I was reading Sew Liberated’s Toddler Arts Experience and learned about the book First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos.  There are some simple activities from “Primarily Paint” and “Making Marks” sections that required very little materials. I decided to try water painting and drawing in sand.

First, I gave them empty peanut butter jars, brushes and water for the water paint. They started painting on the pavement. Then, Luis brought out all his “vehicles” and used the brush and water to clean them. Eiya helped him out too.

Then, I put some sand in the foil dish for them. They first drew with fingers, grabbing and pouring sand in and out. However, when I brought out more water for refilling. They started adding water to the sand and making sand pie. Eiya started kneading the sand dough with her hands and feet. Moving sand dough from dish to watering can back and forth. More kneading and moving.

After all the fun, we baked the pie under the sun.

Small hands, endless wonders

May the earth keep glowing.

It has been so blissful to welcome by the cool breeze, sunshine and Spring rain. When it rains I think about my plants and how they would appreciate the rain water. Eiya and I have been spending more time in the backyard exploring. She just turns 10 months and is curious about everything around her. The California poppies are in bloom right now and the sight of Spring is within her fingertips!

Ethan has built a raised bed. We are going to grow vegetables and herbs. This weekend will be sunny & warm, just the right time to harvest our compost to add to the bed.

Happy Earth Day!

Ethan’s family gave us a bag of their harvested almonds from their orchard. Ethan used half of the almonds for roasting with honey. The second half, I decided to give it a try for some almond milk. The result was quite satisfying as shown on Eiya’s face.

First, we soaked the almonds over night. Then, we boiled in boiling water for several minutes to blanch them and remove the skins.

After that, we used the blender to blend the almonds into a smooth liquid. My mom made us some muslin bags for making soy milk when she stayed with us. I used that to strain the almonds milk. We are saving the almond pulps to make some cookies later this month.

Summer is just around the corner…

Spring has brought life into the garden…it makes gathering bundles of flowers a joyous thing to do… watching the life forms in the backyard…cutting and picking the perfect blossoms…making bouquet of colors that enliven the home…

In our dining room, sit the two Mexican carved animals (got them from a local Mercado for our baby) and beautiful cookbook of Mexico…next to my collection of drift woods, seed pods and dried leaves…

Savoring these quiet moments of life…is truly precious.

Happy Spring!

For the past few weeks, we have been going to the Sunnyvale Farmers’ Market. We are drawn there for the varieties of apples from Prevedelli Farms. This week, we bought Mutsu, Fuji, Bellflower and My Jewel. There was also a vendor there from Orange County that carries fresh Gold Fingers bananas.  Yes! bananas from California…a pleasant surprise. I love the satin looks of the skin. It’s so precious to be able to access locally grown fruits.