Muscial weekend...

My favorite time of year is here... Cool nights, days filled with swimming and outdoor adventures and weekends full of quintessential Maine activities. This weekend was no exception with Bangor putting on the American Folk Festival in style. We all braved the heat on Saturday to see Quebecois music, hear how to have a "Maine house party" (we will be having many of those in the coming years - you must come!) and on Sunday the kids and I went back to see a Korean drumming group and hear some great Irish music. And the best thing about the Festival is all the amazing ethnic food vendors from the surrounding areas. We had such a great time and took only a few photos because we were too busy soaking up the good vibes...
The Korean band came on stage wearing these fntastic hats with long ribbons attached and they whipped their heads around doing all kinds of beautiful ribbon twirling with the hats - unreal. Here is the serene woman who was part of the band playing drums later...

The kids sucking down one of our many drinks. I think we bought 3 fresh squeezed lemonades, two smoothies and some ice cream in one run through the food tent... Fluids were important!

Such fun times!

This Moment...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (thank you Amanda for the idea)...

Thank you dresses

It started as a thank you for a special momma, one of those women with infallible optimism who has given me lots of child wisdom over the past few years. As usual she was giving and I wanted to do more than take so I made a little "pillowcase dress" for her adorable daughter. AnaSofia was so excited to give it to her friend that she tried to write her name in it, in permanent marker... So Momma put a pocket on it, gave it to AnaSofia and tried again... Here is AnaSofia modeling hers...


And Kasper is modeling a pair of pants I made for him that FarMor had to drastically fix for me because I couldn't get them right... I really need to buy patterns rather than make my own.

But even though they don't always come out right, each piece is made with a lot of love and I really love sewing each week.

Summertime Easy...

I have not felt too creative lately in the kids craft department. I have been sewing a lot and packing boxes and the weather has been so incredibly beautiful all summer that our time is mostly spent outside or at the lake. I was feeling a bit guilty about it all today as we are usually "art project girls" as Fia would say so I decided to do something fun and easy just for the kids. We picked up some nature on our morning walk, brought it home and taped it to beautiful paper. Easy and the kids had a blast. I then helped them make little thread dolls I remembered from this post. Mine took much less effort (mere minutes!), but I think next time I would stitch the dress on with a little thread as Kasper ripped off the double stick tape way too many times...
So, phew, feeling crafty and outdoorsy and can get back to packing and such while the kids are entertained with these sweet little happy girls for awhile!

Family!

We were so thankful when Soren's parents arrived on our doorstep. Their presence signals the final push to move out of our home. The work seemed insurmountable these past few months as Soren and I planned and worked alone, but we feel renewed hope with family here to help. And anyways, who doesn't feel joy when seeing grandparents with their grandchildren? The giggles and excitement of Kap and Fia are quite contagious!

Here is to a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. Wish us luck!

Picking, Pickling and Preserving

Phuuu... It has been busy around here! All our fruits and vegetables are finding their way into jars and cans as we think about the winter ahead. It has been a fun process, especially for AnaSofia. Pickling cucumbers involves counting out just the right number of peppercorns into each jar, measuring other ingredients, adding cukes and adding the juices. She loved it! We have a very full freezer and the pantry is about to reach capacity too...
Blueberry picking (50 lbs worth!).

It was mostly blueberry eating actually...


Pickling the cukes with the little chef.

Taking a reading break while Momma does the canning.