tiny food

for christmas, bee got a ton of new dollhouse stuff. i am so happy about it because she has had this beautiful dollhouse, but never really had any good furniture to fill it. she made due with old too-small furniture and homemade stuff (boxes and cloths). but it was never very inspiring looking, when it comes to just roll playing and pretending. 

now that she has all of this great stuff, her "guys" have been on all sorts of adventures. we get to tuck them in most nights and listen to all of their new scenarios. 

the other day, during our long relaxing days at home following christmas, we all hatched a plan to make some food for the "guys". bee suggested that we use fimo. i could only find white, although i KNOW that there are other colors around here somewhere. that was fine with bee because she was psyched to paint the food.

so, now the guys have tons of good food to fill their refrigerator, table and cabinets. i, for one, just LOVE it. i have always loved miniatures. now D and i are brainstorming more dollhouse food, using different color fimo, so we don't have to mess around with painting.

it is just SO cute in the dollhouse. look at that turkey baking in the oven. the oven of a vegetarian child's dollhouse!

the cabinets are stocked......

and, this feast, fit for a king......

handmade holiday

in the months before christmas, i had done a lot of thinking about trying to go mostly handmade for our gifts. i had plenty of ideas for the kids in our life because there is so much more to make and they won't notice my beginner skills and are an easier audience. i struggled with handmade things for adults, even though i was pretty unenthusiastic about giving store-bought gifts to adults. i feel like everyone has everything they need and it all seems so frivolous sometimes, to me.

in the end i made things for almost every kid in our life and i was pretty psyched about it.

for the little cousins on D's side, i made a twirling skirt, a snack bag and some dyed silks:

i also made a set of silks for henny:

for bee i made a velvet curtain for her "stage". she always uses this one area of the living room as her stage and calls the doorway her "backstage". i sewed a silky back on it, added some sequined stars and hung it on a tension rod. here it is in the background (bad picture).......

for all of the little girls in our life, i made more skirts. i am loving this pattern and the girls all seem to love the skirts......
really early on, and before i thought to be taking pictures, i also made some matching stenciled and hand-dyed  shirts and a scrap wreath.

for next year, i have a few goals. i want to keep a running list of ideas that are good for kids as well as adults. i also want to make things throughout the year, as the inspiration strikes. i hope i will have more success this way, and maybe even be able to take the handmade pledge, for once and for all.

one thing that struck me throughout the christmas holiday was the amount of people in our life who gave handmade gifts to the kids. these were all things made by moms in our life, who have kids near our kid's ages. i observed the most amazing thing each time we exchanged gifts with one of these people. after one of the kids opened a homemade gift, the child of the woman who made the gift would proudly declare "my mom made that!" every time. i feel my eyes fill with tears as i type that because it is so pure, that pride in the homemade. i heard bee tell her friends and cousins, i heard her cousins tell me, i heard bee's friend tell us all. each time they said the same exact thing, with the same boastful tone. i just love that. i love that we are surrounded by that sort of love and effort. i love that bee asks first "who made this?" instead of "what store did we get this from?" that's what it's all about.

building holiday cheer

these past few weeks have been so full. full of parties, making things, making lists, celebrating life inside the walls of our house and building the excitement of the season. preparing for christmas has been a big part of our days, but so has pure celebrating through our advent tree's daily gifts.

one day our fortune was to finger paint. this is something that bee craves every time the paint is out, and sadly, i discourage it. it's just usually a bad time... we're off to school soon, i am in the middle of cleaning, etc. so, i figured that it would be a welcome treat. what i didn't figure was that henny could do it too! he was sweetly tentative, but still loved it. what a sight for me to see my two kids painting next to each other.

another day the advent calendar told us to bake cookies for the neighbors. this coincided with the first big storm of the season. bee and i trudged up and down the street, dodging ice patches, and spreading good cheer.
this activity was another that really exceeded my expectations. all of the neighbors who we encountered were so amazingly grateful. they invited us in, showed bee the christmas decorations, thanked us profusely and complimented our good deed. it was such a positive experience for me and for bee. i got so much out if it, as a pure act of giving. i am so grateful that bee probably got the same things out of it. 
we have also had super fun fortunes, that just create opportunities for family fun. things like, painting each other's nails.....
or building a block tower (or block city) with all of the blocks in the house (A LOT!).....
much of our time has also been filled with coordinating a big adopt-a-family effort. we have participated in this program for about 5 years now. we share the responsibility with a bunch of family members, but we do all of the organizing and delivering. it's quite the effort in the end, but so rewarding. seeing all of those boxes packed up, and imaging those gifts being opened on christmas, well, it's really more than i can take. i just feel happy that we are so blessed to be able to help, even in this small way.

and then there is the christmas card. we sent our card to over 60 families this year (a record). the act of writing out the cards and mailing them out is small compared to trying to get a good picture to use. 

some of the out takes.....

and finally, a winner.....

fun kid craft, pretty pictures.

the other day bee and i made a cute paper chain for the christmas tree. we used some instructions for a no tape or staple version. it's so pretty and was so easy for bee to help. just loop them, and loop them some more!

in related news, i am officially in love with the christmas tree. it glows so brightly and it's so full of all these ornaments that we love and cherish. it is so sparse and thin and simple, yet so lovely when all of the decorations are on it. i feel like i breathe deeper each time i pass by it.

hunting for, cutting & trimming the tree... with the help of a wild bird

this past weekend we headed out to get ourselves a christmas tree. a few years ago we discovered this sweet old tree patch behind a man's house in a nearby town. he must have planted the trees 25 years ago and just let them grow. he charges $10 and you just go out and get whatever you can find. we usually cut off one of the tops. we aren't fussy, it looks just as beautiful to us as any $50 tree would, once our ornaments and lights are sparkling.

so, this year was the most exciting ever because we had a pheasant accompanying us. when we arrived, we noticed it at the edge of the trees. it didn't seem to be scared of us and when we went to walk around through the trees, it followed us the whole time.

i'm serious when i say that it followed us the whole time. through all the trees, up the hill and back down again. it was scared off by the chain saw, but then found us again soon after the tree was down.
you can see it below, if you look carefully, right at D's heels. 
this funny bird followed us all the way back to the car and then just sat there watching us put the tree on the roof. we decided to spoil her with some of our abundant crumbs in the car. so, as we left, she was munching on crackers, popcorn and an apple slice. she's lucky that our kids are so messy!
at home we trimmed the tree with some fantastic retro lights and all of our beautiful ornaments. bee loved helping and henny just loved everything. when i placed the skirt under the tree, henny climbed under and laid down on it, looking up at the lights. meanwhile bee curled up on the top of the couch and did the same. our two cat-like kids, enjoying the tree.

thankful for....

... a partner who quietly brought the kids out to play in the living room this morning so i could drift off for an extra hour. i'm even more grateful to wake up and come out to find a new cardboard box "cat house" being built and played with. lots of meowing and laughing followed.

... a daughter who passed me two notes, both spelling out "i love you", at the restaurant this morning. 

... a son who is able to tell us so many things now, through words and signs. my frustrations from a month ago about his communication are melting away. i fell so grateful every time he pats his chest to ask for help which is a world away from his previous exclusively fussing for help. 

tiny village

bee and i just wrapped up a fun crafting session. we made a tiny snow village with these sweet little houses. it is so simple and addicting once you start.

we set it all up at the bottom of a plant. the pot is huge, so there was plenty of room for snow (white felt), roads (brown felt), the houses and trees. of course the houses needed residents, so bee moved the horsies into the neighborhood. unfortunately for the aesthetics of it all, it just looks like a bunch of horses died in a sweet little village.

fruity silks

i have a list a mile long, i my head and on paper. it's of all of these cool and inspiring ideas for handmade kids gifts. i have been psyched for months to make things for christmas. now that it is closer i am finding that the balance of time, motivation and organization is a bit tricky. but nevertheless, one night last week i got down to business and made some sweet play silks, dyed with kool aid!

i dyed 12 silks, ordered from dharma trading. i found the kool aid at a few different stores. i used cherry (red), grape (purple), lemonade (yellow), orange (orange, hello!) and pink lemonade (pink!). i also had some sweet blueberry kind and like a dummy i added a bit of this other weird kind that i though might be blue too. turns out it was red and it totally turned that whole batch purple. so, i ended up with extra purple. i wish i had more of the pink lemonade because it's the bomb. and oh wow, that stuff sure smells good. but now that i see what it can do to cloth, i am hesitant to ever drink it again for fear of what it will do to my insides!

i used directions from a few different places. most had similar instructions. in short, what i did was about this:

• soak silks in water (1gal.) & vinegar (1/2 cup) for about a half hour.
• using 2 large, microwavable bowls, made up kool aid dye (3 packages of kool aid, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup vinegar, per silk. use gloves, or be VERY careful!
• i usually did 2 silks per bowl, so i just doubled the recipe in each bowl. 
• rotate bowls in the microwave: 3 minutes "cooking", 3 minutes "resting", with a little stir in there too.
• do the cook/ rest routine 3 times each.
• rinse in the sink, although not too much dye was leaving them after three rounds in the microwave.
• air dry
• iron when dry.

i'm so excited about how these came out. i plan to give henny a set, and give the others to some of our other special little ones. i love the idea of open ended toys like this and i can't wait to see what henny and bee come up with to use them for. bee is on board to give them to henny, but i think that she is just super anxious to get her hands on them. i can't wait to see her clipping one on henny for a cape, or the two of them sitting down to a felt food picnic on one. the possibilities are endless!

advent tree

ever since bee was 2 we have had some sort of advent calendar. we are not religious but find this tradition to be a nice addition to the simple christmas that we want to provide, as well as a good way to promote the type of holiday traditions we like. we want it to be amazing and magical for the kids, but also without the materialism that is all around us. 

last year i hatched a plan to do an advent calendar that is more about family fun than candy or prizes. we made a calendar out of toilet paper tubes, and put a "fortune" in each tube, each day. the fortunes were anything from "paint mom or dad's nails" to "go looking for christmas lights tonight" or a real material prize. bee loved it and we loved the way that it encouraged us to make special moments happen throughout the season.

this year we did the same sort of thing with the fortunes. we tried to make them inclusive of the whole family, including henny. 

the toilet paper tube set up didn't hold up too well, so i made a new system that seems like it may be a keeper for years to come. i made muslin pouches and cinched them up with ribbon. we hung them on a branch that bee and D found around the yard.

i printed out a nice font and traced the numbers with fabric markers. we put the fortunes in the baggies, and coordinated them with the calendar. we won't be "baking cookies for the neighbors", for example, unless it's a weekend or one of D's days off. any time that the kids get a material prize, they will find a fortune that tells them where to look for it. 

i'm pretty psyched about this new advent calendar. we have already been dreaming of future holiday seasons.... finding the branch, filling and emptying it and finally burning it in the fire on christmas morning.

thanks and giving

we are wrapping up a very long and very relaxing thanksgiving weekend here. it has been so nice to have so much wide-open time as a family. sometimes it may have seemed a bit boring, but having all this time to just do whatever has made me actually feel so accomplished. the house is clean, through no significant effort, the kids are having fun and we have been eating very well and enjoying fires in the fireplace. it is so good.

in the weeks that led up to thanksgiving we tried out a new family activity. i wanted to help bee to realize the meaning of thanksgiving and create a sort of family bonding. i printed out these thanksgiving trees and leaves. it is such a beautiful design and worked perfectly. 

each day, at dinner, we each had 2 leaves. one leaf was to write something we are thankful for and one for something that we gave. it was sometimes interesting to see what bee would say and most often very touching. sometimes we were thankful for a greater thing, like a healthy family. other times it was relatively small, like me being able to have some time to myself in a day. it was always fun to try to "help" henny come up with his. he was most often thankful for books and gave us great laughs. 

the most wonderful thing about this activity is that is has given me hope and inspiration to make a daily thanks part of our routine. i have to brainstorm more with D about it, but i think i'm ready to start something. maybe we will keep a family journal of our gratitude and gifts. i don't have it fleshed out yet, but i am ready and motivated. we have so much to be thankful for and i hope we can continue to acknowledge it all year.

book worm

up until a week ago henny has never had an interest in books. and when i say he didn't have an interest, i mean that he would slap any book away and/or scream until i gave up. this frustrated and depressed me to no end. when bee was a baby we read to her all the time. throughout the day and at night, i'd even recite favorite books to her in the car or during diaper changes. but henny just wouldn't have anything to do with it. 

until a week ago. 

suddenly and all at once, he began taking books of the shelf and bringing them to us. if we are sitting on the couch, he will hand us the book and then stomp his feet until we pick him up. once he is settled in his spot and the book is open, he plugs his fingers in, and fully relaxes. 
i am so excited because in the past week we have read books about a hundred times. henny now has favorite books and looks around for them when the mood strikes him. what is most exciting though is the way that henny's vocabulary has exploded along with this new love of books. the importance of the timing is not lost on me. suddenly, as he is taking in all of these great books, he is finding words and sounds that he never had before. he is telling us what different animals say and what he wants to eat. i realize how books can help us teach our kids more than anything else. how else could you expose your kid to the moon, a macaroni penguin, a farmer and easter eggs all in one day?
the very best part of this new literary love is watching bee read to henny. she knows many of the board books by heart and she can read them as well as us. the two of them snuggled up reading warms my heart to no end. and bee is so proud, it is so good for a girl who is really struggling to find her importance in our family so much of the time.

another great thing is i know just what we should ask santa to put in henny's stocking in a few weeks!

pure sweetness

it's my birthday tomorrow and there has been much whispering going on here regarding it. D and bee have been sharing secrets all week. it is very cute. bee seems to have gotten the concept of secrets. not like when it was D's birthday in april and she flat out said, "D, we got you some crocs!". this was after a LONG conversation about secrets.

but the other night at dinner we were all talking and suddenly bee said, "ok mommy, calm down. be quiet. listen, on your birthday, i will do everything. if there is something to clean, we will clean it. if there are dirty dishes, i'll wash them. you don't have to do anything!"

i guess that i can look forward to a day of relaxation tomorrow. i am so lucky. really.

apple (with no apples!) muffins and our endless snack consumption

lately it has been feeling less and less like we have a kid and a baby and more like we have 2 kids. this has a lot to do with the fact that henny climbs up on the dining room table if given the chance and grabs his shoes and coat when he feels like going outside. it also has a lot to do with the amount of food that our former baby consumes. like bee, he wants to eat constantly. we have been going through so much snack food lately. it is almost sickening too see the food come in, be devoured and then see the trash pile up. i have been thinking about how sad this kind of waste is (so articulately put here) and what to do about it. i would like to start making my own granola bars and crackers but tonight i put in an effort to stretch our snack supply by baking some muffins.

i used this recipe from this most amazing blog that i just found. there is so much there that it makes my head spin! it turned out that when i went to make the muffins that the bag of apples was empty, so i broke out some of the summer supply, strawberries and peaches! the muffins turned out great and i'm sort of psyched to start a trend of less wasteful snack food. i making my own fake meat now, so i guess that anything is possible!

highlights of a week full of deep breaths.

life has been busy, as usual. thrown in like a giant wrench has been some outrageous behavior from bee. she has been having these daily tantrums that are like nothing we have ever seen. there is screaming and crying, there is sometimes scratching and pinching and there is endless bargaining that can almost not be deciphered through all the screaming. i guess this is what a four year old tantrum looks like. it's not pretty.

i am pretty much at my wits end. monday's public tantrum in a parking lot pretty much pushed me over the edge. this new behavior has had me on eggshells and colored my world in a very ugly way for a few weeks now.

that said, today was better. there was only one almost-tantrum. she managed to calm down and "use words" and it really felt like a gift. i'm hoping that we are on the other side of this.

but it's not all bad. there has been much joy.

for starters, i made bee a winter hat:

it's a simple knit hat with a 1" ribbed band on the bottom. i knit the flower to fancy it up. the flower turned out big because of the needles or yarn or whatever, but i love it. bee is like carrie bradshaw when she walks into preschool!

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in the "cute baby department" we have henny, painted up by bee:
she discovered her love for painting henny on halloween and he loves being the canvas. he just sits there, so still, as she paints away.

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my latest cooking triumph was vegetarian golumpki. i can't even deal with writing out the recipe, but here's the basics... i followed the usual recipe but filled them with TVP (brought back with vegetable broth), smashed veggie meatballs and brown rice. they were the bomb.

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finally is a picture that i uploaded and just can't believe. i just can't believe that this is my baby. the baby who i didn't put in pink until she was probably 2, who i tried so hard to help maintain her gender neutrality and just enjoy everything as a child, not necessarily a girl child. there she is, with the gown, crown, necklace and wrist tutu, just sipping her tea.

goo!!

last week bee and i made a big batch of goo, to be divided among her classmates as a halloween surprise. this is a MUST DO activity if you have a kid, especially a kid who loves recipes and messes, like mine.

i used a recipe on this site. it's called "amy's flubber recipe". i have made the "gak" recipe too, which is just as good. this stuff comes together like magic and is so fun to play around with. it's not really messy once it comes together, mostly like silly putty. seriously, MUST DO.

yes we did!

i am finally sitting here, taking in all that has happened in the past 24 hours. i am so proud of the results and so proud of our country. i know my experience with this election is similar to many many americans. i have never really felt passionately about a candidate. i have always voted and been angered by people who don't, but i was never too thrilled at the choices on my ballot.

this year, barack obama has ignited this fire in me and so many people in our country. i know he is going to do his best for us. it won't be easy for him and he may not be able to make much of a dent in this mess that has grown in the past 8 years. but i know he will try. he will care.

when barack obama is on tv, i will proudly tell my kids, "the president is talking to us, let's watch." imagine that. 

there is something so powerful about all of these energized, positive and motivated people throughout our country. that can only be a good thing. this energy, harnessed, will carry us far.

bee was also very excited about voting day. they even voted at her school. here are the results:

i guess some people must not be talking politics at every meal in their house. but, at least the outcome was good!

at night D and i were so lucky to get to go out to celebrate with the many people in our community who came out. we live in the most liberal, blue area and the vibes were amazing. the bars were all packed. many restaurants were filled to capacity. we watched as all the polls closed and the results were announced. 

the final call came so quick, it was almost surreal. 

we reluctantly left the bar, headed for home soon after the call. we even passed up the free round that some guy announced from atop his bar stool. we listened to mccain's speech on the way home and got all snuggled up in bed just in time to watch our next president take the stage. i fell asleep easily and slept soundly with the spirit of hope and change in the air.