A Waldorf Birthday Celebration

 Today we had the pleasure of joining Hazel's class in her birthday celebration. Steve took the day off so he could join us. He and I needed to arrive at 9:45. We spent a few minutes in the hall waiting for the class to be ready and then we joined them for a story written for Hazel about crossing the rainbow bridge and then for snack with the added part of cake and fruit. We brought the fruit. Hazel picked strawberries to bring. It was truly wonderful.

Tonight I made a quick needle felted picture of the story Hazel's teacher told. It started with a star child playing with her star children friends in a beautiful garden. They were playing hide-and-seek and she hid under a large green leaf that was as big as an umbrella. While hiding she noticed for the first time a small hole. The closer she looked the more she saw in the distance and was fascinated with it. She saw a cozy home where a man and woman came out and asked her to stay. She was shy and went back to play with her friends but continued to visit this new place each day. Until she got brave enough to find her angel and ask to go live with this new couple in this new world. The angel was happy for her and took her to see Father Sun who gave her courage. Then they saw Lady Moon who gave her wisdom. Then they went to see the stars who gave her joy. Then her angel put her in a boat to cross the rainbow bridge. Before leaving the star child asked where the angel would be since she would miss him and the angel told her he would always be near watching over her even if she could not see him. Then he covered her with a blanket and she took the ride to cross the rainbow bridge. When she arrived on the other side hands helped her out of her boat and there were the man and woman. The name of the star child was Hazel. 

If you lift the leaf, you can see the star child hiding and the black hole she noticed.

It was so interesting to see the class in action since I hear stories about the children. It was a bit disappointing that three were absent, so the class was very small today (only four children). However, we really enjoyed the snack and the cake. The snack ended up being my lunch since it was vegetable soup and I had two bowls. After the celebration, Steve and I went to Starbucks and then came back to pick her up. What an amazing way to celebrate such an important event. I truly love the Waldorf story of the star children crossing the rainbow bridge and that they customize it to match the child's personality and interests.

Circle of Moms--Please Vote and the Virgin Mary

Source

As you may know this year I really tried to focus with Hazel on the true meaning of Christmas and not all the commercialism.  To see some of the things we did you can check out my post with the Focus on the Nativity Blog Hop here. We also went to a live nativity which I highly recommend. Anyway, with our focus on it and going to church (my favorite time is Advent since I love all the Christmas music and stories), my mind has been on the Virgin Mary. Now I should add that the sermon at church the Sunday before Christmas was about Mary, so it was planted in my head. The sermon was on the true personality of Mary. She is always portrayed as obedient and good, however doing what Gabriel asked was a huge sacrifice and could have caused her death. Plus we tend to overlook that she was an unwed pregnant teenager when we look at her as a role model for our children. However this is not my focus of my thoughts completely tonight.

Happy Family Times

Has your family done anything different and fun this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. Please share it below. Kelly has done a wonderful round-up of her favorite family activities shared!!

This is our last Happy Family Times. Kelly and I both feel we are not able to give this link party enough time anymore even though we love reading what your families have been doing. We hope you will continue to come read our blogs and share at Sharing Saturday.


This week Hazel and I drove to New Hampshire for a birthday party for twins of a friend of mine from graduate school. Steve would have joined us, however he had caught a bad cold and stayed home in bed. They had the party at an indoor play place called Nuthing But Good Times. Look at the crazy play set they have there.

The big slides scared Hazel and so did the crowds of people on the large playset, so she decided to stick to the small one after going on the big slide with one of my friend's babysitters holding her hand. Hazel and I tried the snake tube slide as well, but it also scared her. Personally I was fine with the little one since there were comfortable chairs for me to sit and watch.

Climbing on the small one

Small Slide

After some pizza, play time we were called back into the party room for cake and ice cream.

We had a good time. Hazel mentioned hoping she gets invited again next year.


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

Button Code:

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/HappyFamily-003-1.jpg" /></a>

~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Multicultural Monday--Fairy Tales from Around the World

It has been awhile since I have done a Multicultural Monday. I am so sorry!! This year I thought I would take some time to focus on fairy tales with a bit of their known origins and look at different versions of popular stories from our culture. I was inspired by April over at April's Homemaking since I have so enjoyed her 52 Weeks of Fairy Tales series and another blog that I apparently did not record that had a list of ten versions of Cinderella from around the world. If it is yours or know which one I am talking about please let me know so I can give them credit!!

Virtual Book Club for Kids--January Author is David McPhail

Sharing Saturday is still open to share your child-oriented crafts and activities!! Or come by and visit a few to be inspired!

As you may know I have joined a wonderful group of bloggers to present the Virtual Book Club for Kids where each month we pick an author and all choose a book by this author and come up with an activity or craft to go with the book. Then we post our ideas and open a blog hop where you can join us. The blogs hosting are:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn

One of the  the things I love about this book club is it has introduced me to some great authors that I would not have read otherwise. This month is one of those authors.I had heard of David McPhail, but had not paid any attention to his books. I am not sure why. I guess I looked quickly at a couple and didn't think they were our style. However now that I have investigated them some more and actually read them, I am finding several I really like. I hope you will join us on January 21st for our David McPhail Blog Hop. Make sure you visit all the other hosts so you can see all the great ideas and learn more about David McPhail books!!