Mending

I haven't been doing a great deal of sewing lately, except Kees' No. 5 Dragon Hoodie in his birthday post. What I have been trying to catch up with, in occasional bursts, is some mending.

It was pretty satisfying to find I had some leftover robot fabric to make a bag for Robot Snap! Kees enthusiastically tore open the box along with the wrapping paper.

Did you know that yoyos/Suffolk puffs make excellent patches for mending blankets? I happily raided my mother-in-law's stash...

And on the same sweet note, doilies can also be put to good use. This one was a perfect covering when Jimmy burnt a big hole in the couch with a hairdryer. Errr, just noticed how grubby our couch is! I keep fantasising about white couches, but I'd be a fool to get some.

Of course the mending basket still overfloweth, but with Spring in the air, it's time to start some fun and exciting dress sewing!

Happy 5th Birthday, Kees!

There are lots of things that you can do
Now that you're turning five,
Like somersaults on the trampoline
And picking up insects alive!
You can ride your scooter
And really zoom along
And you've been practising really hard
To whistle a little song.

Your favourite foods are spaghetti
And cake and pancake stacks,
But one of your favourite things of all
Is eating at Hungry Jacks.

So since you really love your bike
And you can ride it so well,
We thought that we would get you
A special hamburger bell!

(Birthday Poem by Grandma)

We love you, Kees. Have a wonderful year being FIVE!

Extra Pics

Hey Sharon, I just wanted to add a couple more pics from the other day. I love K and K getting the heck out of our way! And how cute are these two little friends. Beautiful. xx

Feeling Poorly

We've been feeling sick. Two bouts of gastro in two weeks - yuk. I never realised how many disgusting things you get when you have kids: school sores, headlice, ringworm, weird warty things, diarrhoea, vomiting, infected bits...it's gross!

We've been spending many days like this. Immobilised. Thank goodness we all got sick at the same time, because that way we could all just lie or sit and do nothing. (Apart from cleaning up the kids' poo. Which, I might add, is quite a task if you already felt like vomiting.) It's a bad situation when you're sick and your kids are full of beans. Bad, bad.

So when Jimmy started picking up, it was time to call in the troops: Grandpa!
Grandpa was worth his weight in gold, playing with Jimmy all day, and in the afternoon, when Kees and I emerged, Grandpa kept everyone enthralled with some good old-fashioned fire play!

Thanks heaps, Dad. I really appreciated it! Maybe I'll be sick again next Friday....

Winter Solstice

I just wanted to share a few images from our Winter Solstice party at Jane's. It was such a great night. Thank you so much, J, K, E, M-D and M, for your hospitality. The boys and I had a lovely morning creating our watercolour paper lanterns above, thinking and talking about the party, looking forward to it.

It was fun creating this lantern pathway with the girls....
Each little child will

Bring one light

Till all the world is

Warm and bright

A highlight was definitely Keith lighting the bonfire with his flaming arrow!!

Good friends, good food, mulled wine and a big fire...

What more could you want? xx

Good Friends, and Homeschooling

Some of you have been asking how our homeschooling has been going. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond; my head is a mess with uncertainty and indecision! There is so much that I love about home education, and every time I read a book about it, I feel inspired - indeed compelled - to carry on! What my main desire has been this year, is to secure a local community - maybe just one or two other families - who would like to join us in a homeschooling activity. It might just be Art one morning, or Science one afternoon, not much. But something. I feel that in order to sustain homeschooling, we need a bit of company, but I have found this difficult. There are lots of people out there homeschooling, but it can be hard to find the right combination of "clicking" and location. We do see friends almost every day but it's those days when all the other kids are at school and it's just the boys and me, that I find challenging sometimes. It's nice to do things in a group. So, I will continue with my quest, but in the meantime: thank goodness for our steadfast homeschooling buddies, the O'Gradys!!! We just love our Thursday mornings with you! These mornings encapsulate what I love about home education:

Fun, fun, fun!

Joy!

Breathless laughter and wonderful, easy company. Being able to choose kind friends for my children to play with

Dirt and bare feet and wet trousers

The beauty of nature

Secret cubbies, uninterrupted, heartwarming creative play, preserving childhood innocence for just a little bit longer

Enjoying the glorious weather

Learning from nature, observing at a peaceful pace

Healthy active bodies

Pottering, feeling, creating

Time for brothers to form a close, loving bond

For bigger ones to lead and care for little ones

To take risks at your own pace, to make your own decisions about what feels right

Simply sitting, relaxing, resting and taking it all in

Following your own path, the freedom to be who you truly are and can be

Being fully present in the lives of my children, spending these golden years together, witnessing those many precious moments

Learning about and respecting local creatures and habitats, loving the Earth

All ages playing together, working out their own solutions

O'Gradys, we are truly grateful for your company. I guess we'll just keep on sailing where the wind takes us! xxx

Fairy Treasure Pouches

Our current home schooling theme is "Fairies, Dragons and Magic", so the other day we did felting, with some treasure pouches in mind. It was my first time felting with the children; we used the bubble-wrap method and it was very easy. We all enjoyed playing with the rich and beautiful colours... for a little while anyway, until the boys took off to ride their bikes down the neighbour's driveway.

When the felt was dry, I spent a couple of evenings sewing it into fairy treasure pouches. This was a nice task! I would have liked the kids to help with the sewing, but it was just a little bit too tricky. (Or else I'm a little bit too anal.)
The felt we created was a bit fragile in places, so I used bought felt for the lining, to give support. Things need to be hardy around here!

When the pouches were finished, I put them at each child's place at the table, for them to find in the morning.

When I came down, Jimmy happily called out, "Mama, I got gloves!"

In the garden that night, before bed, we put out some tiny drops of jam, milk and sugar on a dish for the fairies, and laid our treasure pouches nearby to show the fairies...hint, hint...
You wouldn't believe it, but in the morning we found to our excitement that the fairies had come! There was a sprinkling of fairy dust ...
some tiny lollies...
and a beautiful crystal treasure for each boy. Thank you fairies!