Welcome back

It certainly feels like Winter out there already doesn't it?  Especially while we were all freezing our fingers off at the annual Christmas parade in town.  Our little ballerina was all bundled up and I think her excitement over riding on a parade float for the first time helped keep her warm. 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of us were freezing while we waited to see her ride by though. Thankfully we had an extra special surprise waiting for us when we got back home.

 

 

 

 

Our Elf on the Shelf is back!  Remember when Jingle made his first appearance last year?  The girls were so excited to see him back again.  Seems he caught a ride with Santa when he came into town for the parade and brought us a yummy snack for after the parade.  How sweet of him. 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait to see what surprises Jingle has in mind for our family this year.  Do you have an Elf that comes to your home?  I've been searching Pinterest and there are some really cute ideas out there.  This should be a lot of fun. 

Thankfulness

We have so very much to be thankful for this year.  We certainly are very blessed, especially to have such a wonderful little family to celebrate with. 

 

 

When sickness hit our little family right before this holiday I will admit to really letting it get the better of me for a moment.  Thankfully I have some really great friends that were there to help me snap out of it and realize how lucky we really were.  As sick as they may have been it was nothing life threatening, and for that I am incredibly thankful.  Yes, we had to miss the much anticipated Thanksgiving meal with family but really in the grand scheme of things it was a small inconvenience at best.  With a late night run to the grocery store I was still able to provide a lovely little meal for my family.  Another terrific reason to be thankful. 

 

 

 

 

 

It was declared the "yummiest most wonderful Thanksgiving ever" and for that I am thankful.  There were handprint turkeys to make, tasty food to be eaten, and naps to be taken.  There are so many big reasons to be thankful this year but I will say that focusing on these little every day moments has made this one of my favorite years to date. 

 

 

 

Discoveries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to a picture posted on facebook one day by Little Acorn Learning we found a great new addition to our book colleciton and a companion for our Autumn explorations.  We were always stumbling across some great discovery that we had no clue about and now we have this handy resource to find our answers. 

I love that the book has full color picutres and gives a bit of information about each listing such as where is might be found and whether or not it is edible.  We aren't going to be testing out that last bit of information however, I'm not quite brave enough for that one.  Though we did have our first experience with Morels this year. 

It has certainly been a season full of adventure and new experiences.  Now we're coming to the end of our Autumn adventures as we prepare ourselves for the coming of Winter.  The weather is already bringing more of a chill to our mornings and the warm days are certainly few but we will not let this stop us from embracing these last days that Autumn has to offer.  There is still plenty to do before Winter takes its hold.

New friends

The girls and I had our first day at our new homeschool play group yesterday.  They were a bit nervous on the drive over but quickly found everyone to be very sweet and welcoming.  We were so happy to find a Waldorf inspired community to become part of since we aren't able to attend a traditional Waldorf school. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinsley jumped right in and quickly joined the crew without a second look.  Meanwhile Kaitlyn played the part of casual observer and watched the majority of the day from a great distance.  She did come into the circle for snack time though she planted herself firmly on my lap for that activity and the remainder of the afternoon.  A little bit of role reversal for my girls, and a bit of a surprise for mama.  Though the wonderful thing about this type of environment is that they were both free to find ways to enjoy and make the most of the experience.  They are already looking forward to next time. 

Babies and Llamas

Boy has my sewing machine been given a workout these past couple weeks.  By far my favorite project was this Mama Llama and her babies.  I used this pattern from Bit of Whimsy Dolls.  I have several of her patterns and they always turn out amazing and are so much fun to make.  These Llamas were no exception. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't you just love her holding her baby?  I backed this baby with a light pink minky dot fabric which makes it super soft and cuddly (though a bit more of a pain to work with).  But of course one adorable baby llama just isn't quite enough. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I seriously can't stand all that cuteness in one little basket!  I decided to leave the arms off the babies in the interest of pure laziness but I still think they turned out great.  It's hard to pick a favorite but the blue fabric with the trees is probably the winner.  I just love fun little projects like this that work up quickly and turn out amazing.  So much fun.

 

 

But without a doubt the single best thing about this project has to be this...

 

 

 

 

Quite possibly the very first project I've made that this little one has cared about even the slightest.  From the very beginning she was interested.  Even while they were still just an odd shaped piece of fabric without even a face, she would come up and pick up this piece and tell me she loved it.  Every so often she'd come back to check on my progress and tell me "I yub them bunnies" and then she'd be off again.  Finally they were finished, all in a basket together and I couldn't believe the squeal of delight that came out of this little girl.  She immediately found her baby and it was pure love. 

This picture really says it all. She hasn't let go of her baby for more than a minute or two in the past two days.  Holding it up to her face and grinning so big it looked like her cheeks would burst.  Cuddling it, patting it like a baby and taking it to bed with her.  It makes a crafty mama's heart sing to see her little ones love a mama-made so very much.  Especially a little one that up until this point has turned her nose up at everything else made for her. 

"I yub this baby, mama.  Him my baby bunny and hims beautiful."   What more could a mama want?

 

 

"New" Chairs

 

 

One of our favorite things about fall has to be sitting out around a fire in the cool evenings. Unfortunately our old wooden chairs didn't survive for this fall and I just couldn't bring myself to buy new outside chairs. Thanks to these old metal chairs we had lying around and my love of spraypaint we found a solution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I forgot to take a before picture but we've all seen those ugly brown metal chairs and ours had seen quite a bit of wear and tear as well.  It's amazing how happy a few cans of spraypaint can make me. 

Late Autumn

Late autumn is being quite good to us in these parts even though it seems to have arrived  much too quickly.  The weather is absolutely lovely, cool and crisp but still beautiful. I'm most excited this year that we are actually seeing some beautiful colors emerging in our trees as I was nearly certain the drought was going to steal them away.  We are really embracing the season this year both outside with our nature walks, leaf gathering, and just general running about and inside our home as well.

We've added a bit more decor inside including this new banner above our late Autumn nature table.

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The nature table has been an ever changing work in progress in our home. Traditionally they are more for display of seasonal themes and treasures but that hasn't quite been the case for us. Perhaps due to the low height of our table or simply the young age of our children, our table is more of a seasonal themed play area than anything. Rather than trying to keep little hands away from things or being frustrated at fixing the table multiple times a day, we are embracing this stage of play. We added our new gnome home to the table this season and now it is the perfect place for all our seasonal friends to play.

 

 

I certainly can't blame them either.  Wouldn't you want to live right here if you could?  This year it certainly seems to be easier to enjoy the last moments of fall before rushing into the Winter holiday season doesn't it?