A girl and her Waldorf dolls

In Waldorf education, a doll is a very precious thing and are made from natural materials. J obviously agrees as she chose the Waldorf doll over the popular American Girl doll. A Waldorf doll's face is kept simple and the expression neutral so that the range of emotions is open to the imagination of a children. We have only recently added "April" to our collection; she is the one in the orange sun dress. J has been carrying her with her just about every where she can. She also gives her dolls lessons, bath, and who knows whatever else.

I'm also planning on making my own dolls for my children, another girl doll for J and a boy doll for W with kits found here. Wish me lots of luck in that. The kids have been eagerly awaiting for the package to come. They have already tried to imagine what their dolls might look like. :)

Sunday snapshots (creative play)

The kids make a pretend guitar and put on a little show for us.

J putting a harness on the dog. They are taking the dog for a walk.
Every night, the kids put the dolls to bed. And before yesterday, I never fully understood what they meant. Now I think I do.

I saw J's broken PJ (broken zipper) by her trash can and suggested she use it to to make something. So she decided to sew a little dress for her doll. She's very excited that her doll now has something to change into. :)

A bookish day

It was mostly about books today. We read many books today, some was in Chinese and some about China in English. J also read few Chinese stories using pin-yin (Chinese phonetic system). Prime is still really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle books so that was his read-aloud. We also went to the library and guess what, got more books. Here is one of the books we got and it was delightful. And the good thing is Prime can understand all the Chinese I said because of the pictures.




A few of J's creations with the help of scissors and toothpick.


Prime wanted to do his own thing. He created and played with his creations for a couple of hours.

We also spoke a lot of Chinese today and went to the our local Chinese grocery store. We got some of the kids' favorite Chinese food: dumplings, and coconut cracker for lunch and some other stuff. Perhaps we'll make some sweet egg rolls if there's time tomorrow.

we finally went out and more

We have been pretty much house bound due to my ankle injury but yesterday we finally went out. It was nice to just sit back and watch the kids enjoy themselves. Daddy took few of the close up while I tried taking pictures from where I was sitting.


Prime enjoyed the water balloon toss the best even though he sat down fast. ;)


J says she enjoyed fishing the best. She also found a friend fast. I thought she knew the girl from before but turns out they never met. J says her friend is 25% Italian.

I really haven't had chance to take many pictures due to my ankle. The kids have been entertaining themselves inside the house happily. The only thing I have been enforcing is quiet time where the kids must separate and that is slowly becoming one of my favorite part of the day where the house is quiet and I actually take a cat nap.

One thing I did initiate was to bring out the beeswax and they have been enjoying it more than they have in the past. We typically only work on this during the warmer month as I found this to be much easier to soften it during this time so we can really work with the material.


Prime is starting to make his own stuff and it has been a joy to watch him. His very first creation: the cobra. Seems to me we don't really need to buy toys as the kids enjoy making their own toys. They made more; pictures here are from day 1. There is always a story with their creations. This activity alone sustained them for more than 3 hours.

creating with blocks

The kids built a house for their McDonald beanies. Now that the house is mostly finished, they say they can START playing. And I thought the builidng was playing. :)

This is the main house. The paper is pretend TV.

This is the swimming pool.

J was feeding the animals this morning and letting the penguin drink her milk from her bowl. Kids are so funny.

surf board, babydolls, and balloons

This is J's surf board used in her dance recital. She design it but said someone made the board out of paper. How cool. It feels like a real surf board.

J has been designing clothes for her baby doll. I'm not sure where she got the idea but she did. The first one she says, is the doll's PJ and the 2nd one is her "morning dress". She actually learned a thing or two as even with a baby doll, it still takes some planning and pre-measuring before cutting to see that it fit, esp. since her's are taped and not sewn together.

It pays to shop late at Trader Joe's as both kids got all the remaining balloons which was 7-8 balloons for each child. They came home and decorate it right away. These 2 are by J.


Here are Prime's creations. He was a lot more prolific and drew on most all of his balloons; most with a similar theme: cats. The last one he says is called "FLASH". I could barely see but is actually pretty cute.

The beanie babies

My kids have always liked stuffed animals, even Prime but the ones they loved the most are the beanie babies. I collected them while I was in college since a friend of mine told me they are good for children. At the time, I didn't really take it to heart but did collect them for that reason. And now I'm really glad I did as my kids just love them. Since I have a lot of beanie babies, I only let the kids pick a few to play with at a time. They get super excited and sometimes trade with each other. Like today, J traded Marshmallow and Grace for Doby. (see picture below for who's who)

Today, the kids still wanted to play "fort" and took out a lot of their stuffed animals outside (a wheelbarrow full) and put them on a blanket. There was also a lot of moving of the chairs and positioning of the comforters.


The current favorite for both kids is "Doby". Here are some of their other favorites: Doby is on top of Sly, then next is Marshmallow, then Grace, and then Egbert (J's #1 favorite), but the children call Egbert "Ladylike". :)

Unexpected shade and fun in the backyard

Today is so nice I decided to take some of our comforters out to "bake" them in the sun. After some cleaning, I went to check on the kids and this is how I found them. They turned it to a fort and was having good time underneath. When I first stepped onto the deck, I saw Prime and he says, J is hiding but then I saw long black hair hanging out. :)

I think they got hot playing in the sand box and is going into the fort for some shade. They were in there for a long time with their toys. J seemed to always to be lying on the chairs while Prime sat on the ground. They claim they are not hot. Okay, then, play on.



I caught them washing their doll's hair -water poured from a doll's tea pot and later, eating their snack (cheese) in there. I'm hoping they will get a lot of outdoor time. It is really starting to feel like summer.

early birthday present

J originally says she will open her doll house present on her birthday, but as soon as she saw the boxes, she says she will open it today. :) I know Prime is just as anxious to play as J.

Needless to say, it is a big hit with my kids. The idea actually came from friend K, who gave J a pack of Asian dolls for her birthday. But really, these particular dolls are small and therefore not as fun without a dollhouse, esp. since these dolls are meant to be played with doll house. Since it is J's 7th birthday, I thought of doing something extra special and I think this is it. :) J says, " I can feel my heart beating fast and its happy!"


J and Prime both helped me with the screwing of the screws.


Here is the doll house; all the furniture has been added and the kids have begun playing.


2 of these dolls are from Ms. K (those are Plan Toy; very similar to what the kids have)

I think this is a toy that will be cherish for a long time. :)