...chocolate air...

swapped.

Kristin just posted about the things we sent to them in the Miniswap a few months back, and it made me realize that I had never shared it myself.

I had so much fun with this swap. Kristin had mentioned that her Margaret likes playing school, and since that was one of my favorite things as a kid (and still kind of is... homeschooling is so fun!), I decided to make up a playing-school kit. We put it together almost entirely from things we had around the house.

This box had a lot of odds and ends for the teacher... office supplies, stickers, old rubber stamps, a jumprope for recess time, a school bell, etc.

You can't have a school with no chalkboard, so this slate was put in, along with a little bundle of chalk and a pointer that Zach made from a wooden dowel and a couple of spools. A few books for reading/writing.

I made this smock from a felted wool sweater, and am truthfully unsure of how it was meant to be used. School uniform? Teacher's apron? Art smock? Lunchtime apron? I guess it's multi-purpose.

Speaking of lunchtime... my favorite bit. A packed lunch. I actually squealed when I realized I could make this as part of the kit. The lunchbox itself is a tin with sticker labels on either side, which have pictures of Margaret apple-picking that I swiped from her mother's blog. The juice box was made from a wooden block, a dowel, and a bit of paint, and then I made a label for that on the computer, too. The apple was a thrift store find, and the cookies and sandwich were whipped up from more wool sweaters.

I am really happy with how the lunch turned out. I need to make some of these for myself for Zachary.

Kristin and Margaret were such great (and patient!) partners, and we loved putting this together for them. Thanks girls!

celebrate.

A nice weekend, spent celebrating some of the joys of life...

My friend Anne's wedding. So happy.

And I got to be there yesterday for the birth of my friend Renae's new son. He is her fifth babe and is utterly perfect.

 

okay, so it's been a while...

Some of you have been quite patient. Others of you have been less-than-subtle in your promptings for me to update the blog. (Kirsten, Jennifer, Karen, Renae... you know who you are. No need to name names.)

I thought I'd take a leaf out of Amanda's book and share ten things that are making me happy lately, in no particular order:

1. The arrival of camping season (and the complete happiness of a little nature-loving boy)

2. Good music running through my head all day

Night Mantra

3. Eating right, walking with a good friend, and being already four pounds closer to my pre-baby weight. (Yes, by "baby"... I am referring to my almost-seven-year-old. Give me a break. The time has come.)

4. This commercial about the power of the wind. Hilarious.

5. This little love, my friend Heidi's newest little one

6. Adorable children's books

7. Digging through and organizing my craft area (nearly done!)

8. The chance to study nature, literally in our own backyard

9. This fabulous blog, which completely inspires me to document the lives of family and friends with warmth and personality. (Look through the archives, seriously. Amazing stuff.)

10. Listening to quality audiobooks with my son (he's loving the Little House series, yea!!), and knowing that I can go to Kiddie Records Weekly and we'll be knee-deep in great recordings from the 40s and 50s. A couple of clicks and you're wading in nostalgia.

another one?

Oh, yes, indeed. I spent the day with my friend Collette and her wonderful family, including this sweet thing.

Introducing the adorable Connor...

I barely restrained myself from sneaking out the door with him.

a short new haircut...

... owing to the incessant wailing coming from the boy every morning as I try to (gently) comb out the massive snarls he manages to get in his hair through the night, as he rocks himself to sleep rather violently, as he has every night since he was about ten months old. I decided to give up the fight, at least as long as the hair takes to grow back.

fools.

We attended a little friend's April Fools' birthday party yesterday, where much fun was had by all, mostly because of the silly string and whoopi cushions...

There was also a bit of a cupcake fest, wherein the kids helped themselves and went a little wild. Susan, methinks there be a bit too much sugar in your cupcakes. Did you SEE the kids' teeth afterwards?!

Happy birthday, Miss Claire!

wild beasties.

We've had a very nice and relaxing week, and weather so beautiful that we've headed to the zoo twice in the last five days. Always a good time. There are so many gorgeous and majestic creatures in the animal world... and then, there are definitely some oddballs.  Here are a few of the ones we like to visit...

And then there were these wild things, which were neither properly labeled nor were they caged. I believe they are called BOY, and they remain one of those mysteries of the animal kingdom...

big stuff.

Yes, he's very proud.

whales, iguanas, and dinos...

Oh, my!

When I think of the contents of a child's Easter basket, I usually think of the year that I was seven, and we got stuffed bunnies that looked real (well, we thought so, anyway), and the usual Mommy-made chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. Simple. Sweet. Eastery. I try to maintain that same feeling when we do our bunnying, and yet somehow, the child ended up with a dino puzzle, a stretchy rubber iguana, and a whale. I drew the line at Transformers though... they have no place in a bunny basket.

This whale was my creation. He was done in just a few hours, and I think he's adorable. (Thanks a million for the sewing machine help, Susan! But I still wimped out and hand-stitched the darn thing.) This is another felted sweater project. He was pretty simple, the same on both sides, about a foot long. I used the cuffs of the sweater to create the grooves on the underside of the jaw. One of his fins is a pocket, specially made to hold a little boy's tooth so it won't be lost before the tooth fairy can get to it. Soon, people. My boy has his first-ever wobbly tooth. And he couldn't be prouder.

His camera smile, by the way, is improving quite a bit. I'll be sad to see those baby teeth go...

avoidance tactics.

Our little friend William visited us today. Is he not the sweetest? He and Zach get along well, and it was interesting to hear Zach "big brother-ing" him today... playing along with his games and gently correcting him when he was doing something he shouldn't.

I really have nothing to report today. I'm afraid that I'm mostly only blogging to put off other things, like cooking dinner. But I think I've dragged it out as much as I can. I'll try to be back tomorrow with something of interest...