loon

loon, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

little chalice lighters

little chalice lighters, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

L was chosen to light the chalice (and looked forward to it all week.) e, of course, wanted to come along and they had it all planned out. Needless to say, they did great. Then they both went to class. I am amazed at how quickly e has decided he is fine going to class by himself. We let him be ready for it .. and ready he is!

leaves in the ice

leaves in the ice, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

on the beach in winter

on the beach in winter, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Took a long walk at Harkness.

American coot

American coots, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

American coot

American coot, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Coot eating seaweed. We took a walk at Fort Trumbull.

waffles

waffles, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Slow morning with homemade waffles. Yum!

waterfall

waterfall, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

little hikers

little hikers, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

ring-necked ducks and mallard

ring-necked ducks and mallard, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

art time

art time, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Florence Griswold museum hs class. The kids made tissue paper light catchers. I am sometimes amazed by the attention span of my children .. they can really focus on things. They also made a few other things .. decorated fans, flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners .. and then we read some art books in the loft. Afterwards we stopped at my new favorite birding spot and took a hike. We saw black ducks, tons of mallards, a red-bellied woodpecker (yelling at us), a great blue heron flying right by us, a hooded merganser and last but not least ring-necked ducks (which I have never seen before!). We got a little chilly at the end but it was so refreshing to be outside. We found trees that were beaver chewed .. and checked out the fish ladder again. Since the nature preserve is right on the way home from class .. it will be fun to stop in at times throughout the year and see how it has changed.

visiting with friends

visiting with friends, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

getting our baby fix

visiting with friends, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

visiting with friends

visiting with friends, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

meeting Luna puppy

meeting Luna puppy, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

We finally got to meet our neighbors new puppy "Luna". Then L went down to play at their house. It is so nice sometimes to have another HS family right down the street. L had a great time playing with her friend today.

e in New London

e in New London, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

L stylin'

L stylin', originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Kelo house in New London

at Kelo house New London, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

We also checked out (and talked about) the Kelo house and eminent domain. The kids are fascinated by the story since we often walk in Fort Trumbull and even check out the "cat hotel" there.

MLK march New London

MLK march New London, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

We made it to the march .. such nice mild weather! And Shiloh Baptist church singing is amazing! L could not believe how fast the pastor was speaking at one point. And e was excited that the police chief was sitting in the row behind us ... "Mommy, it's a woman!" L was really taken by a sad story of the nightriders .. gave us a lot to discuss later.

MLK march New London

MLK march New London, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

cereal creations

L and her cereal creations, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Art in your cereal? At our house, yes. It started out as a smiley face and morphed into a frown.

terra firma farm's "Tom"

terra firma "Tom", originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

L had farm class and learned about chickens. Her team made observations on "snowy" and will learn more next time. e and I went for a walk and then to the Stonington library.

a snowy walk in the woods

walk in the woods, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

dancing

dance class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

the pure joy of dance class

dance class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

saying goodbye to daddy

saying goodbye to daddy, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

"fancy nancy getting towed

"fancy nancy getting towed, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Watching the tow truck. At least we get to think of the tow as an interesting start to a homeschool day ... otherwise it would be a bummer.

crazy hair

crazy hair, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Looking a bit like an 80s rock star when she takes out her barette at the end of the day!

homebirth meeting

homebirth meeting, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

homebirth meeting

homebirth meeting, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Busy meeting!

a great book and coffee

a great book and coffee, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Read a lot today and L worked on her phonics. Really interesting how something seems to have clicked for her. Later we headed out to my membership meeting and the homebirth meeting.

cemetery

cemetery, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

After class we all headed to the snowy playground and got some energy out. It was cold but so nice to spend some time outside. On the way home, we drove through the cemetery and discovered a huge group of mallard ducks in a spot that wasn't frozen.

marine bio class seals

marine bio class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

marine bio class sea lions

marine bio class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Here they are getting ready to be sea lions .. and later seals. They will remember the differences in the way they can move on land.

marine bio class

marine bio class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Class was about marine mammals today. Love the way the teachers honor all learning styles, lots of visuals and hands-on and repeating (without sounding annoying). And so much fun too! They never say "no, you're wrong" .. instead they just redirect the kids. Love it! Here the kids are trying out blubber gloves in ice water .. to feel how seals would feel warmer in ice water than we would.

home repair

home repair, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Brr it is cold .. and time for some more insulation. You can never have too much, right? The kids were pretty excited to take a peek at the crawl space. We had a quiet day and read lots of library books.

me as a baby

denisebaby_0001, originally uploaded by daviesbyrne.

vitamin sculptures

vitamin sculptures, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

e had taken to making elaborate sculptures and/or faces out of all of the vitamins we are taking to try to get healthy. He adds his dried fruit for the ultimate special effects. Since the kids were out until after 10 last night and everyone was short on patience .. we decided to stay home today. The kids were doing lots of playing and organizing. Later we watched Bolt for the first time and all had a good laugh. I got an in depth description of the ice show last night. e wanted to tell me all about how the castle moved and how people must have gotten up on it and around it, etc. He liked the jumping and spinning and wants to go to another show. L spent a long time looking at all the pictures in the program trying to match up the photos of the skaters with the characters in the show. It was fun to see all their excitement about it. I remember being that excited to see ice shows when I was little. :)

getting ready for the princess show

getting ready for the princess show, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

L decided that she needed to wear a crown and scarf to the princess ice show. After class I dropped L and e off at G&G's house for dinner and then out to the show in Hartford. They had so much fun! And J and I went out to dinner by ourselves (2nd 3/50 project as we had dinner at Singapore Grill. One more to go!). I also spent some time at goodwill and got some great deals while I was waiting for J's train to arrive.

cold walk

cold walk, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

It was actually a bit warmer today .. and we rejoined the world of the"healthy" and actually made it to the nature center class. L learned about snakes but had an unpleasant time with one of the other kids in the class who teased her and also called her a "fried potato." ?? I hate to have her unhappy but one has to learn the lesson of how to deal with kids like that somehow. We have come up with some strategies for the future classes .. and L even suggested that maybe the girl does not have many friends and doesn't know how to be nice. e and I ran errands .. getting lots more vitamins and playing at the toy store. I picked up some great new workbooks for the kids on how to tell time, how to make sentences and how to count money. So far I am one down on the 3/50 project (pick 3 local businesses you want to see stick around and spend 50 dollars there to be sure they so stick around.) since I bought the workbooks at Mystical Toys.

drawing

drawing, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

e making elaborate drawings using his stickers that were a gift. He spends hours drawing and adding to the drawings. I love the look of his little hand holding a big pen. :)

shadows

shadows, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Kids making hand shadow shapes for each other and trying to guess what they were.

my mail

my mail, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Catching up on my correspondence. It was nice to sit in the sun with my coffee and the kids were impressed that I could read Japanese. We read the letter together and then I translated for them. Then I wrote back ... which is always more of a challenge than reading. But it was fun anyway. :)

last train run of the year

last train run of the year, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Undecorating the tree .. such a depressing task. But we took some time to have the train go on one last trip before packing it up until next year. One the positive side .. we have our living room back now!

house finch

house finch, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

the kids hands

the kids hands, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
Day 3 of the new year and we are all still miserable. And it is still snowing! This time even with the sun peeking through. Snowing while the sun is out?! Another quiet day. We actually managed to get shoveled out (me) and basic groceries like COFFEE (j) and he also picked up some wonderful cold medicine which allowed me to sleep for the first time in a few days .. hence the energy to get caught up on blogging. 

Umm .. Happy New Year!

more snow, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

More and more and more snow. The kids were so disappointed to miss the ice skating show with grampa and grandma .. but they are going to try again later in the week. Phew! Another sick day and it was too snowy to get groceries so we had the most random assortment of food from the back of the freezer. :)

sick antics

sick antics, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Here we are starting the new year, e with a huge bruise on his head from falling and banging it on the coffeetable. OW! And it is official .. we are all very sick. Horrid chest and head cold. Sigh. Hopefully this does not signify how our year will go since we had enough sick at the end of 2009! We are already sick of being sick. It is clear that I need to embrace this being sick in our family thing and just get over it. So I am trying to slow down and just look around. I have gotten a whole lot of reading done .. that is a great thing!
e is really enjoying our new red sox potato head person and spent the day periodically rearranging him.