Party Zone

No contemplating was needed when it came to a theme for this birthday party.  Hands down it was cars, trucks, large equipment and whatever falls in between!

From there the decorations included caution tape streams, road signs, a road table cloth, pylons, buckets full of food, a cake with diggers and 'dirt'.  We played pin the parts on the dump truck, had a scavenger hunt for stop signs, made flags for the car races, played simon says and hot potato with a tool belt for everyone.
We laid out areas for the kids to play in with trains, a car mat, a little town, a construction area with blocks and dumpers.  The big hit was the race track Chris whipped up the morning of.   The kids sent cars down endlessly!
Shai had lots of us friends over whose company he was thrilled to have share in his party.  Despite the cold winter weather we so appreciated and enjoyed having our family come out for this special day.

Celebrating Light and Warmth

Winter Solstice was a beautiful celebration.  Treats for our animal friends decorated the trees, sparklers, a lantern lit walk.  We were even at 2 am to see the eclipse, which was very impressive.

Some great books, a few of which are part of our own celebration.

Trimming the Tree

Every year there are new ornaments added, some handcrafted, others gifted.  We always buy or make one that reflects something about the past year.  This year there were two.  From Morocco we bought a hand sewn leather camel.  From Wales a hand painted rock with a light house we visited, strung on a string.

As a family we shift life during advent, our intentions are to focus on preparing for Christmas.  We decorate, bake, create.  We stop any non seasonal projects and schooling during this time, giving us the 'space' in our day to day for these new activities.  There are some parts of the preparation which has become tradition.  A few favorites have been our road, a visit from friends, Christmas tree decorating, crafting.  One of the new additions that was an enormous success was delivering our secret Santa presents.  We dropped off some homemade ornaments, canned goods and baking to friends, signing the cards Secret Santa.  The secretive part was great, taking part and encouraging magic in this season was so much fun.  The kids took it to a whole new level, planning the execution of the drop off, adding glitter for magic dust, creeping to and from the house so as not to be seen.  It's a big job being a secret Santa!

It's now tradition.  This year was second  that good friends traveled up to celebrate one of the friends birthday.  They don't just come up, they also get a hotel and invite all my kids to sleep over.  There is outdoor time, pool time, play time.  The kids whirl around the mamas in a blur or excitement while we try to chat over the constant hum (or bellow) of noise.  This year there was the addition of two new puppies who seemed to flow right into the mix. 

Remembering

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

The Closing

The Stisted Fair has a great celebration evening to honour every ones hard work.  It is open to everyone who enjoys pot luck dessert.  There is a silent auction and time to mingle.  People can pick up their prize money, which for my kids is crazy big.  Even though the individual money awards are .75 cents to just over a dollar, with a few special categories for a few dollars, it very quickly adds up.  The four of them came home with close to $70 dollars !  Even Shai had almost ten dollars. Elias won a trophy for his chicken (we have such fine ladies :).  

Carving1

Celebrating

The makings of a tradition.  Soup, cider and potluck treats around the fire (a really big fire).  Lots of friends.  A climbing tree to share.  Dusk to dark. A beautiful fall night. Easy and thoroughly enjoyed.

A Special Seed

Dainty milkweed babies, wrapped in cradles green,

Rocked by mother nature, fed by hands unseen.

Brown coats have the darlings, slips of milky white

and wings- that's a secret- they are folded out of sight.

The cradles grow so narrow- what will babies do?

They'll only grow the faster, and look up toward the blue

and now they've found the secret, they are flying through the air

They've left the cradles empty, do milkweed babies care?

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Hey Ho Away We Go!

The fall fair is one of the reasons we love September so much.  The Stisted Fall Fair which we fell in love with last year is coming ever closer.  Which means we are busily sewing, pressing leaves, printing photos, canning and planning.  As is with every year we are way behind on where we want to be in terms of preparation.  To make that an easier task we thought we would try a few new things.  The first was sitting on the board of directors.  This means that I am in charge of the livestock; getting them into their designated areas, making sure the judge has a clerk to work with and actually working the day of the fair.

The other part we have added to our fair experience is entering the horse competition.  Both Ben and Aria are riding on a horse and a donkey, while Elias and I lead them through the competition.  We are participating in some more classic western style competition as well as some not so traditional such as costume contest and seeing who has the most water in their glass after going through a course.

We went over to our friend's house, who is both teaching us the ropes of the competition and handling the animals, she is also kindly lending us her beautiful sandy colour horse Lynn and her sweet sensitive donkey Percy.  I will be leading Lynn, which I am a little bit nervous about.  Her feet are so large and she weighs a mere 1600 lbs, I am forever worrying about getting my foot under hers.  But with practice I am hoping it will lessen. 
Elias is leading Percy.  He doesn't worry about being stepped on, but Percy moves when she feels moved to.  Being a sensitive fellow, this donkey needs a lot of love to get going.  Elias hugs it, whispers sweet nothings it his ear and bribes him with apples.  Being the centre of attention is not what Elias (and I think Percy feels too) enjoys, but he is totally stepping out of his box on this one and I think its great!
We have a little over a week to practice, and we have lots to cover.  I need to start sewing-  for both the kids and the animals! (costumes for a horse and donkey are new ones to add to the resume!!)
We will keep you posted on the fair!

Another first for the season

Lots of beach days to be had, but this is the first swim in the lake. I am surprised with such a warm spring that no one has gone in yet, yesterday was the day. There are plans to return tomorrow.