three

Three wonderful years.

So, what's it like to be three?

Favorite song: the ABCs
Favorite book: Llama llama red pajama, Go Dog, Go!, Ten Apples Up on Top, Bubble Bath Pirates...and the list goes on
Favorite restaurant: Chick-away (better known as Chick-Fil-A)
Favorite color: Azul (blue)
Favorite game: fighting bad guys samuri-style with any long toy
Languages: English, Spanish, and his own precious one where Ls are Ws ("I wook a monkey") and Ss are Fs
Favorite food: anything unhealthy, probably Doritos would be first
Favorite show: Go, Diego Go, of course!

We love you so much, Diego! Happy Birthday!

sensory bins

Sensory bins are all the rage these days. They're all over pinterest. And I have to say I love them.

The hardest part of making one is remembering to buy the bags of beans on your weekly trip to the grocery store.

But I'm not sure when these bins became such a must have for the preschool crowd. I know I never played in one growing up. And I think I remember one in a class, ONCE, for ONE of my older kids.

Times have changed. I've made three of these for Diego so far. One was kernels of popcorn with farm animals for September, one was shredded paper with all things red and purple for February, and now lentils with gold coins and green stuff for March.

I'm not sure about Diego, but Isabela and I have had fun playing in it.

heritage

Isabela's teacher assigned a fun project this week...to make a clothespin doll that showed her heritage.

She immediately wanted to do a Bolivian doll...she loves her Bolivian roots, and so do I. But I considered.... what if I had to do this assignment, what kind of doll would I do? My family lineage has been here in the US so long, there really isn't a trace of culture from another land. I sometimes just feel like a plain ol' American.

But it's interesting.... on any given night, I'm serving chicken fried rice, spaghetti, tacos, or couscous for dinner. I listen to latin songs, classical music, country, and a little hip hop every now and then. We've been known to celebrate Chinese New Year, St. Patrick's Day, and Dia de los Muertos.

And I think back to some differences from when I lived in Bolivia, how I stood out from others around me. The 'rugged individualism' that Americans are known for really is true. For the majority of us, we raise our own kids, cook our own food, clean our own house, buy our own groceries, drive our own cars, pump our own gas, throw our own birthday parties. We smile and say hello when we walk down the street (at least some of us do) or when we enter a store. We hug. We're orderly and fair for the most part. (Quick example: do you place your flatware in the carefully molded plastic holder, or throw them in the drawer not caring where they land? I had no idea there was even the option to throw your flatware in a drawer haphazardly.) I'm not saying others aren't any of these things or don't do any of these things, but just remembering back to some broad generalizations here.

I'm not sure how you'd show any of this on a clothespin doll though.

I'm glad Isabela has Bolivia.

So when we looked at the blank clothespin, all I could picture was her wrapping it in some Bolivian cloth and drawing a stick figure happy face on it. And I'm sure that would have been fine.

But a little pinterest search found us this precious doll with a great tutorial. (Isabela loves pinterest just as much as I do.)

Three trips to two different stores finally yielded the round wooden doll head that makes these things so darn cute.

I thought Isabela had cut the cloth for her dress a little too short, but it turned out perfect. Her doll is a Bolivian dancer and to us, it looks like her skirt is twirling up, just like in the parades.





Isabela went on to write the longest paragraph of her life for this doll...reinforcing the importance of how great it is when a kid is interested in what they're learning about.

And I learned that even plain ol' Americans have something unique and special to be celebrated, as well.

ratoncitos

The kids and I love to look at old family videos. It usually happens at night and they know I'll let them stay up a little later watching these memories.

We came across this one of Isabela and Joaquin when we lived in Bolivia. Isabela was 4 and Joaquin had just turned 3. I love to show them they really did speak Spanish!!

Listen to those sweet angel voices.



Here are the lyrics:
Somos ratoncitos
Queremos comer
Un rico quecito
Luego a dormir.
Cuando es de noche,
No salimos más,
Porque el gato malo
Nos quiere comer.
Miau, miau, miau, miau, miau!

the garden project

I took on a huge project this year. And it just goes to show you, if you just say 'yes', you really can do anything.

The project: starting a garden at the kids' school, a public school. Which, of course, is a great idea for any school and people will smile and say, "Good luck with that! The kids will love it!" And they know it's a lot harder than I think, and they wonder if it will really happen.

And as soon as I started looking into it, I began to wonder the same thing.

Going against me:
public school requires lots of approval
local businesses had 'helped' our school with gardens before and weren't willing to try again
my budget was pretty small, $500 which also had to be used for other school beautification projects throughout the year
my second ever project (Pansy day was first!)
I love to plan, but actually doing it is another story
oh, and most importantly, I do NOT have a green thumb

Last year's Pansy Day, having the Kindergarteners plant 183 pansies around the school, was a great introduction for me on how to organize and pull together a project. Remember Donald Trump's apprentice? I was always so nervous for those people and said at every show, "I'm glad that's not me! I hate to be in charge."

And then here I am.

I said, "yes, I'll do it," getting out of my comfort zone, and now it's really happening!

The foot work was done last year. That included trying to figure out the best spot at the school for sun, water, teachers; I visited another school with an established garden and they offered me a manual to help us get started, along with some wise words of wisdom, "It's okay to start small."

Of course, God placed some great people around me to actually get us in to action this spring. A local farmer, a friend of another PTA member, had expressed interest in starting a garden at the school. I was given his name, and thankfully, he was more into doing than planning. He tilled a spot his first day out there. (OK. So I hadn't approved that spot and we had to scrap that idea...lesson learned.)

But here we are, spring right around the corner and we have five beds ready for planting. They've been tilled, composted, fertilized, and anything else you can do to them. So the farmer says we'll be able to stand out there and watch the seeds grow, they'll grow so fast.


We're putting up a compost bin, a rain barrel, a fence, and I'm imagining wind chimes and little garden statues that will make it fun and whimsical for the kids. Here's my pinterest garden board to see my grandiose ideas. And it needs a gate...what kid can resist a garden gate?


So last week, I was trying to think of a way to get the kids involved now, and I thought of giving the teachers "seed kits" to start growing in their classrooms. They said yes (another surprise to me) and then I had to figure out what these seed kits would be!

The easy part...we reused the perfect little pots from Pansy day...I knew I'd saved them for a good reason. And a squirt bottle for watering.


Twenty-five bags of dirt for each class...that's 125 bags total...Diego helped me pour and count.


I added a calendar for March and April to note when they sprout, who's watering, etc., a poster on what they are growing, and a visual on how to plant seeds. Add the seeds and some labels and it became a kit!


Five kits ready to go! If they all sprout, I think we've outgrown our garden already! Maybe we could have a plant sale?

season project

Joaquin loves projects.

Once he gets through the whining, crying, and frustration, he does a great job.

tiny

I woke up with a start at 5:30am this morning.

My phone was going off in the other room. As I ran to get it, I prayed that it wouldn't wake the kids yet, and worried about who could be calling me so early. I got there one ring too late, as usual.

I checked the number...I'd seen it before. It was the school calling. I could NOT figure out why the school would be calling so early, and my best guess was someone got ahold of the special code and sent a prank call out to all parents. (I guess I really hadn't woken up yet.)

It took me about an hour before I finally glanced outside and was surprised to see a thick snow gracefully covering the outside world with white.

My mind finally registered, 'It must be a snow day!'

The phone message said delay, which turned into a day off after all the snow had melted. And really, there wasn't that much accumulation as evidenced by.....
... the world's smallest snowman! (Oh yeah, with this little snow, there really isn't time to change out of pjs.)


He's just so darn cute.


He was easily picked up and moved to the front porch for some added details, like grape eyes...


...a baby carrot nose...


...stick arms and a hat, of course!


My boy is proud of this snowman...but a few hours later, all that was left was the big ball on the bottom. It's now been chipped at, kicked, licked and eaten.


And that's why we take pictures.