On this late Winter day...

This morning, Sienna and I set up our late winter nature table on our new to us heart bookshelf. We will be using this little bookshelf for homeschool, too. The first shelf and the top will be for our nature table and the bottom three shelves for homeschool/crafting supplies.

On our seasonal display, we included the Winter book by Gerda Muller. We love these books! They are filled with beautiful illustrations depicting the seasons without words. Inside we put up a Winter postcard and a few rocks from her collection.

Today, we also decided to start on some of our Valentine's Day crafts. We needed a new wreath for the door, since we put away the green Christmas one. So, I cut out a wreath from cardboard and a bunch of hearts in different sizes. Sienna designed and glued the wreath the way she wanted. It was just a simple paper project to get us started on some of the upcoming ones we have planned for next month. 

Happy late Winter! 

It will be fun to see how our nature table evolves over the seasons.

Love Notes

Sienna loves to create and she is quite the little artist! I love to find her work around our apartment. This one was left for me on the kitchen wall.

Here it is close up. Our little family is a fairy family. Each fairy is wearing their favorite color. Daddy = green, Mama = purple, Sienna = pink, Forest = blue

Sienna guesses Forest's favorite color will be blue.  

Her artwork is always so detailed. I will share some of my favorites on another day. I just love her little notes she makes for me! I am one lucky Mama.

Butterflies & Mantras

Since the start of the new year, I've been thinking of a mantra that would define my coming year and the direction I see myself going. After much contemplation, I've decided my mantra will simply be the word transform. I've also chosen the butterfly as my animal spirit guide, or maybe it's chosen me? I'm not going to go into too many details about my mantra just yet. But, I will share them with you as they unfold.

A Brownie for Breakfast

Yes, please!

My mama taught me this habit a long time ago...

Now, I love my sweets in the morning with coffee.

I baked up a batch of these yesterday afternoon while my wee ones both napped. What a lovely smell to wake up to ... homemade brownies! 

In Our Kitchen

One of the ways David and I work well together is he likes to cook and I like to bake. Lately, he has been working on perfecting his chow mein. Our little family loves Chinese food and it is so much better homemade! I like knowing what's in our food and that it is made using organic veggies.   

This was my dinner last night. Perfect!

For dessert, Sienna and I baked a homemade blueberry pie. It was quite simple to make. Just a little sugar, flour, nutmeg and organic blueberries for the pie filling. We designed the top using cookie cutters. Next time, we'll remember to cover the sides with foil, so the crust doesn't get so dark. (Sienna doesn't like dark crust!)

We still haven't had any snow. Can you tell that we are hoping for just a wee bit?

We want to make snowman and snow angels. Hopefully soon!

Long Beautiful Hair!

Yes, I was quoting from the "Hair" song in the blog title.

About a month ago, I went and had my very long hair chopped off. I decided I wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love and I wanted something a little easier to manage with my new wee one. (Mostly, I was tired of constantly having my hair pulled!) I chose a cute, layered hair style. Yet, my hair just doesn't feel like me if that makes sense. I've been growing my hair long most of my life. I've had a few short hairstyles, the shortest being a bob when I was struggling to "conform" to a certain image that I perceived was the way for an elementary school teacher to look. That was back during my first year as a teacher. Since then I've kept my hair long and only have had three haircuts in the last 7 years or so. Now, I am once again growing out my hair. 

This time ... just for fun, I'm keeping track of how much it grows each month and having David take a photo of my hair for me. I plan to keep the blog updated on this!

 My hair on January 1, 2013 ... beginning to grow it out!

Here are a few of my favorite hair photos over the last five years ::

June 2012

January 2011

September 2010

 November 2009

March 2008

November 2007

Someday, I plan to be a little old lady with very long gray or white hair. This probably won't be too far off, since my hair is suddenly turning awfully quickly in the front.

In other unrelated hair news while drawing a mermaid the other day, Sienna exclaimed that she plans to grow her hair very long until she goes to the sea. I just love the things she tells me. 

Now, I must go and finish making my blueberry pie. Photos tomorrow!

Lately...

You may wonder what we do during the day at our "Acorn to Oak" homeschool. 

Lately, the little ones and Mama have been creating, making silly faces, working on sitting up and of course, baking lots.

We are working on falling back into a rhythm after the holidays. But, for now we are enjoying our moments together.

Sienna at her little table, creating.  

Little Forest 

Silly faces 

Mama and Forest 

 

Kissy face

Sitting up a wee bit longer each time. 

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffin bliss

The Best Show Ever!

This morning, when I heard on the news that it might snow today I dug out my first season of my most favorite and beloved t.v. show, Northern Exposure. If you've followed my blog from the beginning than you already know that I am a self-described Northern Exposure junkie. I remember when I first started watching the series back in college. It played during the wee hours of the night on the Hallmark channel. I would stay up all night just to watch it. While teaching, I decided to buy the series. I didn't have cable back then and it was always on in the background when I came home in the evenings. Yes, I LOVE the show that much!  

So, this morning as I sip my coffee, nurse Forest for his second morning nap (he takes short naps) and listen to Sienna create beautiful artwork (more on that another day), I enjoy my morning with an episode of Northern Exposure.

Image courtesy of Amazon

Maybe this summer I'll finally make it to the Moosefest in Roslyn!

Six Month Stats

Yesterday, Sienna and I took little Forest to his sixth month well baby checkup. He is growing so quickly and changing all the time. He suddenly is very unsatisfied with all of his own toys and wants whatever Mama or his big sis have. He also has a new fear of strangers, which was very apparent when the nurse tried to weigh him. All of these things are to be expected, of course. On the bright side, he has met all of his milestones! His pediatrician was quite impressed with his being able to crawl already. He is still working on sitting up and almost has that mastered, too. 

Our sweet, Forest baby.

His "official" sixth month stats ::

Weight ... 17 lbs. 9.5 oz. (50th percentile)

Height ... 27 inches (64th percentile)

He is just about 2 lbs. more than Sienna when she was six months! It makes sense though, since he was also 2 lbs. more at birth. 

First Food!

On Saturday evening, Forest tried his very first food! Mama mashed up some banana for him and he tried it on my finger first and then from one of Sienna's baby spoons. 

Checking with Mama to see if it is okay.

Eating from a spoon!

The verdict: he liked it.

Happy Christmas!

So, this post is a little late, but I thought we'd share how our little family spent our Christmas holiday this year. This year, David's parents, his sister and her husband and my mom joined us. 

Christmas Eve was quiet and cozy with our tradition of homemade pizzas. Nana baked a cheesecake for dessert and then we let Sienna and Forest each open one gift before bedtime. Sienna helped Forest, of course. 

On Christmas morning, we all opened gifts together and then spent the afternoon at the beach house David's parents were staying at. Grandma and Jenn made dinner and dessert.  

Sienna on Christmas Eve ... 

With her jammies on, ready for Santa to come. 

In this year's Christmas jammies. 

To Santa ...

... From Santa

Our traditional animal tree. 

A little owl ... 

... and a little Forest.

It was a sweet and special first Christmas for little Forest. I am looking forward to many more special times with my little ones and establishing our own little family traditions for the littles to anticipate each year.