Fun with Birds

What's more fun than making birds? Playing with birds...

Talking to birds

Sliding with birds

Kissing birds

Teaching birds to fly.

Crafty Birds - Making a Nest of Birds

The girls made this nest of birds over 2 days - the birds one day and then the nest the next. They spent the next week teaching the birds to fly!

Materials for the birds: balloons, feathers, felt, tissue paper, glitter, Elmer's glue and markers.

Cut tissue paper into little squares. Using Elmer's glue and paint brushes, stick the tissue paper on the balloon.

Sprinkle glitter over the balloon (we didn't add any extra glue - the balloon was sticky enough!)

Glue feathers to the balloon.

Cut big circles out and draw an eye. Cut out large diamond shape for the beak (our original beak and eyes were way too small). Shiney paper works better than felt for the beak.

Glue the eyes and beak on the bird.

Tweet, tweet!

Now for the nest...

Materials: Cheerios box, tissue paper, crinkle paper, and Elmer's glue.

Cut the Cheerios box down to 3-4 inches deep. Put the box on the tissue paper and glue the tissue paper onto the box.

Cut 'sticks' out of the leftover box and stick onto the nest. (We only stuck the sticks to the front).

Form a comfy bed with the crinkle paper.

Add birds!

The Art of Making Butter

The girls churning butter at their Waldorf play group.

Little Girls in their Summer Dresses

We shared a peaceful afternoon in Leiper's Fork. Lots of garden time, birthday celebrations, and fun with friends.

Birthday Cupcakes are Famous!

Something exciting happened yesterday - the girls' birthday cupcake craft was featured on a children's craft collective website, The Crafty Crow. And I got a cool button to add to my blog. Yea us!

Drawing Cars

I recently bought Crayon Rocks and they have become a favorite in our family. The crayons are made from soy, have happy colors and are perfect for little hands and Daddy.

A New Project is Brewing...

The girls and I love going to our local material shop. It just seems full of possibilities. On this trip we were choosing material for bean bags and skirts. Stay tuned to see how our projects turn out!

Handmade with Love

More Mother's Day fun. Everyone knows that I like celebrations to last a good week. Here in blog land I'm trying to do the same.

The girls made me lovely cards, pictures and a hand print t-shirt. Thank you Nola, Kira, Daddy and Alex for your hard work. I love it that my t-shirt says Mum and that the girls were able make something so useful! I know I will treasure it forever. Long after I have worn out my shirt I'll still look at it with a tear in my eye!

How Far We've Come...

I had a perfectly lovely Mother’s Day with hand made presents, pictures and cards. We went to a nearby park for a picnic – my very favorite thing to do.

On my first Mother’s Day, we bought sandwiches and took the girls to the park for a picnic. We hadn’t planned to do this – with 6 month old twins we were still living hour by hour. It was a beautiful day and it was one of the first times either Eric or I had relaxed since the girls were born.

This year we went to the same park with our basket full of home made treats. As I was eating quiche and watching the girls run around, I thought about that day two years ago and how very far we have come. It is such an honor to be these girls’ Mummy.

Nola

Kira

Nola :: Kira

Yummy picnic treats

Nola and Daddy go for a run

My first Mother's Day

Kira

Nola

Mothers

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum. I wished I lived 400 miles closer. You have taught me all I know about being a mum.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mother-In-Law. You raised a brilliant and wonderful son. You have taught me how very loved my children are.

And to a mother who is no longer with us. When I was pregnant, Eric and I asked Grandma Barth for any parenting advise she had. Grandma thought about it for a long time and finally said, "just don't name them anything wierd." Hope she liked the names - I think she did!

The Hungry Caterpillar

We went to the park to feed the ducks, but fed the caterpillars instead.

Kira :: Nola

Kooky Faces

Kooky faces for dinner!

Crafty Birds - Making Birthday Cupcakes

For a friend’s birthday, the girls made cupcakes out of playdough. In my mind, I lovingly produced beautiful colors of home made playdough. In reality, I bought the commercial stuff at Target the night before.

I gave the girls paper treat wrappers and they put the first blob of playdough in as the cake. Using a rolling pin, the girls made icing. We used real sprinkles and finished the cakes off with cherries. Yum!

And yes, Kira was wearing a Santa hat in May.

Gardeners

One gorgeous afternoon last week, the girls and I planted bulbs. 70 gladioli to be precise. Even if none of the bulbs bloom, I will treasure the perfect afternoon we had playing and planting in the mud.

Kira was very focused with digging her holes, carefully peeling the bulbs outer layers (just as she does grapes), and worked up quite a sweat.

Nola twirled in her skirt, posed with rubber gloves, sprinkled a little dirt and managed to plant a few glads.

Kira

digging

planting

waiting

Nola

playing

posing

planting