Non-skid Slippers

In our house, it’s a tradition that Mrs. Claus sends a little gift. It’s typically what I’d consider a sensible “old lady” gift. So if the girls are low on socks or underwear or long underwear, that comes wrapped up with the other items on Christmas morning. This year the girls are fairly well-supplied, so … [Read more…]

More Holiday Crafts

  On Saturday I helped out with our annual Homemade Holidays program at church. Grown-ups made wreaths and there were plenty of simple-but fun crafts for everyone. Kids loved squeezing glitter paint onto glass balls. Glue and glitter made pinecones extra-special, and little circles of pipe cleaner made cute little stands. There were homemade beeswax … [Read more…]

Ringing in the Holidays

Okay, I’m officially in the holiday spirit. It was like a flip that was switched today. At the grocery store, actually. I walked into produce and Christmas carols were playing and I almost rolled my eyes, but I was appeased by a sale on pomegranates. I love pomegranates. Then I was waiting at the deli … [Read more…]

Our Black Friday Activities

I hope everyone had a great holiday! We spent Thanksgiving night at my sister’s house–you know, the same house where we went for Easter, where everything is gorgeous. The weather was fabulous, so the girls were having a fabulous time clamoring around the backyard. And, sure, the backyard had fewer trees than last time we … [Read more…]

Ghouls in Jail

Cute W and the girls carved pumpkins over the weekend (my only contribution was a couple of eyebrows and a scar on one jack-o-lantern), and the girls took inspiration from Fairy Houses. . . Unbelievable! by Barry & Tracy Kane. In the book, they’d used several pumpkins to create an entire town for (presumably pumpkin-dwelling) … [Read more…]

Fairy Houses

I just realized that I forgot to post about M’s favorite activity during our Mother-Daughter Camp-out: fairy houses! One of the dads had encountered amazing fairy houses in his travels. (A little closer to home, you can find some fairy houses at the Berkshire Botanical Garden.) He and his daughter were excited to share the … [Read more…]

Poetry with Children

I spent most of the day at The Arts Center of the Capital Region for their Write Here conference. One of my favorite parts was a program about writing and sharing poetry with school-age children. It was led by Jill Crammond from Miss Jill’s Artist Studio and Ralph Fahrenstock from Bethlehem Children’s School. With Jill, … [Read more…]

Yummy Mini Donuts

Cute W specializes in tasty breakfast carbs, so we just had to impulse-buy the Mini Donut Maker that was at Target the week before his birthday. Over the weekend, Cute W made our first donuts. He just used the basic recipe in the instruction manual. The donuts are so little that each one is just … [Read more…]

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Would you believe that after all that advance prep I managed to realize, 5 minutes before the party was set to start, that I’d forgotten the Rice Krispies for the cupid hair? So I literally ran (because I’d walked up to the school) back to my house and drove back, then explained to the children … [Read more…]