Rice Cooker and Casio Piano

For lunch today we had beans and rice.  Jonas is usually fascinated by the rice cooker.  I can't blame him, it is pretty cool.  So we read the instructions and learned how it works and explored it a little.  We found out that this springy mechinism senses when the water has apsorbed or evaporated and the turns off the heat.


 
Also, note the cute shirt on Jonas and plate on the table. I've found a new obsession with thrifting. I kind of figured that was inevitable, however, not what this post is about.



After lunch Jonas got out his Casio electric piano and rocked out...



....Old school.  

Making art

Making messy art.  Both of their drawings are getting much clearer and more detailed.  It's amazing how they suddenly gain a skill or become perficient were they were "struggling" before in what seems like overnight.

Lavi Visits An African Savannah

We read about what kinds of animals are typically found in the African Savannahs, and what a Savannah is.  Then Lavinia decided to go to one.



I like that on Lavi's Savannah all the animals are friends and introduce each other with the politeness of a tea party.

Fight. Pose. Dance.

Jonas is getting really into music and dancing. He's particular about the music he listens to, and when he hears a song he likes he's quick to let us know. "Oh man, I love this song!" is a commonly heard phrase lately. Most of the Beatles' Abby Road album is what does it for him, with some Regina Spektor and Kings of Leon mixed in. A specific favorite is Modest Mouse's Black Cadillacs. He's clearly heavily influenced by me, but I think that's reasonable at this point. Frankly, I don't know where else kids his age hear music, if not from their parents. Oh right, the Disney channel, and possibly MTV. But I digress.

He likes to dance to the music he likes, as do we all. His dancing, unlike his taste in music, resembles nothing he's seen from me. It's a cross between karate, modeling, and that crazy leg kicking dance done by Elaine from Seinfeld.



I will return with evidence of this act.

Well, this is the best I could come up with:

Spaceship

Here you see a spaceship.



Lavinia is demonstrating how to operate the spaceship.
She tells me it takes three people to operate the spaceship. She is embarrassed that she's the only one flying it anymore. It was pretty impressive with all of them working it, but, of course, they dissipated by the time I got the camera and came back. Imagination happens too fast to capture sometimes.

Drawings

Lately our walls are literally covered in the exceptional art that has been made and hung by Jonas and Lavinia.



 Well, mostly Jonas, and they mostly depict video games (this is lego's dino attack!),


 or are instructions on how to build his imagined lego sets,

 or his design for action figures.

  Though, some of them just tell a story, al beit a violent one.

Lavinia's Puppy

Lavinia does not have a puppy.  I swear!  She thinks otherwise, unfortunately.  She tells people in the grocery store about her puppy "a-name-a-Isis."  "what?" they ask, because what she just said was unintelligable.  She repetes this giberish again, more slowly this time, and they just look at me.  "The puppy's name is Isis, and it's not her's."
Why does she insist that this dog belongs to her when there is no evidence to support this idea, you might ask.  That's simple: because Rachel said so. That's right, this is Rachel's giant, incontinent Great Dane puppy.  When Lavi met her she asked Rachel if she could have it and Rachel told her that she could but it would live at Rachel's house.  Most children would forget about this little fib, but not Lavinia!

Here's Isis as a new pup.  She's about four times this size now, no joke.








This was just before xmas, I think.



Oh and that's Oliver.  He's huge now, too.

Cheese and Crackers

Not everyday, but fairly often this is all that is all that is to be seen or heard from Jonas for hours on end.  But when something gets his attention he's more than willing to put the games down.  Today, for instance, when I announced that I would be serving cheese and crackers shortly (a favorite snack around here) Jonas popped up from super mario and insisted on helping me "make" the cheese.  He (helped) cut the cheese and arranged the plate.  It was genuinely helpful and I was very appriciative.

Skeleton In A Coffin

This is a Skeleton In a clear coffin.




It's being guarded by these guys and this machine.  Jonas thinks this is an incredibly awesome "set" he made.
I think there is something more to this that hasn't been explained to me.  Something about the skeleton's evil powers, I suspect.

National Mystery Musem! (er, uhh, I mean Natural History)

Even in my infinite wisdom and skill at preparedness, I somehow failed to have the foresight to charge the camera's battery before our somewhat impromtu trip to the Natural history museum (or as Jonas called it, the "National Mystery Museum" which never ceases to crack me up!)  Thus I have no pictures to show for it.  However, my ever-ready supermama friend, Anna kiss, (whom we went with) had her camera, so I will direct you to her blog to see how it went.

Lavinia's Birthday Bash!

Highlights from Lavinia's Birthday party!



It was a Fancy Dress party!



 Lots of people came.







Jonas found a way to be in the middle of the party and still be in his own world at the same time.



 Birthday (cup)cake(s)!  Yay!  Lavinia is four!

Riding Horses

This was a while ago, but I've just now gotten to blogging it.
We are so fortunate as to have a professional equestrian in the family. My sister Rachel trains horses in dressage and teaches lessons, as well as competing with her own horses and other peoples'. It's a whole thing.  
Though Jonas has grown up with her horses around and available, he's still not very comfortable with them. Lavinia, on the other hand, doesn't have any fear or common sense (such as, you don't walk under the horse!)




This is HotRod Lincoln.  Isn't his headband pretty?  We're having our lessons on HotRod.  He's sweet as pie.  We love him to death!  He loves us back, too.  



Here Lavi eagerly awaits her turn.  "It's not fair!" She insists, which is just silly because it will be perfectly fair when her brother has finished and he has to wait around in boredom.  Plus, we're unschoolers, and "fair" isn't what life is about.  She'll catch on eventually.
 


This is Jonas look really unenthused about his lesson / pony ride.  What's his deal?



Ringo on the other hand, is thrilled to have a ride.  Well, no, not really, he probably felt the same way as Jonas, but he knew better than to hop off.  Believe it or not, Ringo actually spends most of his days running with the big dogs at the barn.  He's quite horse savvy.



Jonas is much happier to be on the ground. He flat out refused to touch the horse at all, but he got really excited about the ride, after a while. He seemed to feel better once he figured out how to "control" the horse a little. I think with time he could really like this. I'm sure that the actual riding is very therapeutic for him. He was all mellow afterward.



Finally she gets the much anticipated turn!  She was a nervous at first, but she lost all fear pretty quickly.



Look at this big girl!  She's so grown up and proud of herself!




She gave HotRod a much appreciated hug and kiss after her ride.  




Here's Rachel getting HotRod ready to go back in his stall.  This part was dreadfully dull, until they got to give HotRod (and friends!) peppermint candies, carrots, apples, and hay!  Though Lavi got carried away with this, it was pretty interesting for them to communicate with the horses.  They could tell right away which horses wanted hay, and which ones were disappointed that it wasn't another apple.