Spider

The bugs and insects here never cease to amaze me, and gross me out.  They are always so huge and always seem to be all over the place.  One of the things I like about winter here is the fact there are no bugs around.  They could congregate around our house and yard because we don't spray our house like most people here do, so the bugs and insects find a safe haven around our place from poisonous chemicals.

The kids and I were sitting outside on the front porch when I glanced over to my right and saw this :

and fought back the urge to scream.  I've never seen a spider like this before, so the kids and I sat and stared at it for awhile and I was completely impressed by the zig-zag doing down the middle of the web!  Then we went inside and I googled it to make sure it wasn't poisonous or anything, if it was it would have died.  Well, it would have died when Royal came home.

I found out it is just a black and yellow garden spider and is quite common in the lower half of the 48 states, which would also explain why I never saw one in Washington.  It's a non aggressive spider, but I guess will bite if they feel attacked.  So, the kids and I have decided to adopt the spider and they check on it all the time, but from a bit of a distance.  This spider is most likely a female since it's body is about an inch long and the males don't get that big.  The males have a bit of a tough life.  They roam around looking for a girl and when they find one, they slowly approach their web, but always have a drop line ready in case the female attacks it.  Then once they mate, the male dies, and the female eats it.  Nice.

Swimming Machine

Willow is a swimming machine.  Ever since we put her in lessons at 16 months, she hasn't wanted to stop.  In the summer, we do lessons 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, and during the 2 weeks off, almost every day, she asks if we are going to the pool.  She knows most of the teachers by name and goes into the pool yelling, 'Hi Victoria!  Hi Jane!  Hi Rachel!  Hi Wanda!' to whoever happens to be out on the pool deck.

Willow is one step away from moving up to Level 3.  She's been able to complete all of the Level 2 skills for quite awhile now, except for one thing, backstroke.  She is suppose to be able to swim across the pool using backstroke, however, what Willow normally does is push off the wall and then coasts on her back.  She is very good at floating on her back and sees no reason to propel herself through the water.  She'd float in the middle of the pool for the whole class if they'd let her.  However, yesterday when I was taking pictures, she did do her backstroke, so I'm guessing if she keeps doing it consistently she'll probably get moved up after the next session.

Swimming across the pool, freestyle

And backstroke.  Ready, Set, Go!

What Willow Wears :: 15

I got Willow dressed 2 different times today.  She promptly went back into her room and put on a pair of pajamas.  Guess it's just that kind of day.  The funny thing was when she found her her Tinkerbell costume.  Royal's mom bought this for her almost 2 years ago, it was on sale, and anybody who knows Royals mom knows that she doesn't pass up a good deal.  It's just been hanging out in her dress up pile waiting for her to notice it and put it on.  Well, today was that day.  And then she was digging around in her sock drawer to find the right pair of socks.  It ended up being a red pair, not the white pair in her hands.  :)

Jayden was pretty funny when he saw Willow wearing her tinkerbell dress.  He said, 'What the heck?  How did you shrink her dress?'  I said, 'I didn't shrink it, Willow grew'.  He said, 'Huh?'

And if Jayden keeps rockin' outfits like this, he's gonna need his own post series...

Pumpkin Paintings

This evening after dinner, while Royal was doing the dishes, I set the kids up outside to create a little art.  I got canvases for them and thought it would be fun to paint some pumpkins to hang on the wall.  I totally didn't expect Willow's to turn out anything like a pumpkin, but I figured Jayden could paint one.  I lightly drew a pumpkin on their canvases, then set the kids loose outside with their easels and acrylic paints.

Jayden loved his pumpkin so much and the color orange, he decided he was going to make a camouflage pumpkin.   I get that, sometimes it's hard to stop painting.

And camouflaged it is!  The finished masterpiece!  "The Camouflaged Pumpkin"

Willow wasn't as concerned about camouflaging her pumpkin, as she was about making sure she used ALL of her paint.  Her canvas has so much paint on it, I'm pretty sure it's going to take about a week to dry.  It's gonna have great texture though!  "The Textured Pumpkin"

I'm totally hanging these up on my wall!

Bench Games

This semester, Royal is working and going to school A. Lot.  He isn't home until 7 on two days of the week, and then he has class for 4-6 hours on Saturday.  The kids are missing him something fierce.  So am I, as I can't and don't wrestle like he does, and they get bored really easily especially when I'm cooking dinner.  For me, tv just isn't an option every day of the week.  There are definitely some days when I need a break and they watch a movie while I'm cooking dinner, but I've found tv makes for cranky and bored and non-creative kids who whine and complain more than usual.

One day last week, while they were sitting in the kitchen area on the window bench, asking for the millionth time if Royal was going to be home soon, I suggested they pull some of the puzzles out of the bench cupboards and put one together.  (and I asked if I could take their picture because they were sitting so nicely next to each other.  this is what they gave me....)

So, they pulled the puzzles out.  But they didn't put any together, they came up with a better game.  Let's see if we can squeeze Willow in one of these cupboards.

And even with a pillow, she still managed to fit in it!

Jayden took the bigger side so he could stretch out.

And then Willow wanted to be in Jayden's cupboard, so since he couldn't really fight her off, she crawled through the door by his feet, up his legs, and then laid her head on his stomach.

And they waited in there for almost a half an hour, waiting for Royal to come home so they could hide from him.  Sadly, it was a day that Royal was in class until late, and they had to come out to eat dinner, but they now have a really great new place to hide when they play hide and seek with Royal!

Farmer's Market

Today was the best day to go to the farmer's market!  It did not start out very well, the kids slept in and didn't get up until close to 8:30.  And the farmer's market is a good 30 minute drive away, fills up quickly, and all the good stuff goes fast, and then even on the drive to the market, I had to go to 2 different ATMs to get cash because the first one was out of money, so that really set me back!   But anyway, I quickly shoved some cereal down the kid's throats, packed them a cup of orange juice for the ride, and got them dressed - rain coats and rain boots and umbrellas in hand.  It was a wet, and rainy, and stormy morning, and I didn't really want to go to the farmer's market, but I needed to get on the list for our organic, free-range, happy (well, happy until he gets his head chopped off) turkey for Thanksgiving, and I have been on the hunt for my rumba squash to puree up for the freezer for all our pumpkin breads and muffins and pies the rest of the year, so off we went, kids grumbling the whole way.  The farmer's market isn't their favorite place to go, but I promised them we'd stop by Troubles the clown and get them some balloons.

Thanks to the bad weather, nobody was at the market this morning.  I mean nobody!  We parked in the front row, when usually we're like in the way back, and there was nobody walking around, so I had no trouble pushing my double stroller, a.k.a. my shopping cart, through market and being able to shop at the same time.  We hit the jackpot today, well at least for us, we found everything we were looking for.  I found a gigantic bag of basil to make Willow more pesto to freeze up - the girl eats pesto on just about everything, we found a great stash of sweet potatoes for sweet potato chips, some local honey for our allergies (the honey guy has been missing for weeks now), I found my rumba squash (yes! finally!), our turkey farmer was there today too so we got on the list to get a turkey, AND we had enough money left over to get ourselves some Kansas grown flowers!  We also stopped by Troubles the clown and the kids got pirate hats and swords.  It was a great day to go to the market!

Muffins with Mommy

I got to go to Jayden's class today for Muffins with Mommy, where I got to spend about an hour with him doing center work.  When I first got to his class, he gave me a button with his picture on it to wear, but he got too excited about it and decided he wanted to wear it first.

We started our center work at the 'Reading with Mommy' table and read a bunch of books.  Then we moved onto the 'Muffins with Mommy' table and I know this is hard to believe, but we ate muffins!  Next up, was the 'Mommy and Me' table.

Jayden made me some bath salts, poured them into a jar, and tied a ribbon (or 2 or 3) around it.

Our final center work was at the 'Massage' table.  Jayden took a bottle of lotion....

...and gave me a hand and arm massage! He kept telling me how good of a massager he was and then he offered to give the other moms at the table with us a massage too, because he was 'just so good at it.  I really am!'