{this moment} rainbow day

{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.

she chose me!

today for spirit week, it was dress as your favorite hero day. last week she told me it was her. she was her hero. ;) i liked that answer.

then, yesterday afternoon she tells me she wants to dress as a firefighter. um, really? we have nothing even close to a firefighter's uniform and i had zero time to gather supplies.
-hmmm....do you have any other heroes honey?
-yes, mom....you!

of course i asked her why. she said because i protect her and keep her safe. it is only fair to note that she did then declare both dad and jasper as her heroes, too, but she still wanted to dress up like me. ;)
i wasn't really sure where to go with this one either, but this is what we came up with. we twisted her hair up last night and attempted curls. we got mostly frizz which probably hits closer to the mark! she wore one of my aprons and a sweater. though she wanted to go for out of the classroom mom, teacher mom was a little easier to mimic clothing wise.

what she doesn't know is that she is my hero, too. i love this bright little star so very, very much!

black and white wednesday

school chums

find more black and white wednesday at natural suburbia.

making fall friends

inspired by all of our nature finds, we grabbed some of our wooden pegs, the overflowing basket of felt scraps, and the glue gun. sienna created an autumn mermaid. ;)
i made these two. the taller one is a wooden clothespin. i started this one last year and left him half finished in a box of autumn things. it was so gratifying to bring him to life after all this time! the guinea feathers were not found on our adventures, but in my craft supply. this is jasper's. he cut the felt and wrapped it around the peg just the way he wanted it and i glued it for him. he had his sister draw the black face on. he is obsessed with black! apparently, this guy does not like to have his picture taken as i can not get his face in focus no matter how hard i try. could be my naughty camera's fault, i suppose.then we abandoned the wooden forms and the felt and started gluing the nature bits together. this one is sienna's. she has a wild side, this one. this is mine. he is more on the reserved side, as you can see. and here is jasper's. he chose the tiniest acorn cap he could find and had me glue it in just this spot. it is a ladybug crawling to the end of his stick. ;)

inspiring autumn

autumn is a favorite season here. one of our absolute joys in life is grabbing a basket and heading out on a trail to discover what treasures have been left for us to uncover. bringing our basket home, the items are then sorted. some are carried off to the playroom to go to work in the play kitchen, feeding dolls and the like. many are left on the table in various wooden bowls so that we may ponder what they shall become next.
we have been doing lots of fall crafting! the materials waiting to be worked with are so inviting and everyone has ideas and can't wait to get started. this weekend we dipped our first round of leaves in beeswax. a well loved yearly tradition. i have had these last for multiple years when stored away gently!
mother nature's gift of color is so uplifting! it is a pleasure to surround ourselves with this beauty inside as she has decorated so beautifully outside.
i had been wanting to transform this wreath for a couple of weeks now. today, i just dropped the five hundred things i was doing and spent a few minutes with myself and all these gorgeous treasures. such a welcome respite, even it was short lived. our shabby front door is now magnificently adorned in autumn splendor!
today kicked off spirit week at sienna's school with *crazy hair day*. still feeling the autumn love, she hit the yard with her scissors this morning and came back with these clippings and the request to attach them to her hair. it turned out so lovely!

forest festival day

the kids and i ventured out to the cradle of forestry in pisgah national forest this weekend for *forest festival day*. the cradle of forestry is the site of america's first school of forestry and showcases what forest conservation looked like over a century ago.
sienna helped this over-sized gnome cut down this tree using a crosscut saw while brother supervised.
the gnome said this was one of the most stubborn trees he had come across and tried to use his brute strength to topple it. ;)at last! t.....i.....m.....b.....e.....r!they had a chance to climb aboard this old engine and even give the bell a ring!
sienna's first grade class spent last week making fairy houses. this made quite an impact on her and she was spotting these fairy holes all over the place. she would see a perfect spot and just stop right there on the trail and start decorating it for them!
she did not fell this tree herself. ;) she did enjoy getting to see underneath this giant though. they have also had a block of study on trees at school so this was a nice extension. there is a tree nursery here and we got to see lots of little saplings being tended. we had a lot of fun identifying trees by their leaves, bark, and their nuts or pods as we wandered the trails.
together we tackled this log to slice off our own tree cookie.
the look of intense concentration on her face was priceless. she worked so hard for that cookie!
they then burned the cradle of forestry stamp into it for her.jasper took advantage of learning opportunities, too. ;)there were many artisans and craftsmen there doing demonstrations. when sienna learned that there was a corn husk doll maker, she insisted we seek her out. i was impressed by this nativity scene.
here's the gal i really wanted though. i only had a few dollars in my pocket being as we were in the forest and all, and i let sienna choose a doll (this woman's prices were ridiculously low!). i was proud for her that she stuck to her guns and got the one that she wanted....which was not the one mommy wanted. notice there is no picture of the one she did choose..... ;)there was a kids craft table with supplies for leaf rubbing. i love that she immediately turned her rubbing into a leaf fairy!the wash area was a favorite. minus the wringer, we have this same set up at dandelion hill for washing our napkins, so both of my kids are familiar with scrubbing laundry. they dove right in! the wringer brought a whole new aspect to the chore. pictured here is another dad helping sienna out. when it was jasper's turn, sienna and i turned the handle together and jasper (carefully) fed the pants into the rollers. it took all three of us to wring a pair of pants out!
it was a magical day in the forest with my sweethearts. i regret that i chose to do it solo (dad was working) though as it was a LOT of walking with all the events and displays being spread out amongst miles of mountain trails. they were paved trails yes, but jasper refused to walk for much of it meaning mom did a lot of carrying. the little bugger is protesting being carried in his carrier these days which makes his load a lot heavier. by the time we called it a day, we were all completely exhausted, but enchanted!

michaelmas

yesterday we celebrated michaelmas! as a budding waldorf community, this special day marked a significant point in our growth. this was our third michaelmas together! we started holding community wide festivals with michaelmas as our first and so with this season we begin a new year of celebrations together!

the children weaved fairy looms and wet felted comet balls.

there was a lovely waldorf style puppet show with marionette puppets! i was so impressed with what these beautiful friends were able to pull off in such a short preparation time. now that we have such a professional puppet crew, i look forward to more shows in the future. ;)the skies opened up and a great thunderstorm rumbled overhead as we were gathered under this shelter for the show. this dragon was made for the first michaelmas. there was some controversy over whether or not the dragon should be present again as he is quite large and most of our children are quite young. when the vote was made to have him make an appearance we had no idea we would end up huddled in a rather small space with sheets of rain falling around us and thunder cracking overhead! it certainly added to the intensity for some of the wee littles which is unfortunate. i enjoyed his show though, especially knowing that matt was under there (as he was for the first michaelmas, too)!as has happened with several of our festivals now, the rains parted and the children proceeded in merriment splashing and running through puddles. it brings back so many memories for me as i loved to lay in mud puddles and roll around when i was young. it was always by myself though and i feel blessed that my children have a whole tribe to have these adventures with.mother earth snuggled sienna warmly.

the cider press is a staple of michaelmas for us and mr crowe is the cider master. such a fascinating bit of machinery and such a rewarding process for the children. not to mention the delicious cider to drink!

my sad little camera never captures the day as i wish it to....some day i will have the camera i long for. until then, i send you to my dear friends' blogs to see a much lovelier representation of the days festivities. both moment to moment and golden sun family have posts up from yesterdays celebration. if you consider that matt is inside the dragon (sounds grim, eh?), you can spot my whole family in their photos.

i can say that autumn is officially here. just two days ago it was in the 90s and the trademark colors of fall were missing from the branches around us. with that downpour that started at michaelmas, the rain has continued off and on and the temperatures have cooled down considerably. our yard is now speckled with the dappled yellow leaves of the great maple tree just outside our door.

welcome autumn! we are so glad to see you!