Favorite Toy...

We did a huge toy purge in December. It was 3 Goodwill trips... we are by no means well off, we are in fact firmly in the low income bracket. Nonetheless American households seem to breed "stuff" and ours is no exception.

The kids never played with most of it and we had 9 yrs of baby toys alone laying around.

It shouldn't come as surprise that once all the shelves were cleared, Valentine's and Blue Eyes favorite toy is a basket of pine cones and a stick the big kids collected.

It helped me toss all those fancy toy catalogs I had been pining over.

Little boys and little bulls grow up...

Poor Monkey Man, his favorite book fell apart, the one we have read almost daily for over 4 yrs.
From the first time he heard it he has been struck by it, almost to the point of tears.
Once at 4 he looked at me with wide eyes and whispered "Mommy...I'm Ferdinand!"
He came to me with loose pages and tears on his cheeks. "Can we keep the pictures?"
So he choose 2 favorites and framed them, they hang where he can see them lying in bed.



Monkey has always taken his time, does things in his own unique way not being bothered by what others think boys should be like. His favorite words include meander and stroll and wander. We have pictures of him just sitting and smelling the flowers at every age.

As we hung his pictures up on his wall he asked if we could change his name on the computer to Ferdinand.




So to my sweet Ferdinand, I hope you always have the time to smell the flowers.

Blue Eyes turns 3!

Where crystal flowers grow...

A blah day in Coffeeland we were all in need of inspiration.

Just as I was reading this post by Jenn at
Our Little Nature Nest the door bell rings and Grandma Katie had sent us a b-day box for blue eyes which contained a little bag of geodes in addition to b-day presents. Hoody hoo!
We learned a new song and found a hammer.






Don't forget your safety glasses!

Saint Brigid's Cross...

Go check out this wonderful link for a great tute on making Brigid's Crosses.

We make these every year and have made Christmas ornament versions in the past out of ribbon.

I am working on a Wee Saint Brigid for this year

( I have been only promising dd for 4 years now :)

and shush don't tell, Auntie Sabrina is giving her an Icon for her names day!

The Brigid's cross in our icon corner is one Grampy brought back from a family reunion in Co. Sligo, repaired many times and held together by rubber bands.

btw... we love all of Jane's books!

New project...

Blue Eyes is turning 3! I thought i would try something completely new and felt her a play mat and make 3 little ponies. It is such a fun medium though i forgot to give the ponies ears.

Hungry Penguins...

Blue Eyes hands have been way too busy... so I made up a few trays to pull out when I need a few spare moments.

Saint Seraphim

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Our last Saint for our winter Saints and Heros block was Saint Seraphim.
We will start another S and H block come spring.