panicked), and this was there solution. Caution tape. 'Cause we all know how well children can read, and bright yellow streamers aren't attractive to them at all.
They did eventually come back and fix it. Actually, this involved several truck trips with long intervals in between. With gas at $3.65 a gallon, one has to wonder if maybe the parks people need to plan their projects a little better. Daniel liked watching, though.