We made it to Florida

We arrived last night about 6:30 after a 2 day drive. It actually went very well. I am glad we decided to leave Sat , the roads were clear and not a lot of traffic. After deciding on Sat am that we needed to leave that afternoon to beat the weather we actually packed 4 people and a dog, plus shoveled out the car and left within 4 hours! A record I think. My secret - let the kids pack their own bags. I still do not know if Ryan really brought under wear and sock or not , when I checked on his packing he did make sure to bring the playdough Sage made him and his playdough mat- who needs under wear anyway!

The drive went very smooth, Tony did an awsome job getting us there safely. We made it to Virginia about 10 that night and stopped. Which is where we wanted to be to avoid the icy winter mix that was going to hit the northeast coast on Sunday. The hotel we stayed at even cooked your breakfast right there for you! yumm

Ryan has never been a good traveler in the car, he hates to be confined for long periods of time. Usually it is not pleasant, but he did great and we never even needed to put a movie on. He listened to his books on tape, looked at his books, played his guitar and worked on his drawings. I did cheat a little bit and bought a herbal relaxant called rescue remedy. It may have been a fluke, but anytime he started to get nuts I gave him a few dropps and he settled down - uhmmmm maybe I need to buy a case of this stuff.

Sage has always been great in the car. He just hangs out. I sat in the back with Ryan for a while and did some needle felting, played cards with Ryan and was able to stretch out a bit to give the baby belly some room.

Yesterday was my mom's bday so we were able to get here just in time to celebrate.
We are looking forward to relaxing and visiting with family and friends down here.

Winter Solstice celebrations

I am writing this quickly as we are heading out for Florida in an hour. We were supposed to leave tomorrow but the weather will be nasty, so this afternoon is our window of opportunity. SO - a frenzy packing leaving the house a mess and we will be off.

We origionally planned a community spiral with 10 kids and then a second one a few days later at my friends house - but weather has cancel'd both. We decided to have a family spiral. Our good friends the Cosar's over at Frog Creek came over and we had a small yet nice spiral together. I also had a short little puupet show to go with it. Kim should have more pics soon.







Last night we celebrated the last light of advent as well as the Winter Solstice. I told a vey cute story from Rebecca Fairie(I will post link when we get to Florida) . It was short and simple, but so nice and just right for the mood of the evening. Sitting in the sunroom/playroom with the snow falling around us.
This morning we had our Winter Solstice gift exchange. The idea is to handmake things for each other. We always spend Christmas in Florida , so this is just a small family gathering - a breather before we head down south.


Before breakfast Ryan deiced to take a nice run out in the snow. He stayed out there longer than I thought he would.
Our new tradition will be cinnamon rolls on Solstice morning. Yumm and so simple, quick and easy (the secret, no yeast so they cook quickly, no waiting for the dough to rise)
Our breakfast spiral
I only had a chance to post the gifts I made for the kids. When I get back I will post all the handmade goodies.

This is a needle felted eagle wall hanging inspired by a lady from Etsy. I hope she does not mind I made one for my older son who loves Eagles.

I made Ryan little red ridding hood and the wolf ( I will make grandma and the woodsman when we get back).
The trees were a coolective effort by myself and our very good and talented friends Steph and her husband. She drew the trees, he cut them out and sanded them, I painted them. THey are absolutly wonderful!! Thank you Steph and Nick. (These trees would be great in your shop!!)



HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY EVERYONE!!!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Here it comes - we are supposed to get about about 6 - 12 inches of snow today!

We are supposed to leave for Florida this Sunday - I am keeping our fingers crossed that the roads will be ok and we can get out of here. There is more snow on its way.

Well the kids just went back out and Tony is out shoveling so with an empty house I can wrap a few presents and work on some last minute touches to some of the kids presents. Tomorrow morning we are having our Winter Solstice / Christmas in CT celebration. Tonight we will light our fourth light of advent as we get ready for the Solstice.

We also had a small advent spiral last night - I will post more on that soon.

3rd Light of advent - Festival of Animals

Gingerbread cookies

On Monday we had our good friends over for lunch and gingerbread cookie making. We enjoyed each others company while making delicious cookies.


Ready to go into the oven. Once they were done, there was some decorating and eating to do - yumm.
Kim brought over the lunch for us. What a friend, you invite her for lunch and she brings the stuff to eat : ). Thanks kim!! We had mac n cheese, sweet potatoe fries and cinn. apples.
Then out to run off some of that sugar from the cookies. Marlin got a camera for her bday so Ryan wanted to head out with ours and be photographers together. These are the pics he took of his friends - not bad.

Happy Birthday Tony

Tomorrow is my darling husband's birthday. He is a wonderful husband, friend and great dad. I am so thankful to him for working so hard to support our little, yet growing family while I stay at home to be there for the kids and to grow myself as a person and mom in my own way.

For that, we made him the most yummiest pumpkin cookies in the world. His good friend's mom had given us the recipe and he had forgotten about it. They are the kind of cookies you only make once a year. Delicious, yet loaded with bad stuff. So tonight he ordered some yummy food from a local restaurant he enjoys that we do not go to often and then we gave him his cookie cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU!

Sunday morning hike

The only thing that will get my husband and older son up and out on a hike at 8 am on a Sunday morning - mice caught in the mouse trap! It is a catch and release type of trap, after all we do respect all creatures, we just do not like them roaming our home. We have had trouble with mice. I can no longer keep silver ware in the drawers or pots and pans in the cupard , I had to find special mice proof areas.

So Ryan and I woke up this morning and discovered the trap had mice so Ryan ran upstairs to tell his dad. Tony wanted to keep them as pets though - not going to happen!
They love Heidi's food and I have found numerous stashes of dog food in this little bathroom and around the kitchen!




It was actually a nice morning for a walk - not too fridgid and the sun was shinning, that is always a plus.

up into the woods far away from the house -
Ryan enjoyed the ice skating along the way.
finally a spot to release the guys. One came out and once he realized he was outside took off pretty quick. Unfortunately the other one did not survive. apparently the other mouse and he had a fight. They did not mention anything about that on the box when my husband bought it. It upset him a lot when he saw that.
Well the trap is back in the house waiting, hopefully things will go better this time. Sorry guys but you need a new home.

Homemade egg nog

Sat afternoon Sage decided that he wanted to make his own eggnog! He looked up recipes on the internet and set to work! It tasted delicious and I am so proud of him for coming up with an idea and following through with it.

Playing.. then Cleaning

Friday late afternoon we had a friend come over who stayed for dinner and we had a wonderful time. Ryan and his friend get along so well, they are both so creative and come up with some wonderful things. Above is their stage they made. Ryan is playing the "organ" and his friend is playing the "bagpipes". They practiced and played this for the entire 3 hours they were here! Last time we were at their house they played boat for about 2 hours!


The aftermath:
You can not tell in this picture, but just about everything from the kitchen area is under the lesson table! I guess they needed it in case they got hungry during their show : )



Today I spent 3 hours in the playroom and emerged finally with a breath of fresh air :



Now I know it wont stay this way for too long , after all it is a playroom and I am so glad that Ryan loves to play down there.

Painting and other goings on...

This past week Sage has been working on his first glue together model. He was so proud of himself when he was finished! Great job Sage!!!

I love watching my 2 boys doing something together. It was so peaceful, they painted while I worked on some handwork. They funny thing is that before they painted together, there was a big struggle over a particular chair at the table. It ended with Ryan in tears and Sage pretty upset at his brother. This pic was taken about 15 min later - I am so glad they were able to work through it and not hold a grudge!


The art of making dough for bread with Ryan. Of course you need the elaborate set up before you begin - that is what makes the dough rise of course - lol

Ryan had decided that for a christmas present for his dad, he would teach him how to drop spindle. The other morning he felt it was a good morning to teach him. His reason was that while everyone is opening presents they might be bored watching Tony do the drop spindle? I guess it makes sense. Anyway, he did a great job teaching him.

New Haven Orchestra

On Wed morning we met some of our homeschool friends for a free children's concert in New Haven. We had great seats! In the balcony down front, so we were able to look down on everything. We even saw some other friends down near the front!

It was a wonderful concert of holiday music!

After we headed over to a local Vegetarian restaurant and had a yummy lunch. After paying for parking and lunch - so much for a free concert : ) We had a great time though!

Holiday crafts

On Thursday Ryan and I headed over to a friends house for some holiday crafting. It was such a rainy,yucky day it was good to get out of the house and play with some kids. I was invited to be a part of this group starting in Jan for a Waldorf 1st grade co-op. 1st grade is new to me as I am still in a K to 1st grade transition with Ryan so I am looking forward to learning all I can from these other more experienced mama's.

The kids worked on a couple of crafts. They painted pinecones red that next week they will magically turn into beautiful cardinals. I can't wait to see how they turn out.


They rolled candles and decorated them. Ryan's is the blue one with yellow decorations. Beeswax is so soothing to work with and it smells yummy!

Of course free play! After awhile things got a little nutty for Ryan so he brought their barn and horses out to the living room and played by himself for awhile.
Snack time!! Ryan and I brought the dough for rolls and they were yummy.

A great way to spend a rainy afternoon!

Busy Monday

So my day started off at 6:20 this morning. I have been getting up with Sage to he does not have to be all alone downstairs in the cold and dark before he heads off to school. As tough as it is to get out of my warm cozy bed, I have seen some amazing sunrises lately.

At 7 I practiced some prenatal yoga and said goodbye to Sage.
7:30 Ryan and Tony woke up. I was glad Ryan slept in, last week he was getting up at 6:30 am which made for a cranky boy in the evening. Plus it made it hard for me to do yoga because he was ready for his day by 7!

8 Before Tony headed out to work we all went out to fix the snowman who was leaning over like the Tower of Pisa. Ryan and I were going to stay outside and play, but it was freezing!! so back inside we went after waving goodbye to daddy.

8:30 Ryan played in his playroom while I sat near by with my knitting. He made me some wonderful breakfast in his play kitchen.

9:00 I was just getting ready to start lessons when Ryan picked up his drop spindle and really wanted to work on it. Not wanting to loose the moment, we worked on our drop spindles. He does not want to do handwork often, so when it comes up , I go for it. He kept saying how much fun it was and really got the hang of it. He worked on it for quite awhile and even did an instructional video, which I will download soon.



9:30 we started to get hungry so we made some muffins. Yummy carrot applesauce, banana muffins!


While our delicious muffins baked it was time to head to the playroom for lessons.


10:00 lessons were followed after a brief phone call from Grandpa!
We started with form drawing on the chalk boards. I made up a story for this week that basically went

A long time ago when the world was young up high in the mountains
(here is where you draw MMMMMM)

there lived a beautiful and magnificent eagle. The eagle had made a nest in the mountain
( here draw a uuuuuuuuu)

One day the baby hatched and grew till one day he was ready to learn to fly.
( here draw a continuous loop)

Mommy and baby eagle flew all day together.
( again draw a continuous loop)

Simple yet effective!

We also worked on a few times tables. It is still a hard concept to grasp so I used the gnomes and a story. Ryan really wants to do the times so we are! I had a cave and our little yellow gnome in front of us along with a basket of jewels. I would tell him that the gnome wants to gather jewels for the king quickly so he gathers 2 jewels each time he goes to the cave and he goes in the cave 4 times. Then we put the corresponding jewels in front of us and figure it out. He did pretty well. I do not expect him to understand it fully yet though.

10:30 muffins are ready!! we played go fish and ate all of the muffins during snack time.

Of course no snack is complete without a bowl of snow to eat. I myself decided not to enjoy this part of the snack after seeing the grass and dirt mixed in. Next time Ryan will get the snow from the porch.

11:00 Story time. We read the multiplication story from our Christeropherus curriculum. While I read, Ryan colored and ended up making a picture for Christmas, which I helped him wrap with my eyes close! I cant wait to see what he drew.

11:30 We decided to make some dye baths and dye some silks. I needed to dye a silk red in order to make the Little Red Ridding Hood marionette for Ryan for Christmas, so this was a good time to do that.


Ryan decided to get creative and dye one end pink and the other orange. It came out really cool - check out the pic of it below.
mixing colors.
I love this one too that he made. Shh , it is going to be my Christmas present also.
Here is the cool pink/orange combo.

After all that Ryan sat and watched a little bit of Zaboomafoo and ate lunch. After all those muffins, I was not hungry yet.

All that before noon - whew!! I think we were both tired and needed some quite time. Ryan practiced his guitar and I sat with my knitting.

Oh I cant forget the hair incident. Ryan's bangs have been getting long and poking him is eye so I trimmed it up for him as well as the back. It is not too bad I guess although how mad Ryan was at me, you would of thought I cut all his hair off like he wanted me too : ) He wanted me to cut ALL his bangs off but leave the back. I think most mom;s would agree what a disaster that would be. I think he was mostly mad that I would not do what he wanted me to do. Oh well, after awhile he got over it and we were snuggling again.

Sage came home soon after that and we went to get his new glasses. He can see much clearer now. Back at home I made dinner, the boys helped out.


I did catch Sage reading to his little brother on the couch. It was too sweet to watch them.

Bath and then bed time for Ryan. Sometimes I forget how much we do in a day, it was good to recap everything.

Good night my sweet boys!