Happy equinox!!!!

Welcome Fall and all the beauty that you bring. We spent the day harvesting acorns, grapes, and pears. The little ones receive two new books; The Story of the Wind children and Turn on the Night. We ended the day with a upside down elderberry cake and tea.

Harvesting Elderberries with Daddy

Someone in our old neighborhood has a elderberry tree just over flowing with berries who was good enough to let us have them. so Amelie and daddy went and picked the whole tree this afternoon. They where able to pick two 5 gallon buckets worth!

Here we are separating the berries from the stems (daddy behind the camera as usual, thank you daddy), next we'll be drying them to make Elderberry syrup in the winter. Great to keep the immune system strong.

Eli's book corner-The Witches by Roald Dahl

This is our first book review, I thought this would be a good way to keep track of the books we read through the years in a way that's fun for Eli and me so here goes.

Mom; did you like this book alittle or a lot?
Eli; a lot!
Mom; what was your favorite part?
Eli; the end when they go after the witches.
Mom; Did you like anything else about the book?
Eli; the beginning , when the the grandma told about the witches.

My review, my favorite Roald Dahl book yet. Absolutely loved it. He is definitely one of my favorite children's authors and can't wait to dive into all his books. So far we've read of his Matilda (which Eli loved, one of her favorites), The Magic Finger,Fantastic Mister Fox and The Minpins. Next we will be reading James and the giant peach.
Happy Reading.

Elis' Mr. bear

cuteness galore!!!! she so creative. :)

Leaf collage at the Open Classroom

Today was my co-op day. For our art time We read the leaf man book, then went for a nature walk to collect materials for our collages. The kids really enjoyed it.

At the farmers market

Here we are at the piano bike hanging out with Eric we also brought home a bunch of organic asian/japanese veggies which i'm totally ecstatic about. Bokchoy, asian eggplant, long beans, asian spinach. We found a really great fresh noodle stand, and brought home some, fresh ramen and udon noodles.

The Open Class Room experiment

So we've been going to open class room for the last couple weeks now. we decided to give it a try.First of all we're super grateful that we have the opportunity to be there. And it is a wonderful school but i do have a lot of mixed feelings. There are a lot of opportunities, first and for most the socialization factor. We were having a difficult time finding playmates for Eli that were her age and now she has more then she can handle. There are definitely a lot of resources, we have access to a cilm, gym, theater, instruments and art supplies. Not to mention the collective knowledge of the parents and teachers. It's a super respectful environment towards children and the schools overall beliefs reflect my own. I love the sense of community over all and the way any bulling is kept in check by the shear amount of adults present at all times. ON the other hand i not thrilled with the way they are pushing reading at such an early age. I don't like the aspect of controlled learning but that comes with the territory. Our morning schedule is filled all week leaving no room for anything spontaneous, not to mention Eli is to exhausted by the end of the day to do anything else. There have been so many changes to the school that it seems more and more like an average public school everyday. They are using core curriculum. not to mention next year Eli would be in a full time schedule 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, ahhhhh!!! sigh............to sum it i'm not sure what we will be doing next year, partial enrollment is definitely at the for front of my mind, best of both worlds right ;) whether that option is available I have yet to confirm.

At the cafe

This is our new hang out spot, great yellow thai curry, and Thai veggie soup! The coffees okay but the atmosphere is lovely and so are the people.

Bunny napping in the squash plant

This is her new favorite spot, last month it was under the tomatoes wall. She such a sweety.

Making homemade pasta

Red quinoa :)

Tea party time

We invited or friends Amy, Wivi,Nolia, and Eric to a tea party. We served lavender short bread, blackberry upside down cake, blueberry milk tea and earl grey! So much fun! We read one of my favorite picture books , Little Blue. We also made mini fairy gardens at the end.

Hiking on the Natural History Museum trails

We took a little side trip after exploring the museum. The trails were so much fun, lots of shrub oaks and beautiful view of the city.