Nora Hansen's Journal

Nora ate oatmeal and three servings of baked cinnamon apples for breakfast. For lunch she ate hamburger stew with meat, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, and potatoes. She ate no whole wheat dinner roll, and ate fruit cocktail.   First picture; As soon as Svea arrived she had to check out Nora's leotard. I still love how Nora initially told me about it: "Leema-tards"  "Frozen Leema-tards" Haha. Svea was very impressed with those Leema-tards and said they were "beautiful." These two girls understand each other pretty well!! Next picture; Atley was hiding eggs for Nora to search out. Atley was offering great assistance which you can see in the picture: She opened the legos drawer and suggested Nora look inside. Haha. Nora appreciates the help!! However, when Nora hides the eggs Atley doesn't want ANY help!! She said, "Stop telling me where the eggs are!!" :) Last picture: Nora worked and worked on this art piece. When she was done the paper w...

Nora ate French toast and dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of pulled pork, ate whole wheat toast, two servings of peas, and three servings of strawberries.   Today's "Science with Lauralea" theme is "Popcorn." We recently talked about "explosions" and about "absorption" and we witnessed both of those in action today. Popcorn kernels have moisture or drop of water so when it's heated to a certain temperature it blows up through the starchy shell. Think about the first person who experimented with a kernel. They probably tossed it into a fire and something popped and the rest is history. Haha. When you're making and eating Popcorn you use all 5 of your senses; see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, and smell it. Out first experiment involved putting a cup of salt in a jar, then a quarter cup of popcorn and stirring it up. Then when you shake it all the kernels rise to the top. Activity 2 - "We're gonna po...

Nora ate bite of whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce on a large serving of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate cauliflower, and three servings of fruit salad.  Nora was telling Lauralea and I all about her upcoming Gymnastics Class in "7 more sleeps." My favorite part is the new outfit: the fanciest leotards I've heard of!! "Frozen Leema-tards." That was SO cute; How cute!?! This cute: I had her repeat it about 6 times!! :) First picture: Cal and Miles asked to do some coloring shortly after arrival and so that's what we did. Nora and Atley were assisting them. I told Nora it works better if you just offer him a choice of maybe 2 markers at a time. A handful is a bit overwhelming!! Haha. Second picture: Nora photographing Cal hard at work doing his Art paper. :) Next picture: All 4 girls are in this picture and they were playing with the battery powered cars on the hardwood floo...

Nora ate blueberry bagel and ate two servings of grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate shrimp, two servings of brown rice, ate broccoli, and two servings of raspberries. So 5 out of 6 kids (not Avi) are eating their rice soaked in raspberry juice for this meal. They love it that way!! And that's what Atley and Nora did with their 2 servings of rice and raspberries!  I'm gonna post this message here and then you'll probably see it 2 or 3 more times in the next two weeks. (Or until you tell me you read it! Ha!) There will NOT be any Blogs the week of May 10th. Lauralea is blessing me by keeping Little Treasures open that week so I can go to Louisiana. I'm flying out on May 8th and home on May 15th. Thank you SO much Lauralea! Next picture: Thank you Momma Molly for the wooden train set. Atley and Nora played with this for a LONG this morning; before and after breakfast. I had to get a picture of Avi in here too because she wasn't interested in it at home. Atley and...

Nora ate bran cereal and raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate most of chicken, no toasted whole wheat pita bread, ate cucumbers, most of avocado, and a bite of pears.  I want to mention that I (and Lauralea when she's around) have been working hard to help the three big girls use acceptable and appropriate ways to solve problems and disputes. This is obviously an ongoing challenge, but I think they're making some progress. Nora frequently resorts to screaming and I remind her that's not acceptable here or when she gets to Kindergarten and then we move on to what can we do instead of that response....... All of Nora's pictures are in the Preschool Room doing games and activities. We did a toy, puzzle, and book exchange, but you can see in the first picture they were playing the same "feelings matching game." Did you notice Avi has no matches? Well she said she didn't want to play this round, just be an observer. Ha! You know how that went! Guess who was...

Nora ate cream of wheat cereal and ate dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of chicken, ate brown rice, broccoli, and two servings of pineapple. At lunch the big girls were giving each other simple tips for a better life. Haha. For example Nora had this to offer; "when I sniff a lot it makes my ears unplugged!" And she followed it up with a demonstration. :)  First picture: This was pretty fun and special. The girls were playing the "feelings matching game" (they call it the "people matching game") and look how many matches Svea ended up with!! She had the most and (with my encouragement) they were all clapping for her.  Next picture: Everyone, including the boys, did some "dot painting" today. It's been awhile since the kids asked for dot paints at art time. Following picture: Nora did some free drawing as well. She said, "This is a Birthday Party and I did it all by myself." You worked hard at that Nora; way t...

Nora ate a blueberry waffle and three servings of fruit salad for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground turkey, bites of whole wheat tortillas, bite of sweet potatoes, and ate cherries.   I thought you might be interested in this picture of an experiment left over from last week Science when the theme was "things that dissolve." This was originally a sea shell and we put it in some vinegar. During the week we added fresh vinegar just once. As you can see it has almost completely dissolved!! Note before we get into the Science pictures; Lauralea left immediately for Plains when she was done with this; dealing with an aging Parents situation. So this was a bit shorter than usual and nothing to take home, but the kids had a blast. Ha! (Pun intended!!) Theme for Science with Lauralea today was "eruptions." Basically two experiments; The first one was "elephant's toothpaste" and the kids loved that title. It was a mixture of yeast, water, hydrogen peroxide, d...

Nora ate French toast and three servings of strawberries for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of Whole 30 Chili with meat, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, and with delicious seasonings. She ate bites of whole wheat dinner roll and ate tropical fruit.  Meal times are always busy and even though I'm only a few feet away if I'm in the kitchen I frequently can NOT tell their voices apart. "I want more!" Who said that? The standard answer is; "I did!" :) That is NOT helpful!! Today as I was putting food on their Lunch plates someone asked, "What are we having for lunch?!?" I said, "Ask Avi; she will know!" The Problem; Apparently it was Avi who asked the question!! Haha. That sure made me laugh! Avi didn't really see any humor in it (which made it funnier of course) until she heard me talking into my "notes" app for Blog Time and she was grinning big time. I thought for sure it was Nora asking the que...

Nora ate half of her English muffin and ate three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, whole wheat toast, ate beets, and applesauce. First picture; From yesterday when Nora was giving Cal a ride in the stroller. Ha. Cal thought it was wonderful. :) Right after this is when Nora got angry because Miles would not get in the stroller the way she wanted him too. He was trying to crawl in facing the stroller and she wanted him to back in. And of course that hit my funny bone and I chuckled. Oops, bad mistake. Nora chewed on me for that. :) "It's NOT funny!!" (Which somehow managed to make it funnier, but I contained myself that time!!)  Next picture: We made a "castle" and covered it with a blanket. Five kids were under there and the first frantic phrase I heard; "Hey!! I don't have any room!!" Ha. And of course Cal could not resist joining the fun time. Ha. Following picture; Svea has been asking for the play doh and the res...

Nora ate half of her chex cereal and ate peaches for breakfast. She had a doctor appointment and is having lunch with Mommy. :) First picture; From Friday afternoon. I got some bottles of bubbles and the kids had a blast running and chasing all over the yard! They started asking for bubbles in February!! Ha. We drained almost an entire large bottle on Friday because all of us were having so much fun.  Next picture; Atley and Nora were the only two "big" kids here and they were playing a matching "feelings" game. All three big girls are getting lots of practice with these matching games. They have to remember where they last saw the card and also getting LOTS of practice taking turns. Good job girls. Following picture: Svea was carrying her baby all wrapped up in a blanket and treating it so gently. She unwrapped it and only Nora could show the kind of appreciation that Svea wanted to hear. Nora acted just as thrilled as if the baby was her own. That was pretty aweso...

Nora ate most of oatmeal and ate dried cranberries for breakfast. For lunch she ate Tilapia, whole wheat elbow noodles, three servings of green beans, and ate a large serving of applesauce. She said, "These green beans are SO good!!" :) Here are a couple pictures with Atley from this morning. Avi and Svea spent the night with Grandparents and did not arrive until shortly before Lunch. (It's so interesting how group dynamics change when one or more are gone. I've always found that fascinating.) These two read books in the Preschool Room and it was fun to listen to them discussing what interested them. Atley said, "I want a car like that." Ha. Now that wasn't a surprise. Following picture: Here is a good picture of a friend showing appreciation for something you've done!! Atley said, "I made a cherry." And Nora seemed to be very impressed. :) I love her expression!  Last picture: Svea said, "Hey Gary, can I put eggs on my head?" Huh...

Nora ate half of blueberry bagel and ate peaches for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of hamburger & sausage pizza with olives, tomato sauce, pineapple, and peppers. She ate whole wheat pizza crust that we serve on the side and ate a serving of pineapple on the side.    Thursday; Science with Lauralea!! Today's theme is "stuff that dissolves." So what does "dissolve" mean? No answers, so we had to define that first. We had several cups with water and everyone tried something different and stirred. I think this is most of them: flour, sugar, corn starch, salt, Himalayan pink salt, toothpaste, yeast, creamer, brown sugar, instant coffee, granulated onion, tea, cinnamon, crushed animal crackers, baking soda, and arrowroot powder. Whew!! That's a lot of stuff!! Ha. About half of these items were soluble.  Next we did an experiment with Vinegar. Vinegar is basically an acid, but a safe acid. So we tried an experiment that will take some time to se...

Nora ate whole wheat toast and two servings of grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate pork roast, whole wheat tortillas, carrots, potatoes, and three servings of fruit salad.  This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon. Nora worked on several puzzles - she has five completed ones on the table - for a long time. Some were small puzzles, some 24 piece, and some 48 piece; which is a pretty good challenge. Next picture: The Nelson girls brought this "feelings matching game" from home and the kids played serval games of it. Svea played the first game with them. So if you look in the picture you'll see Svea got the first match again. I was excited for her and I hooted and hollered!! Which was a major mistake because from then on  all  the kids expected me to react the same way each time  they  got a match!! Hahaha. "I got a match Gary!! I got a match Gary!" "Hoot and holler!! Hoot and holler!"  Next picture: Nora (and Atley) were doing this ac...