reading

I love teaching kids to read. I spent the years before being a mommy teaching other children these skills. That moment when they sound out a word and get it, or read a story, comprehend it and laugh.  It is precious and so important.

And now I want my own kids to love reading.
(because I sure do)

This morning I walked into Peter's room and this is what I found.



Hannah sitting on the bed, "reading" books to Peter.
By "reading" I mean showing him the pictures and telling him something about the page.

Peter was sitting in his crib, enthralled and holding his own book, trying to "read".

All of these are little, necessary steps in the journey to becoming a reader.

Success! 

(or at least the first steps of it.)

These are the moments that melt my heart as a mommy and encourage me as a teacher.

Fall

Fall is fully upon us!

With a Thanksgiving Feast

hugs for aunties

and sisters

the changing of leaves

reunion of family

(in this picture are 4 generations of Hill ladies)

hats for our heads

boots to keep our feet warm and dry

lots of bundled up backyard play time

on bikes

in our new-to-us playhouse

some tears 

(I think they come with every season)

and lots of smiles!

dishes

Tonight I put Hannah to work scrubbing a dried egg mess on one of our pans.
(nope, it wasn't a chore she actually asked to wash dishes.)

I stepped away to check something and when I turned around Peter was on the chair with her,
throwing my clean colander out of the drying rack and laughing!

I grabbed my camera as he clapped and got off the chair to retrieve the colander,

put it on his head

 

and climb back up to "help" Hannah.

my kids make me laugh!

splash

If you ask Hannah what we did today, she would say "we saw fishies and they splashed us!"

If you ask Peter what we did today, his eyes would get really wide and he'd say (very excitedly) " aaahh!"

Both are pretty good descriptions of our return visit to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery.

Now the salmon (which are the size of Hannah) are swimming up the ladders to the holding pen and jumping like crazy!

It was quite a show!

One huge one jumped up so close to us and got us so wet that it felt like we were in a Shamu show at Sea World.

trying to get a photo with my kiddos 

(yes, Hannah wore a Thanksgiving headband she made at preschool all morning long)

the "ladders"

Hannah waving to her shadow!

I looked up from watching the fish and saw the shadows of onlookers across the wall and thought it looked very artistic and snapped a photo.  

It's amazing how much you can see in one's shadow.

teeth

Today mommy and Hannah had a special date with the dentist.

I had my routine cleaning and Hannah sat patiently, colored, talked with the hygienist and occasionally got up and peered in my mouth to see what was happening.

Then it was her turn.

She got in the chair,

opened her mouth and let the hygienist count her teeth.

10 on top and 10 on the bottom. Perfect!

And she's done!

(this was a warm-up for a few months from now when she's ready for a full exam)

Then it was off to the treasure chest to choose a treat.

Showing off her pearly whites and her Winnie the Pooh puzzle treat.

The head dentist is a very kind man who goes to our church and before we left he came out and gave Hannah this chocolate brown teddy bear.  The receptionist suggested we call him "Brownie".  

We went out to the car strapped "Brownie" into Peter's car seat (which Hannah thought was hilarious) and drove home to tell daddy and Peter all about our adventures.

I must say that I am not one who likes going to the dentist but going with a cute, bubbly 3 year old for whom I must be brave makes it all the better!

Halloween pt. 2

Pumpkin Carving

With little kids around, it seems that Matt & I have been very consistent about purchasing pumpkins and very terrible about actually carving pumpkins. Well, this year we set out to change that.

After the Trunk or Treat, we changed out of costumes and got ready to do the messy business of pumpkin carving.

Hannah drew a face on her pumpkin.



And Daddy set to work cutting open the pumpkins - it was fascinating work.

Then came the kids' role of scooping out the seeds.

Peter stopped for a taste test.

Then back to work.

I got involved to make sure that the seeds actually made their way out of the pumpkin.

And then decided to start having some fun.

Because really, having kids is a lot of work but grasping the opportunities for silly, messy fun is without question one of the best perks of parenthood.

And for my daughter who hates being messy - she got a kick out of mommy chasing her with gooey hands.

Joy!

Eeewww!

Fun!

Back to work

And yes, our pumpkins did actually get carved into jack-o-lanterns but my hands were much too messy by that point to take a picture.

Halloween pt. 1

(Some much delayed pictures of Halloween)

MOPS Trunk or Treat

My little nemo with her green dinosaur (Toby) and basket - all ready to get some treats!

A fish, a sailor and a pumpkin (kind of sounds like a good start for a joke...)

giving hugs before the fun starts

time to fill our baskets

very focused!

That was fun!

Can you tell that they are siblings?

Oh yes! This happens everyday in our house.

Some more fun pics from the morning