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backwards dinner- i.e.- riding our bikes downtown for some ice cream from our favorite local ice creamery and then peddling back home for dinner
shadow puppet shows set to the music of Bed Bed Bed before going to bed! I might just have to make this fella into a character for Jasper tonight before I go to bed- sweet dreams all!
right next to the beautiful growing marshmallow plant that Jasper got from Kristine at Herbal Roots, hiding out under a patch of plantain was a wee little toad! The boys discovered their toad to coincide with our next month of flora and fauna learnin'- moving from snakes to toads is a good transition in a life cycle sort of way!
Our last part of our snake learning this month will culminate with some henna snakes this weekend I think! Be sure to watch out for the Herbal Roots giveaway- a toad cousin hopped on over to Luna Farm for the June giveaway. Don't forget to leave a comment at this post to be entered in the giveaway here at mamaroots for the June issue of Herbal Roots.
A few fun things on the cobbler's bench this week:
*incredibly holey rock- a present from my sis in law
*vintage card game Rook and yahtzee cup from an Estate sale- have never heard of the game Rook before, but it was hard to pass up these great old card with a cool bird holding cards! The Yahtzee cup is perfect for our wood dice!
*our new chore system- the chore board. My little shoemakers sometimes need encouraging and help remembering what their chores are each day. I try to keep it simple for them- make beds, laundry, and feed and water our dog Zot. I saw an idea for making tags for them and thought we would give it a shot for our house. Now we just hang the board and they can check their tags each day. It is also the perfect spot for our dinner bell that they love ringing!
The boys get $1 a week and they split that up between their giving, savings, and spending jars. They love to find fun things to spend their money on. They absolutely fell in love with these Freckles! I have to admit- they are pretty darn cute and really well made! They end up in the funniest places at our house!
Today is the release of the new book by the late (and great!) Arnold Lobel. The book was discovered by and archivist and was colorized by Arnold Lobel's daughter Adrianne Lobel. Though it has "frogs and toads" it was actually written a few years before the famous set of friends Frog and Toad that we know from the I Can Read series that us 70's generationers grew up with.
It is a pretty sweet book of poems, definitely take a peek under the cover at a replica of the Italian Marble paper that he used on the original that he made as presents. There is also a sweet you tube video interview with Adrianne talking about the process! I recommend picking this one up!
I grew up loving frogs and toads, my mama can tell you all kinds of stories of me catching them and then sneaking them into the house to keep at pets in my nightstand. In my childhood innocence some met a tragic ending as I forgot to release them and mama did not find them in time- so sorry my friends! About the middle of that summer I remember my grandma taking me to get a small bean bag frog at this amusement park called "Adventure Land" so that I could have a frog in my room and leave the live frogs outside! My sisters have lots of memories of me trying to share my love of frogs with them much to their dismay- they were not quite as fond as I was of them!
I made a special frog and toads set for the shop- open ended to be a great way to share this new book or really any story or playtime. Make sure to have some of the best cookies while playing with these, while you sing to your new plants that are trying to grow, or searching for your button, or making some lists. Either way enjoy your friends and just have fun!
The start of the contests for you today! Leave a comment between now and Saturday at midnight. Tell me your favorite story about frogs or toads and be entered in for the Herbals Roots drawing for June. Kristine has a fun month planned for June that I am excited to start also. The boys will draw the winner Sunday morning! Good luck! As a bonus, put your name in the hat twice if you tell me what you enjoyed the most with May's Herbal Roots work with dandelion!
We did it! In each of our own ways we did our family ride this weekend for daddy's birthday called The Peddler's Jamboree! The weather was spectacular, the friends abundant and all around a really fun ride. I knew that I was going to do just the first day of the ride, more than I normally ride so I was pretty proud to do 35 miles on Saturday. My bum is a little sore, but really I feel pretty good. -excellent tip from hubby was getting a pair of bike shorts and I think for me the key was finding my perfect bike.
I did a test ride on a bike I am buying from a gal that Jody knows and it was just perfect. It is a sport dutch style Amsterdam Electra, aluminum frame, 9 speed, step through style, with wide upright handle bars- one of the most comfy bikes I have been on. Now that I am definitely getting this bike it is time to dutchify it even more and I am ordering my skirt guards, rear racks, and front wicker basket this week. I love this bike! I had it worked out with a friend of mine who had to work on Saturday but wanted to ride that she drove down with her bike and camped and then she rode back and I drove her car, my bike and Silas back to Columbia. Worked great!
Jasper amazed all of us including many folks on the ride. I think he was one of the youngest kids to ride from Columbia all the way to Boonville. On the second day I thought he would ride back with me, but he was ready to go again, and with his buddies he rode again. All total this 7 year old who has been riding on his own for less than a month rode 60 miles in 2 days! Definitely daddy's genes!
My man was awesome, he self contained gear for all of us and once on a slightly brutal hot part of the last leg of the ride on the first day even towed Jasper's bike and Jasper to give him a rest. He was a sight to see! He had a wonderful birthday and was in heaven. He definitely made his work bike work this weekend. Jody's grand total at the end of the second day was 80 miles. All in weekend's ride he said!
I drove down and picked up Jasper and met our other friends at a local river hang out spot called Cooper's Landing for some Thai food before heading back to scrub the boys and settle down for a long night's sleep!
Hope they decide to do this event again next year, good times, great tunes at all the stopes, ending with a band from Jody and my dating days called Big Smith. We even got to see a snake on the trail to coincide with our snake learning this week. At first I was pretty excited, I thought we spotted a Northern Scarlett which sighting are rare in Missouri, but I think he was actually a Red Milk Snake- he was a beauty!
Now for day of rest and relaxation before the last week of school. Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Weekend- more pictures from our ride is here-
Looking forward to some crafting time this week. Watch for some fun give-aways coming next week to celebrate my one year Etsy anniversary!
off for a couple days on our self contained- or I should say Hubby's self contained big bike, camping, jamboree! Hubby said there is not better way he would rather spend his birthday today!
Have a great Memorial Weekend- I will be back in a couple days with pictures and a sore bottom I am sure! Now where is that lucky penny?
K, K- what begins with the letter K! Ahhh how we have forever been changed by Sesame Street! Well for today I wanted to share a couple things with the letter K. As I am browsing a few books in the cooking section at the bookstore where I work I remembered one that I ordered that is on my possible list of presents for hubby (oh please don't be reading this post dear husband!) it is by Tessa Kiros who also wrote Apple for Jam. Re-released is her title Falling Cloudberries A World of Family Recipes.
I am such a sucker for family stories and memories in combination with food. Lucky I married a chef that indulges me with some of my own families recipes including Russian Cabbage Bread or Bierocks. So I think I might just have to get this book for my love.
In conjunction is a youth reading book that has received rave reviews that looks fantastic to read. It is called The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly- the cover alone is fantastic, but the setting is rural Texas in 1899 when young Calpurnia disappoints her mother in not taking up the needlework and domestic duties but instead has an affinity for learning by exploring nature in her backyard and creates a strong bond with her grandfather- a naturalist himself. I can't wait to start this one!
So K for Kiros, Kelly, and a little teaser is K for key. A little something new that I am working on that will be the key to some storytime with your child. Did I mention I love old keys- bet you are not surprised!
You know those moments when your child says the funniest things? I am glad I remembered a couple fun things Jasper said on Sunday. He is just addicted to riding his bike (must be from his daddy's genes!) and he was biking in the street late Sunday when he had a wreck. With a bit of blood running down his bunged up ankles and tears streaming down his face, he said "why does the government build such rough roads in front of our house, don't they know I am learning to ride my bike"- I told him I think we should write a letter to the "government" and make more of an impression by using our new Sukie stationery!
He then showed me that he had a shiny new penny that he found and had put it on his bike next to one of the cables. He took it out and after some mama hugs, kisses and a few bandaids he comes to me and tells me that he thinks the old pennies are more lucky. Why's that? Well he says, when they are old they have been around for a while and have more stories to tell! He just might be onto something!
So on a really fun after school birthday party yesterday this cutie pie group of kiddos walked allover down town looking at their art work for their school on display. It was such a neat idea some friends of ours did. Along the way they took turns reading about the art, looking at other art, and getting treasures along the way. Of course a little ice cream and pizza from the local favorites was a perfect ending.
Along the way Jasper found a lucky button, and another penny. Hmmm 1997- seems like it might have some stories to tell- he agreed and also he agreed to let me borrow it today. I just might need a little luck as I head off to oversee a book fair for about 1200 4th, 5th, and 6th graders today! Just a little luck should be just fine!
Just in case you didn't know it this upcoming Saturday is "Lucky Penny Day"- I like it because it happens to be hubby's birthday- and well I just might need a little luck that day also as we are doing a 30 mile ride for the Peddlers Jamboree with a big ol group of friends- maybe I will ask Jasper if I can hold onto his penny till then!
ahh I bet you thought I was going to say S is for Silas, or SiSi as we like to call him, but no actually s is for . . .snakes!
We are getting ready to do some snake exploration work this week! Equipped with our Golden Guide to Snakes we are going to do some learning!
This started off with my new partnership with Herbal Roots and- which you should sssslide on over and leave a comment to get entered in the giveaway! Then I thought why not do the Root Children with a favorite picture book "Hide and Snake" then I found out that Jasper's class is doing a field trip next week to see some snakes and it all came together!
So in getting ready to be snakey with the boys I found some fun links to share:
Some cute snake crafts: http://www.daniellesplace.com/HTML/snakecrafts.html
Some coloring: http://www.coloring.ws/snake.htm
Some Lifecycle work: http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/snakes/ws7.htm
Snake in the Grass Game: http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/games/snakeinthegrass.html
Gorgeous Felted Wool Snakes http://fimby.tougas.net/felted-wool-craft
Rainbow Snake Creation Story http://www.okulture.com/Black%20Opal/index-18.html
Grimms Fairy Tales The White Snake http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/story195.pdf
Snakes in Folktales and Literature http://books.google.com/books?id=oHJxueGDR2YC&dq=snakes+in+folklore&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=MWVmK6YvwA&sig=Xc9lKgA-khFw5j3yrl5jbjJXEgc&hl=en&ei=xeEOSp_FF9LemQe0-qCKCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PPP1,M1
And for my local folks a good site on Missouri snakes- and we will be talking about snakes at the storytime at Root Children on Wednesday and of course making some snakes!
See you there and don't forget to stop by the Herbal Roots site for a chance to win a wood snake- more will be coming to the shop next week of both the whimsical and science variety!
So tell me are you afraid of snakes? Snakes don't bother me too much but toss a spider my way and I am out of there!
Tomorrow night is Crafty Mamas for all you local mamas! If you are not local and want to join in crafty spirit I think we will be doing some needle felting. I have been wanting to make some more wool play mats and there is a couple story sets in the works so I will bring my big basket of wool and needles!
I thought you might enjoy another family photo- the gal in the picture is my great grandma that I was named after. Her name was Wilhelmina Frieda Christina Prinz-Bartles- shew that is a name huh! Not only did I inherit the style of propping my long hair up but a killer long name too boot! My full name is Christina Deanna Willow-Schomaker- but to make it all simple she went by Minnie and I go by Chris!
See you tomorrow night! Here is a quick flyer to print for reminder for my local mamas for this week and then Root Children next week!
