A visit from One E. Bunny

Life is sllllllowly returning to normal after Easter, NanaPop, and "Spring Break."  Miss Moo is back to her routine and Miss Roo has another tooth - for a grand total of 5. I am still behind on all I need to get done and I'm starting to accept that as the norm around here.

Moo was very excited to see that Mr. E. Bunny visited us on the morning of the 8th.

The girls shared a basket.

Roo happily received a book, a Waldorf doll from a local artisan, and a wooden bunny teether.

Moo was elated with her dragon and rider, book, coloring book, and CAMERA!!

Moo is ecstatic about her camera. She's been interested in our big camera for a while, but I've been too frightened to let her try. Although her camera IS plastic, it is highly reviewed as durable and should last us through her sister.

She spent a few days taking pictures of herself, NanaPop, Roo, and the ceiling and floor. We haven't loaded them to the computer just yet, but at this point its all about process and not product. 

We also plan to use it as a way to engage her in things she otherwise might find - less than fun. I am hoping that giving her a way to document from her perspective and be able to share that with us will bring us another type of bonding and a new platform for discussion.

Or maybe it will just be something fun for her while I take pictures with the big camera.

An Eggcelent Afternoon

This afternoon while Miss Moo slept and Miss Roo played with some toys in the family room, I completed step one of their wooden Easter eggs.

Moo has always been interested in cooking- whether it is real cooking that is going on in my kitchen or something she is making in her playroom.  Her felt veggies are strewn all over our downstairs and she often brings her own utensils to the dinner table.  I often wonder if the poor girl was doomed to this fate because she spent months listening to The Food Network before she arrived.  None the less, she has a certain love of cooking and has been know to host her own shows while busily baking away in her kitchen.

With Easter fast approaching, all our local stores have been filled (really since February) with little, plastic eggs. Moo is always quick to point them out to me. She asked a few times for some eggs and I suppose she quickly learned that I wasn't going to buy any. I'm not trying to keep her from having a dozen eggs in her kitchen, but I AM trying to cut down on the plastic junk that enters our house. Not buying these eggs to have little "treats" in their Easter baskets also forced me to think of some other solution for egging up my girls this Sunday.

 A few weeks ago I ordered supplies to make Miss Roo's birthday gifts. As I searched for one last item to push me into free shipping (yes I'm one of THOSE) I noticed that there was a fruit and vegetable section. I clicked through and there they were - wooden hen's eggs! PLOP! In the cart they went. After everything arrived I pulled out the bag of 25 unfinished eggs and stared. How could I make some prettier without worrying about a huge, toxic paint mess. I turned to the pantry and saw food coloring. Hrmmm...I wonder.... off to the Googles!

Yes, you CAN make dye with food coloring.

 So I did. There was no scientific method to my dying experiment. There was no measuring or determination of ratios. I simply squirted what was left of a little bottle of blue dye into one of my Pyrex bowls and then filled it to the top with water. Whisk whisk. I plopped in two wooden eggs and pushed them around.  I looked at my eggs and then my fingers. I grabbed some gloves from under the sink and returned to my eggs.

The eggs began to turn blue. I let them set in the dye bath for about five minutes and then dyed two more. They looked amazing!  I grabbed the bottle of yellow dye and dumped it in. Plunk! Two more eggs in. GREEN!! GREEN EGGS! Won't THEY be handy on March 2! After about 5 minutes, I dyed another round and them dumped the green. I next tried red.

Brilliant! Two round of the red dye bath and I had a dozen colored eggs sitting on my table.

I LOVE this craft for several reasons. These eggs are versatile- the girls can play with them, cook with them, count with them, sort with them, and have egg hunts with them.  These eggs are durable- they are solid wood eggs so dropping them or stepping on them won't send them on a one way trip to the landfill.  These eggs are visually appealing- they look like real eggs and have a similar weight to them as well. The light wood lent itself to a hue of that of a real, dyed egg. These eggs are personal - rather than running to the local X-Mart, Mama made these little guys pretty for each of her girls. And these eggs are part of my reduce/reuse plan- food coloring is being phased out for consumption in our house, so this was a non-wasteful completion of it's life here.

Tomorrow my play is to seal the eggs with my wood wax (I'll have a link to that on Saturday along with an exciting adventure for me!).  I want to give the little babies 24 hours to soak in all the dye.

So there they are! Let's hope my little chef and her colleague enjoy their fresh, local eggs!

Sunny Spring Sunday

The girls (and Daddy) napped at the same time today, so I was able to accomplish some desperately needed spring cleaning. Our family room is 2/3 done and I have bags of gently used (and mostly plastic) toys to be set out on our porch for the Veterans tomorrow. Once they are asleep I hope to quickly finish up in that room to prepare for the week to come.

I also cleaned and vacuumed Miss Moo's old car seat in order to install it in the van for Miss Roo.

 It was a bit bittersweet taking out the bucket that has carried both of my sweet baby girls and accepting that we are creeping out of babyhood towards the toddling months to come. I am reminded daily how much Roo is changing. Each morning promises a new skill. Today she has mastered standing on the bed without holding on to anyone or anything and at dinner tonight she clearly asked for "Fish". Her personality flourishes as she attempts new things and acts silly with her sister. Seeing the joy shared between them always melts my heart.

We were also productive as a family today. After naps we went onto the back porch to plant some seeds to begin our garden. Moo helped me set up and plant lettuce, spinach, sweet basil, and beans as well as a one big pot for our tomatoes. We also planted cat grass in some foil loaf pans that fit nicely into our Easter baskets. ( I saw that idea at Pink and Green Mama- BRILLIANT!)  Having dirt under our fingernails felt great. Daddy was also able to work on our compost pile and we were able to talk about how we were going to make the soil even better for our plants by making new soil for them. Moo was very excited - and very messy.

As we spend more and more time outside and I see how engaged Moo becomes in all the beauty of nature. I have been researching the Waldorf style of education for a while as we do plan to home school.  I want to be sure to use a curriculum that suits us best as a family.  Moo does enjoy basic "academic" play but loves to be outside collecting treasures and finding ways to play with them. Dragons are also pretty cool to her. We need creative outlets and to focus on the process not the product.

 It is my goal this week to create a nature table in our family room with her help and to increase our shift at home to the Waldorf style.  Our table will help us study and discuss the seasons and begin to develop a rhythm together.  Perhaps we can use that momentum as a way to create something for Roo's big day!!

Ahhhh, Spring!