It has been a little crazy around here lately. We have been managing to carve out some family time amidst the busy-ness, and these are some pictures of a lovely spontaneous craft session Ari initiated- making Halloween decorations for our home. Our walls and windows are covered with some seriously cute monsters (still his favorite subject!), witches, bats and skeletons. 
::skeletons::
::black cat on a broomstick::
::bat::
This is a monster (I'm not sure if he has really long teeth or if his feet are coming out of his mouth, or if his eyes are somehow connected to his pointy teeth, but really, anything goes with monsters, right?) and Ari traced over my lettering with such focused concentration. This is by far the longest art making/craft project he has ever had. He just kept going back for more- after a morning of monster making he spent most of the afternoon drawing and cutting and taping, and then declared the evening "family monster night" and we all sat at the table after supper and made monsters together. I love this kid.
There was also a midday bath-paint session. I make this by putting diluted castile soap through a foam soap dispenser and mixing it with food colour. The boys spent a good hour painting the walls and themselves, cleaning the walls and themselves and then playing with some animal toys in the greenish-blue water and soap "icebergs" Did I mention it has been rainy and miserable out? We have to keep busy somehow!
The craziness I mentioned is related to some changes up here on our community land. One of the families we bought with 8 years ago have decided to sell their section and move into town. Given the fact that we are all owners of the property, this has been a little complicated, involving meetings and meetings and more meetings, though all very amiable ones, thankfully. But all the trips to banks and lawyers and e-mails and phone calls and legal documents and late-night-after-the-kids-are-in-bed property meetings has meant a very busy month.
::skeletons::::black cat on a broomstick::::bat::This is a monster (I'm not sure if he has really long teeth or if his feet are coming out of his mouth, or if his eyes are somehow connected to his pointy teeth, but really, anything goes with monsters, right?) and Ari traced over my lettering with such focused concentration. This is by far the longest art making/craft project he has ever had. He just kept going back for more- after a morning of monster making he spent most of the afternoon drawing and cutting and taping, and then declared the evening "family monster night" and we all sat at the table after supper and made monsters together. I love this kid.There was also a midday bath-paint session. I make this by putting diluted castile soap through a foam soap dispenser and mixing it with food colour. The boys spent a good hour painting the walls and themselves, cleaning the walls and themselves and then playing with some animal toys in the greenish-blue water and soap "icebergs" Did I mention it has been rainy and miserable out? We have to keep busy somehow! The craziness I mentioned is related to some changes up here on our community land. One of the families we bought with 8 years ago have decided to sell their section and move into town. Given the fact that we are all owners of the property, this has been a little complicated, involving meetings and meetings and more meetings, though all very amiable ones, thankfully. But all the trips to banks and lawyers and e-mails and phone calls and legal documents and late-night-after-the-kids-are-in-bed property meetings has meant a very busy month. But everyone is pleased with the process and the new directions we are headed, so we are grateful, and glad it it almost done!
And I am sitting here at 10:00 at night with a two-year-old who will not sleep. He is happy enough- opening our homeopathic kit and pretending to give the remedies to "somun (someone) sick" and packing it back up to bring with him on his choo-choo train trip. Though he doesn't seem the slightest bit tired, I am feeling pretty exhausted, so I'll be packing up this little homeopathic doctor of mine and heading to bed now. Goodnight!
And me, I've been knitting. These are some mittens I knit for Dorian's birthday. I am in love with the single row stripes, something about them just makes me happy. I think I need to knit myself something stripey- wrist warmers maybe, or knee socks...
I've finished some other projects lately, I'll round them up sometime soon.
Just posting a few more weekend shots. Water and mud, berries and books, puppies to pet, playdough to play and good food to eat= happy kids!
::birthday table for a two-year-old:: 
This weekend was spent celebrating this beautiful little boy of ours, and there will be more celebrating to come on his real birthday this week. Oh sweet sunshine, how can you be two already? We love you so.
It has been beautifully autumnish these past few days. Though I must admit, these photos are from last week. This week, despite some lovely weather, I have been inside a lot. With the boys off on adventures with their grandparents every morning, I've been bustling about cleaning and sorting and organizing our little home. People talk about spring cleaning, but fall cleaning is where it's at as far as I'm concerned. There are many long indoor winter days ahead of us, and I feel much more able to welcome them when I can put my home in order a little first. Though I am getting rather tired of sorting papers and shuffling storage bins around. I think I will be out soaking up this golden autumn sun for the rest of the weekend.
