C5 had her Halloween celebration at school today. First, a visit to the pumpkin patch (I didn't go) and then arts and crafts at school, and then the parade. C5 forgot her tiara, so she borrowed one from class.
You can see that C5 is right in front of her only boy friend ... the beautiful B5. He's got the lovely hair. Topped with a butterfly crown. I guess he forgot to bring a costume.
and the whole class ...
I brought Q3 with me to the parade, she enjoyed it. But I had planned on leaving her at school. But we got a call around 10:45 saying she'd just woken from an hour-long nap (not a surprise in itself, she woke at 4:30 am) and had a 102.6 fever. Oh. That was a surprise. So, I went and got her.
Q3 is getting interested in reading. Here and there. She knows a bunch of words ... On, in, up, out, no, go, so, stop, pony (sometimes!), dog, cat, cow (sometimes!), ball. Were there others? I can't remember. But she is just like C5 was at this age ... She likes me to read along with my finger, or point to words herself, but when she gets tired of it she puts up her shoulder or leans back and says "I'm tired!" and won't look. Then I know it is time to put the finger down and just read.
Q3 is adamantly against chapter books, even short ones. But a long single story with no chapters? A-OK.
C5 is amazing on the reading front, but is reading above her comprehension level. She'll catch up to herself soon!
C5 came down with a fever and crashed Friday night while we had visitors. Saturday she was not 100% well, taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and multiple rests in bed or on the couch. Today I thought she was on the mend, but I realized this afternoon that she really wasn't ... By 4:00 she was back in bed, blowing her nose, cranky, and having had no medicine she was getting hot again.
And then ... Q3 started getting cranky. And curling up on the floor. And eventually fell asleep eating dinner. At 5:36 pm.
The Tinkerbell outfit got the first wear Saturday evening.
With a lovely facepaint drawing of Mulan on her leg. On the left there. Pretty good, I thought, considering she was using facepaint upside down on her leg. The right leg is a waterfall that goes woooosh!
Still a favorite passtime. But I let Q3 do me this morning. I will warn you that I look as lovely as possible here, so be forwarned that my stunning beauty may crack a mirror. Eventually my whole forehead, nose, eyese, upper lip were covered. Sweet.
Q3 has been into dressing up, but C3 ... likes to wear her own beautiful dresses. But Friday afternoon we received a surpirse package in the mail with FIVE gowns in it. Outfits for Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Tinkerbell, one dance recital outfit, 3 pairs of shoes, a princess backpack and pencil case, one tiara, one necklace, and one hair clip (which I think fell in accidentally, because it was a lovely, but not princessy, flower).
So. Here it is. What we all have been waiting for. C5 dressed up for the first time.
We learned recently that a bushel is equal to 4 pecks. Which of course led to this song.
Do you need the lyrics? Here we go.
I love you, a bushel and a peck, and 5 more pecks, that's 10 pecks, with a bonky-wonky-wonky and a hug around the neck, a hug around the neck. I love you 5 pecks with a bonky-wonky-wonky and a hug around the neck, a hug around the neck. I love you a bushel and a peck, with a bonky-wonky-wonky and a hug around the neck, a hug around the neck.
The bonky-wonky-wonky refers to her bonking us in the gut with her head. And, in C40 s case, somewhat unfortunately lower.
I promised Q3 that I'd go with her to the pumpkin patch for her first official field trip (does the trip to the fire house count? They walked there)
So, the bus ride. Stinky, smelly bus. The clouds of smoke behind the bus was really quite nauseating. But Q enjoyed it.
We looked at corn, beans, then the cows.
Then we made it to the pumpkin patch.
We picked the perfect pumpkin and then left the field...
... and got an apple. And ate it slowly. We were the last ones sitting.
Fed my core to the pigs (Q3 was still eating hers), petted the horses, and back to the bus. Where I finished Q3's apple and finally tossed the core.
Oh, and C5 had her 5-year physical ... looks like she may have bad eyes. I mean, not much of a shocker considering both C40 & I wear glasses, but I wasn't expecting it so soon. The evaluation at the doctor's office put her at 70-20. They kept asking me if I was sure she knew her letters. Yes, I'm sure.
It has been rainy for days. The kids are a little crazy. Too much coloring, not enough running around. Well. They found a way to get rid of little energy on Saturday,
I have noticed this is the beginning of eating season. Spring and summer are great, salads and grilling and iced drinks... but fall is pies and soups and breads and roasted veggies.
Yum. I love all of it. Especially when somebody else makes the main dish and I just contribute a pie. However, I am now in charge of dinner, and that is a big responsibility. While I'm cooking the girls get silly.
Q3 -- the singer. Love those arms, Q. And C5 is wearing her bonnet. She's made us all those. And then the toybox/hat box. The terrified look on Q3's face when she couldn't get out was classic.
We had a tough time convincing C5 to go, I think because C40 read the farm's little flyer that said to wear clothes that could get dirty. That is obvious, I should think, to anybody going to a farm. But to C5, it made her think she was going to get DIRTY and she did not want to go. Once we figured out the problem I told her she didn't have to get dirty, if she was careful she wouldn't get dirty, and we'd bring as many beautiful clothes as she wanted, just in case.
She decided she could go, but she still was a bit wary until we got there.
First though, let's view the outfits. New clothes from yesterday's clothing sale. I like what Q3 is wearing. New pink skort, under an under an old lavender dress, under a new sparkley shirt (a star), under a new Mini-Boden purple/pink flower shirt on top. With pink polka-dot boots. All are slightly frilly, all are shades of pink/purple. The effect was cute.
C5. Hm. She wanted this outfit. Really. I should have put it back. I didn't. It is not my favorite. But C5 loves it. After the farm this evening she took it off and put it all back in her closet/drawers, so she could wear it again. Oh, and she topped it off with one of her birthday hats decorated with flowers.
First thing we did when we got there was meet the dog, Rambo. Q3 loved him. LOVED him. Spent most of her time with him. Rambo was an appropriate name, he was huge, and went after any and all potential predators. But he was gentle as anything and let Q3 hang all over him.
We visited hens, turkeys, piglets, rabbits, ducks. Then we got to the horse barn. Q3 said she wanted to ride, but then when the horse was there in front of her ... she started to back down. She eventually agreed to just sit on the horse and not move. Then to walk if I was holding her hand. And then she just dropped my hand and was all good. She got spooked when Disney shivered her whole body to scare off a fly, and she had to get down mid-ride, but she got back on and finished up beautifully.
And I went, too, thinking C5 might go with me. She would not. She'll walk 6 inches behind a horse, but not get on one.
We ate the most delicious chicken noodle soup, less delicious meaty soup, then more chicken noodle soup. Oh, that was just me. Yeah, the chicken noodle was the best chicken noodle ever. Homemade noodles and fresh killed chicken make all the difference.
Then onto a hay ride. Rambo came with us. Q3 tried to get him to ride with us by saying: "You won't fall off, I promise" but Rambo didn't go for it. He followed us into the cow field, by the goats and sheep, and then down the road to the pigs, where he took some time playing with the pigs and then scaring away turkey vultures.
C5 was brave and went right over to visit with the pigs
But Q3 was a little more reticent. She sat in my lap on the hay wagon until we heard the pigs chomping. Thinking we could feed the pigs, she got up, jumped off the hay wagon, fell over, got up saying "I'm OK" and ran over to the pigs.
And we fed the pigs black walnuts!
We were with the pigs for a long time, but eventually we headed back on the really fast moving hay wagon, where I suggested that it was like being in a convertible; C5 thought it was hysterical. What she says is "A hayride is a tractor convertible"
C5 said this was the best farm visit and best hay ride ever. That is high praise, my friends.
We went to the University Park Clothing sale ... I never seem to make it to the spring one, but fall I do. This one was the least well attended since I've been. But never mind, we got some good stuff ... and some hideous stuff that you will see, because C5 was with me. And a 5 year old's sense of beautiful is not the same as a 39 year old's sense of beautiful. Hideous stuff to come later.
Here is a velvety dress we bought for C3. Knew she'd love this.
And C5's velvety party princess dress. I think she'd be in it right now if it didn't have milk or ice cream or something on it.
And here is me in my new fleece. Oh, yeah, and Q3 in my new fleece, too.
Now that I am working at 80% time, I am feeling much busier, even though in reality, I'm not. I have no evening work, I go to bed around 9:30 so I can get up at 5:10, and then I have every single afternoon with my girls. Every single one. Which is pretty wonderful.
Our schedule is pretty low key, though. Afternoons we have been consistently 1) doing crafts and 2) heading to the park. And then of course 3) making dinner (EVERY NIGHT!).
Thank you to everybody who has ever made me dinner. Even those iceberg lettuce salads, dad.
And my fear of cows? Does not extend to Jersey Cows. Those guys are little! Apparently it is the Holstein Cows that are giant and scary. But milking the Jersey cow was fun.
Q3 was afraid of the Tom in the chicken/turkey yard. He was strutting around and Q3 just jumped on C40.
C5 had no problems. At first she was a bit wary of him, but by the end of the feeding she was trying to stroke his feathers. The were good looking. He looked like a turkey peacock, the way he had his tail spread.
We also saw pigs, horses, sheep, a goat. You could see downtown DC from there. It was a great spot, really lovely. Absolutely would go again!
This was not the honey bee festival we THOUGHT we were going to. But it was very nice. Perhaps nicer.
The kids did lots of things, including make headbands (bee for Q3, a dog for C5), visited a museum (C5 spent about 20 minute in the archeology box looking at broken stuff), looked at bees in a hive, got their faces painted (Q3 a butterfly & a flower, C5 a dog),
looked at turtles, snakes, and animal pelts, met a screech owl (tiny!) a barn owl (bigger) and a turkey vulture. Q3 went on a hayride.
