Hitting the Drive Thru For Lunch

I've tried applying author Gretchen Rubin's point that what we do a little bit every day matters more than what we do every once in a while, in several areas of my/our lives.

It works in homeschooling too.

I've served lunch at a "restaurant" before for fun.  We are doing it daily now and the girls love getting their paper money, ordering at the drive-thru on their trikes, parking in the parking lot, looking over the menu and then paying for their food.  Caroline practices counting her coins and Jenna figures out the change she is owed. (I started this because Jenna was very confused about when and why you get money back when you pay for something).  This little bit of math everyday is making a big difference in their understanding of change.  Even more importantly, it's a lot of fun.  This is "Sally's."

oh....and lots of times we serve animals too!

This Moment

The Spaces She Creates

Nearly everyday, Jenna builds a small structure of some sort.  She builds for her people, her Barbies, wondering fairies looking for a place to spend the night, and injured insects needing a soft bed and safe home.   Building, building, on and off, sometimes for several hours, with blocks and bark, legos and fabric, flowers and leaves and cardboard boxes.  Sometimes she plays only briefly with what she's built, declaring that her people need to move (and explaining to us that often the fun is in the construction itself).  Sometimes her homes are played with for many days, scattered in all sorts of random places. Only when they have been abandoned for a string of days do we dare to take them apart (uh...or when we need the coffee table back or keep tripping over them :).  Here are just a few I've caught on camera over the last couple of months:

Barbie Bed atop a closet:

   
A Fairy House in the works---she checked diligently for several days for signs of usage. 

I think this one was a Lego pontoon boat, or maybe a submarine

A Cabin with a Loft

 And then there are the mini-farms she creates with her red barn... 

 

This is the latest one she's worked on...A House for the paper dolls which includes a chicken coop....

and an outhouse...

When she saw me working on this post, she said, "Daddy, are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Will you please build a lego house with me?"  So, they were off and I've listened to the tink of lego pieces as I finish my computer "work."  :)

Some Firsts For the Four-Year-Old of the House

1.  The First Violin Lesson...

The student was quite shy at first, despite loving Ms. Olivia very much, preferring to keep a little hand on Mommy's leg for the first 1/3 of the lesson.  But then she began to revel a bit in the attention and I'm pretty sure she smiled the entire time. 

Note:  Not that either parent here thinks our four-year-old needs to start playing the violin, but we have a such a wonderful, sweet teacher, we are already going for lessons anyway, we thought it would be good for Caroline to get to share in the lesson she sits patiently in every week for her sister and when we asked her if she wanted to start she said, "Yeah."  This is her one and only "extracurricular" activity, beyond playing and naps.  :)  I'm still not 100% convinced now is exactly the time for her to begin playing, but given the positive atmosphere we are doing it in, at least there shouldn't be any harm in it.  :)

2. Writing Her Own Name

While Jenna was working on some writing, Caroline started making all the letters she knew (see the first line of letters in the picture).  Obviously wanting more to write, she asked me to please write her name on the paper.  She then promptly began to copy the letters on her own, struggling only a bit with the harder ones (but didn't need to ask for help), without having any idea what most of the letters were.  The three of us all "oohed and aahed" for a bit.  She wasn't finished though, writing her name several more times and requesting more words like "shirt" and "chicken." Sweetness, sweetness.  (oh and how much I love her morning hair). 

Thunderstorm

An approaching Thunderstorm at Pop and Grandma Rita's--Jenna is hurriedly gathering some "awesome" dirt to take home and play with

Our trip to North Carolina and Tennessee

We left on the fourth of July for Asheville, North Carolina area.  Once we hit the Magic Road, the girls dug into their bags and settled in for seven hours+ of driving.

 

 

We headed here to escape the oppressive record-breaking heat and drought, to remember what it felt like to be outside almost all day again on adventures instead of holed up in air-conditioned, darkened rooms.  Day 1 consisted mainlyl of driving, but on day 2, we headed straight to the water of DuPont Falls Park.

 

  Hooker Falls

 



The water was oh-so-cold, but exhilarating.  We stayed until early afternoon swimming, sun-bathing, climbing on rocks, and playing in the waterfall.

 

Blue Lips

On Day 3, we visited a Gem Mine.  The kids loved it!!  We walked away with several bags of gems--smokey quartz, rubies, fool's gold, amethyst, etc.  

We visited Sliding Rock next.  It's a 50ft or so natural rock slide that dumps you, not very gently, into a 7 foot pool of frigid water.  The line for this was loooonng, but moved quickly and it was fun to watch the varying speeds and positions of those going down before us.  Caroline insisted she didn't want to go, but Bryan talked her into it.  Once.  Upon hitting the ice cold water, she said very matter-of-factly, "I don't want to do that again. :)  After we were through sliding, we played in the mountain river away from the Big Rock and cooked beef stew and lasagna on the Jet boil. 

 

 

We finished the night off in downtown Asheville.  

 

 

Day 4.  Saturday. Lake Lure nearly all day long.  This was the hottest day!  I built a sandcastle w/the girls in the morning while Bryan went for a mountain run.  I ended up taking a break from the heat in the afternoon and read about hiking the AT in the shade away from the beach, while Daddy played with the girls. The girls certainly did not need a break and swam for hours.

 

Oh and I almost forgot--each night ended with a trip to YoLos Frozen Yogurt Bar, where you get to serve yourself.  All sorts of combinations were created--coffee-flavored yogurt topped with gummy worms, peanut butter-flavored yogurt mixed with Ferrero Rochero and Nutter Butters sprinkled on top....and some of us (Caroline) stuck with what she knew worked: Vanilla Bean and rainbow sprinkles all three nights. 

 

 

Day 5:  Smoky Mountains and Clingman's Dome.

We were in the car a lot on Day 5.  Mountain driving is slow going.  It was another really hot day for this area.  We enjoyed the old mountain home set up in the entrance to the park.  It took about an hour to get up to the parking lot of Clingman's.  When we got there it was 30 degrees cooler than at the bottom (66) and cloudy and raining!  We couldn't see much, but the air felt fantastic.  It was a brutal little half-mile walk to the top.  Jenna said we couldn't stop once until we made it breathlessly to the top.  Caroline needed to hitch a ride on Dad, but she was foregoing a nap to see this place, after-all.  

 

3D topographic map at the Welcome Center.  The girls found Clingman's on here before we left.

At the top of the dome

Bryan and I are in love with this area.  Cooler mountain air and whitewater all around.  A bookstore I could visit every, single week.  Drum circles in downtown Asheville every Friday night (the kids used empty water bottles filled with dirt and rocks to shake to the rhythm).  We left with plans and dreams of overnight hikes here--even the girls were excited at the notion of hiking part of the AT--a whitewater family adventure, and more camping. We will be back. I'm talking to you too, YoLos!

Seven

This is what seven looks like:





Jenna.

Giggler.  Ballet Dancer.  Reader.  Sweet Hugger.  Top Bunk Girl.  Bike Rider.  Minuet 3 Player.  Screamer.  Star Wars Lover.  "People" and Barbie Player.  Swimmer.  Blogger.  Story Lover.  Big Sister.  Adored Daughter.  Eager Tickle Monster Recipient.  Pet lover.  Harry Potter Fan.  Bird Watcher. 

Fixes her own hair.  Often shares with her sister.  Gets her gigglebox turned on.  Never turns down a fingertip rub. Fascinated by the Titanic.  Says if she had an Indian name it would be "Wildness."



This girl is seven.

 

How we celebrated her birthday:

Special breakfast followed by Glendale picnic with Aunt Lori.  Home for lunch and then a party at YaYa's Island with her best friends.  It was a good, good day.