Camp Katie Day Nov 2010

It has been a while since we had a Camp Katie Day here in our corner of the Garden State. Yesterday, Princess and Peanut were happily surprised when Bella and Jules
arrived for a full on Thanksgiving themed Camp Katie Day. Seriously happy.
Hugging for 15 minutes happy. We have all seen each other at birthday parties and play dates,
but an official Camp Katie Day is different apparently.

The girls made "plates of food" and such.

discussed holiday plans..

played outside, ate lunch, watched part of a movie (Ponyo), went back outside to act it out..

Princess came in cold, put a sweater over her long sleeve shirt (odd for her), sat on a chair outside

for a while and came in shivering and pale. I put her on the couch with a blanket and she fell asleep. The girls all came in and sat near her watching the rest of Ponyo while having snacks.

She woke up to say goodbye to Bella and Jules, had a bowl of soup with Peanut, fell back asleep.

Peanut woke her up to say goodbye, when her protests to stay were ignored by the adults

(loyal..she is), she had soup, fell asleep woke up when Farmer Dad got home, threw up,

slept...it went on until 11pm when we all went to bed. She was up at 6:30am and feeling better,

although still not 100%. Due to her surprise illness, I didn't get a photo of the craft,

but they had fun making it. I'm pretty sure that was the point.lol

Mama made a fresh pot of chicken soup..time to feed my sick little Princess.

((Big Hugs)) KateinNJ

Books,bellyaches and Chinese New Year

Sorry it has taken me so long to get a book post going today.

We spent a lot more time last night reading about Australia's animals,

and trying to find a Platypus cookie cutter. We do have a kangaroo,

so we will be making that.Princess did not stay up too late (for her),

and was up at the crack of dawn again. Unfortunately, she woke up

with a "belly ache" and was experiencing quite a bit of nausea.

I think it was from "drinking" the tub water in her bath while

"being a Mermaid" last night, or the late night sandwich she just had to have

while I was making one for Farmer Dad's lunch. Either way, she is not feeling

well, and in fact is sleeping it off on the couch right now. No fever.

Puts a damper on our plans to study China a bit and Mozart today

for Chinese New Year and Mozart's B-Day.

I believe it is also chocolate cake day, so we were going to make a

chocolate cake for after dinner (Chinese Food is already ordered)

while listening to Mozart. I got a nice book called A Musical Picture Book

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the library

which we were planning

on flipping through while we listened to the enclosed cd. The book is great

for older children, but a bit wordier than P is into at this time. Maybe if it were

about something like the Platypus (oops..sorry I digress).The cd included is lovely.

Play Mozart,Play is also a great book to enjoy today.Much more to Princess'sliking.

As usual, Peter Sis uses both facts and fancy to bring you into the world

of his subject. Did I mention his artwork?Great book!

In The Snow

For some reason Princess was not interested in taking out any

of the large and beautiful selection of Chinese New Year books

on display at our library. (Have I mentioned our HUGE Mandarin speaking population?)Normally she is all about all, or at least many things Chinese. She loves the people and the culture. (And the food!)But she chose instead, this lovely book by Huy Voun Lee.

A boy and his Mother go for a walk in winter and she writes Chinese characters in the snow for him to learn. It is a lovely intro to one of the oldest picture-languages in the world.

The paper cut art is wonderful.

Because we were also celebrating Australia Day yesterday, we have been

enjoying The Trouble With Cauliflower.

This is a funny book about a silly Koala Bear who says he can't eat cauliflower because

it brings him bad luck. I was hoping it would open Princess up to the "try it, you might like it"

thing. She has suddenly become a somewhat picky eater.We enjoyed a giggle or two at poor Mortimer's expense anyway.

That is all I have time to post now, Princess is waking up, and I must tend to her.

She is calling me to her side in a pile of flannel jammies and soft squishy pink blankets.

(Don't be too jealous S.P., your seasons will change soon and you can bundle back up and watch the storm clouds roll in too!)We will eventually get to our Chinese New Year crafts, and I will of

course post them here.

Sick baby

My little Princess was terribly sick last night.

All was fine until a couple of hours into sleeping...

then all you- know-what broke loose. Literally.

It was not pretty or pleasant.

We went back to sleep at about 4:45 am, and slept until 9:30

and 10:00am. She is feeling better now, some Peruvian rice

from Tio, some CONNECT 4 with Farmer Dad.

A huge stack of library books with Momma.

Fortunately we had cancelled Friday night's Taco Party with our friends

due to my old vehicle and the weather. I'd hate to think they'd all get whatever was here.

Unfortunately, we also missed her cousin's swimming party today.

Today we are glad she is well again, and hoping it does not happen to the adults

in the house any time soon.

Friday in the Garden State

My e-mail is down. I feel like I am cut off from the world.
I have so much to do today and I'm sitting here trying
to get my e-mail to open. Argh!!!!
I'm not digging Yahoo right now.
I have spent the last couple of days playing phone tag and e-mail
tag with my State Assembly over an Education bill that I am not
happy about, and a certain multi-national insurance/financial institution
that does not answer it's phones apparently because they are all off at a spa somewhere....
and trying to get Princess well before her sweet Prince's birthday party, which is tomorrow.
We spent yesterday doing this



and this




and this.


We read piles of stories, played games and puzzles,did laundry,maths ,including
baking pumpkin muffins and banana bread and talked and laughed and
cuddled and were just starting to feel good,
when Farmer Dad got home from work and was sick as a dog!

Seriously, the man has a serious cold. He took a a shower and went right to bed
where he stayed all night. Sleeping. He still did not look good this morning,
and yet he went to work. Hopefully he'll feel better, but I doubt it.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Feeling better....

Princess woke up with no sign of fever today
and at the early hour of 7:30am which means I should
be able to get to bed at a decent hour tonight.
She does have a runny nose, but no more "headaches"
and crying and whining. I made her pancakes for breakfast
(yeah- her appetite returned as well)and we cleaned up a bit and did some math
worksheets...circle the correct number of ________ and color
the picture..you know the type. Then we watched my sister's friend's
son who will be 2 soon while his Mom went on a job interview.
If she gets the job, we'll have one as well, watching him.
Princess is very excited because they adore each other.
We had fun reading to him and playing with all of Princess's
musical instruments. Princess wanted to play blocks with him,
but he was only interested in putting them back in the storage box.
I forgot how much fun that age can be.
Unfortunately my camera's battery died while we were playing, so
I only got a couple of pictures of them playing together.
After he left, we had lunch and I got yet more tomatoes ready for canning
while Princess played with a Crayola color Explosion set she received for her birthday.
Then she played on the computer for a bit and now she is taking a "rest break" on the couch
with her Elmo stuffed animal...still not 100%, but so much better than the last two days.
Thank you to everyone who wished her well...your kindness always touches us deeply.
I'm posting a picture of our cat Alley keeping watch over P as she napped after dinner last night
on a chair .

Sick Day

Princess is sick. "Yes, we know" you are all saying,
"we read about her all the time." Let me clarify, my little Princess
has some kind of head cold or something. Her head "hurts",
her tummy "doesn't feel good" and she is stuffy.
Yesterday she took a break in the middle of her "school" to lunch
with her Aunt, she was carried into the house and put on the couch where she stayed
almost all evening.Not like her at all.She slept for a while and then stayed up until after 2:00am.
She woke up at 9:30am and still was not herself, although she has been eating and coloring
and playing Barbies. She did stop saying"sit with me,hold me".
She has a low fever 100.4, so we canceled our Wednesday play date.
Bummer, we were both looking forward to getting out of the house.