These Boots Are Made for Stompin'

This morning was so gray and foggy and dreary; then it started drizzling, then thundering, and then pouring down rain.  But by the time we got home from preschool, the rain had stopped and it was warm outside!  Well, at least warm for Wisconsin at the end of October...  The girls immediately wanted to put on their rain boots and find some puddles to stomp in.   We found a great big puddle on our walking path, and both girls enjoyed splashing through it.  We practiced hopping, tiptoeing, walking on our heels, walking as quietly as we could, and then stomping as hard as we could.  By the time we were done, the girls pants were soaking wet.

They wanted to walk a little further down the path so they could carry their umbrellas, even though it wasn't raining.  We had a little argument about which direction to walk; Amelia wanted to go right and Megan wanted to go left, so we distracted Megan and I told Amelia we would just walk to the top of the little hill.  When we got there, she said "That was just a little tiny hill.  How about we walk down the hill then turn around and walk back to the top?"  Then Megan said "Carry me, please?  Pretty, pretty, pretty please?" with her big puppy dog eyes.  It turns out that I am a pushover.

And then I made them stop so I could take a few photos with the last remaining beautiful yellow leaves in the background.  

 And I tried to get a photo of the two together (I bribed them with the promise of hot chocolate) and this was the best I could get.  Amelia is making a very silly face!  I think this was when I was telling them I was going to put pickles in their hot chocolate instead of marshmallows.

We had such a nice time playing and being silly, and then heading home for some yummy hot chocolate; it was one of those moments that I wish I could bottle up and save.  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70s (!) so as long as the rain holds off, we're definitely playing outside after preschool again.  We have to take advantage of the nice days while we can - Ben says there are snow flurries in the forecast for Saturday.  Boo.

A Walk in the Woods

No, we didn't hike the entire Appalachian Trail, but we did cover a few miles of the Ice Age Trail near Whitewater.  We met Natalie, Noah, and Becky there after preschool today, and we were lucky that the weather was almost 70 add sunny.  The trail went through the woods at the start, up and down a hill, and then leveled out and passed through a prairie and near a lake. 

We were hoping to collect leaves, but most of the leaves had fallen already, and the only pretty ones we saw were aspens.  The kids had fun running down the trail; although poor Megan tripped on a rock and cut her lip.

 Natalie was getting tired of walking, and Becky's back and leg were bothering her, so they started walking slowly back to the car, while the other kids and I kept going down the trail.  Amelia and Noah were having a good time exploring, and I had a hard time convincing them that we needed to turn around.  On the way back, they stopped at a hole in the trail, and we talked about what kind of animal might live in the hole.  Noah thought it could be a mouse's house, and he stuck his hand down in the hole to see if he could feel anything.  All he found were some sticks that Natalie had put in the hole as snake food. 

I tried to get a cloesup photo of each kid; I think my best shot was of Natalie.

 

 But we did manage to get all four kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.  Amazing!  I pulled a Grandpa Jeff, and told them they were NOT ALLOWED TO SMILE while I counted to 10, and of course they cracked up the whole time.  Becky set her camera to take a million photos, so she might have an even better one than this, but I was thrilled with how cute everyone looks:

And here are the cousins hugging.  Becky's kids are great huggers; mine are not always sure they want to get hugs.

 Natalie and Noah found walking sticks, and then pretended they were riding horses down the trail:

At one point while we were walking, Noah (out of the blue) said "I like your dress, Megan" and Amelia immediately wanted to know if Noah liked her dress.  He said yes, and then she asked if he liked her hair, and he said no!  But then he said her liked her bow, and she was happy about that.  And Noah and Amelia were really acting silly; they were tackling each other and then sitting on each other.  Megan wanted to play, too, so she laid down on the trail:

Natalie was pretending to saw down a tree, while she was waiting for us to catch up to her.  I like this shot because of all the gorgeous yellow leaves, and then Natalie in blue.

And here, you may think Amelia is trying to give Noah the vulcan neck pinch, but really, she is singing "Inch mouse, inch mouse, going up to Noah's house" which is her new favorite thing to do.

We had such a nice time visiting with the Weidners!

Preschool Yoga

I was surprised to hear that Amelia is learning yoga in preschool!  Here are the poses that she has learned so far:

Mountain and then Strong Warrior:

Star and then Butterfly:

Flower and then Twisty Flower:

Cat:

and finally Tree:

And of course Megan wanted to do yoga with Amelia.  Here they are both doing tree and then mountain.

When I want to get natural smiles (which I didn't really succeed at today) I've started copying Grandpa Jeff by saying "Please don't smile while I count to 5!" and of course they start laughing as soon as I get to 1.

A Rainy Saturday Morning

The girls and I took advantage of having a cool and rainy Saturday morning to do cozy inside things, like baking banana bread to take to some of our friends.  Both Amelia and Megan helped make the banana bread; their favorite part is measuring the flour and sugar.  They tried mashing up the banana, but decided they didn't like that.  We used this recipe with cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips.

 

I have decided that the relationship between the number of small children helping to measure flour and the amount of mess that is made is not linear, but rather exponential.

The girls both love to help clean up, though, and they especially love sweeping and mopping the floor.  Which is fantastic because I really do not like either of those chores.  Megan mostly just makes a bigger mess, but Amelia is getting very good at sweeping everything up into her little dustpan an emptying the dustpan into the trash.

Then I copied my cousin Kim's egg carton color matching game, and asked Amelia to find items in all different colors that would fit inside an egg carton.  She immediately thought of her barrette bin, and matched almost all the colors just from that.  Then I asked her to think of something different (because that initial task didn't take quite long enough for me to finish washing the dishes) and she thought of the bead bin.  And of course she was able to find beads in every single color, too.  So I guess I will have to think of a way to make it more challenging. 

Then the girls asked if they could make Froot Loop necklaces.  Wal-Mart had a deal that you could buy a 3-pack of various Kelloggs cereals for $5 and get a coupon for a free $5 book from Scholastic.  I thought that was a pretty good deal, but it means that we have been making lots of Froot Loop necklaces lately.  But that's okay, it's great fine motor practice for Megan, right?

"All About Cats" by Amelia Johnson

Amelia has been drawing a lot of books in preschool, which usually consist of pieces of paper taped together with LOTS of tape, containing drawings of our family in gardens or at the beach.  So last week Friday when she was done resting, I suggested that we write a book together at home.  She got out four sheets of paper and said that's how long her book needed to be.  And she immediately knew that the title would be "All About Cats".  She told me that I had to be listed as the author because I was writing down all the words, but basically it was like I was taking dictation from a speed-talking four year old.  I hope I got it all down correctly.  :)  I gave her a few suggestions from time to time, like "can you tell me what kind of things Alice played with her grandparents?" but all the ideas were hers.  She drew all the pictures by herself, too.  We worked on it over the weekend, and finally finished it today before dinner.  She is very proud of her completed book.

Amelia's favorite picture is the one of the fireworks.  I think mine is the picture of Dinah wearing her green dress.  And in case you can't tell on page 10 (photo 6) that is Grandma hiding behind a green shower curtain.