engineer ozzie

ozzie so proud of his sky scraper!

where's your beef from?

my csa posted this on facebook today and i found it interesting. my dad always wonders why i preach grass fed, organic, free range and local. this is a great and quick explanation for beef. when my dad was in his youth, the grass fed beef column was the norm. will we ever get back there?

what we are learning now

ozzie wants nothing to do with number and letter recognition. he knows his abc's and can count but refuses to learn what the letters and numbers look like. one evening on pinterest and a light bulb went off- counting with m&m's! of course he cooperated!

miss olivia is learning how to dress herself... sort of.

vacation blues

ozzie is having s'mores withdrawals.

menu of the week

soba noodles with ginger scallion sauce
cilantro thai grilled chicken- i added the juice of one lime
asian turkey meatballs with lime sesame dipping sauce
pan roasted chicken with vegetables- i love the versatility of this recipe. i added brocoli and kale instead of spinach and loved it. such a great way to add more vegetables to the dinner table.

ozzie's first fishing adventure

oscar and ozzie at his preschool fieldtrip fishing for trout.

watch me grow

ozzie's fantastic preschool teacher traced pictures of the kids bodies. he is now fascinated with measurements and we are currently on the hunt for our own growth chart. have i mentioned how much i love his teacher? sneaking math in and making it fun!

good read

i really enjoyed reading this article, 10 things i want my daughter to know before she turns 10, that a friend posted on facebook. words every mother could and should share with her young daughter.

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.