"A Long, Long Time Ago..."

This phrase, said in a low, whispery, spooky voice, is repeated all day long lately at our house.  The new favorite past-time is making up stories (a girl following in her momma's footsteps, apparently), and it's a family affair.  I snuggle up with Reed on my lap, and Lilah and Grady climb onto the couch too.  Lilah usually begins, with her oft-repeated intro, and then passes the torch to me when she gets stuck.  Grady contributes too - mostly with dramatic facial expressions, and occasionally repeating a word his sister or I say during the story.  Reed just giggles at his siblings, trying to grab at their hair (or their snacks, as the case might be.  The boy has barely started eating oatmeal and sweet potatoes, but a bag of Pirate Booty looks awfully appealing to him).

Most of the stories follow the same plot line, usually with Lilah and Grady as the key players, and are anything but scary in the end.  Here is, as close as I can remember it, a transcript of one of our impromptu "ghost stories" from today:

Lilah: A long, long time ago, on a dark and stormy night, some little children decided to go trick-or-treating.  They dressed in their costumes and went outside.

Me: What were their costumes?

Lilah: The little boy, who was named Grady, was a cowboy.  And the little girl, Lilah, was a princess.

Me: Ooooh, good costumes.  Then what happened.

Lilah: They walked down the street with their trick-or-treat bags and got lots of candy.  But then!  Momma, you tell it.

Me: But then, they saw a house they hadn't visited yet.  It was at the end of a long, crooked driveway.  It was very dark and spooky.

Lilah: It was a haunted house!

Me: Yes, it was a haunted house.  They climbed up the steps to the porch and knock, knock, knocked on the door.  No one answered.  So they rang the doorbell, ding-dong!  And no one answered.  But the big door creaked open.  Then what happened, Lilah?

Lilah: They saw a big, big, tall stairs that they had to climb.  And at the top - oh no!  There were great, glowing eyes shining.  They didn't know what they were.  So they climbed the creaky stairs. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12.  There were twelve stairs.  And when they got to the top, they turned on a light.

Me: Oh no!  What was there!  A scary ghost?

Lilah: No, Momma, it wasn't a scary ghost.  It was just a little, teeny, tiny black cat.

Grady: Meow!

Lilah:  It didn't know where its mommy and daddy were, so Lilah and Grady decided to take it home and help it find its mommy and daddy.  And they lived happily ever after.

Me: That was a great story.

Lilah: It was.  Can we tell it again?

The best part is Lilah's dramatic storytelling voice.  I seriously have to hold in giggles the whole time we are telling the story.  She's always a drama llama, and it really comes out when we are telling stories or playing imaginary games.  I really wish I had a video camera, I would love to record these moments to show them when they are surly teenagers who don't want to talk to me anymore.

This proves, once again, that it really is the simple things that provide the most entertainment.  Whether it's a cardboard box, a paper towel roll, or just an active imagination, you can truly create magic with little ones with minimal effort and basically no cost.  Try it today, and I would love to hear your collaborative stories with your children!

A Day in Photos

Today, since I've been up since 4:30 a.m., I'm being lazy and just giving you some good stuff to look at.  We took a little half-day trip to Connors Farm last week, mainly to get pumpkins, but also because they have tons of stuff for little ones to do.  It was loads of fun, we had perfect weather, and came home with gorgeous pumpkins (mine is white!), yummy cider, and a carrot that Lilah took a bite out of at the farm stand so we had to buy it.  We will definitely go back there again!

Daddy and Grady on the jumping pillow.  Lilah was a wimp and didn't like it.

The spiderweb was more her style.

This is just quintessential 'boy' right here.  I had to keep corralling him away from mud puddles.

The girl means business in the duck races.

In amazement that he's allowed to play with something so cool.

Can't leave this guy out!  He was loving the fresh air, but not so much the sun in his eyes.

"Whatchoo lookin' at?"

The one pic of me from the day.  Taken by Lilah.

Taken while we waited for Daddy and Grady, who were on the hayride.  Sister was too chicken for that, too.

Pumpkin tether ball!  She would have played with this all day if we'd let her.

I wish I had all of these in my house.  I think I have a pumpkin addiction.

The hayride.  It went probably 2 mph, and Lilah was scared of it.

So there you have it!  Hopefully I will get a little more sleep tonight.  Check back tomorrow for Pinterest Project Friday!

Pinterest Project Friday: Ballerina Tutu Painting

We've been slowly redecorating Lilah's big girl room with her chosen theme of ballerinas/fairies for awhile now, and now I'm just working on finishing touches such as lamps and artwork.  I knew I wanted to hang something on the wall that she helped to make, but that also fit with her theme.  That's why I was so excited to pin this idea from the Meet the Dubiens blog (which I love - especially Fun Food Fridays!).  It incorporates the ballerina theme perfectly, as well as one of our current favorite art projects: painting with our hands.

Here is a link to the original project in case you want the step-by-step tutorial.  I was lucky enough to find canvas 40% off at Michael's, and I wish I had picked up more, because I have lots of ideas to do some projects with canvas.  Fingers crossed that they are on sale when I go there again tomorrow!  I had some pretty pink and green card stock left over from making Lilah's birthday banner, and we mixed up our own custom pink paint with our Crayola stash.  Lilah decided she wanted glitter on her painting, so we sprinkled a little in our pink paint.  The only thing I wish that I had done was to paint the whole canvas a shade of light pink before doing the ballerina tutu, just because I have a second project coming up that we used a second canvas for, and we painted that one a pale pink all over.

Here is our finished project:

I'll post more pictures when we hang it up, along with the other canvas project we did.  I'm already excited about next week's Pinterest project - it's something for one of the boy's rooms!  Happy Friday, and happy pinning!

Re-learning How to Play

When I was a little girl, I was an expert at playing Pretend.  Imagination is one thing I have never lacked, and even now at almost thirty years of age (!), it runs a little wild sometimes.  The crazy things that I think of when Matt is working nights are quite embarrassing in the light of day, but alone in the dark I can convince myself that some sort of creature is in my basement and can break in and eat my dog before I'd ever know a thing.  And now I'm sure you think I'm a total kook, but suffice it to say that my daughter comes by her wild imagination quite naturally.

Since we have had so much opportunity to run around outdoors while here in Vermont, the kids have come up with a bunch of games that they like to play when we are outside.  I have already mentioned our little re-enactment of the Three Little Pigs, and now we do Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk too.  Recently, Lilah has branched out to making up her own stories, which more often than not include me in the plot line.  Let me tell you, playing Pretend isn't so easy as an adult.  You have to suspend all sense of propriety, throw inhibition to the wind, and just go with it.  This is one aspect of life that children are much better at than adults, and if you want to do it "right", just follow their lead.

Let me walk you through a typical Pretend session in our outdoor time.  We walk out to the ball field behind the house, and Lilah decides that the soccer goal is a cage for trapping animals.  She leads Grady inside, and informs me that they are unicorns who have been trapped by a nasty goblin, and I am the mommy unicorn who must set them free.  I ask her if she knows where the key is, but apparently there is no key, I must use my "snippers" to cut the net.  I set them free, and we run over by the vineyard to hide from the goblin.  We nibble some grapes from the vineyard (or pretend to), and then seek refuge beneath the crab apple tree from the pursuing goblin.  I say something to Lilah, calling her by her name, and she lets me know that her name is not Lilah, it's Sparkle, and Grady is Baby Unicorn Awanna, and I am Mommy Unicorn Ahanna.  She runs to the play tower/sandbox and says it's time for the Fairy Festival.  Apparently we are all fairies now and I must sew her a sparkly blue dress, and a shiny purple one for myself before the "games begin".  Grady will be a prince and wear a "handsome shirt with a silver crown", and we have to get our faces painted like animals. 

The face-painting area is beneath the maple tree, which is where we get sidetracked for a mini-science lesson about slugs and worms, both of which gross me out, and both of which are crawling on the wet ground beneath the tree.  Grady, of course, proceeds to try to alternately squish them and pick them up, while Lilah is more fond of poking at them with her fairy wand (a small branch).  She tells me that slugs are really "cheeky snails with no shells" (thank you, Peppa Pig, for giving my child an English accent).  I tell her that worms have five hearts.  They do, right?  I think that's what I remember from biology class.  Anyway, I rescue the slug one last time from Grady's stomping sandal, and it's back to the sandbox to play Bakery.  Lilah is still a fairy, and she needs to order a wedding cake for the party.  It must be strawberry flavored with white frosting and purple flowers.  And it costs fourteen dollars. 

Soon we are riding on the rides at the fairy festival, which include a carousel of unicorns, a log ride, and the Humbug Adventure (courtesy of Santa's Village).  Just as I'm about to take my turn on the log ride, though, we hear Reed on the monitor waking up from his nap, so it's time to go inside.  Surprisingly, both kids cooperate really well and race me to the back door with promises of juice and a banana at the "snack bar". 

How crazy is it that for an entire hour the only thing that was required to entertain them was for me to open up my own imagination and truly play Pretend?  Sure, we used a soccer goal as a trap and a pail and shovel to make our wedding cake, but if we hadn't had even those things, it wouldn't have mattered one bit to the kids.  They love their toys, to be sure, but it's nice to know they don't need them in order to have a good time.  I am more than happy to participate in these games of Pretend with them, for I know that the years of childhood play are fleeting, and I won't ever have a chance to do it over again.  Let me tell you, though, at the end of the day, this momma is sure ready for quiet time after the kids go to bed!

Cool Moms Make Ice Cream

I follow a few kids' crafting blogs, and I saw a tutorial a little while ago about making ice cream in Ziploc baggies that I really wanted to try.  I never seemed to have all of the right ingredients in the house at the same time (quite common in my life), until this morning.  The kids were antsy, the baby was sleeping so we couldn't go outside, so I said "Let's make ice cream!".  Of course, Lilah was immediately excited and jumping up and down with anticipation, and Grady just does whatever Lilah does, so he was jumping up and down as best he could too.  Woo hoo, score big points for Momma today!

And then, I realized.  I don't have pint-sized Ziploc baggies.  I don't have gallon-sized Ziploc baggies.  What do I have?  Sandwich baggies.  Crap.  But I'm the queen of improvisation when it comes to motherhood (and life in general), so I searched my cabinets and found...Ziploc storage containers.  Perfect!  I decided to divide the recipe in half and put it into two sandwich baggies instead of one pint-sized baggie, then put those into the storage containers for the kids to shake.  What kid doesn't like to shake a box that just happens to be filled with ice?

Apparently, my kids:

"I shook it three times, Momma, is it ready yet?"

Grady just wanted to eat it right away, container and all.

So I did what any mother would do in my situation.  I shook.  I made up a shaking dance and a shaking song ("Shake, shake, shake.  Shake, shake, shake.  Shake the ice cream."  Creative, I know.)  and I made a fool of myself in front of my children.  But that's okay, you're supposed to make a fool of yourself in front of your children.  Right now they think it's funny.  I can't wait until they're teenagers.

When I couldn't shake it anymore, I took the baggies out, rinsed them off, and put the slightly melty concoction into a bowl and a coffee mug for the kids to devour.  Here's the results:



Yes, I realize my son is sitting in a pink booster seat.
It's okay, he's comfortable with his masculinity.



She was quite thrilled with the "banilla" flavor.

And although it melted and got soupy pretty quickly, I dug up some bendy straws and told them it was milkshakes.  All in all, it was a pretty successful morning activity.  Here's a link to U Create With Kids where I found the idea, and a link to 2 Little Hooligans where the original tutorial is.