A Cosi Afternoon

I always plan to take the kids to Cosi on our "days off," but often end up getting wrapped up in things at home or just wanting to enjoy the day off (we have so few of them). Still, the kids love it, and I hate that we do not go more often.

Degen putting on a puppet show!

Last Friday, we needed to drop Girl Scout cookies off to Darren at work. We decided to have lunch with him and visit the office. Everyone on his team is always welcoming when we visit and we enjoyed being able to spend a few minutes talking after we had lunch. The kids love visiting Daddy at work... again, something that we need to do more often! Afterward, I took the kids to nearby Cosi to spend a few hours playing.

Of course, a few hours at Cosi just never seems to be enough! We spent most of our time in Little Kidspace where the kids built, made music, explored and had some creative play. Kyrie asked to try out the Adventure exhibit (which is not included with regular admission), and I agreed. It is a very cool exhibit in which you have to find clues in the "Valley of the Unknown" to unlock the "Secret of Knowledge." The exhibit is made to look like ruins in the jungle with lots of mood lighting and the such. Degen was pretty nervous straight off and graduated to flat-out scared. It wasn't too much longer into our exploration that the spookiness of the exhibit had Kyrie crying to be done, too. Oh well! I told Kyrie that we could try again in a few more years, or maybe it was something she could do on a special occasion with Darren (she agreed that things aren't nearly as scary when Daddy is there to hold her). After we hurried out of Adventure, we went back up to Kidspace for the rest of our time. Of course, Kyrie fussed at me when I told her we had to go. I promised her that we would be back soon, and I meant it!

Zoo School: A Class of Its Own

Gordy the Groundhog

Last Tuesday, we attended another homeschool program at the Columbus Zoo. It was a sunshine-y afternoon just perfect for a walk at the zoo. This month, we learned all about how animals are classified. The kids spent time talking about the characteristics of mammals, reptiles and birds and practiced classifying animals on several charts. Kyrie was pretty knowledgeable about animal classification and got most of the questions correct. Our animal visitors, included a groundhog, a toucan and a skink. The kids played animal BINGO, and Kyrie won a pencil for getting a BINGO. Afterward, we walked to the manatee exhibit where we identified mammals, birds, amphibians & fish.

The kids petting a blue-tongued skink.

It was such a beautiful afternoon, that the kids wanted to stay and play outside after class. They played on the manatee & sculptures near the aquarium for an hour or more. It was nice to be outside after several weeks of too-cool weather. We are getting more & more pleasant days as temperatures head into the 60s on a more regular basis. Spring is in the air!

Orange You Glad I Can?!?

Shortly after the new year began, I used an on-line coupon that we had purchased to sign us up for a fresh fruit & vegetable delivery from GREEN B.E.A.N. delivery. Every other week, we receive a "small" bin filled with an assortment of organic fruits & vegetables. We started the delivery on a trial basis, but were soon won over by the variety & the quality of the produce we received. In short, I love this business and have been highly impressed with everything that we have gotten. I love that each week there is going to be something different in our bin, often items that I would not normally think to choose at the grocery store. I highly recommend this service to anyone who can get it! 

In the dark of winter, I think that people love the sunniness of citrus fruit. Our produce delivery has brought us a wide assortment of lemons, limes, grapefruits & oranges. Several weeks ago, I had also bought a small crate of clementines for the family. Personally, I am not a fan of citrus. I don't hate it or anything, but for whatever reason aside from cooking I am not one to grab citrus as a snack. As the weeks have passed, the collection of citrus in our fridge has grown & grown. Obviously, the rest of the family is as likely to grab an afternoon orange as I am. Soon, our entire fruit bin was filled. Fearing that all that good fruit would go to waste, I knew that I needed to find a use for it and fast. I decided that I could make the best of it by making a marmalade. I had never before attempted to make any kind of jelly, but my mother is practically a jelly chef. We never had store bought jelly when I was a kid, so I kind of feel like making jelly is in my genes. I had the eating jelly part down pat, I just had to hope that the making jelly part could be mastered as easily!

I already felt comfortable with canning after two years of succesfully canning apple products, but I was still nervous about making this marmalade. I found a few recipes on-line and in a canning book, and asked my mom for her advice, too. Of course, in the end I did what I always do and mish-mashed all the information I found to do my own thing. I grated some peel from most of the citrus instead of using pieces of rind (the peel of the clementine was too soft to grate). The peeling process was awful by the end because my fingers were so sore and the citrus juice got into all the sore places. I used my Magic Bullet juicer to separate the juice from the pith and citrus' connective tissue as it seemed a thousand times easier than all the cutting that the recipes I found wanted to do. I did strain the juice before I started cooking it. Really the prep was the hardest thing because actually making the marmalade was as easy as boiling juice, sugar & pectin. As I cooked the jelly, I prepared my jars & lids for canning. I love that this part of the process is becoming so routine. All the jars set soon after pulling them from their hot water bath and by the next day, I was able to tilt the jars without the marmalade inside moving around, so I am hopeful that the marmalade jelled properly, too. All my citrus & hard work produced 7 jars of marmalade. I look forward to trying my hand at making more jelly in the future!

Seussical the Musical

The kids with the Grinch

One of the best things about being involved with Girl Scouts is that it has given us opportunities to do family activities in our community that we might not have known about. We had a wonderful time attending the Nationwide Children's Hospital Pleasure Guild's production of "Seussical the Musical" last weekend. When I signed us up to go, I knew that Darren would still be in Europe on business, but I thought it would be a perfectly special distraction for the kiddos after a week of missing Daddy. The show coincided with Dr. Seuss' birthday week, so the kids were in full-Seuss mode!

My Things 1 & 2 with Seuss' Things 1 & 2

Our Saturdays tend to be pretty busy since Kyrie has Kindergarten all morning. After we picked her up we grabbed a very quick bite of lunch before heading downtown to the theater. The Pleasure Guild had set up a pre-show meet & greet for the Girl Scouts with cupcakes, a craft and plenty of opportunity to get photos with characters from the show. The kids loved seeing all the actors in their costumes and all the other goodies.

The Who-Girls (they were Kyrie's faves)

I did not know anything about the Pleasure Guild before this show. The Pleasure Guild was started in the 1920s by children (who collected toys & candy for patients at the children's hospital) and then taken over by adults a few years later. It provides hospice & palliative services to the children & families served by the children's hospital. They have been doing an annual show for over 50 years, and all proceeds from the show go straight to the Guild. Many of the actors in the show are involved with the Guild and have been in past shows.

Kyrie enjoys a cupcake for Dr. Seuss' birthday

That sneaky-Grinch tried to steal Degen's cupcake!

Degen thought the Grinch was hilarious!

The show itself was great! There were lots of catchy songs all about some of Dr. Seuss' best loved characters: Horton the elephant, the citizens of Who-ville, the Cat in the Hat and many more. I was very impressed with the quality of the singing and acting, especially since most were hometown actors (including a large number of children). They did a wonderful job, and I think that their commitment to the Pleasure Guild's cause brought out their enthusiasm and passion. Though, a full-length musical proved to be a bit much for Degen (who got very squirmy and then fussy before finally falling asleep on my lap), the show held Kyrie's attention for the duration and she could be heard singing parts of the songs from the show for a week afterward. I hope that we will be able to attend more of the Guild's shows in the future!

Do the Write Thing

Kyrie has had a great year of pre-Kindergarten! We have been reviewing the alphabet and phonics, learning sight words, counting and practicing addition & subtraction among many, many, many other things. Kyrie is still at the pre-reading stage, but has been making good progress. Last week, she started putting together her own sentences (a skill we practice with our sight words each week). In the evenings and during her creative time, she would come to me with her brightly colored pieces of paper and sentences. Some of her sentences did not make much sense, but this one did! She was very excited about her accomplishment, and we were very proud of her!



First Art Class

Unfortunately, I was unable to get the kids into swim lessons this session. Instead, I decided that they would enjoy an art class together at the community center. I was happy that they could take a class together (during which I can work out in the on-site gym!). This is Degen's first art class, and he has been doing a great job! Kyrie has enjoyed the extra responsibility of helping her brother as he needs it! 

Let's Give 'Em a Hand

This is the thank you note we made for some of our family & friends after Degen's birthday! Keeping with the Cars theme, I thought it would be cute to use his little handprint to make a car. I used an empty tape roll & black ink for the tires, a dobber paint for the person and markers to fill in the rest of the details. We hope that these little thank you notes raced into our loved one's hearts! Thank you to all who helped make Degen's third birthday such a wonderful celebration!