Anyway, in between illnesses, we’ve been enjoying spring. Working in the garden, harvesting lettuce, dandelion leaves and swiss chard, heading to the parks, and just enjoying some warm(ish), windy weather rolling down hills and playing.

We’ve also acquired some new spring friends… On Monday, our little Waldorf-inspired homeschool circle heard a story about worms and then dug for them. Everyone took home a little worm jar to watch. We’ll be releasing them into our garden in a few days.

While we were at the park, we found tadpoles, so they will be our focus for next week’s circle.

I have no patience though and as we picked up the perfect aquarium at the thrift store yesterday, we headed out to the park again today.

I don’t know who’s more excited, me or Eleanore.

We were all feeling mostly better by Eleanore’s birthday last Friday, so we decided to hit the zoo (as did half of metro-Detroit, I’m suspecting… they were PACKED).

It was interesting to say the least… perhaps entry to four year old-dom is very emotional? Eleanore proceeded to scream and cry throughout the entire trip, so we weren’t there for very long. She did manage to scale a huge rock and see a few animals

as well as ride the carousel. Which she refused to get off of, which was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back (Mommy and Daddy’s patience) and we headed home.

We did, of course, have time for cake and presents when we got home, as well as Eleanore’s requested dinner ~ homemade pepperoni and pineapple pizza. (even though Eleanore decided she didn’t like pineapple on her pizza anymore). Being four is complicated.

She did like her homemade baby that I sewed her, which I was thankful of! I haven’t managed to grab a nice picture of it yet though. It looks a little scary to me, but she likes it, so that’s all that matters.

The Easter baskets went over well. Our Easter grass (wheatgrass) survived until Easter this year, unlike last year when we planted it too early, and looked nice in the girls’ baskets.


Adelaide LOVED hunting for eggs. She had been practicing all week with our basket of plastic eggs. She has been bringing each egg to me and then walking them back to the basket.

One last bit of exciting news! Our wooly bear caterpillar has spun his cocoon and will hopefully be emerging as a tiger moth in a few days.

and then made some rainbow prints using shaving cream and paint. Unfortunately, I didn’t snag a picture of the rainbow prints, but did get a few of Eleanore having a little sensory play after she made her print. I think that was the highlight of the art activity

We also did a little rainbow science experiment at home using shaving cream and food coloring to make rainbow rain with shaving cream clouds using this technique.

We’re also growing things all over. We have our grass seed started for our Easter basket in the kitchen window.

I have celery started from leftover stumps on the kitchen counter.

Eleanore started some cosmo flower seeds in a ziploc bag taped to the dining room window (it was also a great little cloud/rain experiment with the condensation that formed).

And I started our first round of seeds under the grow lights in the garage. Still waiting for our big orders to arrive from Territorial Seeds and Miller’s Nursery. We’re growing about the same plants as last year, with added peas (which are already planted and sprouting in the garden). We also ordered two paw paw trees, some rhubarb, asparagus and horseradish, which will all be new to us. Our unseasonably hot weather seems to have come to an end and we had a freeze the other night. Hopefully our in full bloom peach tree still fruits this year. Everything else looks ok, although lots of plants are definitely making their appearance earlier than normal!

Behind the scenes, I’m birthday crafting for Eleanore’s upcoming fourth birthday. Hoping to finish a birthday crown, small doll using this tutorial and a birthday ring piece before next Friday.

Cleaning out the garden beds
Watching Adelaide explore the yard ~ she’s finally walking around a bit more reliably!
Picnicking in the garden.
Letting Eleanore roam free in the yard again. Oh warm weather we missed you!
Chatting with fellow homeschool mamas from a new field trip group we just joined.
Making soulemama’s fantastic leftover oatmeal muffins
Planting peas
Soaking in the sunshine
Flying Eleanore’s new kite
Leaving a huge muddy ring in the bathtub after washing off all that wonderful garden dirt we were covered in.

Using this tutorial from Beneath the Rowan Tree, Eleanore helped me paint a few drawer pull toadstools and peg people. Apparently, we have blue peg people for Spring in our house

We also have another addition to our nature table:

I rescued a wooly bear caterpillar from the basement. We’re hoping it’s almost time for him to turn into a chrysalis and become a tiger moth.

One of my only finished knitting projects from 2012 so far is this Blanket Baby I knit from the Spring Issue of Living Crafts (I have been knitting the same pair of green boring longies for Adelaide for two months…). I love that magazine and would love to link you to the project, but can’t find it anywhere, not even on ravelry.

It is a very basic knit doll/blanket, but I think it turned out cute. I’m trying to figure out if I have the willpower to make Eleanore another baby for her birthday. She’s been asking for another baby since Adelaide received her first baby for her birthday.

The weather has been gorgeous this week, and we were able to take a park day and have some fun outside without our winter coats. Still no regular walking from Adelaide, but she enjoyed cruising the playground equipment for a bit.

Eleanore has been dancing around the house all week. She had her first dance class on Tuesday and loved it, as I knew she would.

A picture of her warming up before her class.

and yes, we had taco bell for dinner on Sunday… don’t judge!

Painting the living room

roller skating (I even donned skates last week!)

Reading books like Elmer and crafting our own patchwork elephants

Playing on our new lounge cushions (I finally got around to sewing Eleanore up her own and both girls love it):

Dressing up our doll in her new tutu:

and making oobleck after reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Breakfasts/Snacks/Lunches/Other:
Chicken Quinoa soup (another super secret recipe)
homemade almond milk
yogurt
granola
raspberry oatmeal bars
double coconut muffins
hummus

It even has a great elastic top that fits right over the blender to make pouring super easy.

To make my almond milk, I soaked 1 cup of almonds overnight in water. I strained them the next morning, dumped them in the vitamix and added 5 cups of water, then blended them for about 1 minute on high speed. Strained them, squeezed the pulp and voila, easy almond milk.

Now what to do with the leftover pulp? I dumped the remaining pulp out on my silpat-lined cookie sheet and baked it at 300 for 30 minutes to dry it out a bit, then dumped on oats, cinnamon, a pinch of salt, sesame seeds, raisins, honey and coconut oil to make granola. I baked it for 45-ish minutes, stirring every 15 or so minutes (a few minutes too long… oops) and then let it cool completely (do not stir the last time you take it out if you like your granola “clumpy”). Perfect for topping my homemade yogurt for an afternoon snack.

Adelaide is toddling around more and more each day.  She’s still not sure of herself and seems to forget that she can, but she’s walked halfway across the room to get to me half a dozen times. She’s a hoot and we can already tell she’s going to be a hilarious little girl. She will grab a tissue and pretend to blow her nose and sings and dances whenever she hears music. She’s also gotten very adept at stacking blocks!

At least one thing is healthy in our home right now. Our green onions are growing wonderfully! I’ve already harvested them a few times and they keep growing back in just days.

We also started some seeds earlier this week in a mini tabletop greenhouse we made from toilet paper tubes and a organic spinach tub. Hopefully we’ll have spinach, kale and swiss chard growing soon.

I’ve been knitting a tiny bit lately, so will hopefully have updates on that soon. I just purged more than three grocery bags full of yarn and rooted through my stash, so inspiration has started to hit. Next up is organizing my fabric stash.