First lapbooks!

The Lanyard

I've posted this poem before on the site, but tonight for some reason I wanted to hear it again. Do you remember ever making a lanyard? I do only vaguely, or perhaps it was a friendship bracelet, but this poem still rings true to me... I hope you enjoy it.

The Last Lecture

Have you seen this yet?

Here's the blurb: Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

There are so many nuggets of wisdom and inspiration in his story. It's long, so if you have been meaning to watch, put aside an hour or so...



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ABC's

I was busy figuring out whether to email this to the grandparents or not, and then realized: I have a blog for exactly this reason! Enjoy!

Why we don't need cats. Or cable TV.

Snow Eater

The Lion Cub loves snow. Eating snow, that is. She's been munching a bit on her snow-encrusted mitts and I've had to tell her more than a couple of times not to do it. Earlier this week I was bringing the groceries in from the van and peaked outside to see what the girls were up to... and obviously she was seizing the opportunity to literally shovel snow into her face while my back was turned. If you look closely you can even see her lick her chops hungrily at one point. Take a look for yourself. Note how at one point she bows her head and crouches down submissively - this is her "repentant" pose. Grandparents, don't be fooled - notice how she looks up at me again to see if I'm buying it? LOL!



Anyway, so there's a bit of insight for you into one of the Cub's latest habits. Her other fave is eating her cereal in the morning "like a cat". There's a lot of mess and meowing, trust me.

the kings do the cooking

We've been having lots of conversations around here lately about dolls. Which are appropriate, which are not, and which dolls can be enjoyed, but maybe need a bit of discussion along with them.

The Lamb loves All Things Girly especially princesses, but because we don't watch the Disney movies, she's a little hazy on the exact details. She's kind of filling in the blanks on her own. I want the girls to be critical thinkers, I want them to question those fairy-tale mores, so our talks take on a bit of a comical tone, with me being the devil's advocate most of the time. But never doubt this: a 4 year-old has an answer for everything. :)

Maymuna & Julie BFF (best friends forever)

I had some pretty serious topics in mind for the blog the last few days, but somehow I just don't feel like serious blogging today. I feel like silly stuff today. Here's a little silliness for you, of the Ozayr variety. This is his latest trick...

You know, I think life would be a lot more interesting for the girls if Ozayr was the one who stayed home with them all day. I would never think of putting a child in a tote bag and carrying her around, but she loves it.

Today was our last day hanging out with our friends, the Kangs, for a while. They're going on a trip, then we're going on a trip... So we did a few things to commemorate the day...

First we dressed our children identically:

Honestly this is the best picture that I got of all four of them. I'm hoping Shelly managed to snap some better pics. I'm just happy that all four of them are in the picture at all. With some strategic cropping I managed to get some decent partial shots:

I swear Maymuna is not trying to punch Julie in the mouth here. It was a very friendly photo shoot. There was even a quasi-headlock situation which was very peaceable. As far as headlocks go.

I planned a secret arts-and-crafts project for the girls. Here they are working on it in their little art smocks...

And here's the finished result!!

Now they each have a little framed picture to remember each other by! Well, it's not that long that we'll be apart, but Shelly and I are definitely mourning the mommy-chat-chai time. We've had a play-date almost every week for the last year... it's going to seem strange not seeing each other for so long.

After I got over our sentimental parting, I had a sudden realization. We leave soon. I've got lots and lots and lots to do. I made FIVE lists this afternoon in a panic.

Panic will likely continue well into tomorrow.

Picture Post!

Remember the days when this was a blog about the kids? for the grandparents? Due to the lack of photos lately, here are some from the last couple of weeks in the glorious sunshine...

Here are the last few days of cold weather we had. Hafsa's trying out the "new" second-hand backpack.


This was the very last of our snow. I actually "imported" this snow from the last dregs on our driveway and the neighbour's driveway so that Maymuna could make "ice castles" with it.


This is Maymuna and Hafsa being truly Ozayr's offspring... Out on a walk, reading books in the stroller...


The swimming lessons are still happening once a week and Ozayr has been taking Maymuna on the weekends as well, to help her get even more comfortable in the water. Here is a picture of her taking the big leap into the pool. And then one of them in their new swimming goggles (which she calls "eye glasses").


Hafsa drawing... and subsequent blue mouth...


There was much commotion on Friday morning as a group of men arrived and started digging a hole across the street. We kept tabs on them all day, how deep it seemed to be, how many men were out there. Then we went downstairs to the basement for 1/2 an hour and when we came up they were gone and the hole was filled... In this video Maymuna and Hafsa are enjoying the show...



Finally just two cute random pictures of the girls enjoying that beautiful day... Maymuna is playing with the mail that just arrived and asking me to "pay" for each individual piece.


And this one of Hafsa, well, is just so Hafsa...


Happy Monday!