Easy Queen Esther Dresses

The easy Esther Dress for little girls.

These dresses couldn't be simpler! I can't believe we hadn't tried them before. The girls have been prancing around in them as much as possible all week, and are anxious to show them off along with our Sweet & Savory Hamantaschen on Sunday. Looking forward to some time outside with friends. 

On Becoming Four & Being Full of Fun

We had a birthday yesterday. Leviah is 4. Un. Believeable. She's been a little short changed with the last two birthdays, for her #2 I was sick as a dog being pregnant with Eliza. For #3 Drew and I left for a little trip to Boston and while we celebrated together a bit, I felt bad we didn't have any real to-do. So, this year we went all out, at least as much as we ever do. There were decorations, games, a theme even. An awesome theme if I'm going to toot--it was a Matryoshka Birthday. They were everywhere. Thank goodness for pinterest and the internet at large. 

The following are pictures.

i made this with freezer paper--such an easy way to make a 'screenprinted' shirt. gonna be doing this a lot more i reckon.  

in this game the kids had to retrieve all the hidden matryoshkas around the yard and then assemble and share the goodies inside. This took place after reading The Littlest Matryoshka, which I had to get Leviah--a great book and with the theme and all...We also hid little tiny printed paper matryoshkas and hid them. There's nothing more entertaining than watching kids scramble around the yard in a great search.

the girls and i made this beauty. sadly, we should have made her with about 4 more layers of paper mache 'cause she fell apart before everyone had a chance to give her a whack. She was falling apart just hanging in the tree...a bit of a bummer, but the candy covered ground seemed to ease the pain. and, making her was really fun. Naomi and Leviah agreed she was way better than the pinatas at the store. 

these are the goody bags, just red lunch sacks stuck with some printed matryoshka art found here. thank you babelisme!

the cupcake set I found at Sur La Table on clearance.

 opening her presents under her matryoshka banner--i made a simple pattern and cut up craft papers.

Here's Leviah opening her gift from me. Drew & I each painted a set of matryoshkas. Mine represent our family, Drew's are more abstract. I got the blank sets from this web store which I was excited is located in Boone, one of our favorite places. And, they had the greatest customer support when I had to call. So, rave review here!

All in all, I think we pulled off a decent birthday bash for Leviah. She's napped like a toddler for 2 days to make up for all the excitement. Big thanks to the Man Upstairs for keeping Sandy at bay until the festivities were over. I hope everyone else is managing that storm alright!

a year gone by

Eliza is already a year old. This is ridiculous. She's walking, signing, exploring, laughing, being stubborn and thriving in every way. She is truly fun and the snuggliest of all three. For no reason she'll lay her head down on your shoulder, or offer hugs just because you're close it's completely irresistible. Not to mention she's blonde and fair with blue eyes. Amazing how different 3 sisters can be. I suppose I should already know that, but I'm learning first hand how to love 3 people in 3 different ways.

a little montage of her through the year.

Today we'll go pick cherries in the mountains, and then on Friday we'll have a little picnic with some friends and family. We'll likely find her one more special nice toy gift, but I made her a gift I'm hoping she'll enjoy. Though it's not what I'd imagined going in, this waldorf style doll really developed in its own way. Using materials I already had on hand was one of the limits I set for myself, and the hair is sort of hilarious to me. Hopefully she'll enjoy. I've got to say, I can see why doll-makers do what they do, though time consuming, it's really neat to watch a personality appear before your eyes.

Eliza may change it eventually, but for now I'm calling it Elinore, 'cause Eliza & Elinore make a pretty sweet pair.

For those of you who want to try doll-making, I will say I thought Martha Stewart's tutorial was really simple and easy to follow. There are things I would do differently next time, but ultimately it's a great bare-bones visual set of instructions.

Paper Chain Crowns

Sometimes the simplest crafts provide the most joy. This is a great thing for me to embrace. Though I always have grand ideas and notions of what we can accomplish in a single day, sometimes the cranky baby that can't seem to be calmed throws us for a loop. Today was one of those days, so we have Hamantaschen half made and some paper crowns to show for it.

this one is very elvish

course, we also made penguins and racoons 

If you're familiar with making paper doll strands, snowflakes, and the like, you should have no trouble picking up some paper and scissors and getting to business. I had lots of ideas to take the craft one more step, like fabric or pretty wrapping paper...but, for today the simplicity of construction paper served us well.

these new costumes are what they'll dress up in tomorrow for our party, scored Naomi's at a local consignment store--it's really cute!

Are Your Candles Rolled?

We took one morning last week to work as a candle factory. (we used this kit)

We are ready to burn-em-up!

on the to-do list (among other daily necessities):

make some cookies like these. (we should be so talented)

tell the story.

keep reciting this poem.

maybe make some of these for 'wrapping'.

clean this house. then, that's ALWAYS on the to-do list...

Holiday Reminiscing

Tonight is the first night of Sukkot (feast of tabernacles). So, amid the rush of getting everything packed and ready to go for a week of camping and fellowship, I'm stopping in to share a few photos of years past.

2004: Went into labor the next day. (this is proof to those who don't believe I gained a ginormous amount of weight when I was pregnant the first time. whew.)

2005: Naomi was born at Sukkot in 2004, so here she is almost 1.

2006: The Sukkah in the backyard. (Naomi 2)

2007: Naomi's 3rd birthday fell on Sukkot, so we partied extra hard.

2008: Sweet Lady blowing a Shofar
(I was due a week after sukkot with Leviah--hence, my midwife kept the feast with us, just in case we'd need to do a 'tent' birth).

2008: Sweet kiddo decorating the Sukkah.

2009: Naomi turned 5 and Leviah was almost 1.

2010: The kids enjoyed a field movie night. This is a new tradition and we're looking forward to this year's show. Drew's mad A/V skills make this all possible.

A Week of Celebration

We are full swing in our craziest time of year.

Yesterday was Rosh Hashanah and we spent the day in the mountains, per our tradition. (We visit the creek there every year in part to perform the ritual of Tashlich that Margaret speaks of here.) It was great, and friends/family joined us this year which made it even more adventurous. The weather, as it has been in years past, was perfect. 70s, cooling off in the evening.

We enjoyed honey cake & round challah, kite flying, hiking, dam building, downtown perusing and a delcious dinner at a new place in Boone (at least new to us). There should be heavy napping today...

On top of all that, tomorrow we are headed to Raleigh so I can go to a friend's bachelorette party--i love a good night out with the girls. Sunday Naomi will be 7. WHAT?! so, we'll be celebrating that with the requested picnic with family and friends. Then, back home and Monday will be a day that goes down in infamy as my 30th birthday. I'll take a slow day for that, the older I get the less I want to do and the more I have to, so a nice day of mosey-ing about would hit the spot.

Anyway, older is better. Recently one of my oldest friend's and I discussed our aging. It's not nearly as dreadful as you think it will be. When you're twenty you think life can't get better, but it does and that's surprising and it's really the best part of my birthday is thinking about how I have SO much of what I want out of life and I'm still relatively youthful. Not that I can't think of other places to go, or more goals to reach, but, to quote Anne Shirley, "I'm pretty nearly perfectly happy."

The fun won't end this week. October is FULL of camping for Sukkot, Leviah's birthday, and the general celebrating of Fall--which is (once again) my fave.

Broccoli Fireworks

Supplies: Paper, tempera paints, and broccoli.

Naomi and I have been doing a lot of paper exploring. Mainly Naomi. It's hot outside, somewhat dreadfully hot & if you can manage to beat the heat it's still hard to ignore the blood sucking mosquitoes that swarm human flesh...so, inside we have paper. Origami, collage, drawing, painting, stamping...we've been doing a little of everything.  

on black or dark paper might be a cool effect--more like the night sky.

The other day we discovered a fun Fourth of July activity--firework paper. While using a few stray pieces of broccoli that were lying around to stamp(doesn't everyone leave broccoli lying around?) we found that holding them upright made a stamp that resembled fireworks! So, we covered white paper with red and blue fireworks & are prepared to use that paper for anything related to the 4th. We'll be in PA for a family reunion--maybe name tags would be sweet? Ideas?

So, next time you DO have broccoli lying around pick it up and make some fireworks!

On Mother's Day

What a terrific day! Naomi was so excited about it going to bed last night she could hardly sleep--nice to know she enjoys pampering me...

She made me a lovely card in which Drew helped her list all the ways she knows I love her. I had to hold back a few tears. The girls gave me presents. The Sound of Music on Blu-Ray (cause while we don't have cable, we do have a pimped out movie watching set-up).

And one amazing necklace they picked up at the Indie Market on Friday. 

Then, Drew worked on painting our hallway because it is out of control with fingerprints and grime. It's a brighter color that should make the trip down the hallway a little cheerier ;)

Plus, we got to meet up with my family for some ice cream in the country to top it all off; the cousins enjoyed each other with chasing and climbing on haystacks on an marvelous night.

Pesach Semeach

I won't go into a lot of detail about our Passover meal this year, it wasn't traditional at all, but it was magnificent! Friends and new experiences and LOTS of learning. I think we all are feeling like we walked away a little more in tune with the original Passover experience, a little more in touch with what it all represents...


Matzo Brei
I think I made this a long time ago, but I don't remember liking it. This time it was good. Pretty much just soggy broken matzo pieces dipped in a egg/milk/cinamon/vanilla mixture and cooked like a pancake. So, Passover french toast...it was delicious.

Our first real Nature Table
I designated this table a while back, but it was filled with seedlings and a grow light until last week. This morning the girls and I added everything you see here. We blew out some eggs, added our hens that represent our actual hens outside (I purchased those a few years ago from here), added select books commemorating the season, crafted birds and baby Moses'.

A simple baby Moses in a walnut shell floating down the silky Nile...before its waters were turned to blood--of course.

the Renewal of Every Spring & our winner!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the little garden giveaway! Sonja said...
I just found your blog this morning and love it. I look forward to reading more in the future.

Thanks Sonja! I hope you do continue to visit! & make sure I get your address so we can ship off your little garden!

In other news, we've been spending our time this week getting ready for Passover. It's a big holiday for us, and the build up is half the fun! Over the past month we've been careful about the things we bring into the house from the grocery store because in a few days we're purging all the leavened items from our home to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread..

While planning is important to avoid throwing out loads of leavened items, the actual act of cleaning our house in a way that removes every last crumb, or shred of 'chametz' is such a physical way of representing a spiritual state. We clean it up, throw it out ,and wipe our hands of it; it represents a renewal of spirit and a cleansing like no other. It's such a story of salvation. Leaven represents sin, and the idea that leaven is permissible throughout the year with this one chance at true purging just reiterates the expectations of the Creator. To know us so well--and how like leaven our sinful nature permeates our lives; Passover gives us this opportunity to purge and really represents the grace we all depend on, the opportunity we are offered to just throw that away and start fresh. Sure, the leaven will return, but in the upcoming week we will focus on life without leaven--life free of the crumbs in the corner or hidden stashes in the back of the freezer, which we always find at some point during the week we live without it, more great imagery...


Anyway, it's a special time of year for most right now, even if it's just spring cleaning. This change of season resonates renewal and I welcome that! Are you feeling a renewal coming?

Needle Felted Queen Esther Crowns and the Beautiful Day.

It's traditional to dress like Queen Esther, or one of the characters from the story, so we had to finish up our crowns...

I cut a simple pattern out of paper (folding in half again, then using a straight edge to draw the 'peaks')

then, I cut some simple 'jewels' out of felt & put Naomi to work. 

We attached a band of elastic with my sewing machine and they were ready to go! Simple enough...

I've already warned Naomi that the other plastic/ridiculous crowns we have kicking around are going. We're slowly weeding out the junky play clothes in favor of sturdier and more modest ones. The older Naomi gets, the less I like her flouncing around in some of those extremely skimpy ones!

Here are a few pictures of our all our Queen Esthers, Hamantaschen, and an around beautiful day. (There were some handmade dresses (note the gold) that were extremely adorable--I should have taken the opportunity to create something for our dress-up chest that could be reused...maybe next year!)

Listening to the story of Esther and shaking noise makers (groggers) to boo the name of Haman.

Everyone in the group brought Hamantaschen for our bake-off. There was pumpkin, chocolate, cherry, strawberry, and chocolate 'bump'. All were good in their own way, but I'm going to claim pumpkin as the best filling and Mr. Watkin's cookie as the best cookie.

there were no complains from Leviah. 

and filling paper hamantaschens with candy is another special treat! We did this last year, and while I forgot, Naomi didn't. So, before we left for the park she reminded me to bring all the supplies! I guess that's how traditions really get started...