Monday, February 16, 2015

Tea parties and fluffy jackets

One day, Sara Beth said the wanted to throw a tea party for the family, and was disappointed to hear that we had too much going on that day, but I promised her we would have it the next day after nap time. As soon as nap time was over, Sara Beth began to set the table. She brought down her wooden music box for some relaxing ambient music. She laid out a plate of muffins and paper napkins for everyone to eat off of. She worked with Heather to brew some lavender tea and put it in a small tea pot. She finally brought down all the decorative tea cups and saucers that she has adorning the shelves in her room. It was an excellent party, and Sara Beth was the perfect hostess hopping up to refill our tea cups whenever they ran low.
Hudson now has two "fluffy jackets" and he will wear them every opportunity he gets. He has also picked up a unique naming scheme. He will repeat the first syllable of a word at the end. So instead of "fluffy jackets", they are "fluffy-fluf jackets". And instead of eating "breakfast", he now wants to eat "breakfast-bre", I'll admit, it is rather fun and catchy; I will occasionally repeat an extra syllable when talking to him too.
The mud pit in the back yard is steadily growing larger. After watching a Curious George episode on PBS detailing how to make a compost pile, Sara Beth decided to use some of her stash of mud to make her own compost. She used a green plastic bin that we had outside for storing toys. She filled it with mud and water and then for the following week, asked us to throw our compostable items in her bin instead of the trash. It was a muddy mess. We are going to try again this week but with a smaller bin and a lot less water.
I have been doing a lot of caulking around the house, patching up small cracks. So, when Sara Beth looked up from playing in the mud and saw large gaps between the boards in the play fort, she decided they needed to be filled in with mud too. It it much less drafty from the west side, though the other three sides still need some walls.
My dad and I took the kids to the boat show one weekend. Hudson tried out every driver's seat. It didn't matter if it was a $10,000 pontoon boat or a $1.5 million luxury yacht. As long as it had a steering wheel and levers, Hudson was more than happy to spin the steering wheel. Sara Beth, on the other had, really did prefer the boats that had a cabin with beds and a kitchen below deck. I think Sara Beth and I both were partial to a $180k boat with two beds, a full kitchen and a bathroom. And it a great deal compared to some of the more expensive luxury yachts.
This past weekend, I wanted to build out some shelves in the closet under out stairs. So Hudson and I went to Lowes to pick up some wood. While we were there, Hudson heard some banging on the next aisle over. It turned out they were offering a free "Build a Wooden Thingey with a Hammer" class for the kids. Hudson talked me into signing up.  I held down the wood while Hudson pounded in the nails with a hammer; he only hit my fingers a couple times. We ended up building a picture holder for Heather as a Valentine's Day present.

Hudson enjoys painting. I suspect it has to do with his desire to make messes as much as it has to do with his desire to express his artistic talents.