Sheep to Shawl - March 31, 2012

I'm sure I've mentioned here before that we are CSA members at a local(ish) farm; Live Earth Farm.  We get a weekly veggie box and know exactly where our organic veggies are from.  Another perk of our CSA membership is that there are fun community events at the farm, like when we went tomato picking in August.  But not all the events are related to food!  The Sheep to Shawl event was an educational event that not only showed the process that wool goes through, starting with shearing the sheep and ending with knitting, crocheting, weaving, and felting, but also let kids and adults participate in a lot of the steps (but not the actual shearing - that was left to the professional).

We arrived just as the first sheep was getting sheared, so we watched for a while.  It was a little rougher than I had imagined with the shearer pretty much tackling the sheep to get them clipped.  Some poor sheep even had big purple antiseptic spots where they had clearly been nicked with the clippers.  Ouch!








We were also able to pet the sheep in their pen, which the kids loved!  RJ especially loved the lambs that were running around with the big sheep (the lambs got to keep their wool though!).  Unfortunately he kept scaring them trying to pet them.  And they kept hiding behind the big sheep, which frustrated RJ and Logan.

The shorn wool was left around in a pile for exploration and relaxation.

The wool was also used in the processing stations.  RJ and Logan skipped the washing station where fresh wool was handwashed and dried but were interested in other aspects of processing.



RJ was more interested in carding the wool, where he had to pick knots and missed debris out of the wool and then brush it between what I can only describe as two wire cat fur brushes.  This made it nice and fluffy and separated the fibers. His friend Maddie also enjoyed carding as you'll see in the video below!

Then we were off to the dyeing station, where he took his newly carded wool, soaked it in vinegar, put it in a bag with food coloring, then microwaved it.  He repeated this entire process until he had one of each color (red, yellow, blue, green).

RJ was also fascinated by the woman making yarn at a spinning wheel.

We (really me) also made a wool ball using felting techniques.  I made the ball from wool, RJ added the orange wool, and then sprayed it with soap solution.  Then, I was charged with the task of gently petting the soapy wool ball until it was felted. It takes 3-4 hours, but I had to finish it later because my hands were freezing from being wet and soapy in the cold rainy weather.  (The event was held in the open air barn.)




Logan enjoyed seeing the sheep, particularly once he knew the name of the last sheep to be shorn: Tinkerbell.  He kept saying, "Tinkerbell get haircut!".  However, he was much more interested in the mud puddles from the rain and the big farm dog than the wool processing activities.  He was super happy when Ashley lent him Maddie's old boots that were in their car and could splash around in the big puddles (Yes, we're idiots and didn't bring the kids boots even though it was pretty evident that it was going to be a muddy rainy day - doh!) .

And finally, both RJ and Maddie learned how to finger knit at the knitting station.

Both kids also enjoyed talking to the sheep in the truck, as you'll see in the video below.

More pictures from Sheep to Shawl are here.

RJ & Logan Get a New Art Area

I am constantly trying to maximize the usability of the kids' environments, whether it is rearranging furniture and toys in the living room, moving toys back and forth between the living room and family room, or simply reorganizing where the toys go.  After Christmas and Logan's Birthday (i.e., after RJ & Logan got a few new toys), we got a toy shelf for RJ's room, moved some of his more advanced toys up there (although I had some reservations since I originally wanted to keep the kids' rooms relatively toy free so that the temptation to play instead of sleep wouldn't be there), and resorted the toys downstairs. I also added picture/word labels to the bins and boxes so that it was clear what went where.  So far, this reorganization worked pretty well, but my biggest issue wasn't solved because my biggest issue was the case of the exploding art supplies.

Lance thought that I needed to just put all the art supplies somewhere else, like in a closet or the laundry room or something, but I argued that I wanted them accessible so that we could do art at a moment's notice, when inspiration hit.  We settled on an annex for some of the art supplies and recycling materials that I was saving "just in case".  So, now there is an exploding shelving unit in the laundry room, which still isn't ideal, but did help with the living room clutter.  There was also the issue that our common art supplies (markers, crayons, scissors, etc.) were in assorted containers on top of my sewing cabinet and they needed to be moved every time I wanted to sew, and of course this would mean that the art supplies were displaced for a week or so when I was working on a sewing project.

Then it dawned on me that since we started eating in the dining room rather than the kitchen, we weren't using the kitchen table for anything (except a catchall for random crap).  And the kids' easel was attached to our learning tower (which lived in the kitchen), and there was the sliding glass door for another painting/window crayon area.  Another bonus was that I just moved the kid's play kitchen set into the kitchen behind the island (where the kitchen table is), so if Logan got bored with a project, he could play there until RJ was finished.

So after finding some inspiration from various preschool settings and the Play At Home Mom website, I bought some inexpensive planters and a paper sorter from Target and attached them to the wall next to the kitchen bookshelf and cart, cleared a spot for the art basket in the bookshelf, and pooled all the crayons and sorted by color in baby food jars, which I put in a shoebox for easy moving.  I also moved the coca-cola cooler that housed art supplies into the area.

 So, now the kids have easy access to their markers, crayons, and paper, AND the paintbrushes and paint are now near the easel.

So far, they love being able to grab their own paper and draw whenever they want.

However, the one drawback is that paint is more accessible, which leads to more mess...but it IS a ton of fun.

For a quick rundown of what we have available:
Left planter - paintbrushes of all shapes and sizes
Right planter - markers
Paper holder - paper of various colors, stencils
Animal Crackers container on floor - washable paint (there is another animal crackers container in the laundry room with acrylic paints)
Basket on Shelf - tape dispenser, scissors, dinosaur stamp set, box of window crayons and markers, pencils, glue bottles, colored sand in baby food jars, roll of easel paper
Coke Cooler in front of kitchen cart - various supplies such as feathers, yarn pieces, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, magnet strips, newspaper
Easel - paint pots, container of chalk
Table - shoe box of crayons sorted by color in baby food jars, some separate type crayons
Shelves in laundry room - boxes, baby food jars, yogurt cups (great for holding glue or paint), acrylic paints, paper plates, art flour, art salt, art cornstarch, sand, bulk glue for refills, etc.

RJ & Logan get a visit from a Leprechaun!

We didn't do much for St. Patrick's Day, but the leprechauns paid the kids a little visit.

They dumped Logan's toys and left green footprints on the dresser (on their way out the window, of course).

They messed up RJ's bed and dumped his clothes.

And left those pesky green footprints.

And left GREEN pee in the toilet!  Silly leprechauns!

RJ and Logan Get Wet

We had some friends over on a Friday (it's our one totally "free" day without preschool, co-op, gymnastics, etc.), and when (unfortunately) Krishawn and Baby Mikey had to leave, it was clear that RJ, Logan, and their buddy Ethan needed some outside time.  It was pretty cloudy out and it had rained earlier, but they really needed to run around, and despite how it looked, it was eerily not cold out.

They found the giant puddles in the floor hockey rink and the trip to the park became blog-worthy. It started out pretty innocuously with them splashing around fully clothed, but then the shoes came off so we wouldn't have to wait for them to dry later.

Then RJ's jacket came off (Logan's was soon to follow).

Then both kids managed to completely fall into the puddle (it was slippery after all), and since RJ hates wet clothes, he stripped down to his underwear.

Logan was fine with his wet clothes, but once RJ was in underwear, he too wanted to strip down and run around the park in his underwear.

Erika and I were a bit surprised that Ethan didn't also want to strip down, but he did get plenty wet.

Needless to say, there was a warm bathtub shared by the three boys after the underwear parade back to our house!

More pictures here.

RJ and Logan Host a Dr. Suess Playdate

I have always loved Dr. Suess.  In fact, many of the Dr. Suess books gracing the kids' bookshelves are mine, and I plan on keeping them when they outgrow them.  So when we were hosting our friends Ashlan and Natalie for a drop-off play date, AND we were having a mini celebration for Natalie's first birthday, AND the Lorax movie had just come out, AND it was just Dr. Suess' birthday, it was clear we were having a Dr. Suess themed play date.

We started out by reading "The Lorax", which is one of my absolute favorite Dr. Suess books, then we made our own truffula trees out of yarn, pipe cleaners, and play-doh.  Natalie basically enjoyed playing with a pile of yarn while the bigger kids wound yarn around cardboard squares to make their puff balls (and Logan did a little of each, winding and messing with the yarn).

We also made Lorax Masks with felt, yarn, and glue, but I didn't get a picture of that.  When all the crafts were finished, they had black bean and cheese waffles and fruit for lunch followed by Truffula tree cupcakes.

Here is a better look at the Truffula Tree cupcakes.  They were strawberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting and mint meringue cookies perched on top of vanilla pirouette cookies.  And while the mix of flavors might seem a bit much to mix together, it was a very complimentary palette of flavors.  My only regret was that I should've made the meringue cookies yellow instead of green.  I fixed that in the second batch (which the kids are eating in the picture - the playdate was postponed a week due to the girls having a stomach virus, so we had a week of Lorax cupcakes before I made them again for the playdate).

In any case, the playdate was a lot of fun and I now know that I can totally handle (and have fun with) a morning full of 4 kids at ages 1, 2, 3.9, and 4.75 years!

More pictures

DeLanceys Go to the Oakland Zoo In the Rain

A few weeks ago, I decided to take the kids to the zoo on a Sunday.  We're members and it was a great way of getting them out of the house so Lance could have some alone-in-the-house time (before you get too jealous, I *think* he spent the time doing our taxes).

This was a fabulous plan until we hit the exit before the zoo and I noticed that it was drizzling.  I didn't think it was a big deal, but I wasn't sure how the kids (read: RJ, the drama queen) would react to it.

As it turns out, the drizzle was BARELY a drizzle, I had the kids coats on, and Logan had the stroller shade too, so everyone was comfortable.  And quite a few other things worked out in our favor too.

1.) The lions were actually close enough to see (even though they were sleeping) 

2.) The zoo wasn't crowded so we could stay and watch any animal and talk about it as long as we wanted since we weren't in anyone's way.  Also, it seemed that the zoo keepers and volunteers were out in full force and very chatty, which RJ really enjoyed.  His favorite thing to learn was that lions don't typically eat elephants because one kick could kill a lion.  Lions do however try to kill baby elephants in the extremely rare event that they're not protected by the herd.

3.) The tiger was ACTUALLY awake and walking around instead of being MIA or  zonked out.  And as you can see here, it did get sunny by the end of the day!

and 4.) Logan seemed very into the animals this time.  Here is a short video of him talking about the animals with me.

More pictures 

Logan Goes to Gymnastics

Logan has been watching RJ do gymnastics for a year now.  Week after week, he has tried desperately to get through the gate and onto the floor.  He has succeeded in getting in a few times and I've had to chase him down.  Back in January, I was thinking that he was almost old enough to try the parent-tot class, which is conveniently scheduled on Wednesdays when RJ has preschool!  I was planning on signing him up for April, when the next 3-month session starts (they take a percentage off when you pay for 3 months at a time rather than month by month).  However, Classic Gymnastics (where RJ takes his class), decided to help me out even more with their "March Madness" offer, where they offered a whole month of the parent-tot class during March.  I signed him up immediately, because this way, I didn't have to pay to see if he would like it or not!  Logan's bff, Ethan also signed up, so now they're gymnastics buddies too!

I love this class.  And not just because I get to jump into the giant foam pit with Logan (although I would be lying if I didn't admit that is my favorite part!  It's a giant pit full of squishy foam squares...how could that be anything less than awesome?!).  Logan is learning real gymnastics skills at a level that's very appropriate for him.  The coach basically introduces the skills and we help our kids through them, usually in circuits so that the kids don't have to wait very long.  Logan LOVES it, so we signed up beyond the free trial!  Although it doesn't make waiting during RJ's class any easier since he is not convinced to stay out by my "but you get to come on Wednesdays with Ethan" mantra (RJ's class is on Mondays).

Logan and Ethan also enjoy their post-class Jamba Juice!

Sadly, I have no pictures of them actually in class because I'm busy with Logan, but hopefully I'll get some soon since Ethan's grandpa was snapping pictures during the last class!

RJ Compares Saturn and Earth

We've been doing a lot of Outer Space things, even though you might think we'd be tired of it after Logan's Birthday Party.  One day we were reading a book about Saturn (because seriously, what kid's favorite planet WASN'T Saturn?).  In the book (Exploring Saturn; Bartolotti, 2003), there was a section that mentioned that Saturn is the size of approximately 760 Earths.  This book is clearly for older kids (like 4th or 5th grade) and had a LOT of information in it, but RJ insisted on getting it from the library and insisted on reading it, so I did a lot of paraphrasing and skipping stuff that was too abstract.  But this particular piece of information seemed to stick with RJ and he of course wanted to do a project about it.  We together (with my friend Erika who was over for a playdate when we read this) brainstormed what we could do, but it had to wait for another day, because clearly this project was not going to work with 2 two-year olds also running around.

First, we counted out 760 pinto beans (now you see why having the two-year-olds around was not going to work).  We did it by making 76 piles of 10, and then I showed RJ how we can count by 10's.  He caught on and joined in the counting.  There is no reason why it had to be pinto beans.  They just happened to be the oldest beans in the back of the cupboard and weren't organic (we were not going to waste the more expensive organic beans).

I also had RJ write out 1 = Earth,  760 = Saturn.  It was good writing practice and he was willing, so we went with it!

Then for the fun part.  While you can see from our display of beans how much more 760 is from 1, it doesn't quite translate to the size of the planets.  So we got a balloon and filled it with 760 beans.  This is not an easy task.  I ended up using the adapter cylinder from the Kleen Kanteen sippy cup to hold the opening of the balloon open, and had to keep blowing it up a little to make the beans settle to add more [Note to self: You need a funnel.  How do we NOT have a funnel?].  But finally, all the 760 beans were in and we tied off the balloon and added a pipe cleaner (because Saturn needed rings!).

He was so excited, he HAD to take it to gymnastics that day (it was a Monday) to show Coach Josh.  This seemed weird to me at the time, but I went with it since he was excited.  However, it turned out to be more work for me because when he put Saturn back in my bag, he somehow poked the balloon with the pipe cleaner and when my bag shifted, Saturn split and my bag now contained 760 pinto beans.  And so I had to fill ANOTHER balloon with the 760 pinto beans I had to retrieve from my bag.  This time, I did NOT count them, and I'm sure we're probably a few short and I'm okay with that.  I double bagged Saturn this time, did a better job making sure the pipe cleaner wasn't poking it, and it's thankfully remained intact for a few weeks now.  It even survived a trip to preschool for share day, where he further impressed his teacher by explaining the whole thing AND added that Mars was the size of half of Earth, which meant it was half a bean.

I LOVE what hands on learning can do.  He really understands the size difference now, and is noting size differences everywhere now.  And this is an early intro to fractions as well with the concept of "half".

RJ Rocks the Monkey Bars

Earlier this month, I took the kids to Veteran's Park in Tracy.  It's actually one of my favorite parks because both structures are lower to the ground than some of the other parks in the area, and it inspires me to get exercise to get there since I put the kids into the bike trailer to go ( I could drive and be there in a few minutes, but that just seems wrong).  The kids love it because it has a sand pit and the spinney things that they run to first, every.single.time. The last time we went, RJ discovered that he can do the monkey bars! I credit the playground design (in addition to his strong arms from gymnastics) for giving him increased confidence to try them.  His feet were barely off the ground, so kudos to the designers of this playground for making a challenge for children that isn't so scary (for them and their parents).  But don't take my word for it.  Just watch the video.

We also took a picnic lunch that day too!

February in Pictures

Thursday Morning Co-Op with the Solar Powered Remote Control Car

 More Co-op Pictures

Bacardi and Boca Chica finally got a vet in California.  Bacardi had conjuctivitis in one eye, a cold virus, and an ingrown claw, resulting in eyedrops, a foot soak, and amoxicillin to prevent foot infection.  Ever try to give a cat eye drops and oral medication while soaking its paw in antiseptic solution twice a day?  It's a two person job.

Yes, this is what Tracy, CA is like in February.  You get days where you don't need to wear a coat to the park.

Monkey see, monkey do.  Monkey #2 starts his gymnastics class in March.

We're still learning about outer space.  Here RJ and I built the Voyager 2 space probe  from cardboard (he's watching a you tube video on it, which is why he wouldn't look at the camera).

Space shuttle orbiting the moon

My friend Jon (unfortunately he doesn't have a head in this picture), who I've known since high school, was on a snowboarding trip up at Lake Tahoe.  I decided to drive up with the kids for the day so we could see him and so that the kids could see snow this year (since we didn't travel East for Christmas).  

Gondola Ride over the snow!

  A few more snow pictures

A group of my Kappa sisters and I planned a brunch in San Francisco, so we made a day of it.  Here the boys are playing at Musee Mechanique, which is a free museum with vintage carnival games.

Here is RJ that same day on Pier 39.

More San Francisco Pictures

More February Pictures

Happy Valentine's Day from the DeLanceys

Valentine's Day around here was good.  We started the morning out with homemade heart shaped cinnamon rolls with Bagels, cream cheese and lox (because it's yummy AND pink).

The boys put on their "Spud Muffin" shirts and we headed off to preschool with RJ's 28 owl valentines (it's a miracle they were done on time since we made them ourselves and RJ signed each one!  Thankfully, the teachers asked that they not be addressed, so we didn't have to do that!).  Friends and family should be getting their Owl Valentines soon (I put them in the mail today.  Yes, I realize it's March, but we wanted to finish them!).




The party at RJ's school was WAY longer than I thought it would be.  We got there at 10am and didn't leave until nearly noon.  While his preschool is normally very organized, it's clear that losing one head teacher to another job and having the director out on maternity leave made a huge difference!  It took a while to even get started, but Logan enjoyed the extra playtime in RJ's classroom, and pretty much ate his lunch in healthy and not-so-healthy party food at 11:30.

When Logan and I finally got home and I got him down for a nap, it was time for me to get moving on making our fancy dinner.  I made roasted duck with pomegranate reduction sauce and corn cakes topped with garlic, bacon, smoky mozzarella kale saute (which I also drizzled with the pomegranate sauce!).  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the pretty presentation of the adult plates, but I did get pictures of the kids eating theirs!  The corn cakes were a huge hit with them!  And RJ even ate some of his kale, so I think it's clear that we all enjoyed dinner!

For dessert I made strawberry chocolate yogurt parfait popsicles.  (Basically pureed strawberries on top of strawberry-yogurt puree on top of strawberry-yogurt-chocolate custard ice cream puree).

After the kids' ate their popsicles and we got them to bed, us parents got to drink wine, have dinner together, and watch Glee (which had an AWESOME valentine's day episode!)  All in all, it was a great day!
More pictures here.

RJ Goes to A School Friend's Birthday Party

I think we've entered a new era in RJ's world.  The era of going to birthday parties for friends from school where I have not previously met their parents.  We've gone to lots of birthday parties for his school friends before, but when we were at the Child Development Center, I always knew the parents and the other kids.

For this particular birthday party, I recognized the child, but had never had a conversation with her.  AND no one else from school showed up, so RJ and I (Daddy stayed home with Logan since the party started during nap time) didn't know ANYONE there, with the exception of RJ knowing the birthday girl.  

I was very impressed with RJ, since he made friends pretty easily and got along with them.  He even tried to settle an argument between two other boys.  One was saying that the party was a birthday party while the other was saying that it was a costume party (it was both - guests were invited to dress as their favorite Disney character).  RJ jumped in between them and said, "You're right AND you're right, it's a..." at which point he was cut off by the other little boy, who said, "NO, I'm black and he's black, YOU'RE White, dude." At this point, RJ looked a little confused (we've never labeled people according to their race before - he just knows that people come in all different colors), and went to repeat himself, but the other boy clearly wasn't getting RJ's point and started to say, "no, you and your mom are white...", at which point, I jumped in and tried to say, "He's saying RIGHT, not WHITE, so he's saying that you're correct and so is your friend."   It sort of helped, but he was still a little confused.  (And for the record, I'm pretty sure that RJ says his Rs rather than substituting the W sound, as is common in little kids.  It's possible it's my mommy ear, but his teachers are always amazed at his pronunciation and vocabulary, so...)

Anyway, it was a fun party.

RJ got to ride a sad looking painted pony (I really felt bad for the animal.  So much so I considered not letting RJ ride it, but didn't want to make a scene about it when I didn't know these people and it would've accomplished nothing.)   He did ask me why the pony was painted, but despite it being covered in pink and purple chemicals, he enjoyed the ride.

And he won pin the bow on Hello Kitty.  He got that bow directly where it belonged.  He insists he couldn't see through the blindfold though...

More pictures here.

DeLanceys Go Hiking at the Lafayette Reservoir - February 4, 2012

I had been itching to go do something outside, so when we got a nice weekend, we decided to give the 2.75 mile loop around the Lafayette Reservoir a try.  We haven't been there before and the path was listed on some website as being a kid-friendly hike.  So off we went.

Of course, the trip may have been ill-fated since Logan coughed and ended up spewing his juice that morning, but since he didn't appear sick, we tried to go anyway.  So of course he got carsick 20 minutes away from the place.  I need to point out here that we're not crappy parents who take our kids out when they're ill.  He was otherwise absolutely fine.  No fever, no general malaise, just random puke that was likely caused by him coughing the wrong way after drinking a lot of juice before eating his food the first time and then being carsick the second time.  This is actually something that is more likely when his teeth are pushing through and well, those two year old molars are a bitch.  We cleaned him off and pushed onward.

And we did have fun.  RJ was a little whiny, but once we started playing I spy with the nature, he was all about it.

And Logan enjoyed himself too.  Having no more puking incidents the rest of the day.

The length of the hike was good for the kids, although they both spent some time in the ergo (yes, even RJ - I put him in there thinking he would hate it, but that backfired for about a quarter mile).  I would've preferred a non-paved path to make it feel more like hiking in the woods, but at least we got out and got active.  The real bonus was that there was a playground at the end (or the beginning depending on which way you take the loop from the parking lot - we knew ahead of time where it was, so we opted for it being the reward).  The kids were tired when we got to the playground, but still ran around and had fun for a little bit.  However, when we suggested walking to the car, they staged this little peaceful protest, sitting perfectly next to the adorable "stroller parking" label.

More pictures here.