Crazy Camels and a "New" Toy

Saturday morning we visited Overlook Farm in Rutland for a pancake breakfast fundraiser. They had the most delicious sausage made from their grass fed animals. This is a farm run by Heifer Project to demonstrate what it is like to live in some of the various parts of the world that they serve. There is lots of livestock and several houses. Addie thought the bamboo house from Thailand was a playground.

One of the highlights for Addie was that her Sunday school teacher also went. She liked the animals alright, but continually asked, "Where is Mrs. Chaplis?" Addie is definitely a people person. Edith enjoyed getting to pet the baby goats, one only 4 days old. We all enjoyed watching the rather silly camel. He was standing by his fence and just wagged his whole neck and head back and forth repeatedly. He continued doing this for the entire time we were observing him.

We also visited the Sugar Shack to see the maple syrup being boiled. We all listened to the talk about the whole process. The volunteer asked if there were any questions. Addie wondered, "Why is the floor gravel?" The two student volunteers were stumped. I guess that was outside their expertise of maple syrup information.

Addie and Edith have a "new" toy. It seems that they have discovered Mabel. They take her for walks around the house together. Luckily we have two leashes so they each can hold one. Edith really enjoys feed her as well. I think Mabel is still undecided on all this attention. On one side it is nice to actually get attention and be played with, but it isn't always fun to be dragged around all day.

Amazing

I am always impressed by Addie's amazing powers of observation. I am going to share two recent examples. First, we were heading into a restaurant and Addie pointed out a hanging tree. She was very excited about the hanging tree. None of the rest of us would have even noticed because we were so busy with shuttling everybody inside.

Today we went to the library and I got out Country Mouse Town Mouse by Jan Brett. When I got it out to read Addie says "This is the armadillo book." This only makes sense if you know that we have previously gotten out another book by Jan Brett that stars an armadillo. Addie immediately recognized the style of the drawings. Wow. Even more amazing is that we got out the armadillo book back when we were living in Issaquah over 9 months ago. Double Wow!

On the Edith front she is quite excited about the new shoes that she picked out. She grabbed a pair of Trekker's old work boots (size 8) and absolutely loves them. I had to hide them because it is probably not so good to wear shoes 2 sizes too big. She also now has Trekker's old leather jacket. She looks pretty cool in it. Here she is sweeping up the driveway with the shop broom.

Higgins Armoury

We spent a nice morning at Higgins Armory. Both girls really enjoyed the kids room. Edith practiced being both a knight and Alice (playing chess). The actual museum itself was kind of boring for the girls although they did enjoy stretching their legs. The interior structure of the museum has a sort of tunnel of archways made into a hallway with a line of colored tiles in the center. Of course this made a fabulous path to run on. I had lots of fun chasing the girls and reminding them "we don't run in museums."

And Edith now has 6 teeth! That pesky second tooth on the bottom has finally popped through. Hurrah!

Puzzles and Silverware

Can you believe, Addie has started solving crossword puzzles? She is pretty good at them and almost finished one. Check it out.

Little Edith is observing every little detail around her. I was asking Addie for help picking up and Edith was really excited to answer. (Addie not so much) Edith helped empty the silverware tray in the dishwasher. One by one she would take a piece out and walk over to the drawer. She would open the drawer and then reach up and drop the piece in. The drawer is high enough that she had to stretch really far and just slide the silverware in. She worked quite hard and got all of the pieces put away. It was adorable. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was putting everything in the wrong drawer.

Two Sillies

We took Addie skiing. Hurrah. We met Brian's family at Okemo in VT and had a great time. Here is the little one with Aunt Casey. She absolutely loves her Aunt. Casey was fabulous teaching Addie especially since she is a beginner skier herself. Next year Edith will get to go too.
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So I uploaded my pictures today and had a few laughs. Apparently February has had some interesting moments or I am tired of photographing cute and instead choose reality.

First is one of my favorites. The girls were having a great time snuggling, giggling, and sharing a snack. Note the messy faces. The funny thing about it is that they were having so much fun because they were sitting on the garbage. They thought it was a fabulous seat (beanbag like I suppose). Nothing beats sharing snacks on the garbage.

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This beauty is a failed preschool project. I had found the idea of letting the kids play with cooked noodles and sticking them together with colored glue. I was impressed that I had the foresight to cook the noodles ahead of time and was ready for some tactile fun. Well Trekker didn't want to touch the noodles, much less dip them in sticky glue. I finally convinced him to use a paintbrush to paint the noodles with the glue but after a minute he asked to wash his hands and do something else. Addie was slightly more impressed, but apparently could not get creative because I had used two sizes of noodles (angel hair and fettecine). She sorted her noodles out by size and then because Trekker had wandered off decided she was done too. So much for tactile fun.

On the up side Addie loved the snow and water experiment. I filled up one cup with water and one with snow. We kept checking water levels throughout the day. It was very exciting for both of us to see how small the snow became. Hurrah for science!
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And here is Edith. She has decided that clothes are no fun. When I change her she runs away, streaking throughout the house. She giggles and laughs while I chase her. Of course she throws a fit when I catch her and dress her. Here is the little rascal.

My picture a day for January

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here is my compilation of my picture a day for January. They are not really in any order. And in reality I think I took over 300 pictures, although on several days I actually took only 1 or 2. Enjoy.

Yesterday we went roller skating again. Veggies Tales was playing and I commented to Addie about it. She says, "No, Mom, thats the Meat Tales not the Veggie Tales. I like both though, Meat Tales and Veggie Tales."

So I guess you should check out the Meat Tales if you enjoy Veggie Tales. Ha ha.

Say what?!

This morning Addie was playing quietly and she said this. "When you put a frog on your head it will pee on you. That was the first thing I said when I was a baby."

How strange. There were no frogs around and I don't have any idea how she came up with that statement. The wonders of a 3 year old mind.

And now here is Adde's blog post.

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