egg hunt!

Audrey and Reuben at last year's hunt

Hi, lovers-of-spring! (isn't that everyone?)

I'm hosting a co-op egg hunt this year, and would love to have you bring your little ones if you're available.

This is how it will work: bring one dozen filled eggs (candy or small prizes) for each child that will be searching. Since this plan is automatically self-adjusting, we will thus be perfectly prepared for whatever size group we are celebrating with. Which means you are free to both ignore this invitation and/or invite others. It won't really affect my preparation (although I always do like a nice RSVP so as to manage my expectations).

My yard? Not so big. I do have the good fortune, however, of living a block from James Burd Elementary School, and think that the little wooded area (and surrounding field as necessary) between the elementary and intermediate schools will be perfect for a hunt. I'm going to mark off an area specifically for the 3-and-under crowd, too.

The plan: meet at the playground on the first day of our spring break: Friday morning, April 22nd*. Egg hiding will begin promptly at 11:00, and egg hunting at 11:15*. We can do an organic some-herd-kids-around-playground-while-others-hide sort of thing. Last year we just had the "big girls" hide the eggs, but they took forever so I think more hiders = excellent this year.

Let's all bring food to share. Then make the kids eat "something else" after the hunt before they gorge on chocolate. You can be healthy-ish if you want and we'll call it lunch. I do hear Holly is bringing donuts, though, and I always like to make carrot sugar cookies for Easter... There are a couple of tables at the playground, but I recommend a picnic blanket or two as well. I'll have napkins & cups.

Easter dresses = cute pictures, so I'll make my kids wear theirs. Unless they complain, in which case I don't think this is a battle worth waging. You can wear whatever you want, of course, but we can play fancy and that would be fun for those of us who like that stuff. Hats, maybe?

In case of rain: no hunt. Do your own in your living room & we'll try again next year :).

*timing: we're out of town Saturday/Sunday & I'm bringing my mom to the airport on Thursday afternoon. So Friday's good for us! (And will hopefully catch a few of you before vacation, too. If you're already OUTTA HERE! by then, well, I hope it's delightful. We'll miss you but wish you well). I think morning is good for an activity, but late morning will be warmer (we hope...).

Best,
Valerie

PS: After skipping it the last couple of years, I am psyched for pysanky again this year, sometime during the week before, when my mom is here. Interested? Let me know...

owl papercraft (and wee giveaway!)

**I wrote this post (including the disclaimer just below) over a month ago. It's _so_last_season_ now, but I'm going to go ahead and post it anyway, and the Reuben's-birthday-from-afar giveaway is still good, too, even a month late. One week for entries; drawing on the 14th!)**

(Nathan cleaned up our computer last week to help it run faster and accidentally deleted something that makes my photo editing software work. Photos when I figure that out or switch to something else--Picasa?. Decision and work pending; I need my beauty sleep.*) *kind of a joke but we're having family photos tomorrow and I look old just now.

Last week was full of Fall Festival; this week is full of Halloween and another one of those Philadelphia trips (regular follow-up visits for my medical kids). I realized yesterday that my October buffer was OVER and a week from tomorrow is baby boy's second birthday.

We're so excited he made it this far (cancer, begone!). So delighted to have him with us (love child!). His toddler-ness is exhausting me, but I'm living out the cliche and fully panicked that he's growing up and leaving that behind. I'm currently on a mad search for a plain green hoodie, so dropping in on lots of baby boy clothing zones and those infant sleepers and soft little knits are pulling at my heart strings.

We're having a celebratory birthday open house, owl-themed, and today was the papercrafting day. I pretend not to like all the expensive scrapbook-related paper gadgets, but went crazy with Becci's cuttlebug for most of the day

First, owlish invitations: I have a giant roll of brown kraft paper, and trimmed sheets to run through my printer and then crank through the cuttlebug. It was good fun for both Reuben and I.I succumbed to the temptation of the embossing power and made a fat pile of little gift tags for Christmas. They are lovely and it was fun and it took a lot of time. Sorry, birthday party. Sorry, laundry.I was also very excited to carve a little owl stamp. With Marian's guidance, I worked on owl sketches while we waited in various doctor offices on Monday (a Philadelphia follow-up day), and chose the most cheerful one. I've carved a few stamps before (here, and more recently), and while it's not a major talent of mine, it's a satisfying and versatile little project that I recommend. A very pretty tutorial here.

sketches
transferring the design (place a pencil drawing face down on the eraser block surface and pencil-rub the back)
carve, then...
sample stamping!
mounted on disk (the reverse, stamped size is SO CUTE, but unphotographed. Too bad for you). These little owl thank you notes will be in 3x4" bags, ready to hold our party craft: acorn owls, of course!. I wrote a little "thank you!" inside in brown ink to match the owl, with a block R in his favorite green on the back. I designed them so they work as thanks-for-coming notes from us, but can still later be re-used/personalized/passed on by the recipient.Happy birthday to Reuben! As a celebratory gesture, I'd like to give away a wee owl set:
* 6 wee owl thank you notes
* 2 wee wooden disks, stamped in brown ink with my cheery owl
* 1 acorn owl

It's kind of awesome.

Comment below with a why-Reuben-is-amazing sort of sentence or two and I'll randomly choose a winner. If I don't already have it, leave me an e-mail address so I can contact the winner.

country carnival

We had the privilege of helping at the country carnival birthday party last week of two of our best fairy friends. (see that great macrame necklace Audrey is wearing? It was made by her great-grandmother not just in a fit of 60s nostalgia, but in the actual 60s. I love it.)It was wonderful.I made a couple more fairy block puzzles for gifts, and the project was just as satisfying as the last time I made them (find my original tutorial here). They're not only pretty but good fun to play with, infinitely adaptable, and a more challenging puzzle for the recipient than they seem at first glance.

tomorrow!

Preparations are underway. The store-bought portion of "Marian's favorite snacks": potato chips and ketchup. Marshmallows. Sugar cereal. Crackers (not, but I thought it was needed to go with the beloved cheese). Jelly bellys. And, the latest obsession: dark chocolate. Fancy dark chocolate--she prefers 70% cacao. It's pretty awesome.
We decided on two white cell pinatas, for different ages, because our treat pile was bigger than our available balloon size and the shopping just had to end. Marian loves papier mache; Audrey flatly refuses to participate in anything so "yucky".

And the shirts! Ah!
81 still shining shirts arrived yesterday and today Reuben and I sorted them. By color instead of style and size this time. For obvious reasons. See the super-awesome rainbow here. And this series' super-special secret here. You're going to be so sad if you weren't in on this ;).

I couldn't decide which gratuitous baby shot to use, so included both, of course!
Which is your favorite?
(the last one does have the dangling baby drool going for it...ay! you should see his poor bulging baby gums up top!)

happy birthday, Marian

When Marian survived the summer before she turned two, her pulmonologist looked at me very seriously during our just-pre-birthday appointment and said, "You better be having an awfully big party this year."

Here's celebrating SEVEN!!!
Your birth was beautiful, one of life's great events, but your life and joy multiply ours daily.
I love you, little darling.