Watermelon! (Foodie post)

photo from superstock.com

I love watermelon, but living here we just don't buy it very often. Why? Well, because usually it is tasteless and super expensive.  Usually it prices out between $1.19 - $1.69 a pound. I have a hard time justifying that expense when I know the end product isn't going to be any good.

photo from food.com

On Saturday, we happened to stop by the Farmer's Market in LaReine to look for Mamey(I'll tell you about that some other day), and one of my agriculture friends mentioned that there was a farmer with AMAZING watermelon.  Now, I don't know about you but when an Ag person tells me some fruit or veggie is amazing I take heed. So I sent A of to buy a small watermelon as usually we just end up throwing most of it away.  When A came back she was empty handed BUT she was followed by the farmer carrying a HUGE, HUMONGOUS watermelon. I wasn't too happy as I figure we got taken - after all , who sends an almost 9 year old buy melon on their own and expects to get a good deal? So we loaded that monster into the car and $15 poorer drove away to pick up our CSA. What was included in the CSA box last week from Sejah Farms? MORE watermelon. At this point I was starting to regret even buying the first melon.

Turns out it was a good thing we bought the first one. C devoured ALL of the melon we got from Sejah Farm while we were at the farm stand.  Once we got our sticky boy back home, I unloaded the beast and chopped him open. We used half to make Agua de Sandia - a refreshing water melon drink, ice pops(about 12) and ate some. The other half I chopped up into slice and chunks. By Sunday afternoon we had no more watermelon left! That was not only the BEST watermelon I have ever had, but the fastest to disappear in our house EVER! Viva local, fresh, organic watermelon!

photo from ourbestbites.com

Now to go early and grab an even bigger monster this week!

Toddler Tuesday - clean painting activity

paint in a bag.

This morning the hubby took A to art camp so I could stay home and do stuff. I think he expected me to clean, while I had other ideas in mind J I worked on putting Velcro on popsicle sticks so C can make shapes with A later in the school year, did a load of laundry, and played outside with C. Once it got too hot to be outside, we came in and C said he wanted to paint…. Oh boy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to paint with kids, A did it all the time and it was super fun, but the house is on the market and we are trying to keep it super clean so painting makes me really, really nervous….

However I didn’t want to deny C the opportunity to paint, so I pulled the table far away from the blinds, covered the floor with a towel and gave him paint in a plastic bag that I taped down to the table.  He played with that for about 3 seconds before he was bored(personally I don’t blame him, it was lameo). Then I figured I could use brown paper taped down to get the same neatness factor but more fun.  So, I taped down a large piece of  brown paper to the table top and gave C strict instructions that paint did not cross the black tape lines.  Once I gave him the paint, we named the colors – he really only knows blue out of the primaries. The he had at it while I crossed my fingers and held my breath. I also washed some dishes and talked to my sister on the phone for a few minutes.

Pushing the paint around
with his bulldozer

I gave him 3 different sized brushes, a bunch of cars/trucks, and some plastic animals and people.  He had a blast using the bulldozer to move the small globs of paint, running the vehicles through the paint, and painting the people and animals. Did he make a mess? NOPE! I love this kid J Of course he did made paint hand prints so we cleaned up before he even got out of the kitchen area.  I think I may have found a safe way to paint.

Now, if I could just get to that cleaning…….

See, no paint outside the lines!

Readaton 2012 - Week 3 Character Development

What a theme we have this week! Character Development - we all want our children to be upstanding citizens of the world, to contribute, to put other's before them and to be happy. So, how do we teach Character Development? We can model the behavior and hope that they catch one, we can role play, or we can just talk them through situations that are hard for them as they arise.

Today we went to Mango Melee(a festival that celebrates EVERYTHING Mango) at the St. George Village Botanical Garden and at one of the booths, what did I see?

WOW! Someone else is concerned with how our children develop character. This photo shows a game that the children could play. If you look closely, there are mangos clothes pinned to the tree. The children had to unpin a mango and then pick a character trait. Once a trait was selected, your child had to tell the booth attendants one thing they would do to model that trait. C, who is going to be 3 soon grabbed a mango right away and pointed to the kindness trait. We asked him how he could be kind - of course he gave us a blank look. Sheesh! So, when rephrased it question in toddler terms, of "How can you nice to the cat?" He promptly stated to "bring him a raton(mouse)". That's my boy!  Of course after we all finished laughing, he got to pick a prize and was so super happy.  A who is 17 days away from being 9(!!!), picked self control from their list and stated that we can wait to buy something if we really don't need it.  Very proud of her for that one, and she managed to come home from Mango Melee without spending that $20 she had in her pocket.


I loved this game because the child got to pick their virtue and state what we could do. The only prompting that the adult has to do is ask the very open ended question. There are really no wrong answers, and hopefully by doing this when your child is presented with a problem that calls for character they will know what they should do.

If you don't want to create this game, you can bake cookies for your elderly neighbor, drop by a homemade card to someone who is sick, or just buy that bum on the street a sandwich. All of those are ways to model good character to your kids. Yes, it's hard and yes you will embarrass your older children when you hand food to that bum, but if you explain to them why you are doing it, they may learn compassion and see the world through different eyes and start to become the person you want them to be.

We read and enjoyed "Good Habits to Have" by Jenny and Karen Carter today too, if you haven't read it yet, give it a go. the message is simple and sweet.

Don't forget to read - join the Readathon at MeMeTales - it's been fun for us and hopefully will be just as fun for you!

Readathon 2012 - Week 2 Friendship

Notice the chocolate colored
water they are using to rinse with!

This week’s theme for the 2012 Readathon that I mentioned earlier this month is about Friendship.  Friendship is an important concept for all of us. Some of us have friends nearby and others of us have friends who live thousands of miles away that we only talk to on the phone or via email and see infrequently.  How do you explain friendship to a toddler?

Well, after reading “Lott’s Tea Party” we happened to be invited to a great party that a friend of mine put together.  It was themed Messy Monday and there were about 8 under fives in all. The party took place on the beach and all the moms brought something to contribute to the messiness and the general chaos of the day.  

The kids had to learn to take turns, share, and play nicely.  One of the best activites that we did that day was the Chocolate covered Slip n Slide. Yes, you heard right… chocolate covered! There was chocolate pudding, chocolate sauce, whipping cream, marshmallows, and chocolate chips.  Sounds messy right? IT WAS!  Luckily we did it at the beach – which is one of the great perks about living here J no one had a mess in their home. The kids weren’t too sure about this, but C dived right in and got covered. Eventually it degenerated into a sauce squirting game of who can cover the other kid in sauce first; but all the kids got along, and took turns.  We also finger painted our bodies, played in flour, and made Gak. The kids needed to take turns and be patience as not everyone could play the same game at the same time, but they didn't mind as there was tons to do.

After we left the playdate, all C could talk about was his friends and what a good time he had.  He told me that everyone was nice and he liked his friends.  There were no demands to stay neat and tidy at this playdate, nor were there any issues with kids being mean. Basically it was a day that celebrated friendship and how to be a nice friend to other people.  I think that this activity really celebrated the theme of friendship that was promoted for the readathon – don’t you?

Planning for next year - Preschool (YIKES!)

I love planning. I get all excited and like to browse and look at stuff for ideas for HOURS! C is going to be 3 soon - where did the time go? He gets bored easily and wants to do work like A, so I figured I needed to do more with him this coming school season. I don't expect to do worksheets, or activity pages or anything, but I think we will do unit studies in conjuction with what A is studying or whatever takes his fancy.  Of course, I have been looking at all these ideas from all these great sites and it's easy to get carried away. That being said, I created my list of goals for C today and it looks something like this:

Know:

Colors

Shapes

Counting objects to 5

Be able to sort different objects by color, size, and/or shape

Be able to sort animals according to characteristics

Draw a circle, square, triangle

Be able to complete an ABC pattern

Sing songs

Be able to do:

Lacing work

Pasting

Cutting

Coloring

Crafting

Puzzle work

Building skills

Sharing

Patience

Would be nice:

Recognize A, C, D, M, S

To change:

Less TV, more books and toys

More one on one time

More hands on fun like painting and messy work

As you can see, there is nothing in the above list that involves "seat work" - which is how it should be. I have found a site called Confessions of a Homeschooler that has some great free printables for lacing, patterning, letters, and colors. She has puzzles that correspond with each letter that I will be using just as puzzles - we will talk about the animals on those puzzles and the beginning letter sounds, but I TOTALLY don't expect him to know those sounds. I do want to expose him to that concept though so that when we start PreKinder stuff he has heard the idea before and it isn't alien.

So far I have decided that we will make a cardboard car and gas pump, sensory floor tiles(round or square cardboard tiles covered in different stuff like sponges, Bath sponges, bubble wrap, etc), lacing cards, sensory balloons, craft stick shapes, giant felt shapes, a felt button worm made from felt scraps that can be ordered by color or shape, etc.  

Some of the items that I can't make, I will have to buy.  Those include wooden puzzles, sorting trays(wood silverware trays), craft items like paint, pom poms, etc, aquarium gravel, rawhide dog bones in all shapes and conditions for dinosaur bone hunts, stampers, paint rollers, and dot dot painters, etc.  IF you live up in the great white north and want me to send you money for when you go to Goodwill and can pick me up some of those things, I'd be super excited :) Send me a message, I'll send you money :) :)

Readathon 2012 - The Lion and the Mouse

A few days ago I stumbled across a great website called MeMeTales This site has a dual purpose. It allows aspiring writers to publish their own stories(for kids) and it also brings innovative books to children in an engaging platform.  MeMeTales has both free ebooks and ebooks you can purchase.  You can have the books read aloud to your child, printed off, or if your child is reading, they can read the book without the audio.

For the summer, MeMeTales is partnering with PBSKids, Harper Collins, Orca Books, Little Pickle Press, and others to bring you some great ebooks.  There are aps for your iPhone, Kindle Fire, iPad, and computer that allow you to download the books and set your little one up with hours of reading fun.  For the month of June, if you sign up with MemeTales you get 20 free ebooks that can either be read aloud or that can be read silently. After reading or listening to each book, your child earns sticker rewards that you can print out and glue onto their certificate.

Jungle animals singing don't wake the lion

If you want to participate, here is a link that takes you to the how to participate page.

Each week has different theme with activities to go along with theme.  Week 1 is animals. This makes me super excited as C loves all things animals and the books are simple enough that both A and C can do animal based activities together and reenact some of the books.

The book we listened to today was The Lion and the Mouse by Lavanya R.N.  We listened to the book  this morning and I LOVED it. It is the traditional tale of the mouse helping the lion, but the illustrations, the slightly Indian twist to the story line, and the audio made the book really come alive. C gasped in the scary parts, laughed when the lion roared and laughed, and cheered at the end when the lion got free of the net.  He also danced to the musical part. Really, listen to this book. It's fab.

"Squeek, squeek"

I figured that I wanted him to really remember this book - it has a great message after all. We grabbed his animal toys, his holey blanket, and reenacted the story line. Of course since he is just coming on 3 years old, it wasn't exactly like the book, but the mouse made squeaky noises, the lion roared(and snored), and he freed the lion.  After which, he made the mouse pounce and wrestle the lion - but hey - it was his reenactment!

Saving the lion from the net.

I can see us playing lion and mouse for many days in the future.

Thanks MeMeTales for great books and letting my children's imaginations grow because you started this service. we are hooked and will keep reading all Summer :)

Thursday Thanksfulness

It's the little things, right?  Last year, our neighbor's Mango tree was EXPLODING with mangos. This year, it looks like there won't be any :( On our way to town, we found:

Life is good when you can grab a free range Mango and rescue it from getting run over. It was literally laying in the middle of the road. So as any good Crucian would do, I sent A to cross the street and grab it up before a car could squash it.  It is perfect. It is one of the prettiest mangos I have seen in a LLLOONNGG time.

C has been jonesing for a Garbage truck since Christmas. Every night(no, really, EVERY night) before he goes to sleep he asks if HOHO(Santa) will bring him a garbage truck. I know Santa can work miracles, but I am not sure he knows where to find a garbage truck. I have looked because I thought that maybe we'd take over HOHO's job and get C one for his birthday, but haven't been able to find on on internet land.  Well, what to my wondering eyes should appear at the St. Croix Animal Shelter Flea Market today, than a big orange Garbage truck! So, thank you, thank you, thank you to whomever dropped that guy off and boy am I glad and thankful that I can stop looking now :)

Be thankful. It's the little stuff that counts.