Lionden Landing

One of Froggy's favorite activities while out lately is to find which trees are ready for winter and which trees are still working on getting there. According to her, a tree is ready if all the leaves have fallen off. Trees that still have their colorful display of Autumn leaves are still working on getting ready. This did not work so well when we came across an evergreen shrub on a walk (For some reason the shrubs at her front door do not trigger). I took the opportunity to explain the difference pointing out how thin the leaves were so the snow could fall through without getting caught too much. So now several days later she has added a new category to the mix, those that don't need to get changed. We often collect acorns on our walks so on our most recent walk when we were comparing evergreen with other trees, I showed her a pine cone under the tree This led to an intense need in Froggy to match each tree she knows with the kind of seed it makes. She was slightly distur

We started a tradition when Froggy was two of having a Thankful Tree . Working on it this year has been so much fun. Froggy is old enough this year to make a meaningful contribution. Listening to what she chooses melts my heart. That she just keeps wanting to add more and more is so sweet. The tree itself looks nicer since I took more time with the prep and used my cookie cutter to make the leaves. Setting it up earlier and watching it blossom with leaves has made me smile. So another thing I am thankful this year is our Thankful Tree.

This is a short week for menu planning. We will be with the family for Thanksgiving and then heading to Walt Disney World from there. Which means no more cooking for me after Tuesday until December 7th. Monday - Chicken and Sweet Potatoes - We never got to this last week. I failed to plan ahead enough to take the chicken from the freezer. Tuesday - Pizza with homemade sauce - we still have some leftover from the last batch I made Wednesday - Leave for Grandparents!!! Since it is a short week I thought I would include my pizza dough recipe. It is so simple. I love pizza night. I make the dough in the morning and I am done. Daddy and Froggy make pizza together as their special bonding time. 1 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon pure olive oil 3/4 cup warm water 2 cups flour (I grind my own which means it is whole wheat but any works) 1 teaspoon instant yeast Put all the ingredients in the mixer. Mix slowly until flour is incorporated with whisk attachment. Switch to dough hook. Tu

I was just granted a reprieve. I thought I was going to need all the holiday presents ready in time for Thanksgiving since we are seeing the family then but had not planned to see them at Christmas. The Daddyman decided that even though it means three long drives in three months, we will be visiting the grandparents for Christmas as well as Thanksgiving. That means I now have extra time for finish gathering all the presents. The only ones I need to take now are the niece's birthday gifts.

I love fieldtrips. Yet I so rarely get my act together to schedule it. We live in easy driving distance of the National Mall and all the wonderful Smithsonian museums. However, with them always available there is no motivation to go now . The Discovery Theater is also right on the Mall. So I have committed to several of the age-appropriate shows. The limited nature of these shows ensures that we actually get there. We went for our first show of the year today. Froggy got her first taste of HipHop with Secret Agent 23. She even got up and danced a bit. We had planned to have a picnic afterwards and then head home to Park Day. But before the show even started, Froggy asked if we could go to the dinosaur museum after lunch. The picnic was wonderful. I wish I had brought our camera. Froggy danced with statues in the Sculpture Garden. I had to keep reminding Froggy that we only had limited time and that we could not see everything in one day. I kept telling her we would com

With preschoolers, learning about the holidays is a very hands on process. Reading stories is all well and good and gives an introduction but doing makes it come alive. I am strong believer in allowing children to participate in preparations for any event as much as possible both to ease the parent's burden and to help the child prepare and learn. We are going to the grandparents for Thanksgiving which means there is no holiday shopping or cooking here with which a little one can help. We have also limited our decorating since we will be gone from before Thanksgiving until right before Hanukkah. So instead we are making place cards and decorations to take to Grandma's. We will be making Apple Turkeys. Ours are somewhere between this and this . I like the marshmallow face but I like the construction paper tail better. We are putting the names right on the tail. Eyes are raisins and the nose is a candy corn. For our first attempt I tried laminating real leaves which I

I love my crockpot. Three out of the four meals I will cook this week get to use it. It makes my evenings so much easier. Froggy tends to get cranky and need much more of my attention later in the day. Doing all the prep work for dinner early in the day gives me the ability to provide Froggy what she needs happily. Sunday - Out with Friends Monday - Class for me - Homemade Pizza and salad for the gang. I will make the dough and the sauce early in the day. Then Daddy and Daughter get to dress the pizza together as their sp Tuesday - Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew and Broccoli Wednesday - Picnic at the Pool - We never got to the chili last week. I will reheat the chili and then pack it in the thermos. All the fixings will go in the picnic basket and we have an easy hot dinner pool side when we finish swimming. It is so much nicer than fast food on the drive home. Thursday - Spaghetti, Sauce (from Monday) and Salad Friday - Pot Roast, Challah, Butternut Squash with Baby Spi

We finally have our house back to ourselves for the first time since late August. Since we are going to the granparents for Thanksgiving all I have to do work on feeding my little family for awhile. Our freezer is a mess and I would love to defrost it but have no where to put all the food while I do so we are working on trying to eat out of the freezer while at the same time I am trying to take advantage of some holiday food sales. Sunday - Homemade pizza Monday - Shepards Pie and Salad (from the freezer) Tuesday - Tofu Stir Fry/ rice / Keem Wednesday - Pasta, Homemade Sauce, salad, garlic bread Thursday - Brown Sugar Salmon, Rice, broccoli Friday - PreK Shabbat Dinner at Synagogue Saturday - Chili (from freezer), chips and salad