Monday, July 22nd

With school on the agenda for the day and not much else, it seemed like a great morning to let the kids have some fun in the kitchen (and/or screened-in porch).  Scarlett got dressed and ready for the day, then went into the kitchen to rummage around and emerge with both her and Abigail (her doll) dressed in aprons.  She asked if she could bake an apple pie, and while I didn't have all the necessary elements to make that happen we did have a box of brownie mix languishing in the pantry.  After conferring momentarily, she and Abigail decided that would do just fine.

Of course as soon as they heard stirrings in the kitchen, Lincoln and Victoria wanted to put on their aprons and do something kitchen-y also. I decided a measuring cup/colored water combination would keep them entertained for a while, and it sure did! Interspersing math and reading lessons for each of them in with the various baking and water activities ended up taking us almost to lunchtime!  After rest and a bit of playing it was time for karate, then home for dinner, downtime and bed.

Scarlett asked if she could borrow the baby's bouncy seat so that Abigail could watch her bake.

Such a cute little apron for the doll, handmade by Grammie Wright.

Reading the instructions.

So stinking cute :-)

The mad scientists - sometimes they were "cooking" but sometimes they were "making special robot medicine for Ultron."

Measuring out the purple carefully.

They are just having fun, but unbeknownst to them it's also improving their eye-hand coordination and muscle control. A win-win :-) 

Nearly finished!

Scarlett, doing her read aloud to Grammie and Waverly.  It's amazing to hear how fluid she is reading after working on it for just a few days (and each section she only read one time prior to this reading). 

Victoria also wanted a turn to bake brownies, and so I let her make up a package also (we have a LOT of brownies now, haha).  She did very well!  

Scarlett was eager for her turn to play with the water.

When Lincoln's interest started to wane, I had him get out their little funnels and work on pouring the water back into the bottles.  He really loved that!

Indulging in brownies after all of their hard "work!"

I took this picture as photographic evidence that we do, in fact, have a second cat named Holly-Molly.  It is the most skittish, half-feral cat and really doesn't like anyone or let anyone touch her; she loves our dog and will follow him around and cry if they're not together.  But back to today - Victoria decided she WAS going to catch the cat and she roped Lincoln into helping her.  Sure enough, with his help they managed to apprehend Holly-Molly!  After keeping her sequestered in the closet for all of rest time, the cat escaped...only to be recaptured by Scarlett.

Jim took the kids to karate since he was working from home and had the availability.  Gram went with him so she could watch the kids - I think she really enjoyed it!

Before leaving for karate, Lincoln came over to me and said, "Well, mommy... I felled in love with Janice." hahaha!  Janice is a sweet little 5 year old girl in his class - he talks about her quite a bit.  Over the weekend he, out of the blue, told me, "I love Janice because she helps me tie my belt!" (sometimes his belt comes untied in class and she hurries over to help him fix it)

Lining up for kicks!