Greener Eating

So, last month my sisters and I (and my mom) started a little blog so we could share healthy recipes with each other. The recipes are all vegan (no meat, no dairy, etc.), but I promise even normal people have been known to enjoy them.

It's still a work in progress, but you are welcome to take a look.

http://www.greenereating.com/

Maybe they have older brothers

The other day Rachel and Elizabeth wanted me to go upstairs to check-out all the little "set-ups" they had done in their dollhouse. At first glance, everything was normal.

I saw:

A family having a picnic in the front yard. So far, still normal - nothing wrong here except a few wild hair-dos.


A princess and her horse spending some quality computer time together. Maybe the princess is getting caught up on her blog.


One of the daughters (perhaps a teenager?) eating by herself in the dining room.

Wendy upstairs in the bedroom, trying to decide what hat to wear.

A little piano room. The teenage daughter is probably just about to come in and practice.

Oh, wait. . .what's this?

Rachel (rolling her eyes): "Mom, you know!! It's their weapon bucket!"

Oh, right. Silly me. Because every home needs a weapon bucket, right?

Henry Heads Upstairs

I knew it would happen eventually, but I wasn't prepared for it to happen so soon - our little guy has realized there is a whole new world waiting for him to explore upstairs, and he is bound and determined to get there.

One week ago - first attempt:

Two days ago - made it up one step:

Today :

I think we're in trouble.

I guess we've been busy . .

Holding Henry

(One of Rachel's favorite thing to do is to "hold Henry in the air", as she puts it.)

Eating

(Homemade chips, salsa, and guacamole - our new favorite after church meal)

Decorating the house

(Oliver and Rachel have been making signs and posting them up all around. Oliver made this one for his and Tristan's room. Rachel made one for her room that said, "I TOLD you not to come in here." I don't know who gave them the idea for "do not enter" type signs.)

Learning new skills

(This was a fun little experiement that didn't last long - we're back to two in diapers for the time being.)


Playing games(We've been a little addicted to Ticket to Ride lately. Daniel and I love playing with Tristan and Oliver - it's great having kids old enough to be game-night buddies. The only problem is sometimes we are tempted to have game-night every night.)


Dressing up

(Cowboy Henry)

(Fancy ladies)

(Tristan had to dress up like a storm trooper for a little skit at school)

Playing around

Getting into trouble

And just sitting around being cute

Among other things. . .

Rachel's Reading Party

We finally finished Rachel's reading lessons! I think we're both pretty excited. Me, because I dragged out the "100 easy lessons" waaaay too long (we started last summer right before Henry was born - bad timing on my part) and she because it was finally time for her "I'm All Done with My Reading Lessons Party". Plus, as she reminded me the minute she finished her last lesson, she gets to have her own reading time at night now.

Toward the end of the book the lessons get a little long and tedious, so for some extra motivation I put a chart up on the fridge when she had 30 lessons left, and she got to put a sticker on the chart each time she finished a lesson. I told her when the chart was full, she could have a party. Instead of choosing to have a custom "reading party cake", like Oliver did, Rachel requested to have a banana splits party, which was just fine with me.

Here's a little video clip the night of our party. (She introduces herself as Hermione - yes, we're still in the Harry Potter stage).

2009-02-14 Rachel's Reading Party from Joanne Mott on Vimeo.

The happy reader

The happy reader with her happy mom

Enjoying her banana splits (notice the wand next to her bowl)

She goes around now sounding out words wherever she can. The other day I found her on the couch reading one of my books - she had opened it up in the middle and was plugging away, sounding out one word at a time. Since then I've checked out some beginning reader books at the library, and she's a little less confused.

Scoot, scoot. . .cough, cough. . .

Henry started scooting a few weeks ago (before that, he just rolled everywhere), but he's kind of funny about it. Even though he's realized that scooting is currently his best way to get to where he wants to go, for some reason he doesn't like having to do it. He tries to make that clear to us by doing little fake coughs the whole time he's scooting, like "fine, I guess I'll scoot forward, but just so you know, this is very strenuous and I'd rather that you just pick me up and take me there."

Example #1 (yes, pretty much the whole family is cheering him on in the background, but if you wait and listen carefully, you'll hear it):


Henry Scooting from Joanne Mott on Vimeo.

And example #2 (he's incredibly uncoordinated in these clips - he has gotten a little better since then):


Henry Scooting (2) from Joanne Mott on Vimeo.


I thought that his little coughing act was limited to just scooting, but it turns out it's not - he's been learning how to sit up this last week, and any time I try to practice with him, he makes sure to do lots of little coughs so I know he's not enjoying himself (I promise he's not sick - the coughs are very fake and forced and he reserves them for specific times).

Here he is yesterday with Tristan. This clip isn't the best example of his coughing (he only throws a few in there at the end), but I wanted to post it because I thought Tristan was so cute in it:


Henry Sitting from Joanne Mott on Vimeo.

We May as Well Live at Hogwarts

My kids are going through a serious Harry Potter stage right now. The other day I walked into the family room, and this is what I saw:

Haha! No, just kidding. But almost. This is what I really saw:

(And I just happened to be holding Henry and my copy of Harry Potter #7, and I thought it would make a cute picture.)

But seriously, we are all about Harry Potter these days. Tristan started reading them last year and really liked them, so for his birthday he got the Harry Potter movies. After we watched the first movie, Oliver decided he wanted to start reading the books. Normally I would think they were a little advanced for a kindergartner, but Ollie's not really an average 6-year old reader, so I checked out the first one from the library for him. Since then there's been no stopping him. I've also been re-reading the series, and they're even better the second time. So I guess a more accurate picture would be of me and the boys all reading our Harry Potter books together. Yes, Daniel maybe thinks we're nerds.

We thought it would be fun to wait to watch each movie until Oliver had finished the book, so he could read each book without knowing what was going to happen at the end. Tristan wasn't so thrilled about the idea - he wanted to watch all the movies right away. We ended up letting Tristan decide what to do, and he and Oliver made a little deal that Oliver will have 2 weeks to read each book. It's actually been really fun to spread the movies out. After he finished book #2, we all watched the movie, and then we all rooted for him as he read #3, and we just watched the movie about a week and a half ago. I thought there was no way he'd finish the fourth book in 2 weeks (it's over 700 pages), but he has until this Friday, and he only has a few chapters left. After that, I think Tristan's in trouble, because he's still in the middle of the fifth book, and I think Oliver might try to pass him up.

Anyway, it's been fun to see them enjoying the books so much, and I really do find them reading all over the place. There have been a lot of "Hey, where's Oliver?" moments, when he's disappeared for a few hours to read. On Sunday he asked if he could take his Harry Potter book to church, but I decided that was taking it a bit too far.

To tell you the truth, Rachel and Elizabeth might actually be our biggest Harry Potter fans. They are always pretending to be Harry Potter characters. Rachel usually likes to be Harry ("Wouldn't you rather be Hermione?" "No, thanks.") Lizza loves to be Ginny, and also loves to assign everyone in our family a character. I can never remember, and whenever I talk to any of the kids and call them by their real name, she never fails to say, "You mean Ginny?", or "You mean Harry Potter?", or "You mean Professor McGonagall?"

They painted some chopsticks black to use for wands, and they are always running around shouting spells at one thing or another. "Wingardium leviosa" and "expelliarmus" have become common phrases around here.

Also, Oliver and Rachel have been having a hard time eating their dinner lately, because they are always involved in some big Harry Potter discussion. The other night I overheard Rachel (who was being Harry) tell Ollie (who was being Ron) to give her a hug. He must have said something about how Harry and Ron didn't like each other that much, and I heard Rachel say, "Are you kidding me?!!! Did you see the way Harry's face looked in the first movie when Ron sacrificed himself in the chess game?!!! They are like best friends!!!"

It's just really funny to see a little four-year old girl get so into it. Once she ran out of toilet paper in the bathroom, and when I told her she shouldn't have started crying about it, she glared at me and said, "Well, what would you have done, Mom? It's not like you have magical powers or anything!"

Here she is as Harry - she has a few outfits that she thinks look extra "Harry Potter-ish", and if she comes downstairs dressed up in one of them, I know I better watch out.

She loves to make little "shopping lists" on the 4x6 cards that I keep in my desk, and the other day I found this little list on the kitchen counter:

(I still need a wand - Harry Potter)

I guess she had been shopping for school supplies, and that was the one thing she still had to get (Cauldron? Check. Magic wizard books? Check. Wand? Oh, wait. . .)

Speaking of cauldrons, though, she and the other kids have also had tons of fun brewing up special "potions" on the back porch. Here they are whipping up some Polyjuice potion for me. They brought some inside and dared me to drink it, but I wasn't brave enough:

Then they made me go inside because they didn't want me to see the secret ingredients they were adding. Hmmm. Should I be worried?