Some of the princess clan

Some of the princess clan, originally uploaded by mdwinell.

Lily had a blast at the FSA Halloween party. What fun to reunite with her little friends and trick or treat room to room. She really loved it! There were like 400 princesses at school that day! How humbling to be in the company of royalty!

Pumpkin Farm Obsession

DSC01107, originally uploaded by mdwinell.

Some might say I am rather obsessed with going to a REAL pumpkin farm to buy my pumpkin. Something doesn't seem right about buying a pumpkin at the local mall parking lot or old abandoned gas station.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, I have the absolute best memories of fall. The color of the leaves, the crisp air and most of all going to the pumpkin patch. We always went to a pumpkin farm with an old "haunted" barn and a hay maze. Usually this was followed by handmade hot apple cider and a tractor pulled hayride.

This year I was determined to have the experience so I dragged the kids and my Mother-in-Law to Orange County to Tanaka Farms. I am sure it is a nice place and all, but it was just before Halloween and I was horrified at how crowded and chaotic and expensive it all was. I ended up leaving pumpkinless after the kids flipped out from the stress and chaos, and Gail and I went home needing a glass of wine. It was THAT kind of day.

I got a super deal on my pumpkins at Target btw. No stress!

Father's Day 2009

DSC01096, originally uploaded by mdwinell.

We had a really nice (kicked back!) Father's Day this year. We made Daddy his favorite (easy) Breakfast - Everything Bagel w/ cream cheese, lox, onions & capers. Then we visited the South Coast Botanic Garden. We had a little picnic, but were a little disappointed to learn that the designated picnic space is in an area adjacent to (noisy) Crenshaw and the entrance to the park. Boo! Owen kept creeping & wandering rather close to the driveway/entrance which took away from out picnic enjoyment. Oh well! Gail had told me how wonderful it was to have a picnic inside the park, but they no longer apparently allow that. The kids really liked the Children's Garden and I was really impressed with the place. How great to have a treasure like that so close to us!

After the garden visit, we quickly realized the kids were exhausted so we decided to make a stop at Grandma's & Grandpa's to nap them. Originally we had planned on just napping Owen and taking Lily to see her first movie, but we did some research and realized that UP probably would not be appropriate. So Grandpa Renny and Dar ended up going to see Star Trek. They really liked it!

We met them up at the Promenade Marmalade's and had a lovely Mojito - infused dinner. A great day for Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa & kids alike! And NO DISHES or mess! I think maybe we should use this day as a model for Mother's day as well next time. HINT HINT!

Naomi's 4th Bday Party

Magic, originally uploaded by mdwinell.

Lily's friend Naomi had her 4th Birthday at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. This was a great party! Owen stayed home with Daddy to take a nap so it was nice to not have to worry that he was going to lose it at any moment.

Lily really enjoyed the treasure hunt and magician. She loves spending time with her school friends! And it was great for me as well to share a bit conversation with some adult friends ;-)

look papa i can play golf too!

look papa i can play golf too!, originally uploaded by mdwinell.

Lily has a new-found love of golf. I took her and Owen to Alondra to practice. She really gets into it! Until Owen steals the "hole" and runs away with it. Then it turns into a wrestling match instead. Oy!

The Visual ABCs...

I finally have made a breakthrough in what Lily responds to in learning the alphabet. She needs a visual reference to make the connection. There are a few we are struggling on coming up with good visuals for though...

If you can think of anything let me know!

A- this one she gets because it is the first letter of the alphabet. It stands for Alligator and Apple.

B - This one looks like a beehive, so we go BBBBBZZZZ into one of the holes of the letter. She gets this usually, but sometimes says Z instead of B because of the buzzzzzzzzzzzing sound.

C- We make the shape C with our hands like goggles & then she says I seeeeeee you! Letter C! She always get this one right now, as it was one of the first we came up with a visual for.

D - She gets this one right because it is Daddy Darren's favorite letter!

E - This one is tough sometimes for her. The best I could come up with is that it has 2 tusks and a trunk...she gets Elephant from that, But the "E" in elephant isnt a strong E sound, so sometimes it is a stretch for her to get E from elephant

F - She was getting this confused with E in the beginning, so we came up that it was missing a FOOT. She gets F for foot.

G - This one was getting confused with Q, O, and C at first...the back of the Eric Carle alphabet cards have a giraffe, so for some reason saying "It has a looooooong neck like a giraffe" helps her to get G from it. She still says "It has a loooooooong neck, G!"

H - We struggle with this one right now. When I can't think of a visual I try and attach it to a name. This is her friends Hana and Henry's FAVORITE letter. That doesn't work as well though. Daddy says maybe we could do it looks like a HEADBOARD. So far that isn't sticking though. Any suggestions?!

I - This one is in her name, but she is having a hard time with it, especially when they show it without the cross line at the top and bottom. Any suggestions?!

J - We haven't gotten to this one yet. Any suggestions?!

K - This is another K is for cousin Kailie. Looking for a better reference...Any suggestions?!

L - She knew this one all ready from being in her name

M - This is Mommy's favorite letter for Mommy and Miriam. She always gets this one right.

N - This is Nana and Natalie's favorite letter. She is starting to get this one right.

O - O looks like Owen's BIG round head. LOL. She never got this wrong again after that reference.

P - She knew this one...P is for Peacock!

Q - Still struggles with this sometimes. Q is for Queen! (like her Learning Tee - thanks ANG! She loves it!) and also Q-bert which I showed her on Google images. Before her time, but I explained that it was Daddy & Mommy's favorite game. She wants us to buy Q-bert for PS3 now. Hahah :-P

R - Need suggestions...Right now all I have is R is for Rabbit, which she gets sometimes.

S - It looks like what??? A snake!! A snake goes SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Sometimes she says Z instead of S though.

T - This one looks like a table. What do we drink on the table? TEA! She always gets this...she still says "It's a T Table!!"

U - Need suggestions...We haven't gotten to this one yet. Looks like umbrella maybe?

V - I make the peacesign and sometimes she just knows that is a V, but sometimes she doesn't get it

W - She knows this from repetition.

X - X marks the spot says the pirate!

Y - Hands up like YMCA. Disco style! She usually gets it, since it is in her name.

Z - It looks like a zipper. ZIP ZIP ZIP. She gets this one, although confuses with S on occasion.

One strange thing is that she spelled her name right when she was younger, but then once she started getting introduced to learning the alphabet she began saying LYLY or LYLI. I think she was just overwhelmed by all of the letters. She writes it out of order now too. I am hoping that once she learns all of her letters and feels confident in them, she will start realizing they need to be written in the proper order...

Last night we went over how to spell LILY again. She knows it is L - something - L - something. So she would say L, and then I would point to my eye (I), then she knew it was L again, and then I would shrug and say gesture "Why?" (Y). She said it over and over and now she seems to be spelling it right.

It is amazing to me (as a non-teacher) how being a little creative with the learning can go a long way! Just though I'd share what has finally been working for us...

All of the teachers out are probably snickering at me in my new-found discovery. Well DUH! Just zip it Mom and Nat because I snicker and cringe a little when you choose Brush Script or Comic Sans to caption your Ceiva photos. So there!!! :-) LOL.