10 Things I'm Loving Lately

1.  Chocolate Creme Brûlée
This recipe.  Make it.  You won't be sorry.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-creme-brulee-recipe.html

2.  Flannel Sheets
I don't like the cold.  It doesn't usually get this cold here but this winter I had to pull out the flannel sheets.  And I'm so glad I did.  But the cold doesn't seem to affect my kids the same way it affects me.  I walk around the house with my coat on and Adeline still spends about 50% of the day naked.  I don't know how she can take it.

3.  Soft-Boiled Eggs
Where have you been all my life?  I always thought I was a hard boiled egg kind of girl, but I was wrong!  I've been eating 2 soft boiled eggs and toast 4-5 mornings a week lately and sometimes even for lunch.  I put the eggs in the pot with warm water and bring it to a boil and then set my timer for 3 minutes the second I see a big bubble break the surface (2 min 30 seconds if the eggs are small).  I immediately run them under cold water and peel and the yolks are perfectly creamy and delicious!  Plus, I've been buying fresh eggs at the new farmer's market that just opened up right across the street from my neighborhood, so that makes it even better.  Although I still make it with store bought eggs too.

4.  Wordament
This stupid Boggle-like game is fabulous!  I love boggle, but this app takes it to a new level.  It puts you in live games against all the other players playing at the same time as you and some of the boards have themes or special high point letters.  Its super addicting and I play it way too much.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordament/id580935508?mt=8

5.  Shantaram 
Rob and I are listening to this audio book right now and loving it!  I especially love that the person who reads it does all the voices with wonderful accents (it takes place in India).  We haven't finished the book yet, so I can't vouch for the whole thing, but so far, we both really like it.  Here's the amazon link in case you're looking for a new book to read (but I highly recommend the audio version if you can get it).
http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537

6.  Roasted Brussel Sprouts
I'm loving pretty much any roasted veggie lately, but especially brussel sprouts.  This is another food I never knew I liked until recently.  This cold weather is perfect for roasting veggies and letting the hot oven warm the kitchen!

7.  Watching Bobby in Gymnastics Class
The kids both started gymnastics classes this month and Bobby is the only boy in his 3 year old class.  He is definitely the youngest in his class since he just barely turned 3, but he is doing great.  He tries so hard to do what the teacher says and is such a good little kid.  He catches on pretty quickly and I think its a great experience for him.  Adeline, on the other hand, I try not to watch as much.  She is in the 4 year old class.  She lays on the floor and pretends to sleep, she tries to be silly and do things she's not supposed to, and she has a hard time following directions.  But, she's not the wildest one in there, so it makes me feel a little better.  Its a good experience for her too, but its funny to see the personality differences between the two of them in the same setting (they have the same teacher).

8.  Planning our Trip to Disney World
We're headed to Disney World next month and I think I might be just as excited about it as the kids.  I think it will be absolutely magical for Adeline, and Bobby will be in heaven with all the rides, food, and excitement.

9.  Writing
I am part of a writing group with some women from church and I have really enjoyed our monthly writing assignments.  I have been writing a lot lately, even when its not for the writing group.  And I think I'm even starting to improve some of my writing skills with all the practice!

10.  Apps Gone Free
I find all sorts of apps for the kids (and a few for me) with this app.  Everyday they have a new list of apps that are free (some are just free for one day or maybe a whole week).  They only put apps on the list that have good reviews and don't have ads in them.  I have found a few apps that I really love from here.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apps-gone-free-best-daily/id470693788?mt=8

What We've Been Learning

Remember when I said I'm trying out homeschooling this year but we'll see what I actually end up doing since its just preschool?  Well, we've been taking it easy for the past 3 months :)  Not that the kids aren't learning, because they are always learning.  But as informal as I'm doing things, we've been even more informal lately.  So here is some proof that the kids are learning even if I'm being lazy.

Making fossils

Magnification experiments 

Adeline has been working on her art skills.  This is Ursula from the Little Mermaid.

Building a "real" castle with cousins out of the bricks Rob got for his outdoor oven.

Who needs blocks when you can build a tower with real bricks?

Bobby learning about money with his new piggy bank.

I was making something with magnets one day and the kids wanted to play with them so they build magnet cities.

More magnet exploration.

Baking cakes with Adeline's cake making set she got for Christmas.  Adeline was so proud of herself because she made the batter all by herself.  From my experience, cooking is the easiest way to teach fractions!

Eating and decorating their cakes.

A bowl of spaghetti noodles became an impromptu alphabet lesson.

We got the kids some kinetic sand for Christmas and this stuff is amazing (look it up on youtube.  Its really that cool).  The kids love to play with it.  Rob and I love to play with it.  Sensory play for the whole family!

And to make it even more educational, we made patterns on snakes one day.

Rob is building a backyard oven so the kids are observing a lot of new things.  They watched the process of laying a concrete base.

Grandpa Bob and Grandma Sherie got chickens so the kids have been able to see them up close and it didn't even phase them when we ate one a couple weeks ago :)

The base for the oven.  Adeline loved to help Rob by bringing him bricks when he needed them.

They also learned a few things that I didn't catch on camera.  Rob helped Bobby make some alphabet flashcards and he also helped Adeline make a science notebook.  Adeline has a collection of "studying books" that we get from the library and some that we own.  She loves Rob's college biology text book and pretends to study from it all the time.  She also went through a phase where she carried around a big nature book that she got from the library in her backpack at all times!  She even slept with that book.  I pulled out a few of my old teaching worksheets (from when I taught 1st grade) and she can sound out and write simple words (cat, pin, hot, log, etc.) but she loses interest in the pages pretty quickly so I don't push it.  We also set up a new calendar (like the ones they use in school) that we got at the dollar store.  Most mornings during breakfast we talk about what the date is and how to read a calendar.  We also got a clock and Bobby is super interested in it.  He loves to move the hands and ask me what time it is.  So we're learning some basic time telling skills too.  Bobby also got a lot of building toys for Christmas that he has been playing with.

Sometimes I worry that my kids aren't learning as much as they would in a real preschool, but most of the time I don't really care.  I like that we can wake up whenever we want and decide to do whatever we want each day.  We've hardly left the house at all since Christmas, partly because the kids have been sick, and partly because they really just want to stay home all day and play with their new toys.  And I really believe that kids learn a ton from "just" playing, so most days I'm happy with what they're learning and where we're at.

Bobby's Birthday

Bobby turned 3 last month and the robot party we planned was a huge success and so fun to plan.  Here are the pictures

The cake I made!  My favorite part of the whole party!

Robot antennae for the kids instead of birthday hats.

 Each kid got to design a goodie bag.  I found some cute robot patterns online and the kids glued the pieces together to make their own robots.  We also had coloring pages for them to do while everyone was arriving.

I forgot to get pictures of it, but we also had different sized marshmallows and toothpicks for kids to make marshmallow robots.  Surprisingly, this wasn't a huge hit with the kids like I thought it would be. Most preferred coloring or snacking on the other food that was out.

I found this robot arm toy at Walmart.  Each kid got to use it to grab a small toy from the prize box.  We made a game out of it by rolling a dice and when the kids got a certain number they got to have a turn to get a prize.

Lunch.  I forgot to get a close up of the food before we ate.  But there was some cute stuff.

Ritz cracker "gears," square pretzel "circuit boards," cheese ball "ball bearings," grapes (no cute name), veggie straw "wire tubing," and jello cups "cooling gel."

"Oil Can" juice boxes and "robot fuel" soda and bottles of H2O

It was a surprisingly beautiful December day so we ate outside and then did some robot building.  Bobby loves to uses tools so we got a bunch of old screws, nails, hammers, screw drivers, and pipe cleaners and had the kids "build" styrofoam robots.  I wasn't sure how it would work out, but it was perfect!  The kids were all really interested in it and had a fun time using real tools. (with supervision, of course)

Adeline's robot

Bobby's robot.  He decided the tools were better decorations than the screws.

Next was the exciting part.  The huge robot.  He was set up in the house and made an impressive decoration as the kids came in to the party, but I forgot to get a picture while he was standing.  We spray painted boxes and cut out holes and covered them with tissue paper.  Then we filled it with shredded paper and candy.  The kids got their goodie bags and got to punch through the holes to dig through and find the candy.

We put of ton of candy in there so it kept them busy for a long time.

Then it was time for cake!

After eating cake the kids got to dress up in the robot costume and get their pictures taken.

And finally, the party favors!  I think they turned out really cute!  I found the rubics cubes at the dollar store and they worked perfectly!  I decided to make them armless robots because I ran out of time and patience by then!

We let Bobby open his presents after everyone left.  We decided that 3 year olds probably wouldn't do very well watching 1 kids get to open all the gifts and not getting to keep them for themselves.  He was in toy heaven and even let Adeline help in the unwrapping.

The present we got for Bobby was this plasma car.  In case you're wondering, this is a fun toy for kids and adults ;)  The kids like to ride it together.

And a few days later I took the kids to Target to let Bobby choose out his very own piggy bank.  He chose a shark bank.  He has been wanting one ever since Adeline got one on her 3rd birthday, so we decided to make it a 3rd birthday tradition.  Now he can do chores to earn money and start saving to buy things.

He loves to put the money in the shark's mouth.