Happy Birthday Sweet Adeline!

Well Yesterday my little baby turned 2! It seems like forever ago that she was born at home in our little house in CT.

We celebrated not once, not twice but three times!!!

First we celebrated with our cousins who were visiting for the week. Tony and I made a delicious carrot cake!

Yumm!!
I gave her the fishing game I made for her that day. It was a big hit with her and all the kids! My mom gave her the cutest pair of shorts and floppy hat. I dont have a pic yet - but I will!!

Friday morning we celebrated with ice cream for breakfast , crossed the rainbow bridge with big bro Ryan on the other side to give her a hug

and some more homemade goodies

Tony designed this card for her based on the book they like to read together with a squeaky duck at the end.
Ryan made this cute pillow using the owl fabric she loves!
This is the magnetic fishing game I made. I had so much fun dyeing the wool (as if you did not know I love doing that stuff! )
Sage made her this cute knitted hat. Great job Sage!
Then we had a small family bday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa
and Ice cream with strawberries for dessert - you can never blow out to many candles!
Grandmom and Grandpa gave Adeline this super cute wooden outdoor playhouse and came over and put it together for her. Look at all those pieces. They started about 7 and finished about 10 that night using flashlights to finish it up! That is dedication to make sure one sweet little 2 year old get her playhouse!
TaDA! Adeline had to wait till morning to see the finished house - but she was super excited and so was Ryan who just could not wait to "move in"! What fun they will have

Hello - wanna come play : )

Family Reunion !!

This past week we had great fun when all our relatives from my Dad's side of the family came down here for a family reunion! Cousins galore to play with!! Since they live up in Ga and Tenn we do not see them often so this was a real treat to hang out with them for a week.

We had a picnic with ...

swinging

face painting
ballons
balloon hats
yummy food and desserts!
a clown and magic show
tug of war
Then on to the beach house for marshmellows on the beach!

trying hard to find sharks teeth. My cousin Damon is the winner there - finding teeth just about everyday - I have no idea how he does it!
just lounging in the water, building sand castles and sand planes and jellyfish houses!! Lots and lots of playing!
and running!
The beach house with my Nana relaxing!! Without her none of us would be here today : ) She deserves to relax!

Garden is ready!!

Mother Earth,

Mother Earth, take our seed and give it birth,

Father Sun, Gleam and glow,

till the roots begin to grow.

Sister rain sister rain,

send thy drops to swell the grain

Brother Wind, Breathe and blow

so the blades green will grow

Earth and Sun, Wind and Rain

bring to us the living grain.

Finally!!! Only a month behind , but we did it! I know to some it seemed like I was procrastinating about getting my garden up but in reality I was watching the sun. Since this is a new house and the areas of the yard that get sun change often I wanted to make sure that I had the best spot for the garden. I am still not sure as the sun will change as summer approaches , but I think they are in the best possible spot.

I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to my awesome Dad for giving us his old deck wood and for cutting it into the right size! To my ever helpful Sage for helping to carry all the wood and for helping me to put them all together which was not an easy task. To my wonderful hubby for helping with the wood , putting them together and for filling all of them with soil one wagon full at a time ! I could not of done it without all of their help.

First though here is our first orange tree that we bought for our anniversary. I can't wait for all those yummy oranges!!

These 2 beds hold :

Tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapeano peppers, carrots, onions and lettuce

These hold peas , zucchini squash, beans and cucumbers Finally we have basil, cilantro , and daisies ,
I still have to plant some marigolds and some wildflowers - but we are on our way!!!!

Happy growing !

Photo club and Nature Class

Last Wed the boys met the homeschool group for a hike and photo club. I'll let them pot about it on their blogs. We did have a nice time and then headed to the beach for a nature class/walk to learn about shore birds. It was a great program

looking for birds







Then we took the ferry home and that was a big hit with the younger crowd!

I love his goofy grin : )

Beach and Kites

Sat was a great day to head to the beach for a walk and some unexpected kite making/flying!

Sage went with his Grandpa for the day and the rest of us packed up and headed north to Amelia Island. Tony had won tickets to the car show so he took Ryan there while Adeline and I drove to the beach.

It was beautiful!

We found this conch shell with someone still living in it. I have to say that I have never found one alive before. We took him back to the ocean where hopefully he will grow to be a big and strong conch shell.!

When the boys were done with their car show we picked them up and headed back to the beach for some lunch and kite making.

But first we must blow dandelions!

The park we went to had free kite making all day ! What a treat...

Adeline had so much fun just running with hers and loved it when it would get up in the air.
Once Ryan got the hang of it with Daddy's help, he also loved kite flying and I enjoyed watching them.

Handwork, watercolor painting and block crayon drawings - oh my

As part of my reawakening - I have felt that handwork has been very neglected - very,very neglected. I can't remember the last time we worked on our block crayon drawings and the watercolor paintings have been far and few between.

I do have to be honest with myself and remember that I have a toddler now that needs my attention. She still nurses around the clock and lately she has been my little leech - a cute cuddly one of course : ) That does but a glitch in my get to work plan, It just means that things will get down at a slower pace. I am just reminding myself that this phase will pass and before I know it she will grow up and not need me as much. and of course then I will wonder where the time went!

Anyway....

HANDWORK :

Last week we made these wool birds at our homeschool co-op. We "dyed" the wool first using our block crayons and then very similar to making fairies we knotted the wool to look like birds. Just in time for spring here in the south!

Spring is coming, Spring is coming, Birdies build your nest....

On Monday we did nit make it out to our co-op (lots of allergy symptoms kept us home). So keeping with handwork Mondays we invited our friend and neighbor over and made these hemp/bead bracelets.

Ryan made one for his doll George. Although he wined and complained the ENTIRE time we were making these, he did a great job!! I am glad I made him stick with it, hopefully he will learn to persevere , because he was proud of it when it was finished.

I made mine after the kids were done with theirs and it came out nicely. I do now know that it would be better to use thicker string next time!

WATERCOLOR PAINTING :

As a re-intro to watercolor painting , we worked on color wheels. It is always so therapeutic to work on these and a good reminder for Ryan. Adeline's is the orange one at the bottom. She loves to paint and while she worked on this one she kept saying it was the baby goat (from next door that she saw being born).

BLOCK CRAYON DRAWINGS:

This week we have decided to work on some drawings from this book:
We came up with the idea to use our pictures to tell a story. We started with a castle and then moved inside the castle to show the king sitting eating. Today we will continue our journey - we have not yet decided what the king will do. Next week we will actually write out the story.

Ryan was very surprised that his castle came out so well!
The king is eating pasta... looking out at the apple trees...

A reawakening of sorts

I know that I have not blogged too much lately. There have been so many things going on. In 2 years we have moved 4 times - we bought our own home and are now busy fixing up they way we would like to have it. A way to make it feel cozy and wonderful. All the while homeschooling 2 boys and keeping up with a baby girl who is now a month away from turing 2 years old!

I have felt dormant during this time just occasionally crafting and using more traditional methods of homeschooling for RYan vs our usual creative way. I am feeling a sense of starting to become more organized and itching to get my hands on some wool and a felting needle! As summer approaches I am thinking about summer dresses to make , and big garden plans!!!

I am planning on being more consistent with my blogging, its not for lack of picture taking, we have plenty of those it is more of a time issue. It seems that whenever I am sitting that is a good time for my sweet baby to come over for nursies - I think she even can sense when I am sitting : )

But I do feel an awakening a feeling of wanting to get out there and do things - anything. I feel my baby moon is over and I am ready!

And my baby is getting bigger...