The Big Orange Splot

Are there books you loved as a child that you can't find now because you can't remember the title? I recently wrote about this very thing on BabyCenter.com and someone was able to help me out! The book's title is The Big Orange Splot. It's a great story about individuality, following your dreams and expressing yourself. We are now the proud owners of a brand new copy!

Living Outdoors

We've traded a lot of our indoor play and art time for being outdoors. It's perfect weather these days. There's lots to do outside--play in the sand, garden, bounce on the trampoline, pull things in a wagon, climb the playground equipment. Sabrina does it all, but always feels the pull of her art and so every morning and afternoon she will use her chalk, decorate a mound of dirt with flowers and pebbles or make sculptures out of sand and dirt. I really want us to explore using more natural materials in art this season. My first step is to watch Sabrina because she finds incredible uses for everything she finds.

The Singing Ringing Tree

A while ago we watched a strange movie called The Singing, Ringing Tree based on a Grimm Brothers fairytale. It was just strange enough that Sabrina got bored and we stopped watching before the end. We never really talked about it after that, but the story resurfaced as Sabrina planted a "singing, ringing tree" (it's just a branch) and fed it, watered it, decorated its pot and gave it lots of love so it would sing and ring to her. No music so far, but it was a fun way to spend the morning.

Spring Simplicity

Of course I wouldn't let spring come and go without a big cleaning and weeding session, or without taking a closer looks at our systems and routines to see how they can be simplified. In addition, lately I've adopted a new tactic: throughout the day as I see items that are never used or that we can do without I just stash them in a bag in the coat closet. It's amazing how often this happens even when you are so clearly into simplifying and having less. When the bag is full I'm taking it to Goodwill. A few resources that have inspired me lately in the quest for simplicity:

The Laws of Simplicty. Sophisticated theories and ways to attain my vision.
Unclutterer's musings on living simply are both practical and all-encompassing.
Catalog Choice. In 6 to 10 weeks I hope to be completely catalog-free

Image is Half the Sky by Alicia Bock.

Hello May!

I love the first of the month! It's like a mini New Year's Day. In fact, the last few weeks have been not that different from the holiday season: Sabrina turned 4 and CC turned 1! We've had parties and celebrations galore. It's been wonderful and fun and sweet (literally). And I promise to fill you in a little at a time on the parties and the gifts and some other fun things we've been up to.

But right now we are ready to fall into a nice spring and summer routine. The days are getting long, the weather so pleasant. We're dreaming of afternoons at the pool, park picnics, long garden art sessions and evenings observing the stars way past bedtime. Already we're spending lots of time outside the house and it's been grand.

The image is a painting by Sabrina that she titled "Sabrina Looking out the Window at the Trees"

Sabrina's Storage

That was some break! To kick start myself back into Good + Happy Day mode I had to do something drastic--like enter odeedoh's storage contest.

For the contest, I entered the toy box shelf in Sabrina's room, which also forced me to sort through her things and organize them. We recently moved many of our toys to the new family room in the basement (formerly the media room), so the shelf doesn't house as many toys as it did before and now serves its purspose perfectly--Sabrina can stuff her animals in there and has a place for all her favorite little knickknacks that are not necessarily play things but that she loves to have access to. At the same time the shelf always looks tidy even when its contents are not arranged in any particular way.

If my entry gets posted and you like it, I'd love it if you voted for me! The entries are definitely worth a look. Some nice ideas there--my personal favorite is the recycled wood boxes--love the recycling part of it, the use of orange and that cool photo of the room's occupant. My pictures are not as good, and since I entered at the very last minute I wasn't able to get Patrick to help me by taking some professional photographs. Oh well, the idea is there.

I've been observing how Sabrina uses her room now that many of her toys are in a different space, and it's become a place to read and enact numerous dramas and nurturing games with her friends (stuffed animals) and dollhouse. She also has been drawing a lot in just about every area of the house, so I moved the table into the center of the room and keep pencils and paper out at all times to encourage her.

Saint Cassandra

It's CC's nameday! And this is what my sweet baby looks like today. Smiley and happy and lovely as ever.

Sabrina's Mobile

Inspired by pipe cleaners that she said were "bits that fell off a rainbow in the sky" and some nature treasure we collected some weeks ago, Sabrina designed this completely unique mobile. She used some techniques she learned in preschool where they've been making multi-media pieces, wrapping wire around objects and making coils.

From start to finish this vision was all Sabrina, and the execution was nearly all hers too. My one contribution was securing the pipe cleaners to the tops of the pine cones exactly as Sabrina instructed me to. It was fascinating to witness her creative process unfold and watch her carry to completion such a complicated idea.

This is another reminder to me to say yes more often, to follow my children's lead, to trust... The plan for this afternoon was to go to the library, but Sabrina did not want to and specifically said she wanted to work on art. We did for over an hour and then I really wanted to clean up and get dinner ready. But Sabrina insisted she wanted to make more art. When she pulled all the pipe cleaners out of the bag I started to lose patience, and when she found and dumped a bunch of dried up old pine cones (aka nature treasure) out I was about to put a stop to it all. But the look of focus and inspiration on her little face made me pause, and once she got started I just had to be thankful that I was not quick to stop her and had the opportunity to be the parent I want to be and to witness this wonderful piece of true inspiration come about.

Little Signs of Spring

Tender buds brought into the house.

Easter egg painted by Sabrina.

Drawing outside with chalk.

A box of rice and beans to play with in the sun.

The Spanish bluebells I planted 10 years ago are preparing for their appearance.

Sabrina's drawing of what the bluebells will look like.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A few weeks ago Sabrina planted two little pots of clover, one for herself and one for CC.

Little Miss CC

At 10.5 months you...
smile and laugh all the time
need your own babyproof dollhouse
adore your big sister
look like your Daddy, dimples and all
dance to music
love to stand
love your cherrios, chicken, beef, lima beans, pasta wheels. love to eat!
say mama baba dada na sha cc and put together sentences we pretend to understand
drag yourself inchworm or commando style everywhere
give me funny look when I call you Cassandra
wave bye-bye
blow kisses
have the most beautiful eyes and lips
sign for food and milk and change
enjoy your bedtime stories
are proof that a heart can double in size

Saying Yes

I will say yes to my children more often than no.

Because when I asked Sabrina what she wanted to do and she said make chocolate cupcakes my first thoughts were what a pain, we don't have the ingredients, you don't need the sugar, the kitchen is all clean.

But I said okay, and in return got a happy lovely girl and great cupcakes too. And I was right, we didn't have the ingredients to make the frosting, but I melted some chocolate chips to spread on top.

I got the recipe from Baking with Kids--it was much quicker and easier than the Martha Stewart recipe I have used in the past that requires beating the butter forever and adding ingredients one at a time. This recipe is perfect for kids--hand mixing, ingredient dumping, it's all simplified and truly the taste does not suffer much.

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 unsweetened cocoa
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 7 tablespoons super soft butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Instructions

• Preheat over to 350 degrees
• Mix dry ingredients together
• Add butter
• Whip eggs in separate bowl and add to first bowl
• Add milk
• Mix all together with spoon until smooth
• Spoon into pan
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Let cool
• Frost with your favorite frosting or melt some chocolate chips and spread on. Add sprinkles. The chocolate will harden if you put it in the fridge for 5 minutes, or will stay soft if left on counter.

lmnop

I love lmnop, an Australian online magazine for parents and children. The perfect amount of beautiful inspiration to be enjoyed with my morning coffee. The current issue has lots of cool Easter ideas just in time to help me avoid getting too pastel-ly.

Make a Bunny

I'm adding making bunnies like these to my Easter and Spring list. I've been dreaming about making some softies but felt intimated since I haven't sewn in years. This tutorial makes it seem so easy to bring a child's drawing to life.

Found via Craft:

Easter and Spring, Spring and Easter.

Despite the strange weather, cold, then warm, then really cold again, we're slowly getting ready for Spring and Easter. I feel a bit guilty that the build up for Halloween and Christmas and Thanksgiving seemed more intense than that for Easter, which is actually my favorite holiday in many ways.

So here are our plans, some already on their way:

1. Plant little pots of clover and wheat grass
2. Set out our collection of Polish painted eggs that my mom has been adding to for years
3. Paint our own wooden eggs inspired by the collection
4. Discover old and new Easter and Spring picture books, (see what we're reading at BabyCenter)
5. Make these baked donuts for Easter brunch
6. Do some Spring cleaning and weeding inside and outside the house
7. Set bunches of bright tulips all over the house
8. Visit the Easter Bunny here or here
9. Make these stained glass egg decorations
10. Fill the sandbox with sand and new toys, buy fresh sidewalk chalk, a bag of balls and a parachute, and move playdates outside.