Playdate

Earlier this week we were supposed to go to Sunriver to see Ken's mom. Over the weekend I had a cold and I just didn't have the energy it takes to pack 5 suitcases, drive over the snow, cook meals, and clean my mother-in-law's house when we got there. We agreed that Ken would take the older two and I would keep the younger here.

By the Tuesday Little Miss was going a little crazy and suffering from cabin fever,

so we had her best friend over.

Little Miss's friend tried to teach her hop scotch.

The sun was out and it was beautiful so they had a little picnic.

I love watching these two it is like 2 peas in a pod. They love spending time together.

Baby Huck was been showing us his new tricks at driving -

I think we need to be a little worried for when he gets older.

Keep your eyes on the road there little guy.

I wish I had pictures of the older two's adventures sledding in the mountains, swimming, doughnuts for breakfast, but all those pictures are on my mother-in-laws camera. It was interesting to have just the younger two for several days. They reminded me so much of Midge and Leo at the same age. They played great together and I kept having flashbacks.

The off off Broadway Version of The Wizard of Oz

The local library puts on a puppet show workshop every year. The kids get to create their puppets out of clay, paint them, and design and make costumes. Midge was able to do it last year and was excited to do it again this year in the production of Wizard of Oz.

Celeste Rose is the director who manages all of the kids. She is a bit quirky, but she is able to wrangle the kids and produce a show that at times is a bit rusty but always fun for the kids. When you consider that they start from nothing and in 4 short sessions produce a show it is pretty amazing.

This year Midge was a munchkin...

and the horse of many colors (the guard of the Emerald City).

The production had the scarecrow.

the tinman,

the cowerdly lion, Dorthy...

and even the wizard.

Even a few flying monkeys.

The audience was mostly memorized.

Or at least they pretended to be...

All the way to the final bow.

At the beginning of the show Midge did a solo of Some Where Over the Rainbow. She amazes us all with her singing talent - definitely something she got from her dad. She was nervous, but she is also so amazingly brave. There is nothing like the feeling inside when you see your child get up in front of a crowd and despite their butterflies sing their heart out.

Light's Out

Last Sunday the power went out at our house for almost 7 hours. It was

interesting to see what gaping holes we had regarding supplies and where we

were doing well. The kids loved playing with the flashlights.

Midge has a standing weekly date where she reads the Book of Mormon with her grandma over the phone every Sunday night. The power outage did not deter this. In fact I over heard her tell Mimi that she felt a little like Joseph Smith when he first read the Bible by candle light.

Of course he didn't have a cell phone in hand, but he might have had a sibling near by.

Preschool Happenings

I have been somewhat lax in updating about our little preschool. Call it what you will - I prefer to say there has been a lot of life happening around our house lately. Yet fate has determined that a nasty cold has found me up and awake at 3:45 AM and what better thing to do then update my lil' old blog.

This week's theme was appreciation for our amazing bodies. In order to emphasize all the wonderful things they can do we set up an obstacle course. To say that the kids loved this would be an understatement.

Adore...relish in...bask in the glory of it all. Too much?

But you get the idea. Over the moon people.

It was big.

Notice the little 2 foot obstacle in the middle of the course.

He was our little fine tuner. Always tweaking and adjusting with

a little disgruntled "Tiss...Tiss".

At the end of the course we had a stack of pillows they were

supposed to launch themselves over.

We had the artistic ballet jump...

The full board "Outta my way I am coming through jump"

The Mary Lou Retton jump...

and the giving it his all jump.

After our little exercise we had to make a nutritious snack.

So we went to the kitchen to whip up some granola bars. These little lovies to be exact.

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (and a few more for tasting)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

While they were baking we made egg head people. How cute are these!

What a versatile craft - snack and entertainment all in one.

Once the granolas were done we had a little picnic in the backyard.

Yummy stuff.

One of the things I love about preschool is it forces me to do things I would not ordinarily do.

For example painting with pudding.

Pudding fingers touching your walls, pudding in hair, pudding on clothes...it all goes out the window when you just relax and let them play. I will let you in on a little secret. (Warm wet washcloth removes pudding - amazing huh!)

Once again versatile craft - snack and entertainment all in one. I seem to have a reoccurring theme. Either that or I like to eat.

We had cautious and precise painters.

And then we had grab life by the fists jump right in painters.

This video is evidence that time should be alloted for finger painting every day.