Pizza for Lunch

Look who was in the kitchen again. And it was delicious. Ice Princess made the dough herself and she was so proud to make us lunch. But I think that my favorite part was when both girls were sitting in front of the oven, watching it bake. The way that they were excited as the flame kicked on and found pleasure in seeing the cheese melt, it was too cute.

Ice Princess really enjoyed using the mixer.

She needed to sit on the floor to knead the dough properly.

After letting it rise for an hour and a half she formed the crust on the stone.

Then on with the toppings and back into the oven once again. Just look at that smile on her face.

And it brought a smile to Mighty Girl's face too.

The Princess and Her Beads

Ice Princess was playing with these beads for hours. And then, in the end, she claimed that she needed more. She said that she didn't have enough. Ok, I guess we need more beads.

Research, Research, and more Research

Children know exactly what they need to learn. And right now mine are learning how to gain information by researching. I can't even count the number of hours my kids put into research. They research video games. They research something they saw on tv. They research the what type of fresh water fish is the largest. They try to find information on other countries and cultures. They search for information on history and science. They look in books and on the Internet. They search for programs up and coming on the satellite dish. It is so funny to me that they spend so many hours doing the same thing that children that are their exact age, are being forced to do in school. Not only are those children being forced to do this research but, they are "taught" how to to it. They are being taught to do something that comes so naturally. My girls are having so much fun learning how to research something. The joy and satisfaction, as a matter of fact, even brought tears to Mighty Girl's eyes last night. Real tears of JOY! Joyful learning! How many kids that go to school, do you think, were this happy finishing there homework last night? I know that Might Girl will always remember how to find answers to her questions in life, I know she will have this tool that we call research, and I know that she will always love to learn. If you could just see how big my smile is spread across my face right now. I am so pleased that we found this passionate way to grow up learning.

Here are Mighty Girl and Ice Princess 5 minutes after they woke up yesterday morning. They have all the tools out that they need to play their games. The book open and at the ready. The computer fixed on the web page that will give them information they will need. Yes, as you can see this is serious play time.

Throwing Dough

Ice Princess decided that she wanted to make some home made play dough. So she dug out a book that had a recipe and took out all the ingreediants. She grabbed her trusty primary colors set of measuring spoons and in no time she was pretending to make a pizza pie.

Mighty's Sky Dragon

I love watching Mighty Girl create. Her natural talents and abilities never cease to amaze me.

Magnetix

Mighty Girl and Ice Princess have been busily playing with their magnetix over the last several days. I could hear them discussing anything from the personalities of their creations to how it would be possible to create cars that would fly with the use of magnets. I snapped a few photos while they played. Isn't it funny that I can really "see" the personalities of the creatures that they made?

Face Painting

While Mighty Girl rested this morning Ice princess and I painted each other's faces.

She turned me into a clown.

Then I transformed her into a butterfly tiger.

Beautiful but deadly!

Yumm

Last night the girls decided to make chocolate covered bananas. Here is how it went.

Yes, even Zack wanted to help. He is a very good helper, can't you tell?

Then after placing them in the freezer. Ice Princess had her first bite, and claimed that they were disgusting. Oh well, they had fun making them.

The Princess and the King

This nagging cough has kept me home yet again. I've really becoming tired of this barking cough of mine. So I decided to curl up with a blanket and a good movie. One of my favorite movies is The King and I, with Yul Brynner. I have seen this movie so many times and each time I laugh and cry like it was my first. As I placed my steaming hot mug of green tea down on the small wooden side table Ice Princess plopped down next to me. "What are you watching?" she asked me. "Only one of my favorite movies," I answered, giving her a morning squeeze. "It is called The King and I, and is set back in the 1800's. It is about a king in Asia that wants to learn and change and about a woman who comes to help him." She snuggles in deep to let me know that she is ready to watch it with me. As the movie progresses she pauses it many times. We stop and discuss the meaning of the movie, the meaning of culture. How slavery was a part of many countries. We talked about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. We spoke of the oppression of woman and slavery. At one point she ran and got the globe in order to locate Siam. Only to find that it was no longer called Siam. Many times she declared that the king was like an unschooler because he taught himself, and he loved to learn. Then the shock of the ending arrived. And as my eyes filled with tears Ice Princess paused the movie yet again. "He's dying?!?" she asked desperately. "Yes, he is," I replied. She wanted to know why. It didn't make sense to her. And then she became angry. I tried to explain that the king wanted desperately to change but the pull of the people around him and his ancestors were we too much for him to rectify. He was so torn that he became ill and lost the desire to live. At my explanation so became even more angry. "If he wants to change he should just change!" She hollered at the television. I told her yes it seems very easy to you and me and even to the prince but he just couldn't even though he wants to. So the only way that he could see that change happening was to die and let his son make those changes. "Well, I think that he is an idiot!" She declared. So I agreed with her that to us change is so simple but, back then things were different. It was actually a wonderful day spent with Ice Princess. We discussed very thought provoking topics and learned about history and cuddled and laughed and cried. This two and a half hour movie took a better part of four hours, but it just flew by. I will never get tired of this movie, it truly is one of my favorites.

I can't wait to see it again.