Oh Happy Day!

Oh what a beautiful day today was!

We had the windows open!! I think I have spring fever. =o)

We took a long walk again today. Well, not Lily, she was running around with a friend. It was very enjoyable. When we were done with our walk neither girl wanted to come back in, so we went to the little 'baby' park here.

India went down the slide all be herself. It was so cute. The first couple of times she had a 'I'm not sure how I feel about this' look on her face. But she kept going done it again, and again.

They were outside almost all day though. Inside for a 'Littlest Pet Shop' break and then right back out the door.

Lily had a lot of fun climbing the trees with the neighbors. I didn't get to see her. But she was pretty excited when she was telling me about it. Apparently she is getting better. =)

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I made some very yummy oatmeal/chocolate (with a touch of cinnamon) cookies tonight! They taste good. Ok, well we think so. =P I usually don't make home-made cookies though. I'm usually a 'roll of cookie dough' kinda gal.

Here's the recipe if any one wants to try it out: (makes 2 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup rolled oats (regular or quick), 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter, 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 eggs, 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, and 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts.

1. Preheat oven to 350`F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place rolled oats in blender or food processor and process until finely ground. Combine ground oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

2. In another bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla and lemon juice together using an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat until fluffy.

3. Stir the flour mixture into egg mixture, blending well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix well. Using 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie, place 2 1/2 in apart on prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake until cookies are lightly browned, 16-18 minutes.

Store in a sealed container to keep them soft and chewy.

Enjoy!

The recipe says that the prep time is 10 minutes. Well, it took me longer then that. But then again, I'm not a natural cook by no means and I was putting everything back were it goes once I used it. It made for a quicker clean up. =)

I hope everyone has a great week! =O)

Yes! It's starting to warm up...

I am so happy that it is finally spring. I don't like being cold. I hibernate in the winter. =(

Today we were able to get out for a walk. We still had to wear jackets but at least it's dry and not so cold, although it was pretty windy.

Before we headed out today I pulled out our copy of The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature'. We read the section on Spring. Then while we were on our walk we looked at the different trees and the grass and talked about the changes that will be happening soon.

I got a little workout there too...pushing the double stroller against the wind. Go me!

Your Business Math update

Lily loves it!!!

She just completed the first month of business of her very own 'pet store'. It is so exciting to see her enjoy doing this. We only do it on Fridays, the rest of the week she works on Saxon. But here she is, learning new math concepts and she doesn't even mind. And dare I say she's having fun...

Are there any other similar math products out there? I would love to add in something hands-on like this every year. If you know of something, please let me know.

Writing Tales

We started Writing Tales I about a month ago. So far so good. It's easy to do/teach. Lily gets done with the daily lessons pretty quickly. Which is a good thing (for her at least, she likes to take ALL day to do school). I need to work with her on....creating more. No....oh heck, well her stories have just been short and to the point. I want her to get into it more, spend more time on her story. Lily is a talker. She NEVER runs out of things to say or talk about. I just need her to apply this to her writing too. Not totally though!!!! Oh man, the story would never end then. =) Hey, she's a jabber box.

Any ideas on how to get her to output more?

Well, we are only on lesson 5 so I suppose she will get better as she gets more practice. I really shouldn't worry about it yet, huh?

Latin for Children

We finally started Latin for Children Primer A last week and we really enjoyed it. I bought it a couple months ago and kept meaning to start it. But....I was scared. Silly, I know. But it's true. I finally told Lily, "We are going to sit down and do Latin, no ifs, ands or buts about it!" So we did.....and I was AMAZED at how easy it was.

I had thought, that I would have to listen to the CD once, trying to remember the pronunciation. Then, teach the lesson. Boy was I (very happily) wrong! The first page 'Memory Work' of each chapter is completely chanted on the CD. AND the chant is catchy enough that you remember it.

I have been doing my own set of worksheets along with Lily. I figured that doing it this way I will be able to learn it too. Lily really enjoys having me do it all right along with her.

I even hear Jasmine doing the chants throughout the day. =o) She will also ask me for aqua when she's wanting some water. Or when she just wants to use the 'fun' new word she learned.

Down the road we want to learn Hindi. How do I decide how long to wait? A year? More? Oh, I just don't know about this. Eventually we'll also add in Spanish. Those are the plans in my head anyhow. =)