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. 

4 down, 4 to go.

We're smack dab in the middle of Hanukkah right now. And, as Naomi pointed out last night as we lit the candles--the days go too fast. I suppose that's what happens when you fill them to the brim with fun little activities.

balloon man at the downtown lighting of the Menorah 

felting balls 

So far the crafts have included making dreidels out of clay. Trying our hand at German paper stars. Felting balls in hanukkah-ish colors. Coloring printed out coloring books. Making Sugar Cookies and today decorating them. Tonight latkes, hopefully sufganiot (donuts), assembling our felt balls into a garland of some kind, and a few more are on the list for the week.

If we run out of ideas there's always pinterest, and the ideas we've used in years past. 8 days can seem a little daunting, but when you get to it it turns out there's always more fun things to do. And with everyone around doing special crafty things for whatever holiday they celebrate, there's a plethora of ways to alter and rework to make them appropriate for the Festival of Lights. 

spinning 

melt-in-your-mouth shortbread

Short-Shortbread recipe:

1 1/2 cups butter at room temperature.

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups flour

preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar. Add in flour and mix well. If it doesn't come together in a roll-out-able fashion add 1/2tsp of ice water at a time until it does. Usually no more than 1tsp is needed. Roll about 1/4inch thick and cut with the cutters of your choice. Or stamp and cut. Bake about 15 minutes, they don't need to brown too much.

Chag Semeach Hanukkah!

Butterflying

We had a great field trip to the local butterfly farm. It was a wonderful homeschooling adventure, lots of learning and exploring. The information part was nearly as good as the learning, plus we picnicked and enjoyed field games. We highly recommend it!

before we went we made this pretty butterfly craft.

ours turned out great!

Gingerbread Temples and Beeswax Crayons

Naomi loves to make gingerbread houses, and this year it occurred to me that we could really make it part of our Hanukkah celebration by modifying a kit to make a Temple with some Macabbean soldiers. It was pretty fun to play with candy, and a great way to deplete a stockpile of candy we never let our kids eat anyway...

Then, last night everyone opened a gift. Leviah chose her new set of 24 Beeswax crayons and the two girls played all morning coloring pages we got from the Hanukkah storytime a the library last night, and this cute coloring book we bought last year from this sweet shop, and reprinted. It should keep them busy for a while! Naomi has been kind of interested in robots lately, so it worked out well. She was talking in a robot voice all morning.

oh. and this happened...hint.

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Hope everyone enjoys seconds, pie, and loosened belts.

these are some of our holiday decorations. Felted acorns and paper Pilgrims and Native Americans from the Toymaker.

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!

Nomes Gnomes. Handmade Bead People

 We bought some polymer clay and I had a plan to make beads. I've never done it before and it was probably wrong of me to assume it'd be as easy as I'd thought. Well, it wasn't hard, but as with most crafts, it led us in its own direction...

First we rolled out our four colors in relatively equal strands, smooshed them and rolled the big roll out to be round.

We started out making cut/sliced beads, but we got a little bored and so we started rolling the slices to make rounder beads, snakey ones, twirly, twisty, etc.

Then, Naomi rolled one and she determined it to be a gnome. Well, that started us on a gnome making frenzy...and, how could we not. Gnomes are cute enough, but when they're tiny gnomes?!

They've been baked and now we've got several .5inch Gnome men and women. 

We used them to make necklaces this morning.

One for Leviah

One for Naomi

and one for Mama.

A simple project that can be worn! (the additional beads were from a Haba bracelet from a thrift store that's been stretched out and laying around for some time...waste not, want not! toadstools and clovers fit the gnome theme perfectly)

don't forget to scroll down just a bit and comment for a chance to win some sweet garden goodness before you go! 

The Dreamers...

We switched out our coffee filter snowflakes, inspired by Dawn, to rainbow coffee filters. The kids love this little bit of magic--drawing first with markers and then watching the colors spread when spritzed with water. The same method we used to make this butterfly mobile. I think they would have gone on for hours.

Rainbows remind us of a promise:

¹³ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Genesis 9:13-16 

I can see our rainbow study leading us straight into a more thorough study of Noah's Ark. I look forward to taking advantage of free resources like Jan Brett's to cover this theme.

The Lovers...

This activity helped really solidify the order of rainbow colors. I just cut 6 (as finding indigo colored paper is tricky) pieces of construction paper in descending size, starting with purple. Naomi had to glue them together so you could see each one. We wrote the names of the colors after, and can use this as a little reference 'book' later. Simple learning at its best!

Simple Sewing and Rhythm of the Home

Today marks the release of the Rhythm of the Home Spring edition! Great news for those looking for inspiration.

Again, I'm pleased to say I got to participate! To go along with the Sewing Box--inspired by Naomi, of course, I thought I'd post an idea that's simple and fun for little hands and picks up on the hedgehog theme i keep gravitating towards. How can one resist?

This hedgehog requires only brown and white felt, a few buttons and some glue.

1. Cut out the body shape of a hedgehog out of the white
2. Cut a bunch of little triangles out of the brown.
3. Using tacky glue, start gluing the triangles to the rump of your hedgehog, layering them as you get towards it's head. 
4. Allow time to dry.
5. With a needle and thread, help your child sew on the button for eyes and a nose and done!

Things to do with your new hedgehog:

: :Add magnetic stripping to make a sweet fridge decoration

: :Make more hedgehogs, and other animals to add to your felt board

: :Sew the hedgehog to a barrette clip to wear in your hair

: :Or a pin, for your jacket...

Making things with your kids can be magical! Their perspective is so unique and can really sparkle when you take on these projects together, Naomi had a completely different vision of what her hedgehog should be. She insisted on 2 eyes and I love how it turned out.

Delayed Creative

Just wanted to share these little dollhouse dolls I needle felted months ago. They're meant to look like Ma & Pa Ingalls. I gave them to the girls yesterday, and probably should have given to them at birthdays, or holidays, or for some occasion but I never thought they were finished because they had no faces. Well, it suddenly occurred to me that they didn't need them to be enjoyed and since the pressure of getting faces just right was too much pressure keeping me from finishing up, they've been deemed complete. Amish don't put faces on their dolls, and Steiner would probably think them more open to imagination, so my decision is justified...

But the girls seem to love them anyhow. Although they're not really pose-able, they are pretty compatible with their dollhouse and I think I'll have to work on making the rest of the family. They're about 4 inches tall.

And, on the Moosewood front, we have had 2 meals this week. One was especially delicious and pretty simple, the Arabian Squash-Cheese Casserole. It was a little bit eggy, a little bit cheesy, a little bit spicy, and the girls didn't even complain that much. Leviah had 3 servings. The other was  a Vegetable Almond Medley--I wouldn't call it bad, but I don't think I'll add it to my regular cooking schedule, just a little underwhelming.

Oh & the fireplace looks like this (before):

Why? & Free Crafts

Some of you know the unlabel-able ins and outs of our faith & while it is really only important to those in my 'real' life, I do want to explain something about why it is we celebrate Hanukkah. As with most things in our lives, we try to be aware of the way we're effecting the world, the way we interact, participate and the footprints we leave. We're also careful with the celebrations we've chosen and the events we've allowed to become a part of our 'rituals'. What goes into our bodies is important, so we choose the best foods. What goes into our hearts is the same.

Drew and I were not raised in Jewish homes, though more so than we realized. Our faith walks have lead us to a place that embraces the ancient traditions that would have been celebrated in the time of Messiah, the ones that are outlined in the Old Testament. Those include Passover, a seventh day Sabbath, The Feast of Tabernacles and more. Our conclusion is that these Hebraic festivals are so filled with the spirit of our faith that we have grown to crave them and love them. We've learned that their timing is not only relevant to our spiritual life, but to attaching us with the earth and inspiring our desire to relate to the seasons, the harvests, the animals, etc. in a a seriously connected way.

Hanukkah fits in, not as a commanded feast, but as tradition based on the providence of God in the lives of people who depended on Him, people who were suppressed, suffering and isolated--a place we all feel to be at different times. The message of standing firm, keeping your candle from under the bushel in the face of absolute destruction is one I've not found so well represented in any other celebration.

As with all the festivals, Hanukkah is a time of reconnecting us also with our family and friends. One of our favorite places to find great resources for study put out a Feast of Dedication (the translation of Hanukkah) booklet that had a great essay about the importance of family.

"During this week we are reminded about how the mighty arm of the Lord saves His people. We remind the kids that fiery persecutions come upon those who follow after the Lord, but that in the end, the Lord is always victorious, and He rewards those who seek Him." 

(Light: Rededication, Miracles, Enlightenment, Celebration. 2010. p56.)

Life is not easy and there is no road you can walk on which there will be no stumbling, but if we carry our lamps we can stay on course--we can find joy. This is where our family is. We are not Jewish, but we're not simply Christian either. We are believers and at our best we are doers.

Also, I wanted to share a few links to free Hanukkah activities.

We already love the toymaker, but yay for these!

Lots of info, songs & more here. 

Wish I'd found these before today, but we'll get busy.

And a little Hanukkah coloring book.

& A Creative Jewish Mom has loads of great ideas!

Crazy Nights: #3 and #4

the weather outside was frightful

but the Latkes were so delightful.

dreidel, dreidel, dreidel...

i made you out of clay.

and when you're dry and ready...

then dreidel I shall play.

We had a big Hanukkah bash last night with lots of crafting, dreidel spinning and fun. & 3 birthdays to celebrate, too. It was a memorable night.
The above picture medley includes gelt bags inspired here. Thanks Martha.
& Dough ornaments using this recipe:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water.
Shape your ornaments, bake at 350degrees for about an hour, allow to cool then paint! (don't forget to put a hole for hanging)

Simple fig newton/pretzel stick recipes & our local weather. Off to prepare for night #5...

Crazy Nights: #1

Our first few Hanukkah crafts:

 1. This sweet advent style menorah craft a friend of mine found in Family Fun magazine. Although we were a little rushed in putting them together, they turned out really cute & I look forward to using it, or something similar for years to come. I know the girls will flip when they realize what it's for (which will be this evening). Each candle has a paper behind it that lists one special activity for each day of Hanukkah...what could they all be?!

2. Rolling a few candles out of beeswax. Naomi loves doing this. It takes 44 candles to light a menorah all week, so there will be plenty more rolling to do, but we have enough done for tonight's first candle & the Shamash (servant candle in the middle of the menorah--it lights all the rest).

We'll keep rolling them out!