January 21-27, 2013, Inauguration, The Moon, Snow, Pizza, Cookies and Friends!

My sweet girl is a big Obama fan. After seeing him speek at the rally we attended, she speaks of him like he is a good friend of hers. When Inauguration Day came, and I explained to her what it all meant, she was very in to it. She stood when he was taking the oath, and listened intently while he spoke. 

After his speech, however, she began to get sleepy. When poet Richard Blanco began to speak, that was the last straw.

After nap, my parents came over to have a walk with us around our neighborhood. The kids had a super time showing their grandparents everything along the way.

We had to stop, of course, to have a chat with our neighborhood horses. They are so friendly and beautiful. :)

Casting some magic spell on the road

Once again, we just love the author Gail Gibbons. She is awesome. Rainbow Girl has always had a fascination with the moon, and when I saw that Gibbons had written a book about that topic, I had to get it! Rainbow Girl just adores the book. The night after I gave it to her, I said "Look, a half moon!" and she corrected me by saying, "No, mom. It is a First Quarter moon." 

Upon her suggestion, we began to draw the phases of the moon. We are doing them three phases at a time and using chalk on black paper.

The shirtless children then suggested we do felt stories. I give them three stories of felt characters at a time. Rainbow Girl knows the stories and gets the correct pieces for the story she is telling. Occasionally, they put up a mix of the characters and make up a totally new story.

Our Winter Nature Table

On the coldest, windiest day of the year, the balance bikes that I had ordered came in. It was soooooo cold, around 20 degrees, but we just had to try the bikes out. I was worried they would either be too big for Sugar Bear or too small for Rainbow Girl, but they are lovely. I think Rainbow Girl does not have long before she is too big, but for the time being, she loves it. She is on the highest seat setting, and he is on the lowest. They had fun putting around on their cool bikes- I even got on my bike as well in hopes of reducing the possibility of frostbite- but eventually I began to freeze. They did not want to put their bikes in the shed, but we still had to head to the library before dinner time. We picked up a bag full of books about the moon. 

The next night was the first supper in our new weekly meal plan. Pizza night! What could make pizza more fun? Make it tiny!!

I took one of the children's tiny tupperware shot glasses cups and made tiny cut outs on pizza dough. (Store bought, I know....lazy. I wasn't feeling making dough that night.) I lightly oiled one side of the circles and placed them oil side down in mini muffin tins. Then I gave the kids a plate of mini pepperonis and cheese and then decorated the heck out of those tiny pizzas. (It was their decision not to use sauce.)

I also made some larger circles for regular sized muffin pans. I had a few empty spots left in my muffin pan, so I squished in some flakey biscuits. On my husband's side, I put sauce, pepperonis, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. On my side (yummm....drooling just thinking about it...) I put hummus in place of sauce, a little pile of kale, and mozzarella cheese. They all turned out amazing. I especially liked the cheesy-hummus-kale biscuits. 

*****

We have some amazing friends. One family, in particular, we have really bonded with. We share so many things in common, it's pretty much impossible to not be best friends. The mama homeschools, babywears, breastfeeds, and is a delight to talk to. ^_^ I am so very glad that we re-discovered each other. We went to middle school together, both went to different high schools, and now live two miles apart!

On this particular visit, we decorated cookies together.

Super awesome mama friend made this cookie message. What do you think it says? I thought it said "baby loves  Target." Turns out that the intended message was "baby loves breastfeeding."

Rainbow Girl has found very close companionship with one member in particular of the four child household. She adores all of them, but there is something special about the bond between two girls of this age range.

She loves the two year old sister as well, and the two year old LOVES to be included in the big girl activities.

Sugar Bear got distracted by the tv. Gosh he is tall.

Rainbow Girl and her bestie.

We got more snow that day, and the kids were able to build the first snowman of the season. Sugar Bear got pretty attached to the snowman and did not want to leave him outside in the cold.

Here he is telling the snowman that his mom is mean and says he can't come inside.

I love you snowman.

That afternoon, Sugar Bear came down with a fever, and the beginning of the Rainbow household sickness began. Thankfully, the fever and awful cold symptoms only lasted a little over 24 hours for all of us, and we each took turns having fevers.