Welcoming the New Year!

We started off the New Year with a treasure hunt - geocaching at the park with Leslie.  Leslie's i-phone ap (and a helpful hospital worker who happened to know what we were up to) helped us find our first ever treasure.  This one was just a log book for writing your name.  Ella and Leslie are hoping for some real loot next time :)

I found Leslie's old lap harp.  Ella immediately recognized that playing it was just like following a dot to dot!

Ella tried weaving for the first time.  She was so proud of herself!  I showed her how to do it once and she was off and running with it!  She said:  Oh, I get it!  A pattern!  I can do that!!!

secret garden

Last week we discovered a sweet little park near our house.  Ella named it "The Statue Park".  No swings or slides here --- but a nice shady path for skipping, cute statues to discover, a wishing well, and some pretty cool  musical instruments.

Ella wondered aloud today if the statues come alive at night :)

We brought a handful of pennies for the wishing well . . .

Leslie will like these . . .

We'll be back!!!

Gingerbread House

yummy, messy fun :)

Rudolph

Getting back into the swing of things . . .

Thanksgiving break is over and we are getting geared up for Christmas!  Lots of Christmas crafts in the works . . .  Here are some of the things we've been doing this week:

a new puzzle

dressing up and dancing with scarves

ornaments with lots of glue and glitter!

some learning center games

November Is . . .

playing outside as much as we can - taking advantage of perfect weather

turkey crafts

a new level of comfort with the pets - an interest in holding Sammy and petting Jack

watering our new garden every afternoon

searching for fairies

. . . and, for me, being thankful for the little fairy that comes to skip and hum at my side every day.  Thank you, Ella, for reminding me what's important.

Story Time

I love that Ella loves books.  Because of this, and because we have so much time because it's just her, we read - a lot!  We usually have story time three times a day.  It isn't unusual for us to read ten books or more each day.  Ella loves to pour over the illustrations, ask questions about the text, and really engage with the books.  We've been finding some great books at the library after our story hour but I also love being able to share all of the old books I've loved over the years.