Merry Christmas

Happy Solstice

Tonight we honored the passing of a beautiful tree that grew strong and sheltered many a bird in our front yard. We lit candles. We lit the hearth. Peace and happy solstice.

Our December Activities

This is our first year staying home for the holidays in, ever. We are pretty excited to see what Seattle has to offer for folks with little ones this time of year. And are looking forward to creating some of our own traditions that resonate with this little family.

A couple of activities we would love to share with you. We enjoyed a hay ride around Seward Park this past weekend that was coordinated by the Seattle Audobon Center in Seward Park. The Park is only a few blocks from our house and truely a treasure, one of the many reasons we are so smitten with our little place in the world. I had dreams of a hay ride pulled by horses around the lower trail, alas it was a city parks dept vehicle towing a large trailer full of hay, but was so much fun! We arrived at the park to find that there was also a girls running event, Girls on the Run a totally cool girl power-full event. Everyone running around with the bib number "1." Very awesome! It meant the hay ride was a little delayed, so we checked out the Audobon Center, one of Pera and Tobias' favorite haunts. During the week they have a lovely reading hour about particular animals that live in the park and then they hike out and try and spy said wildlife. Right up Pera's alley. They also have a great library and a resident tortoise wandering around named Lumpy. This morning they had set up ornament making in the large room downstairs, hot cocoa and hand warmers for the trip around the park.

After making some of our first ornaments together, we loaded into the trailer with an Audobon naturalist or two and got a very sweet little tour around the park. Binoculars were handed out and we even got to cross the finish line of the race!!

When we returned to the Center we had a little play time in the library all Pera could say was, "I want to do that again!!!" No better review than that.

One other event we totally loved this year was going to the Nordic Heritage Museum and making our own gingerbread house. Loved it! Dad did the rock wall, Pera made the gummy fish walls and Pera and Mama did the gum drop roof, with plenty of tastes had by all of the architects throughout the process.

A couple of trolls followed us home!

We are so looking forward to seeing this year's display of Gingerbread houses downtown. We might even check out the chocolate buffet at the Four Seasons downtown.. Oh that may be just too much decadence.. Maybe we will see YOU there!

P.S. Trying out this new camera app on iphone, ShakeItPhoto by Nick Campbell and loving it. It takes polaroids. After the click of the camera  the little polaroid comes down all grey and smudgey you shake the polaroid until it develops into a sweet brightly colored picture, with out all the chemicals. Got to love it! And great with toddlers too who love to shake it til the photo shows up! Alas the closeups of photos are not as clear as they are on the ole point and shoot so may be back to documenting with a regular camera soon.

Greens of November

Thank you Scott! My gardener friend who is finally getting my garden to grow! In the mist of winter we have salad. So exciting! I am a winter gardener. And its so easy, all the liquid sunshine you could possibly want.

Rain is the word

Oddly this finely feels like a Seattle winter. We have flowers but the air has definetly gotten crisper and I am busily working on a sweater for P in an attempt to keep her just a little snugglier during this chilly and windy time. All the while she is busy creating the world around her..

Little Fall Love for Grandma

We have been collecting various leaves. Some have ended up in the wonderful leaf press my dad made me a few years back for various fall projects and some have made a little loveliness around the house. But by far the most enjoyable project has involved freshly gathered leaves and lots of tempura paint. This is a spoiler!!! As we are bringing to Grandma's house for a centerpiece to decorate for the Thanksgiving festivities. For now we are enjoying it at our house. There is definitely enough love to spread around. Happy Fall!!

Little Nests

What fun we had today. Digging worms and putting the garden boxes to bed with fig leaves. Thoses worms never had such a nice bed to play in! Tobias and I have been taking parenting classes for the past several weeks. And looking at new ways to see our selves as we grow and learn with Pera. I am trying to let a little bit of my neat freak go. Trying to get closer to Pera in play, in laughter and in tears. Its a work in progress, but so worth it.

Weekend in the sun

The Beach: Hermit crabs, climbing, sun and sand

We woke up Sunday morning and were lounging in a bed dripping with sunlight. Its October right? So we all agreed it was time to catch a ferry and go to the beach! I have lived in Seattle how long and have never been to Vashon Island, a 20 minute ferry ride away. It was time for swift corrective action (nothing happens swiftly around here but after 15+ years in Seattle we were ready to take the trip)! We made the ferry, hopped on shore and after a few twists and turns wound up in the sweet village of Vashon proper. We had a decadent breakfast at the Hardware store and then found ourselves at the local farmers market.

We thought we would hit a local pumpkin patch on our way to the beach but found ourselves at a local pumpkin carving contest with the Vashon Youth Council (VYC). Look for all entries on their website at the bottom of the left hand side. They graciously let us take our pumpkin home rather than displaying it in the town through Halloween. Thank you! Our first family carving.

After high jacking our pumpkin entry we headed to KVI beach. This is a private beach owned by a broadcasting company to house one of their broadcasting towers. That aside it is sweet, sandy, warm with wildlife galore and dog friendly. Very fun. Pera asked where we would be staying on the beach over night and then when found out we would not be camping was certain we could just stay anyways and sleep in the car.. We will be back.

A little pullover to keep a girl warm

Pera is a girl of many wonderful opinions. One of the current opinions is no coats! We just went from having naked time all day every day to sock and hat weather. So with that in mind I decided to make her a little sweater with a pocket friend to entice her. The yarn is bamboo. I love the soft feel of it. Pera loves the rabbit friend. Hopefully we will get a few good wears in it before the really cold weather hits. (So you don't think this is all she would wear, it is an additional layer to go over pants and a shirt like a smock). The sweater pattern came from Lucinda Guy's, And So To Bed. The pocket friend is from Knitted Animals by Anne -dorthe Grigaff, which I got out of the library. It is going to have to go on my long list of books we just need to have in this house. In fact thinking this year for Christmas Pera will get books, books, books. There are so many great ones out there and with the change in the weather we are spending many a rainy morning in bed reading. Joyous! Happy knitting!

Sweater in Action

Here is a sweater I made some time ago for my niece Mairin. It was so nice to flip computer on today and see this creation in action, smile. I have many more posts to come. Blogger is giving me some grief. But there will be more... Oh yes, much more

September Daze

Well hello there! Long time no see blog land. I have been doing a multitude of things and ignoring my cathardic experience of documentation for way too long. It seemed like we were in the throws of sssuuuummmeeerrr until a week ago and then "the sky opened up and RAIN was the word!"~ Priscilla and the Splish Splash Surprise.

And now I will return to you and do some catch up photo posting and what not of the events of the past TWO months!

Here are some photos of what we did one week in September. We are firmly into climbing things and rocks at the Farmer's Market Park in Columbia City are a great destination. We also went and saw Reptile Man one rainy Saturday morning and met this little guy. I am not one of those parents who lets her child socialize with large snapping reptiles. And this one is smiling to boot. Never trust they say.. She did pee all over her handler, excuse me I live with a 3 year old so it can not be left unstated. Finally that same rainy morning we headed over to Gas Works Park and climbed the hill for some good puddle fun. Dad got a bit wet too.

More soon! Oh yes and there are crafts to share. xo

Pace aka Peace

I have been thinking a lot lately about when I was a kiddo and summer was that ocean of time that spanned on for ever. Days did not have delineated hours that ticked by rather they all ran one day into the next (especially in Alaska during the summer - night time was the short window between dusk and dawn that one might catch a few winks or play on until day again, smile).

We need to look at ways of incorporating that into our day to day! Take walks, naps, paint, play and just sit under a tree and watch the day unfold. Or I will need to immigrate to a country with a siesta and a slower pace of life (which is not a half bad idea).

For now I take pleasure in the day to day as much as possible and remind myself through my daughter's eyes to live in the moment.. Tomorrow will come too quickly.

Time Flies and flies

Oh what a summer!

Summer may not be my blogging forte. We have had 3+ birthdays, 1 anniversary, a week and in some case 2 weeks vacation, lots of crafts, projects and face it its summer! Who wants to be on a computer? (My love/hate relationship with technoloty rears its ugly head). What follows is a montage to some of our summer moments.

Month of Birthdays and crowns