franny max

Li'l Ballerina

It takes grace and balance to dance around this mess, let me tell you! Do you like my courtsey?

You've Got Mail, Baby, Yeah.

Mimi sent me a package. Actually she's been sending me a stream of packages. (Lucky me!) This one had Paper dolls!

I ask you, what can be better than dressing little paper babies? Nothing. NOTHING! (mother's aside: Frances kept dressing them cooing "coot! coot! that baby is soooo COOT! She did a great job cutting out the uncut ones. Despite the fact that she's a lefty!)

Playdough Action

We've been hot and heavy into the playdough lately. Mama made 5 batches for our preschool. It was a huge hit! We added yummy smells to each color. Green was peppermint, brown was chocolate, yellow was lemon, white was vanilla and red was cinnamon flavor. (Those are all things found in the Rainforest. "Rainforest" was the theme of preschool that day.)
My sister took the "sensory" exercise one step further. I won't tell you how many times Mama said, "Elsie, don't eat it. It's NOT food." Hmm. Maybe smelly playdough is not such a great idea for the under 2 set. Here's the recipe:

Smelly/Colored Playdough
1 C water
1T veggie oil
1/2 C salt
1T cream of tartar
Food Coloring
Extracts/Spices for smelliness (Optional)
Saucepan
1 C flour

Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar and food coloring into a saucepan and heat until warm. Remove from heat and add smells and flour. Stir and then knead until smooth. The cream of tartar makes the playdough last for at least 6 months, so resist the temptation to omit this if you don't have it on hand. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. Enjoy!

Note from mama:

Now that I look at this pic., I see that what I thought looked kind of arty, just looks blurry. Oh well, it's been a long day. I made the smock from a thrifted bedspreak and this tutorial.

Tights sans Dress

Who needs warmth? What's that? You say the windchill is -43 degrees today? No matter. I'll don these tights. They'll keep me warm. If you just keep moving, you don't feel it at all! My motto: Fashion. Never Function.

One Horse Open Sleigh...

Our version anyway. I guess that makes Mama the horse!
Dada says since we have the snow, we should enjoy it. I think Dayglo Orange is always enjoyable, don't you?

Have I Mentioned The Love?

Tea Party love, that is. I know I have featured a few shots of tea parties.

But, seriously. This is adorable. She usually invites a few select "friends".

This time, invitations were sent via "bear post." Hopefully there will be many more such tea parties in our future.

"My Own Woof"

Well, I finally wore Mama and Dada down. We have a little white dog.

Just exactly like the one I had been describing for 6 months. She fits all the criteria. And when we got her, she even had a pink bow in her hear and a pink kerchief, too. She is my very own and she likes to hold my hand. Isn't she cute?! She is my very favorite color: White.
Her name is CHICKPEA.

We're all great friends. This was the best Christmas gift ever! And one more neat thing: she and I are only 2 days apart in age. It was meant to be. We're already working on tricks together. She can "sit", "down" (though she isn't a fan of that one), "shake" and "go to your spot". Mama says she can't manage to homeschool her and that she'll need to go to doggie school in a few weeks to "smoothe out the rough edges", whatever that means. We have big plans for Chickpea--I want to teach her how to fetch, jump through hoops and play hide and seek. Yay!