March Drum March

Drum March at ChildRoots (Learning Circle board in background)

Saturday, March 1, 2014 was ChildRoots annual March Drum March.  This event is a celebration welcoming Spring and draws inspiration from the children's story: The Root Children by Sibylle Von Offers.  In this story, little children sleep underground all winter under Mother Earth's care and when spring nears, they wake up, clean themselves up and make colorful clothes. They also work hard painting and washing the ladybugs, beetles and other insects of summertime. These children are the spring and summer flowers that emerge from the ground once spring has arrived and they play all summer long.  When autumn comes and the cold wind blows, they return to the ground, where Mother Earth awaits to welcome them home for the long winter's sleep.

The children at ChildRoots make headbands or sashes out of flowers and learn new songs in preparation for the Drum March.  On the day of the Drum March, the children gather with their families and teachers to sing the songs and show off their headbands.  Then the whole school processes outside, picks up a drum and walks to Buckman school (just down the street) where there is a sheltered area with drummers (and a playground to enjoy!) 

Maddy was pretty shy during the song portion of the morning (she informed us later that there were too many mommies and daddies - adults - and that's why she was shy) but we had a good time listening to the drumming and playing at the playground.

After the Drum March, we decided to head to East Burn restaurant for Brunch, and happily, Maddy's classmates Karina (and mom Deepti) and Greta (and dad Isaac) joined us.  It was a very fun morning for all.

Singing songs with Krystal and Ashley

Daniel and Madeline

The drummers at Buckman

Buckman's playground

Our little Root-Child!

Winter Festival in Bend

We spent the weekend of February 14-16 in Bend, OR and had a blast.  Our friends Eric, Melissa, baby Althea, Christy, Andy, little Luella, Daynia, Brett, Eric and Emily and our family all rented a fantastic house right on the Deschutes River, a short walk away from the Old Mill District, where a Winter Festival was in process.  We had a great weekend enjoying the music, snow and hanging out with friends.  Friday we celebrated Melissa's birthday and Sunday we celebrated Steve's birthday.  It was a great weekend, all around.

Maddy's Fort

Dirty Dozen Brass Band!

Maddy and Luella swinging away at a local park

M-A-D-D-Y!

Since Maddy knows how to spell her name when asked, I thought I'd ask if she could spell her name with her word toy! She could...all by herself! Yay Maddy!!

Snow, Wonderful Snow

We are having a fun snowy Saturday! We have about 6 inches right now, which is a rarity in Portland! This amount of snow pretty much shuts down the city, so we are happy we have lots of food in the house and nowhere we need to go. We played outside and Madeline helped shovel and build "snow castles" which mostly meant covering mommy with snow.  More snow is on the way, too, and hopefully it will warm up just a bit so we have better snowman-making snow!

ChildRoots: Room 5 update

Fun at School!

Madeline Rose loves her school, ChildRoots, and so do we!  Maddy is in her third year of a five-year program, this being her final year before pre-school starts.  Her primary teacher, Krystal, has been a wonderful teacher, friend and guide for Maddy during these formative years.  Ashley is the other teacher for Maddy's group and although she's been with this class for less than a year, she fits in perfectly.  Maddy's classmates now include: Henry, Karina, Carson, Jack, Eli, Kai, Daniel, Greta, Finley and Charlie.

Part of the day includes learning circle, where the kids gather together and discuss a topic or a book.  The teacher asks a question and each child has their turn to answer and the teacher writes down what the child said on the board.  January 27th's question and Maddy's answer gave me a big smile!  (Rosie is her doll).  Both Steve and I enjoy seeing what Maddy said for each question of the day.

Learning Circle

Each day, the teachers randomly select children's names and that child can select their "jobs" for the day.  As you can see, today Maddy was "nap mat helper" but her favorite job is "light switch operator."  There aren't enough jobs for each child so the children who don't receive a specific job get to be "teacher's helper" so everyone has an important role to play.  Maddy LOVES to tell us her job every day!

Jobs Board

The rest of the photos show a glimpse of Maddy's days at ChildRoots, being a silly girl, playing, laughing and learning.  It is a great environment for her and we are so happy she's in a good place while Steve and I are at work.  I often wonder what she's up to during the day, but I know whatever she's up to, she's in good hands.

Silly Maddy

Lots of chalk drawings lately

Maddy STILL loves to hang!

More chalk drawings

Madeline and her buddy Henry

Dramatic Play - explanation and photos on the board in Room 5

Learning Math - explanation and photos on the board in Room 5

On the Left!

Maddy is learning so quickly! She's getting her letters down and she can spell her own name M-A-D-D-Y.

Tonight Steve, Maddy and I were watching a "Dora" and  Maddy yelled out: "it's on the LEFT!!" Surprised, Steve asked Maddy which hand is her left, and she raised her left hand, then did the same with her right hand. 

Madeline Rose amazes us every day!!

Christmas at the Faust Home

Time to hang the stockings!

This year the Madeline, Steve and I stayed in Portland for Christmas.  Although we knew we would miss our parents and siblings (and their families) we were looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home!  Steve and Maddy hung the stockings by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there!  We had so much fun getting ready for the big day and enjoying the season.

On Christmas Eve we had a fantastic dinner of barbequed ribs, roasted carrots and red potatoes. After dinner, Maddy got into her Santa Jammies and we ate Christmas cookies while opening presents from family and from each other.  Maddy really got into opening the gifts this year and had lots of fun tearing off paper.  She helped me and Steve too!  We received such wonderful, thoughtful, generous gifts from everyone - thank you all so very much!

Before Madeline went to bed on Christmas Eve, we put out cookies and milk for Santa Claus and carrots (fancy ones since we had roasted carrots as part of our dinner!) for the reindeer.  Maddy was so excited to leave out the treats for Santa and the reindeer!  She also drew a picture on her new Etch-a-Sketch for Santa (a picture of Santa himself) and she left it out for Santa to see. I read "The Night Before Christmas" to Maddy at bedtime and that made both of us very happy.






Christmas morning, Madeline woke up, and came to Steve and my room as usual (Mommy, Daddy, I have to go pee!), and I climbed out of bed to escort her to the bathroom.  I tried to usher her in, since I had a feeling Santa had come during the night and I wanted her to use the potty before hi-tailing it into the living room...
She did see something out of the ordinary in the living room (what's THAT, Mommy?) but we made it to the potty in time, regardless (with a little insistent direction on my part).  Then, with Steve joining us, we went to the living room to see what surprises Santa brought for us all.  The biggest surprise was a new TENT for Madeline!  It was a "Safari Tent" with a tunnel extending from it.  She was very excited about this surprise!  She also was so happy to see that Santa and the Reindeer had eaten the cookies and carrots (mostly!) and drank the milk...AND Santa even left her a note on her picture!!
Santa also brought me and Steve a couple of gifts and also a new TV for the kitchen.  We were all very happy!  Thanks Santa!

Safari Tent from Santa

Look!  The cookies, carrots and milk are all gone!

Santa left a note on Maddy's picture of him!

Checking the stockings

Happy Maddy in her tent with Rose, her new doll

 

Yummy Eggs Benedict for Christmas breakfast

Our friends Eric, Melissa and Althea, Jeff and Andrea, and Shanna and Wilson joined us on Christmas day/evening to celebrate Christmas with appetizers, dinner and games.  Dinner was a joint effort with Steak tenderloin and lefse provided by us our friends providing most everything else including smashed sweet potatoes, braised Brussels sprouts, potato casserole, pomegranate relish and Christmas cookies and holiday ice cream for dessert (along with a game of "Taboo").  We had a fantastic evening with our friends!

Maddy in her Christmas outfit

Christmas with friends!

All set for Christmas dinner

 

Maddy and her new favorite - Rose

 

the new tent - with tunnel!

 

Steve and his "Nesting" Vikings

Play-doh!