Currently she's majorly, obsessively into pink and purple. I'm not sure where that came from (not me!) but it's pretty crazy! The funny thing is that she's also a little bruiser who has Han Solo for an imaginary friend....it's a funny combination of "girliness" and the rough-and-tumble influence of her brothers. (A classic example is her recent observation that "If Batman had pink undies.....that would be totally weird. We wouldn't want to see that.") Haha! Never thought I'd hear "Batman" and "pink undies" in the same sentence!
Anyway, it seemed appropriate to have a pink and purple themed Third Birthday Party for little Miss C. (Maybe it should have been a Pink Batman themed party??) It was a GORGEOUS fall day, so nice that despite the fact that I had decked out the dining room in pink streamers, pink balloons, pink pennants, etc....we ate outside on the deck! We had the aunts and uncles and grandparents over to celebrate.
Opening presents!
I made this tutu and appliqued shirt. =]
A froufrou apron from Aunt Steph and Uncle Chris!
Pink hairbrush...
What else?
pink loofah!
Some money =]
Aunty Steph with Ben. Haha, oh Ben, what a face!
Pink and purple markers! Clementine has stolen all the pink and purple crayons, markers and colored pencils from all the other children in the house, so this was a fantastic gift!
"Pinkie" the doll
I made Pinkie using the free Black Apple Doll pattern and tutorial.
Heading downstairs for one more present!
Grace gave Clementine her American Girl doll Felicity, along with a whole bunch of accessories!
She was so excited! Clem is always asking Grace to play with "Fayicity." Now she doesn't have to anymore!
hugs
Clementine at three is full of spunk and spirit and cuteness! She's lively, talkative, imaginative, loves babies (especially her baby brother!) and playing outside and copying - at times her brothers and at times her sister. =] I'll share a few little video clips that are a great peak at who our little Clementine is right now:
Here she's all business, telling me to "Surrender or else go to jail! And that means get off your phone!" Scary!
She noticed the apples on our tree were turning red, and she thought they were tomatoes, which she refers to as potatoes. =]
Clementine singing "Clementine." She asks me if I don't like the "lost and gone forever" because I always make a sad face when she comes to that part. And yes, she pronounces her name "Hementine." ;)
This year for the first time I've really started to implement nature study and nature walks into our week. Nature Study is definitely an important part of a Charlotte Mason education. I have a great ebook from Simply Charlotte Mason titled "Hours in the Out-of-Doors: A Charlotte Mason Nature Study Handbook" that has been really helpful, but what has helped me most to get outside and really dive into nature study has been the Handbook of Nature Study Blog. Many homeschoolers are familiar with Anna Comstock's classic Handbook of Nature Study (in fact, the copy I'm using is the same my mother used to teach me and my siblings!) but because it's such a large, comprehensive book, it can be a little overwhelming to use. Enter the Handbook of Nature Study blog and the monthly Outdoor Hour Challenges! When you sign up for her newsletter, you'll get 4 "challenges" a month, along with page references for HNS, extra printables, and ideas to implement your nature study. Super awesome helpful! We've done a few of the Outdoor Hour Challenges through September and October, but this is the first one I've managed to blog about. I'm adding a link to the Outdoor Hour Challenge carnival as well so you can check out how other homeschoolers have used this great resource. On this day we were using the Tree Study Grid on our walk to the park. (You can see a picture or the Tree Study Grid here. It has a bunch of different fun things to do when you're out on your nature walks that all have to do with trees. You can get your own by signing up for the newsletter.)
One of the activities was to find a tree with needles. Here Judah (age 4 1/2) is making a sketch in his nature notebook.
Most of the trees around here are already pretty bare.
"Measure the distance around three trees." Check!
Judah sketching. We were supposed to compare the front & back of a leaf.
Grace's sketch.
Moses' sketch.
Benjamin doesn't sketch - he gets to swing.
The kids were also supposed to take pictures of the different parts of a tree. Here's some roots!
Roots
Trunk
Trunk & Branches
Branches
Leaves
Grace & Lucy
A few of the remaining trees with leaves
When we got home, a jump in the leaf pile was in order!
Miss C in the leaves
This was a fun Outdoor Hour Challenge - there were some other things on the grid as well that I didn't get pictures of, like reading a library book on trees, learning about a tree close to your house, and observing birds in trees. The grid is easy to bring with you on walks and check off throughout the week!
