the best season of all-day 5

After lazy week end we had an incredibly busy day today. We went to the Museum of Nature and Science (yay for free days!). What a great visit it was. We had fun at Space Odyssey exhibition and a free planetarium show. I was incredibly proud of my little boy, how he answered questions from the show guide, how carefully he planned and asked his own questions. He's so into space theme now, I love it! We watched a performance of an African drums band and strolled in "dinosaur land" for a while (C.'s love for dinosaurs and dragons is another delight for me, she love sword fights and dragon tales, she's such a brave little thing).
We got home pretty late and D. made couple of holiday cards. (Simple task, yay for pinterest inspired paint chips projects). It was made entirely by him without my help.

Our evening treat today was fried  apple rounds . It's basically apple rounds (skin peeled and cored) dipped in vanilla flavored pancake batter and fried in oil. We enjoyed it dusted with confectioner's sugar, with lots of whipped cream and hot tea.

We read a non-holiday book today, which my kids enjoyed very much :
Below by Nina Crews. It's a story of a boy and his favorite action figure, and their adventure together.





We also read some winter poems in Russian together.

Listening today : 
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Ric Larsen and Lisa Cunningham

Now it's quiet in the house, I'm ready for my book and my tea. It's so cold outside, I love it!

change of seasons

As much as we miss California we really appreciate the change of seasons here.

Yesterday was a gorgeous late autumn day- clear skies with a few fluffy clouds, warm breeze...It's hard to believe that it could change overnight (having had a couple of heavy snowfalls this year already we are prepared:)), and yet the snow on the ground will be welcome.
Today -slightly colder, but still bright sun and fairly warm outside. We decided to talk again about seasons changing and what it means for plants and animals.
The book that helped us do it is Four Seasons:Uncovering Nature by Annie Jones - a beautiful present from friends. The book contains loads of information and is beautifully illustrated.

Another book we enjoyed is Autumn Story ( Brambly Hedge) by Jill Barklem. Sweet story and gorgeous illustrations.

After reading we did an art project , inspired by this picture I found on pinterest. This project took us two days to finish.
Day one: We sketched a forest scene on a large sheet of paper- some trees, animals. Second step was separating sheet vertically into four equal parts- one for each season (initially it was done in pencil, when D. was ready to color I erased pencil and traced a line with a white crayon). Day Two: D. traced outlines with crayons using appropriate colors for each season (bright green for fresh grass, gray-blue for snowy ground, dark brownish-green for autumn grass, etc.). The forth step is painting each part with watercolors. Add some outlining with oil pastels and glitter accents and voila!

Happy Weekend to All!

the best season of all: day 3

It was a rough day for all of us so we had a quiet evening.
D. did crayon and watercolor snowflake painting.

We read "The High Hills" by Jill Barlem (Brambly Hedge series), the story is great and illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.

Right before the bedtime we baked Cranberry Muffins and for the first time since last holiday season we used our special snowflake muffin pan (which I got in target for $2, I do love their dollar section :))).

Cranberry Muffins recipe

Dry ingridients:

1 1/2 c of flour

1/2 c of sugar

1 tbs of baking powder

pinch of salt

Wet ingridients

1/4 c of melted butter

1 egg

1 cup of milk

1/2 c frozen cranberries

Preheat oven for 350 F

1. Mix dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls then mix together. Fold in cranberries.

2. Pour mixture in muffin pan (filling approximately 2/3 because muffins will rise) and bake for 35 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar if desired. Yum!

Autumn theme continued

Windy day today, wind has stripped trees from the rest of the leaves. It was delightful to watch leaves dance around. It inspired today's creations for aedm.
D.'s task was to paint the background in fall colors with a wide brush , then to add dots with a smaller brush.
I did another ATC because cards are small and I can actually complete one and do it fast :).

"Dancing leaves"

Book of the day :  "Woody, Hazel and Little Pip" by Elsa Beskow which was absolutely lovely, we enjoyed it a lot.
Background noise: Concerning Hobbits by Howard Shore ("The Lord of the Rings" OST)

Fall reading-Graeme Base

     I want to write a little bit about "The Legend of the Golden Snail"- a new book by a wonderful author/illustrator Graeme Base.
 Graeme's books are always beautiful, but most of the time they are a bit complicated for D., since he's only 5 and (being raised bi-lingual) only just catching up on his English. It's a bit early for "Animalia" and "The Discovery of Dragons", we can only admire illustrations at this point. However when I saw "The Legend of the Golden Snail" in a bookstore (and quickly took advantage of this educator's discount :)) I knew that it was just the book for us. The story  tells about a boy named Wilbur who sails to find a magical Golden Snail and turn her into a "Snailing Ship", but when he does find it he pities the Snail and sets it free. The story is engaging and emphasizes the importance of being adventurous and  kind. Illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, magical. (Samples of illustrations can be found on the MARS Gallery web site)
Each page is complete with little details such as the cool cross bone symbol (an interactive game of finding these symbols can be played on Graeme's web site).
We read this book over and over again, D. absolutely adores it and so do all of us.