Snow Day!

Yesterday it snowed. Hazel was so excited. She has been asking since October to build a snowman. Of course, just our luck we are healthy enough to go out and play and get enough snow and of course it is a dry snow, but we made due. Above is a picture of part of our back yard. You can see the tracks where I pulled her on her sled.

The night before I made the squirt bottles of colored water for her to paint in the snow. They only worked a bit. Guess I should have invested in better bottles. But she did have fun. She even tried mixing colors because she wanted orange.

Hazel also made her first snow angel. We have been reading lots of books about snow, so wanted to do everything she saw in the books--make tracks in the snow, snowball fight, make a fort, make a snowman, catch snowflakes and make snow angels.

Then she pulled out her shovel (her garden shovel) so she could help Daddy shovel. She was shoveling the grass, but we didn't stop her. She also tried some more painting and color mixing. And made her second snow angel in the front yard--good thing since Daddy shoveled away her first one.

Next Hazel pulled Mommy in the sled. I helped with my hands. We didn't get a picture since Daddy was off shoveling and clearing all the exits to our house to keep us safe. Then I pulled her around the back yard.

I love our back yard. You can see the creek in this picture that goes around the back and side of our back yard. I took the back yard shots this morning, but the snow is still covering everything.

Then Hazel wanted to walk and make tracks. This is another part of our back yard. Then we pulled out some black felt and a magnifying glass to catch snowflakes and check them out. This didn't last too long since our magnifier wasn't strong enough and we were catching too many with how fast it was falling. Sorry I didn't get a good picture of it. Then Hazel wanted to build a snowman. So Daddy shoveled away her snow angel and that part of the driveway and made a big pile for her. Then we pulled out the snowman decorating kit someone gave us for her second birthday and tah dah! We have a snowman--sort of.

Then of course she wanted to build another one. I went inside to look for more decorating supplies and when I came back they had moved everything over to the second one.

I added the gloves and then took a picture. Then we re-dressed the first one.

I asked Hazel to sit with her snowmen, but somehow she ended up laying down. Not sure what happened there. She also has been very concerned that her monkey hat (otherwise known as her George hat since she loves Curious George) is outside. She wanted to be sure it wouldn't blow away. The hat no longer fits her, but she loves it. Guess I better not pack it up for the charity drop off I need to do.

By this time, Steve and I were getting cold so we made Hazel come in for some hot chocolate and lunch. We had grilled cheese sandwiches and soup with our hot chocolate. The perfect lunch for after playing in the snow. Then amazingly she took a nap for us.

Oh, and I have to share these cute mugs I bought ages ago and always kept for a day like this. This is what we had our hot chocolate in. Aren't they adorable? I bought them when I was single (and I have a matching plate) and always thought they would be perfect for hot chocolate after playing in the snow.

On another note, please go check out our Sharing Saturday. I am having trouble keeping up with all the wonderful posts. There are over 130 last time I checked, and it is still open. So go over and get inspired and feel free to share your amazing ideas.

Winter Candles

As they suggest in the Waldorf school, we like to have candles on our table. In the fall we made some tissue paper candle holders with Mod Podge and fall colored tissue paper pieces on old baby food jars. They are perfect for tea light candles. I found some beeswax ones at the Holiday Fair at school.

For the winter I saw some beautiful ones on Pinterest. We finally got around to making them yesterday. I followed the Pinterest posting to here. I bought some Epsom salts at the drug store for less than $2 and had the Mod Podge glue and jars and some food coloring. I also had some votives already in glass leftover from favors for a baby shower I threw. One thing I discovered, the smallest baby food jars are not big enough to get the tea light with its container into. I removed the plastic/metal container and just put the candle in the one we made, but I would suggest not using them for candle holders. Hazel had a blast painting on the glue and I did the rolling. She also had fun mixing the colors.

Now we have candles that remind us of a snow storm. Since we haven't had much snow yet, that is a good thing. Some winters I wouldn't want to be reminded of snow, but this one is ok. Aren't they beautiful lit up?

The other thing I would like to share is our breakfast table today. Apparently many of Hazel's dolls and animals wanted to eat waffles with us. Of course her new doll high chair is not big enough for all of them at the same time, so she had to pull up a chair as well for one Baby.

And Barney is in there too!

Come back tonight or tomorrow for the new Sharing Saturday. There will be some changes announced tonight!!

Nice weather here = time outside!!

Who is at my door?

Today is beautiful out. We got up early and played inside, though we hung a load of wash on the line this morning. Then we ran our errands--vote, library, craft store and dollar store, pet store and grocery store. Then we came home an played outside.I pulled out the box of clothes and clips I got and sewed for Hazel's swingset. Her first response was her normal one..."No, no! I don't want them. They will blow away!" But after I started hanging them she realized they wouldn't blow away and wanted to start help hanging them. She loves her outside house.

Our birthday party

We also played with her sandbox. I bought her a cake pan, a muffin pan and some measuring cups at the Dollar Tree today, so she decided to bake a sand cake and cupcakes and we had a birthday party. We left it set up to have another one for when Daddy gets home. We have moved her sand table into the garage so she will be able to play with it all winter. Our garage is well insulated so it doesn't get too cold in the winter. I think I'm going to make her an oven out of a cardboard box for the garage and outside (in the summer) for her mudpies and sand cakes. We have the box from her car seat saved so I could use it for something, and I think this is my something.

A quick craft to share. On Sunday we worked on some new napkin rings. Here are the ones we made for ourselves. Steve and I spelled out the names/words and helped Hazel get them on in the correct order, but then let her do the other beads. We made other personalized ones for our family and friends for Christmas gifts from Hazel and I also did other Christmas kind of words--joy, hope, faith, Christ, Thank God, etc. I may bring these to our church for the Breakfast with Santa Children's market. Maybe I'll make some nice cloth napkins to go with them.

Finally a few things to check out:

From Joyful Toddlers: Fall Celebrations: Martinmas. Great information about the Martinmas celebration including a story to share. Martinmas is on November 11th, so this Friday. We made a lantern at school and will be making more this week.

From Bending Birches a link to a film on vaccinations. It seems to lean towards not vaccinating but does try to show both sides pretty fairly. It is only being presented free through today, so go check it out. I know I believe in vaccinating, but am always curious about the studies, etc. Of course yesterday one of my friends posted something about parents buying lollipops on-line that were licked by a kid with chicken pox to give their kids. Which I thought was disgusting (and so did the friend). Who knows what other diseases, etc. are on the lollipop.

You've Got Mail

 I am almost finished with Hazel's mailboxes and envelopes. I used an old diaper box for the Post Office Box with lots of blue construction paper. To make the mail door, I cut a flap off and attached it with yarn. I took my engineer husband's advice and attached it to the top so it opens up instead of the way the real ones do. I also searched for the USPS logo on line. Not very easy to get a clean copy of it, but I printed it on clear sticker pages and attached them. So far Hazel has mailed her books.

Side View of Post Office Mailbox

Post Office Mailbox

 From a shoe box, I made her a mailbox. I added her name and our house number. I still need to make a flag for it which I will attach with a brad so it can rotate and I need to attach something to keep the box closed. I am thinking I will use either a button or bead and an elastic. (I will probably do the same thing for the post office box back where I left an opening to get things out.

Hazel's mailbox

Her envelopes

I searched for images of envelope templates. Here are a few I found: A2 envelope, Custom square card envelope,card envelope. Then I added stamp images to them and some with post marks. Here are some: Forever Stamp Liberty bell, Statue of Liberty First Class, Cat in the Hat, Sleeping Beauty. Postmarks: Washington DC, Saugus, MA (our hometown). Then I printed them out on different colored paper. Some of them I used legal size and changed the size of the envelopes. Then I covered the paper with clear contact paper and cut them out. I glued the envelopes together without closing the flap. I still have many more to make her and I also bought some postcards which I will put the contact paper on. Today I bought her a set of 4 overhead pens. If she uses these on the clear contact paper, it washes off. So she can "address" her envelopes however she wants and we can erase it later and re do it. I love the idea! As you can see she does as well since she already drew on all of the envelopes I finished. I made the envelopes so she can put papers in them if she wants. I think this should provide hours of fun for her.

Enjoy!

Time for Mail Update

Hazel and I got back to painting the boxes for her mailboxes. I realized that I think we are going to need to cover them with paper instead because after two coats, the boxes are still showing through. Oh, well. I did pick up some post cards to cover and have looked at some envelope templates. Just need to print them out and try covering them.

I will post more when we do more. Today was really spent with Fluffy. The good news is she seems to really like Hazel.

Help inspire me and tell me what you have been working on. Any new ideas?