Chickens on Parade

Chicken at Dinner

Chicken in a Sweater

Messy Chicken

Chicken on 4 Legs

Chicken on a Sitting Down Slide

Chicken on a Standing Up Slide

Chicken in the Sun

Today I tried to teach Little Ish how to make hand turkeys, but he immediately declared that hands make much better chickens than turkeys.  He then spent the next hour making a series of chickens.  I traced his hand for him and gave him varying levels of help depending on the chicken.  The first two chickens I did the majority of the work and he finished them off with a bit of coloring and by drawing them food. By the last two chickens he was doing everything but tracing his hand.

Just in case anyone was wondering, the chicken at dinner is eating roasted brownies with salt and pepper. 

Artists in Residence

The favorite activity in our house right now, aside from turn the couch into a train, is definitely coloring. They easily spend an hour or more each day sitting at the dining room table coloring.

  This week Little Ish has actually gone from scribbling and drawing balloons to a much expanded repetoire.  He drew a person for the first time on Friday.  He also very much likes to draw rosaries and bridges.  He has also been writing his name on a lot of his drawings and I found a piece of paper where he attempted to write "Lily".  He wrote it "LLYI".  I'd say that is pretty good for a first attempt, especially considering that I have never taught him how to spell Lily or to write any of the letters in his name.  

Liliana mostly scribbles.  She prefers coloring with a ballpoint pen. When she does use crayons she likes to use as many colors as possible--a break from her old preference for the monochromatic.

A Sweet Moment

Sometime last week Lily discovered one of my veils from my maiden days and asked if she could wear it. After months of attempting to get her to wear a hat or bonnet at Mass, she has decided on her own that a veil is the way to go. She also likes to put it on at odd times and chant as much of the Ave Maria as she can.

Turning Point

My house was hit with a cold this week.  Poor Little Ish definitely got it the worst as it manifested as a chest cold for him.   After 3 days of laying on the couch cuddling, watching movies, and eating barely anything, Little Ish finally hit a turning point and is clearly on the mend.  Both kids were very excited to go out and get some fresh air yesterday afternoon.  They both still have coughs and runny noses, but they are far more cheerful and energetic.

Late Summer at Longwood Gardens

Ish and I decided to take the children to Longwood Gardens this morning. Since we have a membership (thanks Dad!),  we try to go at least once per month.  When we told Little Ish our plans for the morning, his face lit up with joy.  He loves visiting Longwood Gardens and had asked a few different times this week if we could go sometime soon.  Liliana didn't quite get where we were going until we had parked and she started proclaiming, "Go to gardens too, Mommy! Yay!"

The kids were especially delighted to find out that the model trains were back.  Ish and I were particularly thankful for the cool Fall-like weather.

After watching the trains for a while, we decided to head over to the Topiary Garden and let the kids run wild.

Little Ish had a blast feeding the monster bush.

Lily spent most of her time talking to and roaring at the lions that stand at the entrance.

 

Little Ish took a quick detour to the Rose Garden

And then he headed back to the Topiary Garden and found a secret hideout.

Before heading over to the Children's Garden the kids spent a bit of time walking on the outer rim of the sun dial.  It is the perfect height for them to practice balancing because a fall would do little to no injury.

We ended our trip with a visit to the Children's Garden which is easily the kids' favorite part about Longwood Gardens.  If you are planning a trip to this part of Longwood, be sure to bring a change of clothes for your children.  It is not uncommon to see sopping wet kids coming out of there.  I made the mistake today of not packing extra clothes so Lily ended up in just her leggings and jacket on the way home.

Right before we left, I handed the camera to Ish so that he could take some [rare] pictures of me with the kids.

Apples!

We spent Monday morning at Linvilla Orchards apple picking.  The kids had a great time.  Liliana was very uninterested in the apples for the 1st half of the trip, but once we found some trees with lower apples she was excited to get in on the apple picking action.  Of course all of us wanted to enjoy an apple before hitting the road!