This little girl was incredibly thrilled to have her brother and sister home ALL WEEK! She and Johnny especially were inseparable. The time off from school runs meant we could spend hours building giant pattern block scenes and sensory wall mosaics, as well as playing with Legos and drawing. And celebrating Emma’s sixth birthday!!! How is my daughter six years old so soon?!
Mike got Monday off work for President’s Day, and we all enjoyed having him around. The kids got in a chess game, too. Emma and Johnny teamed up against Mike and Lily, and they enjoyed playing with one special rule: they could take dad’s pieces, but they didn’t think he should take theirs! They won in the end, through what looked to me like a series of moves on their end without any moves from Mike…
For President’s Day, Mike gave the kids the challenge of building a log cabin out of All-Bran. Emma built a base, but quickly found that you can’t just stack All-Bran. So they ate it instead – a treat, if you’ve never had it before! We talked about what it’s like to be president.
Tuesday this coyote kept coming back into our yard. I was a little concerned at his lack of concern over my trying to photograph him – and the fact that he kept coming back after I would chase him off, but he hasn’t been back since – at least that we’ve seen. I knew there were coyotes in our area, but I hadn’t seen them since the morning before Lily was born, when I was up at 5:30am. Then I saw two, both larger than this one, and they both looked a little shocked to see me!
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We also spent some time watching this squirrel sneak food out of our “squirrel-proof” bird feeder. Pretty sneaky! He had a friend waiting under the feeder, who would eat the seeds that fell out!
This is my favorite drawing of the week, drawn by Johnny (four years old), and inspired by the movie Cars, which we watched a couple weeks ago.
Poor Emma got sick at the end of the week. But my brother’s baby is home from the hospital and doing well!!!
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Wow – a coyote in an urban area? Bizarre! I love the rules of your chess game!
Johnny LOVES tracing – he made seven or eight in a row one day last week!
Yikes about the coyote! Apparently there are mountain lions near us. There are sightings of them every now and then. That freaks me out!
Bummer about Emma getting sick, poor girl. I’m so happy that your nephew is out of the hospital though.
Mountain lions are worse than coyotes – the coyotes usually only go after small animals (neighbors’ cats, which is sad…)
Emma slept much better last night, so hopefully she’s on the mend!
Log cabin out of bran…that is a tough challenge! Love it! We had a hard time with igloos from sugar cubes! At least we got a smile out of it! :)
Your animal pictures are amazing!
Such a gorgeous picture of Lily.
Time off school certainly makes for much more relaxed days. We were able to spend hours making all sorts of things when Savvy was home sick (when she was well enough to do so).
All Bran log cabins – very cool. I love the creative thinking challenges that Mike comes up with.
It’s wonderful to hear that your nephew is well enough to be home. I hope Emma is feeling better very, very soon.
Happy Birthday to Emma! So glad that your nephew is home from the hospital. We spend many of moments watching our adventurous squirrels too.
I love your pictures!
I’m stopping by to let you know I passed on the One Lovely Blog award to you. The post is here: http://getitdonemomma.blogspot.com/2012/02/lovely-surprise.html.
Your blog is a new find for me this year and I really enjoy reading it and getting inspiration from your posts!
Thank you! :D
So glad your brother’s baby is doing well! When I was growing up, I remember hearing coyotes at night. I never liked those animals. Those were always so loud!
No nighttime coyote howling so far, which I appreciate!