Where We Are

A wonderful day

I am so grateful to be a mom today, and our family has had a beautiful day. It all started with a visit to the Early Girl Eatery, which has been my favorite place for breakfast ever since I moved to Asheville 8 years ago (after tasting the bland bacon this morning, however, I may change my mind). While waiting for our table, we walked around the Wall St. neighborhood a bit.

After breakfast, we headed over to the French Broad Chocolate Lounge for Mommy's chocolate fix! Then we went home to get ready for a hike at the Dupont State Forest. The last time we went there, Esme' was about 6 months old! It was so wonderful to revisit, and I hope to make many more trips to this awesome forest.

The photo above is of High Falls, taken before we descended down for a closer look. The rest of the photos are from the base of this waterfall.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Easter, a bit late

We got a new computer (a Mac Mini!) with our tax return!! I am astonished with how fast photos download. I am so delighted that I decided to share a bunch of photos from our Easter preparation and celebration, even though the holiday has come and gone.

Several weeks ago, we planted wheatberries in our Easter baskets to grow our own Easter grass. I bought two cups of berries, soaked them overnight, and then the kids put them on top of some organic potting soil in plastic lined baskets.

They started growing after two days.

The finished baskets on Easter morning! I am pretty sure that the Easter bunny got the personalized wooden eggs and the wooden bunnies from Etsy.

We tried two new kinds of egg dying this year. My favorite of the two was to wrap rubberbands around the egg for stripes.

Esme' made these two by herself (I put the rubberbands on).

We also made some eggs by dying them and then drawing on top of them with watercolor pencils. I wasn't as thrilled with this process and neither were the kids, but some of the eggs turned out cute. The ones with the names, the bunny and the flower were done in this way.

For our Easter craft, the kids set to immediately eating their eggs and we saved all of the beautifully colored shells to do this project.

 
 

And, our decorations for the day. I made sure to buy perennials, so that we can put them in the ground and enjoy them next year.

Happy late Easter everyone!

 

Catching up

Hello again everybody! We had a wonderful time in Wisconsin over the holidays and I wanted to share some (OK, a ton of) photos with you all.

First, our baby boy turned 3!! Here he is on his birthday morning with his new crown, made by Mama. I will be making one for Esme' soon too. Here is the pattern if you are interested.

He started the day out perfectly with his favorite breakfast from Grandma- pancakes with whipped cream!! For some reason, the photo is being cut off so you can't see that he is holding up three fingers.

Then his party started! We had lots of family, which is one of the nice things about his birthday being so close to Christmas. In the future we may have to have early birthday parties for his friends, but so far it has worked out really great. One of his favorite gifts this year was his first guitar!

Rex was a big hit too! He received so many great gifts (and so much love)- thanks everyone! And Happy Birthday dear Asher!

Next... Esme' lost her first tooth!! On Christmas morning! Here is the little darling with her beautiful 5 year old smile. Glad I had her tooth pillow ready (and that I remembered to pack it!).

We saw lots of family...

Asher with Auntie Angela.

Esme' with Aunt Bethany.

All the cousins together!

Four generations!

Megan, Me, Chelsea.

Can you guess whose spouse is whose?!

Esme' was thrilled to do her hair like Olivia and Lexie!!

And now for some random cute photos of our kids. I hope you all had a warm and safe holiday season and that your new year is bringing so much love and beauty.

Christmas cards and advent update

Well, it is December 13th and we have accomplished 10 of our activities! Not too bad, eh? (Did you hear my Minnesota accent there?!!). We couldn't go ice skating because apparently the civic center is not offering that this year. We may look into other towns in the area, but not until after the holidays. We have already wrapped all of our gifts; unfortunately it was not with our own handmade paper. I really want to knit gift bags that we re-use, but I feel I'd have to start that much earlier in the year. So, yes, some things have been crossed off the list, some things have been done earlier than planned, and other things have been added in (like a very special litte girl's 1st birthday party!).

I hesitate to post photos of our Christmas cards (because then they wouldn't be a surprise to some recipients), but I feel they turned out so lovely that I want to share! My husband handmade a sheet of various tapes (some reflective, some not) that we could cut up into tree shapes. Then we cut out brown tape for stumps and yellow for stars... and voila!

 

Snowflake clings

One of the activities from our advent calendar was to make these window snowflakes. Both of the kids had a great time squeezing paint... who wouldn't?!!

This craft is very easy. All you need is some 3-D or puffy paint, wax paper, a cookie sheet or two, snowflake templates, tape and scissors. Cut out the snowflake image, tape it under your wax paper (shiny side up- very important!!), and start tracing the image with your paint. Let it dry overnight, peel and stick on your window.

I love Asher's scotty dog (I mean snowflake!) so much that I am including a closer shot of it.

 

 

A visit to the Biltmore

A few nights ago we enjoyed a wonderful evening with our friend Rowan at the Biltmore Estate. For some reason, the pass she holds did not allow us into the area by the home, so we played by the inn instead.  I had never been to that area before and it was really neat, at least in the holiday season. Christmas lights were everywhere and Christmas music was broadcast out over the courtyard between the shops. We brought thermoses of hot cocoa and the kids ran around like crazy in their zip-up jammies and boots! The tree was lovely... the kids had no idea that we were not in the area that we had planned on. In fact, I think if we were to go again I'd take them to the same area. We had this quaint little mini-village almost all to ourselves.

Here are a few photos from our evening.

Advent activities 1-3

I am happy to say that we managed to accomplish each day's activity for the first three days! I wasn't sure what would happen, but I think I can say that a bit of added structure to our day has been really welcome. 

Here are some photos from when we wrote our letters to Santa (yes, I wrote one too!). Our table isn't too big, so I filled a basket with select materials for the project- some red, green, yellow and brown markers, red and green ink pads, a heart stamp (we don't have any stamps related to Christmas yet), red ribbons, glitter, and some holiday stencils. The kids decorated for quite a while before they started writing. Esme' and her friend Marlise each wrote "Dear Santa" and then I transcribed everything else they wanted to say, which I think is quite fair for their ages.

For some reason, I couldn't get Asher's photo to rotate properly so I am not putting it on here. I do need to say, though, that the first thing on his list was a hole puncher! Adorable!! I might just have to sneak one into his stocking.

Day two's activity was wet felting with cookie cutters to make an ornament for the tree or for a winter garland. This activity was so fun that it extended into day three and we invited our friends Melissa and Desmond over to share the the felting joy.

 

Melissa caught on very quickly and made lovely ornaments!! Below is a photo of three of the five that her and Desmond made in just one afternoon.

And here are a few of ours. I made the snowflakes for a winter garland and want to make 3 more- I'll post a photo of the garland when I get it hung. Esme' made the star- I love it!!! She picked out all the colors, put them in the cookie cutter herself and poked at it for quite a while. All I did was a bit of extra pressing to make sure the points were secure.

On day 3, we took down our Autumn nature table decorations and replaced them with our Winter ones. From the very first time I saw a nature table on a blog, I knew it would be a wonderful addition to our home. I feel it really helps us enjoy each season- a little more fully and a little more slowly. When I walk past these lovely displays, I can't help but to feel that everything is in its place.

We made the little snow princess behind the bowl of rocks with Stockmar modelling beeswax. Surprisingly, Asher loves to work with the wax. If you've used it, you know that it's pretty difficult for a small child to manipulate. He doesn't get it soft enough to shape into anything, but he is always taking it off the shelf anyway- maybe he just likes the honey smell?

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Our first advent calendar

With the help of my sister Bethany over Thanksgiving, I managed to complete our family's first advent calendar. I have seen various crafty versions of the advent calendar all over the internet, and I finally decided to go ahead with one of them. I got my idea from this website. If you are a music lover, take a moment to look at hers- they are really beautiful.

I chose this version of the advent calendar for several reasons:

1. It involved recycling that my children could see.

2. The tubes allow for a small treat or toy (even though our calendar will be activity related, we may add a piece of chocolate on one day or a small wooden figurine).

3. This calendar allows children to feel the countdown of days rather than to actually have to count them. When one day is done, the tube will come off the tree and the kids will see that there are fewer tubes, even if they can't count them (Asher can't count to 25 yet).

 

The only downfall in this project is that it needs to be done mostly by adults. If you are looking for a child-friendly project, this probably isn't for you. Needless to say, Esme' had a blast while I worked on it a couple of weeks ago (before my sister was here to help). Here you can see what she made while I made the calendar- a dragon!! Sometimes I think that simply in our modeling a creative life, our children tap into their own creative energy. So, even though I didn't provide an activity for her, I did help her to find a creative space.

The calendar in process...

And here are our 25 activities for the month. They are mostly in order, simply because we have the restraints of my full-time child care and travelling to Wisconsin... but I am sure that some will get mixed around.

I would love to hear your ideas for a meaningful holiday season- maybe we'll add some to the calendar next year.

1. Write letters to Santa.

2. Make wet felted ornaments for a winter garland.

3. Redecorate the nature table.

4. Go ice skating? If not available, then make a wreath with the local Waldorf crafting community.

5. Call a special friend on her birthday!! Make glittery window snowflakes in her honor.

6. Find a winter poem; make a watercolor painting to transfer the poem onto.

7. Make holiday cards, including these snowglobe postcards!!!!

8. Learn about the origins of the holiday and how other cultures celebrate (or not).

9. Make our own wrapping paper (next year, I'd like to know how to sew and make our own wrapping bags that we use over and over).

10. Go to the library for seasonal books. Look for "Gift of the Magi". I have never read it, and have no idea what it is about... I saw it on someone else's list and thought it looked interesting. Open our new Christmas book!

11. Visit the gingerbread houses at the Grove Park Inn.

12. Bake our own gingerbread house.

13. Decorate our gingerbread house. I got this idea (to take two days for the project, making it more manageable) at the Artful Parent- thanks Jean!!

14. Make cinnamon applesauce ornaments.

15. Donate to a charity. Last year, we donated a shoe box gift to Samaritan's Purse. I thought it was a great way for the kids to see and feel what they were giving. They helped pick out all the items for the box. This year, though, I feel like going a different route. The same organization has a program where you can send money in the amount of a particular gift that will enhance a family's quality of life. This year, we will be donating (the amount of money needed for) 12 chicks, so a family can start to raise its own eggs and meat.

16. Wrap gifts while listening to holiday music (begin packing for Wisconsin!).

17. Go to the Biltmoe Estate with a friend to look at the Christmas tree and sip hot cocoas.

18. Drive to Wisconsin- sing carols, watch holiday movies in the car.

19. Same as above

20. Make handprint wreaths with as many of the cousins' hands as possible. If we have time and inclination, do a couple of other crafts with all the kids, like these q-tip snowflakes.

21. Make Rudolph cookies (I found a great recipe in a magazine, so I can't link to it) and watch the classic Rudolph movie with the cousins.

22. Make a snowman and/or go sledding.

23. Asher's birthday!!!!!

24. Walk around to look at lights in Platteville, Wisconsin; come back to open new pajamas.

25. Celebrate Christmas in Wisconsin!!

 

I still need to add numbers onto the tubes. I have looked at three major stores already for number stickers; after striking out three times, I think I am going to use a sharpie marker to write the numbers on red heart stickers.

My first cheesecake!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration! My father-in-law, dad, and one of my sisters got to spend the holiday with us. It was the first time that we hosted Thanksgiving- we were feeling pretty grown-up! Here are a few photos of the food, along with a recipe for pumpkin swirl cheesecake (taken from a Martha Stewart magazine... but I have to share because it is so tasty). I always thought that cheesecakes must be the hardest dessert to make, but this was surprisingly easy.

Pumpkin swirl cheesecake

Ingredients:

3 packages (8oz) of cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

dash ground cloves

2 cups finely crushed ginger snaps

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

6 Tbsp butter

 

Crust: Mix ginger snap crumbs, pecans, and butter: press onto bottom and 2 inches up side of 9" springform pan.

Filling: Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup of the sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until just blended. Reserve 1- 1 1/2 cups of the plain batter. Stir remaining 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon 1/2 of the pumpkin batter over crust; top with spoonfuls of 1/2 of the reserved batter. Repeat layers. Cut through batters with knife several times for marbled effect.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes or until center is almost set if using a silver springform pan (or bake at 300 degrees for 55 minutes if using a dark nonstick springform pan). Loosen cake from side of pan; cool before removing side of pan. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Makes 12 servings.

 

 

 

Etsy love!

I have been admiring a lot of Etsy shops lately, getting ideas for Christmas gifts for the kids. There are a few that make such beautiful things that I feel I need to share!! Here is a list of my current top five favorite Etsy shops. Enjoy!!

1) The creative person behind the stacking mountains above has a shop called Imaginationkids. She also makes lovely wands, sun stackers, sunflower stackers and rainbow stackers. I just placed an order with her today!!

2) little sapling toys- natural wood blocks, pegboards, a gorgeous wooden camera and really neat teethers of all shapes (like a guitar, a maple leaf, a butterfly, a star, a woman nursing a baby, and- my favorite- the state of Wisconsin).

3) Rjabinnick- this shop has cute wooden figures for a nature table or playtime, and beautiful wooden stackers.

4) Monkeycheeks- awesome crayon rolls/wallets for travel and other outings.

5) Blackbeary Mountain- this shop has an assortment of wooden playthings, from peas and carrots to a set of dolls based on the elements (seen below).