Day At The Train Park

My son loves trains, totally and completely. So we decided to take him to the train park on our first day off from work. The day was just perfect, and we had a wonderful time! This is the first vacation we have had off together in two years.



Being silly.

Riding the train is serious business.

Views from around the park.

More views from around the park.



We have never been to the park at night, just during the day. I am sure it is so pretty at night, as they have lights strung all over the park. We are planning on going back after Christmas when it is not so busy.

I still can't believe that Christmas is two days away! We finished up our shopping today, which means I am a very busy little elf, as I make all the gifts for the adults of my family. We are going to take family pictures tomorrow, though I still have no idea where. I guess I will figure it out in the morning.

I will be up wrapping presents tonight, and tomorrow will be finishing up last minute gift making projects. I hope to be all finished by tomorrow afternoon, so we can relax for the rest of the few days I have off. 

Even though we are busy, I still have time to get our hour of read aloud time in every day! Of course it has been all Christmas books. Here are a few books we have read in the past few days:



Plus I finished reading A Christmas Carol the other night, and have been listening to Little Women in the car to and from work. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Happy Reading!

Winter Solstice 2012

Happy Winter Solstice! I hope everyone had a wonderful day! I spent the day with my family at a local train park. It was such a gorgeous day, with the most beautiful blue skies. I will share more pictures from our day with you tomorrow.

My poor little guy is sick, so after the train park we had lunch, stopped at the library, then came back home.

We spent the rest of our day hanging out together.



Since it rarely ever snows where I live, and we didn't make it to the snow today due to my son being sick. I only have blue skies, orange flowers, brown mountains, and a beautiful book to share with you on this first day of winter.



Do Rabbits Have Christmas is a collection of poems by Aileen Fisher, illustrated by Sarah Fox Davies. We love Aileen Fisher, and have quite a few books in our collection that she has written. Sarah Fox Davies illustrations are beautiful.

From: Do Rabbits Have Christmas, illustration done by Sarah Fox Davies

This book contains a collection of nature poems written by Aileen Fisher between 1946 and 1991. All the poems in this book are either about winter or Christmas. They are all so simple, but very lovely. I will leave you tonight with one of the poems from this wonderful book.

First Snow

When autumn stills

the crickets

and yellow leaves turn brown,

I wonder what

a Mouseling thinks

as snow starts falling down,

and petal

after petal

goes trickling down his nose

and there's

a strange, cold tickle

between his slender toes?

Solar Baked Salt Dough Ornaments

My oven has been "broken" for about six months. Yes, I know....There are so many things I miss making, but for now this family remains ovenless. Since the oven is "broken" and I wanted to make salt dough ornaments with my son, I decided to build a solar oven out of three boxes, masking tape, an oven bag, and foil.

I do not have any pictures of the actual construction, as I didn't know if the oven would actually work. It was just an idea, so after my son went to sleep on Saturday night, the construction began. It didn't take very long, and was made with items I had in the house, so it virtually cost me what I used in tape and foil, as I got the boxes for free.

So the next morning we made the ornaments. My son loved this!

We have never made salt dough ornaments before, so this was a new experience for both of us. He enjoyed the process of mixing and rolling out the dough.



As you can see, it got very messy, but we both had fun.

Once the ornaments were cut out and laid on the cookie sheet, I placed them inside a large oven bag and sealed it shut. Then I placed the pan on a cooling rack inside the bottom of the oven. The experiment commenced when we placed the solar oven outside at about nine o'clock in the morning. The temperature outside was about fifty degrees. Since most of the yard was in the shade at this time, Daddy decided that it would do better on the roof. So with careful precision, on the roof they went. I'm not quite sure what the neighbors thought, but at least our ornaments were being baked by the Arizona sun!

We checked the the temperature about and an hour later, and the inside of the oven was at 125 degrees! I couldn't believe it, the oven was working! As the sun moved through the sky, the solar oven and ornaments eventually ended up in the backyard, where they cooked for the rest of the day.

After dark, I brought them in, and couldn't believe that they were cooked! They are now sitting on the counter waiting to be painted. Once we paint them, I promise to share a few pictures. This project was so easy, and so much fun! (I seriously can't belive that we made this happen!)

Even though my son is only three, he may not remember that we made these ornaments and cooked them  with the Arizona sun, but I will never forget.

On the book front, we just finished Magic Tree House #29 Christmas in Camelot, by Mary Pope Osborne at eleven o'clock last night. (It's a good thing you can't see the bags under my eyes, as I was awake at four this morning reading A Christmas Carol before I had to go the work.) I read this to my son out of the series sequential order, but he enjoyed it, even though it had a few "scary" parts, and was a longer chapter book. We read this book in two nights, and I am sure we will read it again before returning it to the library.



Having a Simple Christmas

I am a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, have been since I was a little girl when my Ma gave me my first set of Laura's books. I could never get enough of the adventures of Laura, Mary, Pa, Ma, baby Carrie and Grace. Since I have a little boy, I thought that I would never be able to share my love of the Ingalls family with him, but I was wrong. I have already read him Little House In The Big Woods, which he loved by the way. I think it was the stories about the forest, bears, and hunting that intrigued him.



I was so happy when I was thrifting to come across My First Little House Books, which have been adapted from the original Little House Books. We have quite a few of the books in our home library which are frequently in the rotation to read. It took me a while, but this summer I finally found Christmas In The Big Woods. I put it in with our Christmas books, but when I have tried to read it to my son he has refused, until bedtime last night.

This book is an adaptation of the Christmas story from the original Little House In the Big Woods book. As I read the story to my son, the thought occurred to me that our lives are way too complicated. Here is a family who lived a hard life, but took pleasures in simple things. Children who had way more responsibilities in their their lives, than the teens of today. Yet, they delighted in homemade gifts, a piece of candy, making pictures in snow, maple candy, and pancake men.

Even though this story is fiction, there probably is a lot of truth to it, in the sense that this is the way things were on the frontier. Maybe people took pleasure in the simple things. Home, hearth, working with their hands, cooking, growing their own food, and time with their families. Then again, maybe I am wrong. I do know one thing, there will be pancake men and the making of maple candy in our very near future. I am going to cherish every simple moment this holiday season.

Christmas Stories at 2:30 in the Morning...

Last night was so much fun, figuratively speaking, of course... I am getting over a sinus infection, and trying to wing my son off his nightly bedtime cup of milk. Which resulted in him waking up five times, with complaints of extreme thirst. After a long sleepless night, and a very long day at work... It's no wonder that I look in the mirror and see deep dark circles under my eyes... Ahh, the hidden joys of motherhood. I wouldn't trade it for the world!

It seems to me that everything we have experience thus far is a step. We went from quitting nursing at one, to quitting the bottle at two. (The bottle weening was the worst for me, I cried like a baby, because I knew that the "baby" stage was over.) Now at three, I think it is time to stop the nightly cup. I seriously think this will be the hardest for him, even harder than quitting the bottle.

My son has always been somewhat of a night owl, some nights he does not go to sleep before eleven at night. Plus, he wakes frequently in the middle of the night, sometimes, two or three times a night.

There have been many times that I have been awakened in the middle of the night with a little voice asking "mama will you read me a story?" Trust me, no matter how tired I am, and sometimes I am really tired, I do my absolute best to read him his story. Do you know that one book usually does the trick, and he is back to sleep in no time. Every once in a while, it may take two stories, but this is rare.

Last night, we had one of those nights. Except this time, he asked specifically for The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree by Jan & Mike Berenstain. This is a cute little lift the flap book I found at the thrift store this summer for .99 cents. My son loves this book. We read it for the first time a few days ago, and since then, have probably read it about fifteen more times to him. 

So I spoil my son, but since he is the most precious thing to me in the world, I feel I can lose a few winks of sleep to read him a story. Especially if it leads to him going back to sleep, which means this mommy can sleep too. 

We Love Christmas...

Sorry for the absence yesterday, I was really sick, but feeling better today. December 1st is on Saturday, and my little guy's third birthday is next Friday! He is going to be three!!! Where did the time go? I feel like it was just yesterday that I was nine months pregnant, uncomfortable, and ready for my son to enter this world.

We saw Santa on Sunday, my son was very nervous, but did splendidly well. He sat on Santa's lap, got his picture taken and got his candy cane. He didn't say a word until daddy helped him off Santa's lap, then he gallantly turned around and said very quickly, " Santa, I want a blue train." Cute right?

As you can see, Sunday was very warm, hence my son wearing shorts while having his picture taken in front of the Christmas tree. I think this is the warmest November that I can remember!

Anyways, I want to tell you about a wonderful Christmas Treasury by Jan Brett. It contains seven of the most lovely written and illustrated Christmas stories. The stories are as follows: The Mitten, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, Trouble with Trolls, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Hat, Christmas Trolls, and The Night Before Christmas. We usually read this treasury in one sitting, though when my son saw it in the book bin, he asked if we could read The Mitten, which her remembered from last year. It is a huge book, and quite heavy, but that is what makes it so wonderful.

I hope you are able to read this with your little one's this Christmas.

Read It Again Mommy....

Once again the high in Phoenix was around eighty degrees... My heart says it's time for Christmas, but my mind says no, how could it be when I am still wearing shorts? Weather aside, I brought out all the Christmas books I have been gathering all year and placed them in bins around the living room. As I was sitting on the couch, my son was searching the bins, and came across a favorite from last year, Duck & Goose It's Time For Christmas by Tad Hills.

So I read it once, which lead to " Mommy, read it again." Which then lead to about fifteen re-reads.

Then after fifteen re-reads.... he decided we need to make snow angels in the "snow". (I promise you this was all his idea, and not staged for your blog entertainment. I was lucky to grab the camera just in time before he stopped.)

Then after making snow angels, we had a few more readings, in which many questions were asked...



"Mommy why is it snowing?"
"What's that goose doing on the hill?"
"Why is that snow castle doing there?"
"What is that bird and duck doing to the tree?"

I absolutely love the conversations that a book with beautiful pictures, and simple sentences will spark. I love that even though it's seventy five outside, we can still imagine the beauty of snow at Christmas time.