Sophie's Week

We are in the middle of "Sophie Week."  :)  Which is totally fine.  I find that having a daughter brings about an entirely new set of problems than having boys.  We constantly fight against the "princess" nonsense - not princess as in she is a Child of the One True King, but princess as defined by our distorted culture which attributes entirely unacceptable behavior to the title and in doing so makes the behavior acceptable.

Today, Sophie had her first dance lesson of the year.  This will be her second year at this studio, and even after the first lesson I can tell that the teacher is moving them ahead.  I'm excited!  I was also glad to see a few of the same girls in her class!  We often find ourselves in a sea of boys, and I worry that she doesn't have a lot of close little girl friends.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party for Sophie.  She had a blast.  Lots of people we love came over to celebrate with us.  Her birthday isn't actually until next Monday, but we decided to do her big 5th celebration early.

We went to visit Chris' sister Jill and her family this past weekend, and Sophie got to have a sleep over with Cousin Reese in Reese's room.  Sophie was THRILLED.  She keeps asking when we can go back so she can do it again!  

But I don't like that team!!!

Chris dressed Daniel this morning.  He does not approve.

Actually, this poor kiddo is having a really hard time with his teeth.  So sad!

Fun Weekend

I took Eli to the Lowes Build & Grow clinic yesterday, where we met up with one of his (and my!) friends.  We went 2 weekends ago and built Dusty, the main character from the new movie Planes.  Yesterday, we built El Chupacabra, another character in the movie.  Eli had a great time!  It's good for him to get to do something once in a while apart from his siblings.  It's a rare occurrence!

Today, I took Eli, Sophie, and Isaac to see Planes.  It's a really cute movie!  Unlike Cars, where I really had to work to muster up much commitment to Lightning McQueen, Dusty is a great little character right from the start.  If you have little kids, I'd highly recommend it!  

Sundays are "dessert days" at our house.  Which means you better not ask me for dessert any other day of the week - it's a special thing for Sundays.  Sometimes it happens on other days too, but it should not be expected.  This policy has helped to curb a lot of whining, and also the demands of the middles (Isaac and Sophie) for "where's my dessert of breakfast?" and "where's my dessert of lunch?"

I've talked to a lot of people who claim they have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I've never really committed to one.  I read a blog post about this phenomenon of fierce commitment to a specific recipe.  I found it kind of funny.  The blogger made up a bunch of different recipes and had taste testers decide.  The one I made today won.  I've seen the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe on lots of blogs over the past few years, but I've never tried it.  Since Friday was the letter "C," we decided to make chocolate chip cookies.  They have to sit in the refrigerator for 24+ hours before you bake them, so "C day" became "C weekend."  These cookies are FANTASTIC.  I would agree they are the best I've ever eaten.  They are also enormous, measuring at almost 5"!!!  The kids loved them, of course.

"B" is for Big, Brown Beaver

Sophie and Isaac were not happy to learn that Eli would be gone all day at school, and they would not.  "That's not fair!" said Sophie.  I need to document this for future years.  I told them I'd do home "school" with them so they would have some activities.  A friend recommended a site with some linked material, and I've been searching around looking for worksheets and crafts.  Right now, we are going through each letter, day by day, and practicing writing it, making it's sound, and doing some kind of activity that matches.  Yesterday was the letter "B."  The kids did a beaver craft they were really proud of.

Even though Eli had his first art class at school, he came home and told me it wasn't fair that the littles got to make a beaver craft and he wanted to do it too!  Good grief.  So far, home "school" seems to be going well.  I need to think of more ideas.  Today is "C," so we're making cookies!  I love when forces outside of my control compel me to make and eat cookies.  hehe  

Purple and Yellow

I've decided that the best tomatoes are not red.  These are prepped for some homemade pasta sauce for vegetarian lasagna.  Some are from my garden - Mr. Stripey, Cherokee Purple, and a few small Heinz, and some are from the CSA - Garden Peach and Purple Russian.   I love heirloom tomatoes!