Mysteries...

When we went outside to play today, we found several sets of footprints in the snow and are planning on copying them into our nature journals after naps and trying to figure out who they might belong to. Isn't snow fun??!!

Maybe a cat (on our driveway)?


A squirrel (next to our trash cans)?


A house sparrow or other bird (next to our front bushes)??

How the Squirrel Got His Tail by Katy and Darsie Foreman

In the spirit of Kipling (and after reading How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Whale Got His Throat, and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin), here is a story the girls made up today:

Once upon a time a long time ago there was a squirrel with a long skinny tail. He always hung upside down from a tree branch and stole animals’ food when they went under the tree. The animals got very angry at the squirrel, so they called a genie and they told him their problem. The genie went to the squirrel’s tree and the squirrel took his food! Well, the genie gave the squirrel a bushy tail so that he couldn’t hang upside down anymore. And that’s how the squirrel got his bushy tail!

She Did It!!

Katy came into our room yesterday morning while Matt and I were reading our Bibles, and she decided that she wanted to read something, too. So, she went into her room and came back with "The Foot Book" and said that she was going to try to read it. Then, she sat down in our glider, opened the book and proceeded to read the whole thing! By herself! every now and then she wold stop on an unfamiliar word and ask what it was, but she was able to sound them all out by herself, and after a while we realized that she was sounding them our without even asking us anymore! It was very exciting to hear her read, of her own volition and to realize that it is beginning to click with her! Praise God for His faithfulness in answering our prayers for her! I can't wait until she can read her Bible!

Westward....

While Matt was gone on the youth retreat this past week, we created another covered wagon and ate a campfire dinner (pancakes and eggs) under it. The girls were happily entertained for days with the wagon (and I have to say, it was a joy to finally take it down and have my living room back!). Who knew pool noodles were so useful to have around?!

Spelling Difficulties

You know we've lived in the "north" too long when Katy, today as she worked on her spelling words for school, tried to sound out the word "ice" with a "u" instead of an "i". :) (Think, if I can attempt to phonetically spell it, "uh-ice", but blend it into one syllable...maybe more like "oice"?...)

Grocery Store Tour

Our local grocery store hosts free tours, so our playgroup took a second tour this week (the first tour being 2 years ago). It is a great tour! They led the kids through the store, beginning with the security office (full of video screens to watch people on every aisle!!), to the floral department, to produce, to deli, to seafood, to meats, to the stock room with its box crusher and trash compressor, to the really big freezer and refrigerator (brrrr!!), to the dairy and bakery and then to ring up "purchases" they had selected from each department. We discussed the food pyramid and which foods were in which groups during our tour. They gave us samples along the way and goodie bags and balloons afterwards! Here are some pictures from our visit.

Several of the "babies" (who are actually mostly 1 year old now!!) hang out together beforehand.

Marshall and Lily visit together while the big kids look at the security monitors.


Liam wasn't thrilled about being in the stroller while the girls got to walk.


Sorry it's sideways, but here's Sam (our next 1 year old!!) and Mabel waiting patiently.

Katy and Darsie touch the lobster! Last time, Darsie touched it (at 2 1/2, maybe?) and Katy held back with a look of horror etched on her face. She said it made all the difference to realize what those rubber bands were for this time! :)

Katy rings up some bread while Susie makes sure she does it properly.

Liam's favorite part was the balloon. He was happy the whole rest of the day because of that orange balloon!

Just Like the Pilgrims

The girls have definitely been listening while we talked about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving all month because, yesterday after a yummy church pot-luck dinner (Thanksgiving leftovers!), Darsie commented, "Mommy, we are just like the pilgrims because we had three days of Thanksgiving!" And we did, really! We had Thanksgiving on Thursday with friends, then Friday we ate our turkey with our friend Anna, then yesterday with the whole church. A pretty good way to celebrate, I think!