Sugaring

The warm and wet winter is making me feel Spring is coming far too soon and that means it is time to tap the maples! We spent these past few days getting all the trees going in anticipation of cold nights and warm days ahead...

Walking through the woods we saw so many signs that all the creatures are feeling the changes too...

 

And our own creatures are feeling the call to explore too and leave their "winter cottage" to check for sap with us each afternoon.

 

 I am hoping to have a little more time to enjoy the bounty of skating, ice fishing, snowshoeing and downhill skiing we have been doing this winter because seeing the kids' skills grow in leaps and bounds is so fun!

Love Day

I work hard to make today a celebration of love, family and togetherness without any of the sugar, commercialism, craziness mixed in because even though it is a bummer of a holiday on some levels - it is truly relished by me as a reminder to LOVE all those around me... The kids and I have been working on handmade Valentine's together (I made a painting for the hubs and children and they are working on school cards. It is always so much fun to brainstorm together and come up with ideas. My biggest challenge is making it something Kasper will follow through on to the end... Do you remember the heart crayons AnaSofia and I made a few years ago? Well, I thought those might be a good fit for Kasper - he used a hammer to crush the crayons, drove his cars and trucks to deliver the chips to the mold and wrote his own name on the card with Mama providing the dotted guide for each letter because he was not in the mood to write his name eight times alone and I felt like I should not just do it myself.

The little man can sew so we made little bird bookmarks for his teachers and he even made one for Mama (well, I actually confiscated his first one and made him sew two more because it was SO PRECIOUS and I couldn't bear to give it away- did you see it in the previous post?! He sews!!!).

Big sister started out with the idea to do bird bookmarks for all her classmates and then thought it would be so funny to write "You are a hoot!" give out owl finger puppets instead. She sewed them all herself and was so proud of them.

My favorite part of the day was not captured on film but I need to remember it... AnaSofia always works so hard to give all of us gifts and she spent at least a week before making gifts (stickers, pictures, beeswax pieces, yarn and beads) and hung them in the window for us the night before. Kasper was so excited for his bits and pieces of found items she created and I was too. She is such a lover and her thoughtfulness continues to blow me away.
Happy Love Day! See the best in each and every one of us today!

A True Blizzard

We finally were graced with the white stuff... In a big way! The kids and I were spending a glorious week at a friend's house (complete with a dog!) when the snow hit. We were tucked inside with a woodstove, said dog and even the hubs came to take care of us for the night.

Despite snow blowing sideways, the kids built forts, played for hours and tromped with me up and down the driveway to take care of more dogs. And because we were not home we improvised and used plastic bags as kites and a cardboard box to sled on... AnaSofia always has a few good ideas up her sleeve!

It was the most fun we have had in winter for awhile... This is what Maine was made for!

Candlemas

Yesterday marked the halfway point between winter and spring and around here that is as good of a reason as any to celebrate! We woke to find the house elf had left a gift for each child in a small nest by his door. These beautiful glass eggs just glow with light...

The kids and I talked about how much lighter it has been around dinnertime and what we were looking forward to in the coming months. They drew pictures of their wishes on a pot and we planted paperwhites for our table centerpiece to slowly bring a bit of green into the house.

My favorite book for bringing appreciation and Earth centered activities into the house is an oldie but goodie that we refer to often throughout the year for ideas...

Hope you are feeling the light in your life too! Embrace it!

Five Months

(note: I tried stopping this and not bothering you all with ridiculously cute baby photos at four months, but I cannot help myself... He is the apple of all of our eyes and these photos make me so happyyyyyyy when I look at them.)

 

You cuddle, run your hand across my cheek and giggle with delight when Far comes home. The favorite part of my day is nap and bedtime when I can nuzzle into your soft crop of hair that is so warm and fluffy now. You are curious and intelligent and like to just spend time laying next to someone and just gazing into their eyes (it is usually me, how lucky am I?)... I still cannot get enough of you and want time to slow down, but with the way you are moving, hopping and squirming I believe you are going to hit every milestone much faster than those siblings of yours and grow up on me way too fast... It's okay, I love you anyways...