ice cream van

Imagination is such a wonderful thing. If it is given a little time, a little space some amazing games emerge. At a car boot sale last week I found a really lovely 1950's ice cream scoop, I treated myself to it and all of my family have fallen in love with it. Yesterday I found that Benny had borrowed it for a really great game that lasted for ages and that we all ended up playing along with. 

With the sun out and shining bringhtly I was so glad when the ice cream van arrived in our garden.

It had three workers. Joa was the driver,

Benny was in charge of the ice cream and Rebe the decorations.

The squares of the quilts became the different flavours of ice cream

and Benny found that Lambie's head was the perfect size to be a 'scoop' and the rest of his body could be held like a cone.

We had amazing concoctions; strawberry, nuts, chocolate, mint, blue surf, mish mash, sqeedlepop...

 Once the ice cream was on, the cone was handed over for the sprinkles, nuts, sauce and a flake...

 I must've eaten my body weight in ice cream yesterday!

 Luckily it was only pretend or my hips wouldn't have thanked me ;-)

a wee catch up

Hello! Wave! Here I am again. First off thanks for all of your emails and messages wondering if we're OK. We're fine, just absent from this space for a combination of reasons both good and bad. Bad: our big computer broke :-( It's in the repair shop but luckily my sweet sister in law passed on this wee tiny notebook to us which I am using at the moment. I'm not great at technology and have been avoiding the challenge of getting to know the machine. Also bad is that Andy's mum has been very ill and this has been occupying our thoughts a lot. Good: My best, best friend and her gorgeous family were here visiting and we cleared the decks to just be with them and enjoy their company which we did. I also didn't lift my camera so these pictures are bits and pieces I found that I had taken over the last few weeks:

 lots of drawing together

 planting and growing

 Benny really embraces this job, this is his pumpkin complete with label

 catching a glimpse of how special baby wearing is (and knowing how much I'll miss it when this time is over)

 cutting the grass with many helpers

 our dear dear friend 'Sir Francis'

 more baby wearing

 I did manage to sneak in a little bit of doll-making. This snuggle buddy a custom order for a wee first birthday

 busy writing in the nature book

and rainbow knitting! Oh I can never get enough of rainbow knitting. This is a sweater for Rebe. She is very hard to dress, being very particular about shape and texture and feel of her clothes. So I let her choose the yarn (by gently directing her to my favourite shelf in the yarn shop lol) and she told me the shape and features that she wanted. I am really enjoying knitting it, and so far I have done front and back and half a sleeve. It's a nice change from tiny doll clothes...and she better ****** wear it! ;-)

Hope you are all well too :-)

Plein-eire

Last Sunday Benny and I went for a walk in the woods. He very proudly picked up a whole bucket of litter and we were just heading home to deposit it in the bin when we came across a group of artists just arriving and setting up their equipment to paint. 

When we got home we told Rebe about them and she wanted to visit them straight away to see what they were doing. So I took her down and she ran off chatting to everyone and looking at them work. 

We had a lovely conversation with a couple of the artists who told us more about their group. They meet monthly at a different location in the south west of Ireland. They have a coffee and set up, spend the day painting and then end the day in the local pub. We were so taken by them and they with us that they invited us to go home and get our paints and join them...and this we did...

 I realised that the kids hadn't done any painting outside away from home. It was really lovely and they actually painted for quite a while (rather than the 3 nano-seconds they usually take before declaring themselves finished and walking off leaving me to clear up the mess).

 It was also interesting because I also realised that the kids have never drawn or painted anything that is 'in front of them'. Usually they paint from imagination or just swirl the colours around. Benny even painted a butter-nut cup (as he calls them) in his painting before getting a bit carried away...

 Rebe's woods in the sunset

 Rebe then abandoned her paint brush to find her own things to paint with like this stick...

 as I could only find 2 paintbrushes in the whole house (?!?! what happened to them all...they've gone with the pens!) I couldn't join in the painting so I brought my knitting instead.

 It was such a beautiful experience and I am so grateful to the plein-eire group for welcoming my children into their fold and encouraging them so gently and kindly (and not minding when they robbed their last 2 cakes).

If you would like to see more pictures of the day you can see the group's video of the experience here (we start appearing about 4.40 mins into it, but it's so beautiful do watch the whole thing).

waldorf toy exchange

This year I really wanted to give the boys a farm for their birthdays in June. I know I am pretty crafty but my skills simply don't extend to woodwork. I started looking around for a simple, very beautiful, strong and handmade barn, animals and tractors for them. I looked at all of the online toy shops, but there was nothing that really struck me.

 I looked at Etsy and found no farms listed in Ireland, but I did find this awesome crafter and only in the next county. I messaged him through Etsy and asked if I could commission a farm from him. He was so lovely and said yes and asked for more details.

 I could even send him some pictures of what I had in mind. In one of our messages he mentioned that he had a little daughter, so I took a deep breath and asked if he would consider an exchange. I would make his family a custom order Waldorf doll in exchange for his beautiful farm...and I was so delighted because he said yes!!

 I set to work and made this wee doll. She is very sweet and I hope she brings Rossario's family much joy and pleasure.

 And in exchange he sent our family this...

 It is so beyond perfect!!

 The really beautiful barn, the edges all rounded and soft and so gorgeous to look at and it's so strong!

 He made these amazing tractors from one piece of wood, the farmer slides in and out and the wheels turn and are going to drive miles across carpeted fields.

 He also popped in 2 sheep, a ewe and a ram. Oh I am in love!

 Needless to say I have already asked him to make us some more animals for our gorgeous farm. I love his style and I love his manner.

If you are ever in need of a toy then do visit Ventry Toys. Made in Ireland, with so much skill and an awful lot of love...
Now do you think I'll be able to wait until June to give them to the boys?

***In September 2011 6 families got together and started Buddies Home School. Each week we meet in each other's home and follow a simple rhythm: movement and music, craft/ baking, snack time, free play and story time. Each part of the session is led by a different family. We are sharing this week's session with you here...***

We started our session with some simple finger songs and rhymes, repeating things that the kids knew well and enjoy like 'Two Little Dickie Birds', 'Incy Wincy Spider', 'Humpty Dumpty' etc

 Then we moved outside to plant nasturtium seeds in the pots that we painted last week

 We filled the pots with potting compost,

popped in four seeds each and pushed them into the earth with pudgy little fingers

 added some water,

 placed them on a safe place in the garden,

 and sprinkled them with a little fairy magic

 We spent the rest of the session out of doors, having our snack,

 having adventures,

 playing and relaxing.

 Greg even read our story outside which was very sweet and enjoyed by all :-)

We're eagerly waiting for our seeds to sprout and hoping the sun will stay!