Mama Squirrel

Sirna's Farm Fall Festival

 A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine shared this article on Facebook.  As soon as a saw the giant corn box, I knew if we only made it to one fall festival this year, this would be it.  Since this is the peak weekend for fall foliage in these parts, the 45 minute drive out to the farm melted away as we admired the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows that lit up the forests along the highway.  

For seven dollars (three for me and two for each of the littles) we were able to play to our hearts' content.  We started our adventure by checking out the animals.  While Little Tiger was enamored with the humming alpaca, I could tell that The Milk Belly Princess was freaked out so we moved on to a hay ride.  Both girls marveled over the giant muddy tractor tires and squealed with glee as we rode around the farm.  A hay ride is a highlight of any fall festival.  How could anyone ever top that? Our hay ride was almost over when I saw it: 

This contraption just might get my vote for coolest form of transportation EVER.  Six 55 gallon drums were repurposed into seats (with little benches and safety belts) and connected to form this sweet little train.  Here's a close up of the girls getting ready to take their ride.  Notice Little Tiger's look of joy and how The Milk Belly Princess'  brow is furrowed with apprehension:

I truly wish I was in a position to give whoever invented this an award for innovation in repurposing. This train was constructed so as it moved forward each car gently bounced up and down.  It was interesting enough for older kids, but safe enough for little ones.  (The Milk Belly Princess' brow was smooth when she was returned to me at the end of the ride.)

Next, it was time for the corn box.  Once inside, Little Tiger eagerly reported that she was standing knee deep in feed corn and her feet were still not touching the ground.  While The Milk Belly Princess was happy to dig with the wide array of shovels available, Little Tiger made several corn angels.

The girls had so much fun in the corn box I wasn't sure I would be able to drag them out, but they wanted to try the corn maze.  Here they are as we were just getting started.  The Milk Belly Princess was concerned I was too far behind.

Today was the last day for Sirna's Fall Festival, but if you're looking for some unique fall fun you should definitely check it out next October.

Giving Thanks

I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving break.  Ever since the last parent/teacher conference night (where I was the teacher--the ones where I'm a parent are easy) I've felt like I really haven't been operating at 100% and I've been looking forward to a few days off to relax and re-energize before the holiday whirlwind leading up to Christmas.  

I was feeling especially drained on Tuesday afternoon.  As the school day drew to a close, I found myself thinking the thoughts that my mind drifts to when I'm especially exhausted/overhwelmed/cold/hungry (I'll spare you the grouchy details--even I find them tedious).  I bolted out the door to start my Thanksgiving vacation as soon as my contracted day was over.  I drove home through a rainstorm and reunited with The Mister and my girls.  We then proceeded to have a lovely evening with my good friend Laura, her husband Jassen and her niece The Amazing Miss P at a local pizza place.  While the little girls watched our pizzas being made, the adults toasted the upcoming holiday weekend, laughed and chatted.

Wednesday morning I awoke to The Milk Belly Princess crawling into bed with me.  I tried to fall back asleep, but I kept waking up to the intermittent ringing of the phone.  When I couldn't stand it anymore, I went downstairs (yes, I'm one of those people who can stand to have the phone AN ENTIRE FLOOR away from me) to see that I had a voicemail message.  It was a friend from work, a  lady  I eat lunch with and really like, but have never had the chance to meet with socially outside of school.  Her message was of the vague "give me a call when you get this" variety, the kind that any adult over the age of thirty knows to foreshadow some kind of bad news.  

In my naive mind, I assumed the news would be of the "sad and bad but not directly related to me" variety.  I called her back expecting to hear about the illness or death of a co-worker's parent, someone I'd never met who lived a few time zones away.  As she told me the reason for her call, my blood went cold.  A colleague and mutual friend of ours was involved in a terrible car accident on his way home from work on Tuesday.  If you really want to, you can read about the accident  here, but suffice to say, a 79 year old man made a grave error in judgement and ended up crashing head-on into his car causing serious injuries that necessitated an emergency helicopter ride to the nearest level one trauma center.

I cancelled the girls' craft night I had planned and Laura and I attended this vigil where the minister who addressed the crowd of over 500 told us we needed to pray for a miracle.  So we did, and have every day since.  It's still too early to tell the full extent of Jim's injuries, but everyone who knows him is hopeful that somehow he will be able to make a full recovery.  If you're reading this, please keep Jim, his wife and two children (ages 10 and 7) in your prayers.

Standing on the football field at the vigil , I had some time to think.   I thought about how much I take for granted.  I thought about all of the arguments and petty injustices that I blow out of proportion on a daily basis.  I thought about how most of what I complain about is pretty ridiculous, how in my world an insuffcient lunch (because I was too lazy to go to the grocery store the night before) and a mouthy kid (mine or someone else's) constitute "a bad day."  I thought about how I want to savor all that I have so that I can appreciate it NOW, not when it is taken away from me.  

After the vigil, Laura dropped me off at my house and  I went to pick up my girls at my parents' house.  I was greeted by a teary-eyed Little Tiger telling me that her "ear hurts more than its ever hurted before."  Normally, this would have made my tired self grouchy.  I would have felt like I, not she, was the victim as I either sent her off to bed with some children's Motrin or grudgingly took her with me to the ER.  But I couldn't complain.  If my biggest problem of the evening was a little girl with an earache, then I was pretty lucky.  As we sat in the ER waiting to be seen, I rocked Little Tiger, and thanked God that we weren't there for something more serious.

The next day was Thanksgiving.  We spent the better part of it as a family.  The Mister, Little Tiger, The Milk Belly Princess and I went for a walk and explored the woods close to our house.  The Milk Belly Princess was very excited to show off a "secret bridge" she discovered on a recent exploring trip with The Mister and was very proud that she could walk across it all by herself.

Little Tiger, feeling more like herself after a good night's sleep and some medicine, was happy to turn the woods into her own personal gymnasium with the help of her daddy.

As much as I knew that The Mister would have preferred this to be a "camera free" adventure, I just had to snap a couple of pictures so I can look back on this day one, five and ten years from now and remember how, at this moment, my family was perfect.  

Turkey Dolls!

The Milk Belly Princess spent the better part of the weekend telling me that she wanted to sew a turkey doll.  Little Tiger agreed that this would be fun. Here is a step-by-step account of our latest crafting adventure.

I began by taping pieces of muslin to our art table with painter's tape.  I then had each girl hold still as I traced around her hand with a pencil.

Next it was time to color the turkeys with crayons.

After both girls finished coloring their turkeys, I ironed them to set the color.

If you try this at home, be sure to place a piece of plain white paper between your iron and the turkey so when the iron melts the crayon wax it doesn't get all over your iron.  

Next, I asked the girls to choose the felt they wanted for the backs of their turkeys.  Since Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess are young (5 and 3), I cut the felt backing into the turkey shapes because I thought that cutting around the feathers would be difficult for them.

The turkey fronts and backs were pinned together and it was finally time to start sewing.  The girls used large tapestry needles and embroidery floss.  Once Little Tiger has her needle threaded and the end of her thread knotted, she can sew independently until she runs out of thread or needs help with a tangle.  This was the first time The Milk Belly Princess sewed anything other than drawer liner (you can read more about that in this post from Filth Wizardry) which has a wide weave, so I sat with her and helped her work.  

When she was ready to stuff, she was very proud of herself.

Stuffing proved to be a little bit tricky, but we did it with the help of a chopstick.  Here are the girls with their completed projects:

I really enjoy sewing with my girls.  I hope that they always enjoy crafting with Mama as much as they do now.  I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloweenery

Over the summer, in the midst of not buying toys for Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, I assumed I would make their Halloween costumes.  Then school began, the first quarter whizzed by and mid-October was upon us.  I was feeling really bad about not doing a better job of planning time to make costumes for the girls.  Especially after Little Tiger participated in her first horse show two weeks ago and decided that she wanted to be a horse for Halloween.  How in the world was I going to make that from scratch in two weeks on top of everything else that was going on? Then I read this post by Amber Strocel and felt so much better.  She's right, sometimes my idealistic beliefs of how I think things should be need to take a backseat to a child's pure joy and enthusiasm.  

I didn't even have to plunk down $19.99 on a new costume.  The local children's consignment store had the perfect costume for Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess re-discovered the kitty costume she wore two years ago (and that I wore about 32 years ago).  Here they are on the big night:

 

And here's a side view of Little Tiger's horse costume so you can get the full effect.  I think she's galloping here.

I hope you had a wonderful Halloween and are beginning to get excited about the magic of the winter season that will soon be upon us.

Spooky Pooches

This afternoon we made our first trip to the Spooky Pooch Parade.  Now in its fourth year, this annual gathering claims to be "the biggest pooch parade from coast to coast."  I'm not sure how many contenders there are for this title but, nevertheless, it sounds impressive.  I've been curious about it since it began, but this is the first year that the parade step-off time of two o'clock hasn't conflicted with someone's nap schedule.  My wonderful  friend Laura not only let us park at her house, but she, along with her niece The Amazing Miss P, also made us homemade kettle corn to snack on while we waited for the parade to begin.    After a bit of a delay (shutting down part of the busiest street in the city proved to be quite a challenge) the parade began.  With a reported 371 entrants, it was much bigger than I thought it would be.  The girls loved it.  Here are some highlights.  

 

On the walk back to Laura's house, Little Tiger and Miss P found a stunning natural phenomenon trying to make its way safely in the blustery October weather.   While I was surprised to see  a walking leaf so  late in the season, I was pleased to see that the girls were as, if not more, awed by this fragile creature as they were by the pooches in their Halloween costumes.  

The Fall

 Little Tiger's kindergarten teacher has a saying, "There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes."  I love that she tells the kids this.  I want my daughters to embrace nature in ALL of its forms, but I'm still having trouble with that myself.

We have been blessed with some beautiful fall days, more than one of which was devoted to apple picking here.  I love that the apples are close enough to the ground that little arms can reach most of them.    One of the best parts about any fruit picking adventure is that no one ever complains about being hungry because snacks are abundant and ready for the taking.
Although I aspire to be as brave in the face of cold, wet weather as Little Tiger's teacher, I'm not there yet.  Cold weather has driven us indoors more than once this season.  Sometimes when this happens the girls look to me for entertainment.  I've found that some of the simplest things give them the most joy.  The Milk Belly Princess was captivated by this activity for much longer than I thought she would be.  She pushed chenille stems (they used to be called "pipe cleaners," remember?) through the holes in this colander, turned it over, picked them all out and began again several times.  She said she was mailing letters.

Both girls have developed big imaginations and try to invent new ways of making indoor play more exciting.  They've been  working for several days on this tightrope.  I 'm unable to convince them that, no matter how many times they rebuild, it is still going to touch the floor the minute they step on it.  Notice the yellow mallet from the Fisher Price doctor's kit just to the left of The Milk Belly Princess' knee.  She uses it as a hammer.   I think the Beanie Babies are her test subjects to see if the tightrope is stable.  

Chalkin' It Up

With the beginning of the school year, I've now entered the season of good, (but unfulfilled) intentions.  This is the time of year when I set goals for myself that seem reasonable after two cups of coffee at 6:00 AM and are laughable twelve hours later.  Although I desperately want to visit this space with the frequency I sustained during the summer months, I'm finding it difficult to do so.

My annual back to school cold caught up to me this week and forced me to slow down.  On Saturday, when I was starting to feel like myself again, I was up for having fun with friends, but in a low-key way.  The Chalk Festival at The Cleveland Museum of Art fit the bill.

The Chalk Festival is a family-friendly fundraiser for the museum.  Professional chalk artists create large masterpieces, but anyone can make a small donation to the museum, receive a box of chalk and be assigned  a concrete square in The Fine Arts Garden to use as a canvas.    

We arrived and got started.

 

Our friend The Amazing Miss A had plans for a castle.  With her mama's help, it turned out to be a true work of art, complete with a friendly dragon and a garden of beautiful pink flowers.
Although we were there on the first day of the two day festival, some work was already completed when we arrived.  This little equestrian was sitting right next to our square.  

 

It inspired Little Tiger to create a horse of her own.

Here is Little Tiger with her finished picture.  After drawing the horse, she decided it was hungry, so she gave it a snack.

Not to be outdone, The Milk Belly Princess set to work on her own creation.  She really enjoyed using the sponges to smudge.

Chalking and smudging resulted in VERY dirty hands.  While taller people found a nearby fountain a good place to rinse off, navigating the slippery marble and fountain mist proved difficult for The Milk Belly Princess.

When we needed a break from chalking, we walked around to see what everyone else was making.  Here are a couple of my favorites.  I think this first one was a recreation of an illustration from a children's book, but I'm not sure which one.

Then this cat/Pop Tart/rainbow composition struck me as sweet and absurd at the same time.  I hope this came out of someone's imagination.  I will be sad if I find out later that CatTart is some sort of syndicated cartoon character a la Spongebob and I'm just old and out of it.

Apple Tree Preview

My camera was gone for the better part of last week while The Mister and Little Tiger were visiting Aunt Kate in "New Hamster" as Little Tiger likes to call it.  They had a wonderful time and I really enjoyed the pictures and films that they brought back (especially the one of Little Tiger reacting to the take-off of her very first flight).  However, without my trusty camera, I was not able to make any progress on the Apple Tree Tutorial that I want to share with you.  I'm really excited about this, so here's a sneak peek of our latest Costello family collaborative craft project:  

I'll provide more details and pictures in a subsequent post, but here are the basics.  Everyone draws a face onto a small, apple-shaped piece of paper.  I transfer each design to some scrap muslin, embroider over it, sew on a felt back and voila!  

A Happy Halloween Was Had By All

Mama has not been the only crafty one around here.  Little Tiger is responsible for creating my new favorite fall decoration:  Isn't this the sweetest, friendliest Jack O'Lantern you've ever seen?  She painted it at a friend's birthday party in early October and it has been proudly displayed in our entryway ever since.  Last year for Christmas, Little Tiger painted  1x 1 inch canvases.  I hot glued pins to the back of them and we gave them away as brooches.  Given Little Tiger's painting style in December of last year, they were a little, oh, shall we say abstract?  With her new penchant for painting faces I would like to try something similar, but not identical for Christmas this year.  Any ideas?

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Halloween.  Little Tiger was FINALLY able to go trick-or-treating in the costume she has been planning since March.  For The Milk Belly Princesses first two Halloweens I made sure that her costume thematically related to  her sister's.  Here they are in 2008:
And 2009:  This year, I hadn't really planned on paired theme costumes for the girls, but their own costume choices made it work out that way.  Here they are this past Sunday for Halloween 2010:
A bumblebee and a flower.  A kitty and a goldfish.  Dorothy and the Wicked Witch.  I just this minute realized that over three years of Halloween costumes the same child has been the aggressor every single time.  Coincidence?  Hmmm....

Back From the Germy Depths

Wow, it's been awhile.  I hope that all of you are well.  Since my last post, Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess have both succumbed to and recovered from two different bugs.  There's nothing like the sinking feeling that comes with hearing a strange cough in the middle of the night followed by a toddler's cry of "I throwed up!"

Luckily, before the girls got sick I'd crafted ahead for some upcoming events (one more mouse and two Halloween kitties).  I also have quite a few partially finished projects in the works.  

It has been hard to stay inside and craft with how amazing the recent weather has been.  We've been trying to enjoy as much of this mild fall weather as possible by partaking of some of our favorite outdoor activities.  Not only has Little Tiger enjoyed riding her bike, she's now riding on only TWO WHEELS!  No more training wheels!  The Milk Belly Princess is still  little too small for a bike (truth be told, she's inherited her mother's Corgi-like legs and can't quite reach the pedals of her tricycle). Instead, she has aspired to some outdoor artistic endeavors:
She's responsible for the swirly circle.  A very sweet neighbor girl drew the chalk rendering of The Milk Belly Princess.