Kitchen Readers

Clementine age 2

Dutchy age 1.5

 

Both of our babies have found this spot to be ideal for a little light reading.

The Artist (known only as Clem)

Can you tell where Clem and I are in this picture? It's one of our FAVORITE places in the world. 

 Today Clementine's wonderful, amazing and awesome Kindergarten teacher sent home a packet of Clementine's writing/pictures from over the last month. It pretty much made my entire day.

Clem knew the class goal for the month: making sure there's a setting and drawing realistic bodies--no stick figures!
Clementine is also learning  how to label. She mostly labels names but you can see she definitely has setting down.

 I love the perspective of this one. In the bottom right hand corner she has labeled "me, mom." We are facing the movie screen watching the Minions movie. You can see the usher walking in the labeled door, other folks watching the movie and eating popcorn. This girl thinks of everything. I love it.

 No labels in this one but plenty of sun tan! She says this is a picture of Grandmpa helping her off of the sailboat. They are tan from being out sailing. Also, she couldn't find a pink crayon so she made due with orange.

 I knew exactly what this was before she could even tell me. Last year Cam and I made the mistake of taking her to the Halloween store. This was a YEAR ago. And she's still obviously terrified. She says she is clenching my hand as we walk by the spooky Frankenstein and mannequins.

 Here she labeled "Mom, Dush, em (me)." and we are shopping at another favorite place: TARGET!

But this one has to be my favorite. She's labeled herself and "Duch". I am resting in the blue gown. The nurse is wearing impractical shoes and the speech bubble reads "Isn't he cute".
"Dutch baby is getting born" is the title for this one. I asked her why Dutch's arms and legs are so wavy--she says those are fat rolls.

I can't get enough. I love this writer/artist so stinking much.

Princess Ball

 It's a charmed life Clementine leads. Today we got to go to the Skagit County Children's Museum's 2nd Annual Fall Ball fundraiser. I read about this even several months ago and saw that it fell just a week before Clementine's birthday. I knew we had to go. It worked out that Clem's buddy Taylor was able to come with us!

 I wasn't sure what to expect from what I'd read online. We got there a few minutes after the soiree had started. Rapunzel was sitting on the second floor with her hair dangling down. She greeted us and we went inside.
There were LOTS of little girls in there ready to meet princesses. My own little girl was not so ready. It was crowded, it was noisy, there was a lot going on. It took Clem a good half an hour and a plate full of goldfish crackers before she was ready to participate.
As the Princesses arrived to the ball, their own theme song blared from the speakers while streams of little girls swarmed each princess during their staggered arrivals. Clem clung to me desperately. By the 5th Princess' arrival, little girls were screaming like they were at a Justin Beiber concert. There was trampling. But not my girl, she was as close to me as she could possibly make herself. I honestly wasn't sure what to do.

And then Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) noticed Clementine and saw how anxious she was. Belle walked right up to Clementine and asked to have a dance with her. "Is she talking to me, mama?" Clem asked. And off she went.

And that was all she needed. 

Clementine met each of the rest of the Princesses and danced with just about every single one of them.
Here she is with Ariel.

 And Cinderella--who Clem spent a lot of the ball nearby. When we left, Cinderella even remembered her name.

 Here's Clementine dancing with Snow White.

 I don't know what this group was talking about but it was giggly and included a lot of "Bippity Boppity Boo."

 Clementine danced with Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

 More Snow White.

She met Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog.

And did sassy pose with Rapunzel.

Clementine noticed, not surprisingly since she notices every little detail everywhere we go, that the food tables were themed. Like the beverage table was Beauty and the Beast themed with a rose under a glass dome, a teapot and sugar bowl modeled after the movie, books that Belle would have read placed around the table. The Rapunzel table had cookies lit up with Cherry Blossom lights, a floating lantern and her long "hair" draped behind the table. You get the idea.

We had a great time. The girls left the ball with huge smiles on their faces and so did Susan and I. Not only did we get to support the Children's Museum that we love, but the girls had such a BLAST.

Our Reader

Yesterday I was setting up my classroom for the day while Clem played and drew as usual. I set out my first grade readers' books, which Clem picked up and asked to read. To my dismay, she read the whole thing front to back.

That's our girl.

Van WinkyDinks

 Today was Van Wingerden's annual Fall Fest. Of course we were there (even CAM!) knowing that Clem would love the games, arts and crafts and candy. And we brought the wee man with us knowing that his new obsession would be in full effect. This boy is OBSESSED with scarecrows. 

Dutch was thrilled to be out of a stroller, no carrier in sight, no carts to contain him. He was a free (wee) man roaming the greenhouses.

 First, he had a one man drum session on the empty sales racks.

 And carried that party on over to the pallets.

 There was much to see for this little fellow. There had to be 50 scarecrows in that place. He was in scarecrow heaven.

 As was shaggy sister. She wasn't excited about the scarecrows, but the candy!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

 These two girls go way back. All the way back to babyhood! Now, suddenly, time has flashed forward and they are both turning 6 this fall! (HOW?? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??!!)

 Last weekend, Taylor had her birthday party at a local gymnastics place (brilliant!). It was awesome and amazing and fun (Clem's quote). If this place looks familiar--it's because it is! While we were there, I grabbed some brochures and Clem's back in gymnastics now! Woot woot!

 The staff brought out the parachute which was a HUGE hit, naturally.

 And then the kids had a chance to play on the equipment in the gym, too.

 Happy 6th birthday Miss Taylor!

At Our Table

At any given time, this table of ours is busy. There's usually something happening here and for the most part, we're making memories around it. Recently, an almost 6 year old has been doing HOMEWORK here at our table!

And during a break, she may become a walrus, using Trader Joe's Turkey Corndog sticks for tusks.

 And this one has recently joined us at the table as he learned to climb out of his high chair when strapped in and also learned to climb UP his high chair when not strapped in. Welcome to the table Dutchy!

 This has led to some attempted food stealing.

 And fascination.

 And LOTS of goofing around at dinner.

 Recently, I found this at our table. Ahem. Clementine has been learning to write her WHOLE name in kindergarten. Can you tell? We have a permanent memento of this fact, seeing that she carved her name into the top.

And then she added a self portrait.