In My Garden

As you can imagine, the amount of worksheets, drawings, and crafts that come home from school (x3) has forced me to become very choosy about what I keep and what I toss. In fact, I tend to keep the written pieces more than the visual ones -- my own literary bias, I suppose. However, last week Davis came home with this one, and I knew instantly it was a keeper. It warmed my heart at so many levels, especially as an avid gardener and newly minted Paleo-er. Look how neat that printing is!

Dinosaur Expert

Sometimes your kids do things so indescribably adorable that it seems like it must be a scripted moment...but it's not. The other day Addison produced this list of ways he could become a dinosaur expert. No, really. You can't make this stuff up.

The Artist

On Wednesday I got a totally unexpected email from Davis's Kindergarten teacher. One of his art pieces was selected to be displayed in the district art exhibit.

It was held at the high school and featured works from every grade through 12th from acriss the entire district.

Although the grin seems subdued, you could tell that Davis was really pleased with all the attention he got. He has really blossomed as an artist. Although he's always loved to draw, ever since we got him a book about drawing this past Christmas, his pictures have taken on a new dimension and maturity. I really think he has a gift.

Here is his work (pink background) with the other Kindergarteners who were selected. You can see that there were only a few, which made the honor all the more special.

We enjoyed perusing the other creations, which included sculpture, drawing, painting, pottery, and other mediums. While we browsed the choir sang show tunes.

Horseback Riding

Genevie is definitely an animal person, but a couple of animals have particularly stolen her heart -- and horses are one of them.

She was invited to a friend's birthday party last weekend, and one of the planned activities was riding a real horse.

She never ceases to amaze me at how she enthusiastically embraces new things. If this had been one of her brothers, I have no doubt they would have needed me next to them for reassurance. Genevie, by contrast, hopped on the horse with a smile a mile wide.

How can you look at the joy on that face and not feel happiness yourself?

Chest

You won't believe it, but I've started back on an old project -- putting each year's worth of blog entries into a blog book with Blurb. I was seriously behind. As in three and a half years behind. But I'm excited to say that I am now nearly caught up.

In the process of creating these blog books, it's been such a pleasure to read back through entries of events and anecdotes that I've long forgotten, and the pictures make it jump off the page and come alive. It made me realize that my blogging has definitely changed over the years, and one of the ways it's changed is that I no longer share on here the daily tid-bits or hilarious quips that the kids come up with nearly as much as I used to. These are -- to steal a line from the cotton commercials -- the fabric of our lives. Perhaps it's just the way our lives have been so infiltrated by social media, but I realize that I mostly put these funny stories up on Facebook. I think I want to be more intentional though about sharing them here too because Facebook doesn't lend itself to a memorialized volume, like the blog does. So without further ado, here's a little vignette from the other day.

While I was combing Genevie's hair the following interchange ensued:

Genevie: Mom, I can't wait until I'm five and then six and then seven.

Me: Why can't you wait until you're seven?

Genevie: Becuase then I can play chest (chess). That's what it says on the box.

Get this girl some chess lessons. 

A Steak-eatin' Kinda Girl

I'm not gonna lie. Getting Genevie to eat dinner is hit or miss. Mostly miss. So when I land on a clear winner, like Nom Nom Paleo's Slow Cooker Roast Chicken and Gravy, it tends to find its way into the dinner rotation with more frequency.

This week when I went shopping I discovered that Trader Joe's sells frozen grass fed rib eye steaks at a fairly reasonable price. On a whim I decided to get two with the idea that maybe I could get the kids to eat it. Since they're eating Paleo now, it's become more imperative than ever that they eat what we eat at dinner time. I simply don't have grilled cheese and frozen nuggets as a "go-to" for quick meals when they don't like what Trey and I are having. Interestingly, this has meant that, in general, they have been far more cooperative about trying things at dinner time. Hunger is a powerful motivator!

The cooking fairies must have been with me last night because the steak was grilled to perfection. I started it on the stove in my cast-iron grill pan, and then transferred it to the oven to finish it. I like a nice medium rare steak. Trey prefers it closer to medium. Well, it ended up being the best of both worlds. The ends were more medium and the center was a perfect medium rare. Trey and I devoured ours, which were juicy and flavorful -- definitely the best steaks I've ever made to date -- but the point of this post is how the children, in particular Genevie, reacted. They inhaled the steak (cut into uber-tiny pieces, of course). In fact, Davis asked for seconds, and this little recorded gem is what Genevie produced. OK, so I didn't catch her on camera saying it the first, and, yes, I asked her to say it again. But you get the idea!

Note: For those of you who have a hard time deciphering the quips of 4 year olds with mouths full of steak, she says: "This is so much more better than chicken. I love it!"

Mani Pedi

To say Genevie is attached to her dad would be a huge understatement. In fact, when Trey was first planning his recent trip to Atlanta my biggest concern was how she would handle it. The last time he went by himself, which was about two years ago, she cried herself to sleep each night. Granted she's two years older and at least incrementally more mature. Even so, I was uncertain what to expect.

Trey and I both did as much as we could to prep her and help her understand that Daddy would be back in just two days. Then I came up with the idea of doing something really special to give her something to look forward to while he was gone. Mani-pedis it was!

Genevie was in heaven. She had this glow about her, soaking in the whole experience with the eagerness and delight of the newly initiated.

And I have to admit -- these are exactly the kinds of mother/daughter activities I dreamed about when we learned we were having that long-awaited girl. Here's to many more mani-pedi dates!