childrens books

ozzie and i attend a cooperative preschool that both of us love so much for many different reasons but the main is his teacher; she has been teaching at the preschool since 1979 and is the "child whisperer".

cooperative preschools require parent education and at our last parent meeting, she suggested we check out helen lester's books hurty feelings and me first. so like the good student that i am, i promptly reserved both books at the library and i am so glad that i did. helen's stories perfectly blend a lesson with a hilarious and fun read. she often team ups with lynn munsinger whose illustrations are delightful.

after reading the first two, i checked out as many of her books that the library had and we are quickly reading our way through all of them. ozzie was particularly drawn to tacky the peguin, who marches to the beat of his own drum and never follows his friends named goodly, lovely, angel, neatly and perfect. for those of you that know ozzie, you know how fitting this is.

with school coming to an end, if you are in search of some fun summer reading with a cleverly hidden lesson, check out her books. some of our favorites are:

• the wizard, the fairy and the magic chicken
• the revenge of the magic chicken
• wodney wats wobot
• tacky the penguin and all of the tacky books
• it wasn't my fault
• the wolf in sheep's clothing

day at the park

my mom and i discovered a fantastic park a few blocks from her house the other day. it is always nice to find a new place for the kids to play that is a-close to home and b-not overly crowded with every preschooler and toddler in a 5 mile vicinity. i snapped a few pictures of the kids and made some fun  collages with one of my favorite iphone apps- picframe.

the bandito returns

it's been a few years but our bandito returned this cinco de mayo

don't carpe diem

i really enjoyed reading THIS ARTICLE that a friend posted on facebook today. there is not much more i can say that she hasn't already, except that it is refreshing to read honest feelings from a mother of small children. a good read after a long day.

cinco de mayo recipes

i made coconut lime cookies for a mom's only cinco de mayo party today. pretty yummy- click HERE for the recipe.

for the family, i made cilantro lime pesto tacos. another good pinterest recipe! 

nutella, take me away...

reason number 372 why nutella should not be kept in my home:

at lunch today ozzie decided to eat his turkey meatball soup on the floor after i threatened asked him to eat at the table. he then dumped the bowl on the living room rug forcing me to run into the laundry room for the, properly named, nature's miracle carpet cleaner (it works miracles and is heaven sent). while i was grabbing the cleaner, olivia decided to climb onto the kitchen table and pour ozzie's entire glass of water all over it. she then began to paint the water with her hands and feet in between licks attempting to drink the puddles. i was immediately forced to decide which mess to clean first. i went for the soup since it would stain and stink up the rug. ozzie sees that i don't go for olivia's throat and decides i'm okay with the wading pool now sitting on our kitchen table and decides to help his sister by creating waterfalls of water onto the floor.

after losing my schmidt, getting both messes cleaned up and both kids in their rooms for quiet time/nap time/flat out punishment for unacceptable behavior, do i go for a jog on the treadmill to let off some steam? nope. complete something on my to do list to give me a sense of accomplishment and remind me that there is life outside the gates of hell? nuh uh. i scoop up a gigantic dollop of nutella and melt it over banana slices, sit down on my lap top and begin this blog post. ahhh nutella, take me away....

easter

guess i should get the easter pictures posted before mother's day! every year the community where my parents live put on an easter egg hunt for the kids. it's small, easy, free and the kids get to spend the day with nanay & pepa.