A Lot of Love

I love Valentine's Day. For us it is a day to focus on filling the love cup of those we love the most. Valentine's Day isn't about the romance or even the commercialism but it's about love. In our home, it's actually Love Day. Just days after A's birthday she was asking to get ready for Valentine's Day so we had plenty of time to do lots of little fun things.

The first thing we did was make some special mailboxes for little love notes. I found a kit that had everything we needed. A did the decorating for both her and her brother. In the spirit of the day, A had wanted to make treats to share with her friends at school. I didn't want to do any food type treats so we did felt butterflies that held a Valentine pencil. She had so much fun she made enough for each of her classmates to have two, plus her teachers and her friend next door! F wouldn't be excluded though, he joined us at the table and made some very sweet heart pictures. Finally, A had asked for something sparkly to decorate her room with. Instead of indulging in glitter, we made Borax crystal hearts then hung them above her bed. They were easy and fun. We stuck the hearts in the borax solution before bed and when she woke, A found they were covered with glistening crystals.

The night before Valentine's Day, I filled each child's mailbox with little love notes. I used fun stickers, wrote notes like "I love your laugh" and "I love your hugs", left little poems on paper hearts "I loved you before, I love you still, I always have, I always will".  They each got a Valentine's pencil for writing their own love notes and a Valentine's straw for a special treat (hot chocolate!). I found some organic dark chocolate hearts at the grocery store so they each got one and I whipped up two little love mice from some Kisses.  My sweet friend dropped off a book for each of them. It was a wonderful morning of reading love notes, sharing sweets, giving hugs, doing favors and spreading joy and love.

In the Playroom

In our home we only have 3 bedrooms. When we learned we were expecting our second child I thought we would have the perfect number of rooms. However once we added another small person into our lives I found the bedrooms became cluttered with playthings. So about a year ago I decided I'd rather have my children share a room for sleep and have a room devoted just to play. It has worked out very well for us. Not only do we have almost no toys in the rooms we sleep in but they have space to play that they didn't before.

Play is so essential to child development. I will be the very first to admit my house is a mess. I work part-time, I have two high energy children, I have little closet space in the my house. However, I always make time to clean the playroom. I just feel that if that room is messy it limits how they can play. I want them to play as much as they can. They are building essential skills and that's important to me.

I have a preference for open-ended toys. You won't find battery operated toys here. I prefer no plastic but A has a small basket of My Little Ponies that I don't protest. We also allow lego blocks. Though we also have plain wooden blocks that get used often. We have a large basket of dress-up as well as our colorful playsilks. The playsilks get used almost more than the dress-up!

Even before F was born, I had a child-size table set up in our home. It's where my children do their artwork, crafts and practice writing. I've strung a line up for A to display her favorite finished pieces. Her art shelf is stocked with several paper types, paints, block crayons, pencil crayons, stickers, playdough and their supplies, flower press, a bead box and her craft basket. In that basket I've added some yarn for finger knitting, wool roving, buttons, washi tape, lacing cards and any other craft bits I find.

I have a book addiction. It's true. I'm a sucker for books. I've been really striving to limit how many books we own. We live so close to a good library that there isn't much reason to store the books in our home. The books for the children that I've felt are special enough to keep are housed in the playroom. Along with puzzles and small hand games, most books are found on the lower shelves.

Finally, my favorite part of the room. Their wooden kitchen was made by their dad. We have a shopping cart from Plan Toys and a child sized broom. Most of what is in their kitchen though I've found second-hand. We did get a few ceramic tea cups from Ikea but the rest I've found at thrift stores or consignment shops. One of the things I love about the wood kitchen is that once a month we give the kids rags with a bit of beeswax polish and they help us polish and care for the kitchen.

Starfish Buddies :: A Tutorial

When I was planning A's birthday party I knew I wanted to give her friends something small for joining us that day. I looked around in several stores but I wasn't at all impressed with all the plastic, made in China bits I found. So I decided to make something. I thought of making little mermaids or little whales but then this idea came to me and it seemed just right.

You will need:
At least one sheet of felt (one sheet makes 2 buddies)
Embroidery thread
An embroidery needle
Scissors
A starfish template
Straight pins
A peg doll
Optional: wool or cotton stuffing or pipecleaner

Start by folding your sheet of felt in half. Using straight pins, pin the template to your felt (I drew my own but you can find lots of templates online). Cut out and remove template. Then cut out a 1.5in by 3-3.5in rectangle.

Thread your embroidery needle then stitch a small star in the middle of the rectangle. Pin the rectangle to the front of one piece of your starfish. I like to stick the peg doll in to make sure I've got enough space. Then I just did two rows of straight stitch on each side to hold it snug.

Using the straight pins again, pin the two starfish pieces together. Anchor your thread inside the starfish then begin stitching together using a blanket stitch. If you haven't done blanket stitch yet check out a video tutorial. Stitch all the way around, removing pins as you go, until only one arm remains open.

At this point you can decide if you want to stuff it so it's all puffy or add a pipecleaner skeleton so it's poseable or leave it flat. You might even consider gluing small magnets on the inside so your starfish buddy can stick to your fridge. It's really up to you how you'd like to finish it. I decided to stuff them since these were intended for small hands. I used a pencil to stuff the wool down into arm. Once all four arms were stuffed and the main body was firm, I stitched up one side of the remaining arm. I then stuffed the final arm and stitched it close.

Finish by tying a small knot at the back of your buddy and snipping the thread. Lastly decide if you want your peg buddy plain or decorated. I painted simple hair, drew on some sleepy eyes and decorated the body with washi tape. Stick your peg buddy in his little pouch and your starfish buddy is complete!

The Fifth

My girl is five! This week we celebrated her fifth trip around the sun. Birthday's are always bittersweet. When decorating or planning I like to look back over the past year. I always forget how quickly they change and grow. I'm proud of who she is becoming though, she's got a wonderful heart.

A was lucky. She got two parties this year. We celebrated on her birthday with the people who love her most; her family. We had her favorite dinner and a cake of her choosing. We also gave her her few special gifts. For her birthday this year I knit her a horse friend. She's been telling me that horses are her favorite so I knew this was the perfect pattern. I'm so glad she loves it.

For her party with her friends she requested a swim party. She told me she wanted to be a mermaid. So we planned a party at the local recreation centre. I tried to do an under the sea theme for my little mermaid. My talented friend made starfish cupcakes and I made little starfish buddies for her friends. She had so much fun. Two hours didn't seem long enough. I guess we can say that birthday weekend has been a big success!

The beautiful letters hanging over A's birthday display were printed from here.

Snowy Mountains

It used to be that we would get a couple days of snow a year. Maybe one day to stay home from work and school to play but not much more than that. Lately, however, we've been feeling the effects of global warming in a noticeable way. No more snow. Not even a flurry. So many of the books we read feature snow as a major part of winter. One more when it was very frosty A came running to me excited about the "snow". She asked to go sledding. It was sad to see her heart sink when I told her it wasn't in fact snow. So this idea of a road trip to the snowy mountains was born.

The winter months are always tough for us financially so I wasn't sure we could make it work. But gas prices fell and I managed to put aside a little bit for the quick trip to the mountains. It was a long drive but worth it. It was the perfect day for snowshoeing too. It was snowing big, soft flakes of snow when we arrived but by the time we got the sleds hooked up and our trail passes it cleared.

We had barely made it down the trail before A jumped out of her sled and wanted to make snow angels. F had to join in of course. The snow was deep so it was fun to just sink into it. We continued on through the snowy woods. We noticed animal tracks in the snow, watched Whiskey Jacks swoop by our heads and listened to the snowy silence. A had really wanted to make a snowman but we didn't want to leave one in the way of trail users so instead she and her dad made a snow mouse to take along with us.

After an hour on the trails we decided to head back to the lodge for snacks and sledding. As we finished our snacks and got dressed for sledding the snow began to fall again. I'm glad it did. Falling snow is completely magical. The wind did pick up however and it got a bit cold. A had begged for sledding for weeks before the trip but when standing at the hill she decided she didn't want it. F however, could barely stand to wait his turn. I could hear him laughing the whole way down. He had the biggest smile on his face as they walked back to the top.

I'm so glad we did this for our family. It was precious time together, special memories and endless fun. I hope we can find a way to make this a winter tradition. Even after years of no snow, winter just isn't the same until I've had a day with the white stuff.

Cows, Car Rides and Cheese

This weekend we decided to drive up the island for a mini-getaway. A stay-cation if you will. We are on a tight budget these days so I did my best to stretch our dollar on this trip. It was a bit stressful but definitely fun. Poor F had a hard time in the car this trip so we had to make lots of stops. It was raining for most of the drive so we didn't visit the beaches as I hoped we could. We did, however, make a stop to one of my favorite farms. Farms are a fantastic, free way to have fun and learn about your local farms and food.

Little Qualicum Cheeseworks and Morningstar Farm is such a fun place to visit. Not only are their cheeses amazing, it's such a great learning opportunity to see exactly where our food comes from. It was still drizzling when we arrived but we took cover in the animal pens. Both kids adored the rabbits. You could tell they were used to visitors because they barely batted an eyelash at all the scratching and stroking.

We visited the calves (oh my they were sweet!), donkeys, sheep, ducks and most importantly the cows. The kids got to visit the maternity pens and give those girls some scratches. Then we took a look at the milking pen. No one was in there at the time but A and I checked out the equipment and talked about how it must work when the pen is full of cows. Then we walked over to the cheesemaking window. "1/2 of excitement packed into 8 hours" as we've made our own cheese before we completely understood this sentiment. Of course the way to finish a tour of a cheeseworks factory is to taste the cheese (my favorite part). We couldn't leave without taking some of our favorite cheese home.

As we were leaving F noticed a tractor. He is a boy obsessed with driving. We could hardly convince him to leave. I think he would have liked to sat on that seat until sheer will brought the thing to life. While he was "driving", A spotted a horse. She tells me often that horses are her favorite animal. It was a gentle horse and happily visited with us. Eventually we bid farewell to the farm and got back in the car to continue our journey.