reunion time

family reunion 2010

reunion time is a happy time, a family time, a heartfelt and forever time.
it is a time to cherish special thoughts of loved ones near and far.italians really know how to party! this was their 64th year holding this reunion. there was a *smaller* crowd this year at *only* 82 guests. there is a serious spread of food. a real challenge for this gluten-free gal!! no pictures as i tried not to look directly at the deliciousness.

i am thankful that we were able to share this with our children. it is such a rare sight these days to see family gathering like this. i love how important family is to them and that they work so hard to bring everyone together.

spanning the generations.
the youngest cousin, baby charlie, is just 6 months old. sienna spent as much time with him as possible. she is a serious baby lover.

of the original eleven, these are the six that remain. the eldest is 100!! matt's grandfather passed away years ago. these are his brothers and sisters, my children's great-great aunts and uncles. jasper had a particular fondness for uncle clem (bottom left). he would run for him and uncle clem would scoop him up and they would cuddle and pose for pics (no, i don't have any of them....yet).eight cousins with sienna being the only girl. she never seemed to mind.

one definite highlight of this trip was jasper's pottying success. he sports a bare bottom when we are home and he has not had a single accident that way. however, when you cover his bum with anything, he goes in it. (any suggestions there would be great!) with visiting grandparents who are apparently uncomfortable around sweet little three year old bottoms and traveling long distances in the car, we reverted back to diapers temporarily. sweet little guy didn't want to go in his diaper in the car and kept asking to go potty. several times matt whipped the car over and got him out and tried to teach him to pee outside (i thought this would be one of the first things little boys learned). problem was, he would get his little bottom exposed and be terribly distracted by all the wildflowers on the side of the road. he came back to the car with fistfuls of flowers for his sister and me but without having completed his mission. then, finally, mere miles from our destination, he did it, flowers and all! he was so darn proud, as was his sister who was impressed that he innately knew to *shake it* when he was done. ;)yay for jasper!

what's wrong with this picture?

remember, you can click to make it larger, if needed.

seriously.

oh, and did you see this story? patriotic banner, eh?

black and white wednesday: road trip edition

in the spirit of black and white wednesday, i am sharing a quick recap of our trip to matt's family reunion in pennsylvania in black and white. though it was a lot of time spent in the confines of a small car with two wee children, it was an incredibly rewarding experience.

driver dad on a mission.finding ways to amuse himself (and us!) on the long ride.story time at the hotel. 5 nights in two different hotels. so glad to be back in our own beds!

matt's dad's side of the family....all 25 of us.

matt's grandmother, great nanny rita. she is his mother's mother, so not a part of this reunion, but happens to live very close by so we ventured to visit her...twice.

rita is the children's only living great grandparent. such a treat it was to get to spend time with her!both sienna and jasper were so sweet and gentle with great nanny. sienna loved to walk beside her, supporting her with her own sweet hand. jasper would sit beside her and *pet* her arms.jasper had his first sparkler experience in aunt lynn's yard with poppa hum. at nearly the same age, four years ago, sienna marveled at her first sparklers in this very same place with poppa.the new river gorge national park in west virginia provided the perfect place to get out and explore on the journey back home.lots of writing and drawing helped to keep this gal occupied for much of the trip.

now to get all those bags unpacked and work on getting settled back in around here! i will share more (color) photos of our journey soon. hope you all enjoyed a lovely weekend yourselves. i will be popping in soon to see what you have been up to.

Black and White Wednesday

in honor of the birthday boy. this must be my most loved photo of all time.

see more black and white wednesday and join the fun over at natural suburbia!

his birthday weekend in pictures

two sets of grandparents, a few dear friends, a party in the park, two missed naps, three late nights, playgrounds, an afternoon at the children's museum, fountain splashing, window shopping, meals out on the town.....and we are all worn out!

the last day of two

when i have said my evening prayer
and my clothes are folded on the chair
and mother switches off the light,
i'll still be two years old tonight.
but from the very break of day,
before the children rise and play,
before the darkness turns to gold,
tomorrow i'll be three years old,
three kisses when i wake,
three candles on my cake.

taken from *a child's seasonal treasury*

tutorial: wet felted ocean playmat

sienna loves wet felting playmats for her wee dolls, gnomes, fairies, and animals. in the past she has done many a lake, pond, and river playmat. when she received wee mermaids for solstice, she knew right away that a new playmat was in order....an ocean and beach scene! here's how we did it:

you will need:

wool roving in the colors of your choice
dish soap
bubble wrap or bamboo blinds
a pitcher or large cup

begin by spreading the fibers of your roving. this is an important step in the felting process! you don't want any clumps. pull it thin.

as you lay your fibers out on the bubble wrap, be sure to criss cross the layers. some strands go vertically, the next horizontally. this will aide in the felting process, too. also, if you are abutting two colors like we did here, be sure to overlap them a bit so that they can felt to one another more easily.

you need to add many more layers than you would think or you will end up with holes. you will have a big puffy cloud when you are ready to begin.

here is what ours looked like before we began the felting.jasper wanted to do one, too. here's his creative layout.next, fill your pitcher with a dash of dish soap (i don't believe that brand matters, but some folks swear by dawn for felting) and hot water. if you are doing this with children, be mindful of their threshold when preparing the water. carefully pour the water over the fibers wetting the entire surface.fold the bubble wrap carefully over the top, sandwiching the playmat in between.

at first, you will want to gently massage the wool through the bubble wrap. the idea here is to get the fibers to stick together before you start the vigorous felting.

you can lift up the plastic and check your progress. if you see that you have obvious holes or thin spots, now is a good time to add some more roving. when you see that the fibers are starting to stick together in one piece a bit, you can begin more vigorous action. sienna firmly agitated the wool through the plastic.rolling it up and smooshing it (technical term) under your weight is very helpful. encourage your child to put their body weight into it.jasper had his own techniques. ;) he even used a mallet! i wouldn't suggest it, though it did work out for him.

continue this action until firmly felted. it could take 15 minutes or so. add more soap and hot water as needed. you can even *flush* it with cold water in between. the change from hot to cold shocks the fibers and aids the felting process.when they were finished, i rinsed the mats well and put them in the dryer with some tennis balls. (it's true!) this firms them up a bit more and made the finished product a bit thicker. we only left them in for a few minutes and let them finish drying on their own in the sun.here's her finished mat!

here's jasper's. he says it is part of a dog. ??sienna wanted *four blue sea stars washing up on the shore*. so, i needle felted those on for her.

mermaids made by dannielle of princess nimble thimble. they are so well made and detailed!

the finished mat in action.i love that i can tuck the mermaids and some shells inside and roll it up. we are going on a long road trip next week and this will come in handy!

i had to add these last two pics as i found this after i had already started writing this post. she said the mermaid was admiring the sea star. so sweet!as soon as she received the mermaid couple, she went and found this wee wool baby from a story set of mine. here she has tucked the baby into a shell cradle. i never tire of the imagination and creativity that open ended toys provide!

a great way to do this with younger children is inside a ziploc baggie as described here. this is how we started a couple of years ago.

we hope you enjoy making your own playmats! we'd love to see them if you do!