Nora Hansen's Journal

Nora ate bites of cream of wheat cereal and ate one dried plum for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, no brown rice, ate broccoli, and three servings of pineapple.    Nora was "messing" with her dress over and over and over and over.  I couldn't see where she was accomplishing anything so I had to ask!!  Hahaha.  What are you doing with your dress!?!  Nora said, "I'm fluffing it up." Haha.  I should have guessed it was something like that.  :) First picture;  I'm not real sure what they were doing with their wands, but I think it was some kind of a ritual.  Haha.  Following picture;  Would you like to guess what the girls are searching for on the mattress.  Hint; the same thing they searched for many times this morning.  I asked them; "what are you looking for?" "Sparkles."  :)  Next picture:  Atley and Nora had constructed this block wall and when Atley was satisfied with the results she told ...

Nora ate waffle and ate two large servings of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey burger, half of whole wheat tortillas, bite of sweet potatoes, and ate cherries.   First picture:  Avi and Svea are gone today and Atley arrived late.  So I took this picture before breakfast when Nora was pushing Cal around and around in the swivel/rocker.   Next picture:  Atley was running late as she took Lexi (the dog)  to the Vet with Momma Megan.  Nora was so excited to see her that she stood at the gate and jabbered while Atley ate breakfast.  "Nora, how about you go sit at the table so Atley doesn't have to keep turning around while she's eating?"  So that's when I took the picture.  Here's a bit of their conversation I heard;  Nora talked about the "storm where Aunt Allison and Ion are at."  Nora continued; "They're already out of electricity."  Atley said, "Well electricity went out one time I was eating oatmea...

Nora ate French toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two large servings of Whole 30 Chili with meat, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, tomato sauce, and lots of spices.  She ate a bite of whole wheat dinner roll and ate tropical fruit.   I took this first picture before breakfast.  These girls have been doing so much free drawing with markers and colored pencils!!  I know I've mentioned this a lot and I post pictures of it continually, but I love it and I think it's so beneficial for them in many ways.  So here's a bonus for you all in this picture:  Zoom in on the digital frame and you can see a "selfie" Nora did probably 1 - 2 years ago.  A great shot of her nostrils!!!  Haha.   Here are a couple of samples of recent pieces done by Nora.  She liked it because I commented on how well she was utilizing her papers.  Especially drawing and coloring on both sides.  So I took this first picture for an ...

I've gotten a couple of questions about Program closure dates for the Holidays ahead.  So here's a reminder of those dates:          November 26 & 27     Thanksgiving      December 24 & 25.    Christmas Also , A reminder for closure dates in  January 2021.        January 1       January 4th - 8th. Nora ate half of whole wheat English muffin and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, whole wheat toast, beets, and three servings of applesauce.  First picture:  Five out of the six kids were at the window to wave bye to Momma Megan this morning! In Atley's Blog I told Megan she was very popular!!   AND  of course I had to add; "you were also the  last  parent to drive by!!"  Haha!!   First picture:  Avi had the binoculars and was getting a close up of Nora's face, but it was Avi who was asking, "Can you see ...

Nora ate whole wheat Chex cereal and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger, bites of whole wheat hamburger bun, ate avocado, tomatoes, and two servings of mandarin oranges.     We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids were having fun with everything.  As you can see in the first picture Nora was playing with the Dance/Number Game, but she wasn't really too concerned about which numbers were lighting up!!  The Dance part of the game is WAY more important. The following picture;  This is a new activity Lauralea found for us at a Yard Sale recently.  It's a "Tic Tac Toe" game using pictures of Elsa and Anna.  They obviously don't yet understand that game, but we'll be working on the concept.   Next picture;  This is a new puzzle we just got and these two girls were tickled to look at it.  Atley actually put it all together while Nora stood there watching AND holding that one piec...

Nora ate bites of oatmeal and bites of dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate tilapia, ate whole wheat elbow noodles, green beans, and applesauce.  Meal time conversation: Nora said, "Hey everybody! I can touch the ceiling!"  WHAT!!  You can touch the ceiling!?!  Everyone was so impressed and speechless!!  Then Nora said, "Yes, on my bunkbed!"  LOL!!   Then I thought you'd be proud to know that Nora was passing along some insights about our President to her peers;  "Donald Trump says bad words."  Hahaha.  I've heard many things during election times!!  (Including this year!!)  I remember when Tate Templeton was about Svea's age and he said, "My name is Barack Obama and I approve of this message!"  Haha.  (That was during Obama's first run for President; now Tate has his Drivers' License.)   First picture from yesterday afternoon.  Svea is on the right buried under a stack of pillows and wha...

Nora ate blueberry bagel and ate peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of hamburger and sausage pizza, with whole wheat pizza crust, tomato sauce, peppers, pineapple, and olives.  She also ate pineapple on the side.    This first picture made me laugh.  Nora kept running around getting in front of Miles and trying to get him to crawl under her bridge.  I like how Nora's dress is still on his head as he's exiting the bridge.  :)  Second picture:  Svea said to Nora; "Hey Nora look, I'm making outer space." Nora said, "It looks like a rock hit a spaceship."  Then later Nora was showing me how well Svea was drawing and wanted me to look at Svea's paper.  Nora said, "Svea  builded  this tree by herself."  :) Next picture:  These three girls played "sleeping" for a long time; especially Nora and Atley.  Avi is on the right, Nora on the legos table, and Atley on the left.  Miles crawled up ...

Nora ate whole wheat toast and three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, whole wheat tortillas, bites of carrots, and ate fruit salad.  First picture:  I'm not sure what these two were doing; just hanging out and having fun I'm sure.  They were getting ready to move on and I asked them to hold up while I grabbed the camera.  Of course that gave Atley the opportunity to start sticking out her tongue.  Haha.  (You may have to zoom in to see it.) Next picture:  The three big girls - and Cal - were at the window waving at the garbage worker.  The kids love watching the garbage trucks, but it's not as fun now that there is only the driver in the truck.  Before there was at least one worker and usually two and they'd frequently notice the kids and wave at them.  Now the company just uses the driver and the automatic arms lift and empty the containers.  But the kids still yell and get excited when they see...

Nora ate a couple bites of whole wheat English muffin and ate one dried plum for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken with stir fry vegetables, all of her brown rice, and two servings of mandarin oranges.  Their breakfast conversation was ALL about healthy foods and they offered many numerous and humorous insights!!  Nora had the best one in my opinion;  "If you don't eat healthy foods your body will NEVER grow again."  These first two pictures are leftover from yesterday afternoon.  Look at Nora's spinning dress.  I said, "I like your skeleton dress."  Nora said, "Yes, it glows-up in the dark." Then Nora and Svea were going over backwards onto the mattress over and over.  I had several pictures of them, but most were too blurry because they are obviously moving.  Next up are pictures from this morning; Nora was playing with the tray full of magnets and Atley joined her.  Second picture: Doing some art!!  Last picture;  ...

Nora ate cheerios and banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, no whole wheat pita bread, ate olives, avocado, and two servings of mixed fruit.   First two pictures;  Svea and Nora were building their "hideout" in the cozy corner this morning.  Nora started recruiting Cal to do all the heavy work for them before Cal was even out of his breakfast highchair. "Hey Cal, when you're done eating will you bring all the animals over to the cozy corner?"  Haha.  That made me laugh.  You can see in the next picture he's still at work packing blocks for them.  In the following picture Svea and Nora are laying in their corner and Svea is trying to give Nora a kiss on the cheek and Nora has her hand up to protect herself.  Haha.  Svea rolled back over on her side and said, "Ok, now you kiss me."  Haha.   Last picture:  Nora is always very willing to check the babies for me and let me know if she thinks they are poopy. ...

Nora ate most of brown rice and most of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her meatloaf, half of her whole wheat dinner roll, ate riced cauliflower, and ate her mangoes.    First picture:  I want to make a few comments about all the "free drawing" the three big girls have been doing.  I want to remind ALL of us (including myself) of a few of the benefits the girls are getting from doing this.  One thing that kind of amazes me is the fact that the more I offer it, the more they do!  I think yesterday Atley took home over 20 sheets of paper.  Sometimes we may think in terms of "wasted paper" (please recycle), but the process is what is important and they are learning SO much from this.  I believe it expands their minds and strengthens their cognitive development.  The creativity is pretty obvious, but there is also "problem solving" for example.  "How do I draw this to make it look the way I want to?"  They are lea...

Nora ate most of whole wheat cinnamon/raisin muffin and ate two servings of mandarin oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of salmon, ate whole wheat elbow noodles, three servings of peas, and three servings of applesauce.  (applesauce on top of her peas).  During their breakfast conversation Nora said, "I wish my name was Ella."  LOL!!   First picture:  All four girls in the cozy corner.  Nora was actually sitting on Atley and Atley was bouncing her up and down.  You can see Atley's face and she was cracking up laughing.  Second picture - Nora doing some art work.  She talked a lot about this piece and I love listening to them describe what they're drawing; it's such a good clue as to what they're thinking.  Or it may simply be something their neighbor is drawing too.  She first started with the little guy at the bottom and told Lauralea "he's got really long arms and really short legs."  And she was lau...

Nora ate French toast and three servings of watermelon for breakfast.  For lunch she ate Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes.  She ate saltines, and three servings of tropical fruit.   First picture:  Nora was full of energy and really cutting some fancy dance steps when I took this picture. She had just arrived and Atley is back after being gone a week so it was an exciting time.  Those two gave each other the sweetest greeting and then Nora started dancing like crazy and Atley went back to doing her art project.  When Atley saw the new art stuff available she said, "I just love this stuff!!"  It was pretty cute watching Atley and Nora reconnect; and interesting.   Next picture: Avi in the bottom of the picture, Nora top left, Atley in the middle, and Svea top right.  Nora said, "I just love slumber parties."  Svea was yelling at them to all quiet down so they could go t...