Spring = Happy

What?? What is going on outside?!

Just like that, the snow is gone, and fake spring is upon us. I don’t believe for a second that this weather is going to last, but I will enjoy it while it’s here.

It is the kind of weather that makes you pull out bright rubber boots.

It makes you run for your dolls…

and go play house in the bush.

It makes you look up, up, up, as you breathe in that fresh spring air.

It makes you splash in puddles (because you are never too old to splash in puddles.)

And it makes you wander home reluctantly, because going inside seems like such a shame….

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Know what else is a shame? My camera. It’s smoking. For real. If we use the flash, a puff of smoke shoots out the top. What is up with that? Ben is hoping it will explode in his hands. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, seeing as I am the one using the camera about 90% of the time, so it would be my hands that would get exploded on.

Part of me is sad. Broken camera = sad.

But…that means we have to buy a new one! Shall I follow my frugal self and my practical husband, and buy another little point-and-shoot? Or shall I follow my dreams and the encouragement of my husband (despite his practical side), and put all of my Christmas and birthday money into a fancy shmancy camera that would give me lots to play around with?

Any camera opinions out there?

Pictures of Our Weekend

We enjoyed a very nice, almost completely normal weekend! Ben and I don’t like food quite as much as we used to yet, but I’m sure that will change soon. It was great to spend time together as a family in a non-sick kind of a way.

I think my favorite part was playing dolls with the girls. They play in such different ways – Anika thinks up very elaborate stories, and Kaylia bounces the dolls up and down, saying “Hello! Hello!”

As you can see, Kaylia is still at it with the container on her head. She’s been wearing her “hat” off and on for weeks, but I haven’t been able to get a picture of it. Whenever I get the camera out, she throws the container off of her head, and comes running to me, saying, “Smile! Picture!” (That’s what she calls the camera, and it means she wants to see the pictures that I’ve taken.)

 

Another favorite part of the weekend was getting outside right before supper yesterday, and taking the girls for a sled ride in the beautiful snow. The hugest, fluffiest snow flakes ever! It was amazing. There’s no way I could get a picture that did it justice, but I sure tried hard!

Hope you had a great weekend, too!

Pictures From Our Weekend

Ben had to work on Saturday, but Sunday was a beautiful, sunny, relaxing day of enjoying family time.

Anika wanted to learn how to juggle, so we spent some time doing juggling practice with some toy eggs.

Kaylia spent some time getting into Anika’s dolls again. Although Anika is getting better at sharing, she still covers up her dolls on the couch with a blanket to hide them from Kaylia. As soon as Anika is out the door, Kaylia heads straight over to the couch, whips the blanket off, and digs her little hands into that pile of dolls.

Ben had to do some stuff in the chapel in the afternoon, so we all went along, and the girls had lots of fun playing on all the empty chairs.

Learning

People often ask Anika what she’s learning in homeschool, and she doesn’t answer that question very well. I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t like talking about school, or if it’s because she doesn’t remember anything she’s learned! With Kaylia around creating a small tornado, I sometimes wonder how good of a learning environment we’ve got going on. She gets into EVERYTHING. No, that’s not true – she has yet to climb the kitchen cupboards!

But she’s fun and cute, and I take pictures of the messes and keep the pages of her scribbles, because someday I’ll miss it!

So the things we’ve been learning? Here’s a list of my favorites, unrelated to school (You can ask Anika about school next time you see her, and see what she says!):

1) Sorting laundry! Dark, white, and pink. We have 3 baskets, and the girls think it’s a game to sort all the dirty clothes. Kaylia hands the clothes to Anika, and Anika throws them into the right basket:

2) Cooking Skills. We got out the play food today, and Anika was extremely creative in her creations. She announced that she was making “Roasted Monkey Biscuits.” I told her that no one would want to eat that, and she whispered, “Don’t tell anyone there’s monkey in them!” She informed me that “they help you get lots of protein!” She also said that they’re what everyone eats in Russia. When Ben told her that they don’t have monkeys in Russia, Anika said, “They get the monkeys from India.” And all of this is said with a straight face, and without missing a beat.

3) Sharing! We’re making progress! Some of you will remember this post. Well, things are looking up! The girls still fight over toys, but there are beautiful moments of sharing, as well! (Thank goodness.) Anika is actually letting Kaylia play with her dolls:

4) Talking! Kaylia is saying more words all the time, but her most recent thing is saying names. This weekend, she finally started saying “Anka”, and her own name has somehow become “Tay-ta”.

She’s also finally started saying “Mommy” in the last few weeks, but it works for a lot of things besides me – “jammies” are “mammies” and “yummy” is “mummy”. You have to listen carefully for the vowels…

Musicals

It brings much joy and amusement to my life to witness the musical education of Anika occurring right before my eyes, in the most unusual ways…

Ben’s sisters, Carlee and Alicia, are Anika’s favorite people to play Barbies, dolls, or “My Little Ponies” with, because it is quite dramatic, exciting, and always musical. The Barbies have put on many lavish musicals, using a wide variety of themes.

Lately, the new waterfall in Ben’s parents’ backyard has been a popular place for playing and singing.

The dolls take swimming lessons (somehow involving singing), and Kaylia also wants to. Her number one desire is to get into the water. She works very hard to accomplish her goal.

Dolly Wars

Kaylia loooves Anika’s dolls. Actually, Kaylia loves anything that Anika has, and won’t let her have. But most of the time that happens to be little dolls. The second Anika goes outside to play and leaves her dolls lying on the couch, Kaylia is crawling towards them as fast as she can possibly go. She gets this extremely delighted, slightly glazed look in her eyes when she finally has the freedom to dig her hands into Anika’s little lunchbox of toys.

So we’re working on sharing these days. We’ll see how that goes…