Celebrating Pipeyday

(Missed me? Yeah, I missed you too.) 

Part One:

On December 4th our sweet Miss Pipey turned three!  She is such a big girl now.  I thought it would be fun to list some things you may or may not know about Piper and then (of course) slam you with pictures. 

- She has several nicknames besides just Pipey.  I call her Sparky.  Her daddy calls her Skippy Bippy. (or just Skippy) And Fisher calls her Pipes.  She answers to all.

- She loves all things pink, purple, yellow, and sparkly.  Also princesses and fairies.  And bugs and dirt and dogs.

- She got her very first black eye at three years and one day.  (she's still recovering from that one) It happened in the cart at Costco.  She slipped and smashed her sweet little face. 

- She sings herself to sleep.  Loudly.  It's so awesome.  One day I hope to video it somehow without her knowing.  She gets quieter when she thinks you're listening. 

- She will try ANY food once.  Anything.  Just the other day she and Daddy were eating jalapeno stuffed olives.  Which she loved.  She even liked the burning...for a minute.  Then she decided they made her stomach hurt.  But still!  Three years old and eating super spicy stuff.

- She likes hot sauce on her eggs, eats hummus with a spoon, and will snatch every speck of a salad off your plate.  She even ordered the kids salad bar the last time we went to a restaurant.  (Having an extremely picky older brother makes all this super strange)

- She loves dancing.  As a matter of fact, she dances ANYTIME music comes on.  Even music on commercials.

- Her favorite TV show is Angelina Ballerina. (shocking I know!)  She even insists I do her hair to look like mouse ears and call her Angelina on occasion.

- She calls flowers...fowlers.  And I hope she NEVER starts saying it the right way.


Now for the pictures... mostly cookies and present opening.

Our friends invited us over for pizza and a giant cookie on Saturday (Dec. 3rd) to celebrate their daughter Onora's 2nd birthday.  Yay for Onora!!

 Then we added a candle and and sang to Pipey!  She's trying not to freak out here as everyone sang to her.  Remember Fisher's 3rd b-day freak out?  I should look for that video...

 Beautiful (and edible) butterflies on the cookie.

Checking out Onora's new toys.  (in case you are wondering - that is braided Angelina hair)

The birthday morning!

This one cracks me up.

Baby cradle and excitement.

Every girl needs a pink castle.

Castle furniture and an up close of the birthday crown.

And a pink and purple sewing machine!!

She is just the sweetest little thing ever! We are so lucky to have this bright sparkly light in our lives. She makes every day better than the one before. We love you Pipey!

Love,
JKF & Bob

And as it's friday I'm linking up with Happily Home Sewn and her Peek of the Week!  I feel I should warn you - her peek today will totally make you want to have a baby.


**  Part two coming soon. 

The Junky Park

I've lived in this neighborhood for 8 or 9 years now.  It's just on the edge of the ghetto.  Our particular block is fairly safe (if you don't count all our stolen/vandalized/hit and run cars and what not) but go a little ways up the street and not so much.  There's a park on the other end (the nice end) of our block and across a pretty busy street.  I've always referred to this as "the junky park" and we didn't go there.  We got in the car and drove across town to nicer parks.  And that's just fine.  I felt good about it.  But now, things may be changing.  We went sledding at the "junky park" a couple weeks ago and I don't know if it's just that everything looks prettier in the snow or what but we decided to give it another shot.  Well, the only shot really.  It. Was. Awesome.

There is a basketball court and a playground plus tons of running around space.  Johnny went with us and we had so much fun!  The kids found an abandoned (and flat) basketball and spent an hour trying to get it in the hoop.

Then they gave that up for running and kicking it. 

Johnny's thinking..."Man that's high."

Still trying.

So...everybody write this on your calendar.  I WAS WRONG.  The junky park is totally not junky.


They are Peekin' over at Happily Home Sewn and I'm linkin'.

Learning: It's awesome.

Here's a learning update for you!  Lots of pictures of what we do around here school wise.  It's been fun.  I think we've almost become unschoolers in that Fisher becomes interested in something and we sort of run with it.  But we occasionally still do worksheets. :) 

I especially love hearing/seeing Fisher teach his sister.  I believe it's also a good learning exercise for him.  A review of sorts.

 Piper working on her handwork.  Beading or "sewing" as she calls it.

We also really enjoy learning about arts and crafts.  I've told you where I stand on creativity.  It's pretty important.

Here we are learning about weaving.

 Fisher's not quite finished product.

Pipey's finished product.

Apple stamping on fabric.  I'm not sure what we'll do with these yet.  A wall hanging maybe?

Paper mache with Daddy.  They are making a pinata.  (still a work in progress)

An ongoing batik project that will become a quilt.  I love this picture.

We also like to use "real life" for our lessons.  A few weeks ago Fisher and I pulled up the carpet in the living room and dining room.  Real life.

Here's the before shot.

And here's the after.  My little tack strip removal expert was learning all about levers.

 Piper is observing cousin Shelby's cows.  Again, real life.

Sometimes James or I will come up with something that we can learn about and have a little impromptu lesson. For instance, we talked in the car last week about the different states of water. Gas, liquid, solid. We were on our way to hit the trail with Carly and Johnny which provided the perfect opportunity to witness two of those states in action. A stream with frozen sections. Then we talked about how applying the opposite of cold (that freezes) to the water makes steam or the gas. It was a fun little science lesson that we applied right there.  Hands on.

That's one of the things I like best about this.  The hands on learning.  It's one thing to read about science in a book, but this is something altogether different.  Finding something cool on the trail and talking about it.

Pine cones are seeds.

Baking is science and science is baking.  This project takes that to a whole new level.  James (with a little help from Fisher.  Though admittedly not much.) made a solar oven yesterday.  They started baking cookies.  Now, full disclosure, the oven building took a little longer than anticipated and the sun went behind the mountain before the cookies were fully cooked.  BUT, we plan to try again next weekend.  And really, how much fun would it be to always have your science experiment work out perfectly?

Man, it is bright!

 That's some powerful sunlight!

I don't have any pictures of this as I'm usually participating but we also play a LOT of games.  There are so many things and ways to learn by game playing!  Math & bug bingo, Appleletters, Candyland, Uno, Animal Yahtzee, Memory and more.  All learning. 

My favorite part of all this?  Watching him (or her) have difficulty with something and then getting to see the light bulb go off and watch all the pieces click into place.  I get to see him shine with pride as he figures it out.  Heck, we get to share our pride filled looks with each other.  There is a lot of high fiving going on around here.

You probably guessed this already as it's Friday and all...I'm linking this to the Peek of the Week over at Happily Home Sewn!






JKFP

Creative Thursdays.

I'm thinking of making this a regular Thursday event.  Maybe not for you all (in blogland), but for us.  Creative Thursdays can be anything really.  A big (or small) craft project or just creative play.  Here's our first one.

Never underestimate the power of a giant box...

Or two giant boxes connected with sheets.

   

You could string them with Christmas lights.

Or pretend and read books.

On a slightly related note (creatively speaking), you could nap in a unicorn costume.  OR nap in a unicorn costume INSIDE a giant box?

It's Thursday.  Get creative.

Wishing We Were...

We are not feeling well today.  It's especially a bummer as it's gymnastics day and we have to miss it.  Oh and I broke up with Target because every. single. time we go there (three days later) we get sick.  Seriously.  We were there Friday.

Anyhoo, we went for a hike Friday morning with Carly and Johnny. It was so beautiful and crisp. Perfect hiking weather.  Carly and I shared camera duty. 

Pre-hike group hug. (minus me, of course)

The first adventure leader.

I'm pretty sure this one is seconds before Johnny crashed.  Trying to keep up with the big kids can be hard sometimes.

Cutest nephew ever?



We were going for a picture of Carly with the kids.  There they all are running for the 8 foot (ish) drop off.  So... sort of a group shot success? 



Pipey took over as adventure leader.

Johnny was getting a little tired and needed a boost.

Piper was very upset that her leadership was ignored by her brother.

I'm pretty sure she was getting a little tired too.

She was devastated when I pulled the pouch out and informed her Johnny was going in it.

This was the only solution that (kinda) pleased everyone.  She was still mad he was in the pouch.

And that's how it went.

Double fisting two sleepy kids.  Isn't she precious?

This one too.

Taking a breather to check out an airplane.

It was a lovely little hike.  I feel like I got a pretty good workout in there too.  And just so you don't think Carly is a schmuck, she had torn ligaments in her back not too long ago and hasn't totally healed.  So carrying kids = not a good idea. Plus, I was evenly distributed this way.

We wish we were hiking this morning too.  Alas, Johnny is on his way to the Dr. office, Fisher is trying to keep his toast down, and Piper is sneezing all over the place.  Fingers crossed we all feel better soon.  And that nobody shares germs.  Yeah right. 

JKFP

You're Welcome.

This was us cleaning her room yesterday.  Pay no attention to all the piles of crap as they are no longer there.  Oh and no Pipey's were hurt in the making of this video.


Warning:  This WILL make you laugh.  Do not watch while eating or drinking.