Happy 4th of July!!!

While we are enjoying some much needed family time, I hope you enjoy a peak at my latest sensory bin.  R did not want his bugs taken out, so S is the only one we

who consented to Red, White, and Blue! 0

 It's not entirely wooden, but it's pretty close!  And I spent all of $.99 on a package of patriotic stars.  The rest is all re-purposed from other bins and my craft closet.  

It's the perfect time to discuss our country's birthday and our flag!

Welcome Summer!

We've been sooooo busy.  Swimming lessons took up most of our time.  They are quite a bit closer to being fish!



We celebrated the Summer Solstice this year by having many friends over to grill food, drink beverages, and to TIE DYE!!!  We had so much fun and chaos that I got almost no pictures!

I did snap a picture of the un-dyed clothes on the line...

And a couple of the finished baby clothes...

This blog works again!!!

So many things have happened since I've been unable to update the blog.

The biggest is: team Prelogar will be getting a new player this summer!  We have an unexpected bundle due August 28th-ish.  Stay tuned for updates!

We are all so very over winter.  Even for Kansas this has been a particularly hard and cold winter.  To say we have cabin fever is an understatement!

R is no longer in preschool.  We couldn't make it work (time wise and financially) with childcare for S, me teaching and working, and N working and going to school.  So we are working on things at home.  Since we are mostly inspired by Waldorf philosophies we haven't pushed letters or reading, but some of it is coming naturally, especially with the amount of books we read.

I'm still involved in swaps, but thinking about scaling back.  Currently I'm hosting a St. Patrick's Day Swap for BOG and a Tiptoes Lightly swap for a Facebook group.  (Tiptoes is a character in a series of books).  I was hesitant to stay in swaps with all the holiday dissappointment, but I want to have a stockpile of nature table goodies and more natural things for the sensory bins.  So I'm keeping up for a while longer.  I most certainly won't be doing anything for a while after the baby comes.  

Speaking of sensory bins... I put together my first one for Etsy.  And I already sold it!  It was for St. Patrick's Day.

Our own St. Patrick's Day bins look like this:

Since I'm trying not to spend money on "new" things for the bins, I'm forced to get creative.  It's especially hard to spread our goodies to two bins with the same theme, but I'm finding that helps with sibling contentment.  These bins are filled with green split peas and i think they still turned out fun despite the lack of "stuff".

Solstice

Happy Solstice!  On this the shortest day of the year, we give thanks for the Sun!

Here is our Winter Nature Table which pays homage to all our Winter traditions.  Which ones can you spot?

 

And our newest idea (could be a tradition) was sparklers!  We had a small box left over from the 4th of July.  The kids loved getting bundled up after dark and playing with the sparklers.  It was a good opportunity to tell them that this is the shortest day of year and we want to celebrate and welcome back the Sun! 

 

 

Crafting: Part One

There's been a lot of crafting between finals and work around here.  Here's a brief breakdown:

Swaps:
Martinmas (which seems like ages ago) Hats

Note: I am still waiting to get my Martinmas package, there was an issue with shipping from Canada, but I expect it any day. 

 

The next swap I did was the one-on-one Winter where I made the Tomten and trees.

 

Then there was another one-on-one Autumn swap where I made some fall themed wood goodies, but I forgot to take a picture.  I am also still waiting on to find out what that mama made for me.

 

Facebook Waldorf Swap - theme Winter Nature Table Swap:

 

 

 

 

 

 I made wooden owls with little tiny owl books and placed them in these little bags. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the amazing things I got back from this swap

A wooden snowflake candle holder, a bear in his den, a "icicle gnome" who I have renamed Jack Frost, and this lovely playsilk (the background).  There was a beautiful heart ornament, but my rotten dog ate it right away. 








 

Etsy Stocking Stuffer Swap:

 

I made bean bags - two to a set, ten sets.  It was a lot of sewing. 

 

 



I just got back my items and I'm sad to say that I will only be able to use a few of the 10 items I got back as actual stocking stuffers.  Some are just not a good fit for the ages of my kids and some aren't what I would think of as stocking stuffers.  So a little disappointed here. 





Thanksgiving at Grandad's

For Thanksgiving we made the long haul to Kentucky.  It was a brutal 11+ hours in the car there and nearly that long home.  We left Wednesday morning and arrived that night.  We had a lovely visit with the family and left again Saturday morning.  It really was a whirlwind, but I'm so glad we got to spend some time with the Kentucky family! 

Here are a few shots:

After dinner on Thursday, we did our Christmas exchange:

R was thrilled to get a scooter and a helmet for Christmas:

 This is the sunrise right before we left.  Not only is Kentucky beautiful, but Grandad's place is especially beautiful. 

Michaelmas!!!

Happy Michaelmas!

Today is the first time we've celebrated this Waldorf holiday.  In it, we celebrate bravery, courage, and guidance from above...

I've already told the story of George and the Dragon many times.  I made a drawing up of St. Michael adding his help to slay the dragon.  And we've talked a lot about dragons.  When they are older we'll talk about how "dragons" are metaphors for any difficulty or hurdle in our lives.  Through self-reflection and perseverance, we can slay our own inner dragons. 

Summer Solstice

What a beautiful thing, the first day of Summer, the longest day of the year.  We celebrated with sun themed art projects, a batch of sun tea (made with herbs from the garden), lamb's quarters done up like kale chips (which were fantastic!), and ended the night with a bonfire and toasted marshmallows.  I was quite inspired by this blog. 

Next year I'd like to try making sun bread and to leave treats for the fairies...

Welcome Summer!

Easter!

The bunny came for a visit and so did Grandpa.  It was a beautiful day and a good time was had by all!

Martinmas

For the last several years, I've had aspirations of celebrating Martinmas.  Yet, each year we are either "sick" or "off" on this date.  Regardless, we make lanterns (in theory, to celebrate St. Martin's kindness to Jesus and his ability to bring warmth and light to those who were previously in darkness) to take on a nighttime walk. 

Here we are making said (unused) lanterns...

Halloween Swap back!

I sent off the wooden black cat faces and ghosts, remember?

I received these (bad photo alert)...

One day of the dead felt face, three upcycled wool leaves, one needle felted bat (hard to see in this picture), one sewn pumpkin, and a rune set in a cute tin. 

I have to say, not nearly as "Halloweeny" as I expected.  But overall really cute and it has given me a fabulous idea of what to make S for Christmas. 

Now, off to work out birthday details.  My boy is rapidly approaching 4, don't cha know!

Better late than never...

St. Patty's Day wooden play things:

Wooden cut outs that I burned, painted with watercolors and then sealed with beeswax.  Safe for little hands!

Now to finish these Spring/Easter projects!

More Easter Swap sneak peeks...

Bunny and carrots wall hanging:

Life cycle of a tulip on a sweet little egg:

Preschool Christmas party

Today was the last day of preschool for this semester, so to celebrate they had a little party with the kids.  R's teacher had them give us presents and she also gave each child a little goodie bag with a book, a candy cane and some play doh.  It was all very sweet.

My pictures are a bit bad as I was holding a squirmy babe the whole time, but here they are:

 Here's the gift they made for us.  His name and the date is on the back.  What a sweet idea!

Garage pictures, another hat, and well wishes

Here's the finished (almost) garage:

Here's my first "request" for a hat.  Guess who it's for?  Oh and it matches his brand new blue coat.

Finally, we head off to Kentucky tomorrow.  We will celebrate all we are thankful for with family.  I hope you are all well and enjoy much love, laughter, and turkey (or tofurky) this Thanksgiving. 

Gobble, gobble, indeed.