Happy Spring!

 An outing to see a sweet puppet play, "The Winning of Kwelanga."

 Nathan continues to amaze me with his artistic abilities. This is his pencil sketch of Leonardo da Vinci, which he drew for a 7th grade block.

 The amazing Mama who takes care of Nuriel while I work just had a baby, so there's been lots of babywearing-imitation happening at our house. 

 I had a fabulous 38th birthday. I've been dreaming about Venice, so Nathan drew this picture inside the birthday card he made for me. Noah got me banana pudding (yummy!) and Nuriel kept insisting that it was HER birthday. :-)

Nuriel planted some Easter grass on Palm Sunday morning...

 ... that evening we got some unexpected snow, which resulted in a fabulous snow day that Monday.

 By Wednesday the grass was already this tall!

 Using some pea shoot sprouts and coffee & vinegar, I dyed some of these eggs with my students.

 A visit to a local Alpaca fiber festival with these sweet little one, just a week old.

 A fabulous creation by my friend Mindi - in exchange for a set of rainbow bunnies for her daughter. I love this dress!

 No chocolate bunnies were devoured in our house this year, but the Easter bunny did bring a chocolate carrot with the bunnies I had sewn from felt for Nuriel. {She loves her chocolate.}

The Days In Pictures

A drawing by the artistically-challenged Waldorf teacher - Take one.

And two. (Not sure why this is so blurry.)

 Gifts for the Gods by 4th graders.

Iduna by a 4th grader.

Skadi by a 4th grader.

Making Mead with my students using kefir grains.

Nathan made yummy apple-pie. Nuriel is ready to eat. 

(She has her very own blog now. Since I mostly blog about Nuriel anyhow - Noah & Nathan don't like me blogging about them - I might shut this blog down and just try to keep hers up as a "baby book" kinda thing. We'll see.)

Another one from the State Fair. Crawl-away baby. She had so much fun. There was no way I could have kept her strapped into the stroller.

Lovin' to play with leaves & dirt & such.

October Already!

Hard to believe. I suppose time to give the blogging world a sign that we are indeed alive. It's Virginia State Fair Time & of course we had to make some entries given the success last year. I won two third place ribbons this year, one for the green Icarus Shawl & one for Nuriel's Boheme.

Nathan won a red ribbon (2nd place) at the Horse Art Competition. It's an awesome drawing. He is rather unhappy with 2nd place, though...

... which brings us to Zeus & Athena. This crayon/pencil drawing did get him a first place, blue ribbon. Yay!

I took a picture of this awesome cake from the Youth Baking Competition, also at the State Fair. What a great cake idea, huh? 

This was Nuriel's seond State Fair, and her first time in a stroller! (Yup, you read that right!) The girl is getting too heavy for the Ergo. She did enjoy the ride for the most part, especially when she had an Elephant Ear to munch on! 

She also likes to push her face against the hallway/dining-room French door. 

I'll try to have another update soon. I just wrapped up a 4th grade Norse Mythology block & I do need to blog about that! Life is just so busy - always...

September

That would be September, not in chronological order...

 A package arrived in the mail. Some of the boys' "old" wooden toys a friend in Germany had been storing for me. Sweet, sweet memories!

 I made the bear in second grade! That makes it almost thirty years old! The doll on the right was Noah's first doll when he was wee. The other doll I bought a couple of years ago for no particular reason. It will now be Nuriel's when she is old enough for it.

Nuriel had a birthday. She's one now. The owl bunting was made by a dear friend. So sweet. Some of you have heard of my picture dilemma on the birthday. It was a crazy day. I learned that having to prepare a birthday celebration that's taking place two hours after work while still needing to chauffeur kids back & forth after school makes it impossible to fit in a trip to buy camera batteries. It was a very sweet lil' celebration, though. Good memories, which is the most important part!

The nature table is looking more like spring, but we like it that way. The Koru maiden was made by Marie over at Softearthart. It will become more autumny soon!

Nathan had a birthday, too. He's thirteen now. I'm officially Mom to two teenagers. 

Nathan used some leftover bass wood to cut out some owls. He's planning on woodburning details.

 Enjoying the last days of summer...

Ten Months Old

Nuriel is ten months old. Time surely flies. In this picture she looks so "grown up" to me. Maybe it's because she's growing hair? Or just the fact that she's playing in the dirt? She looks nothing like me. That's a fact. I'm not keeping a baby book with milestones, so before these things fade in my brain (better call it a sieve), here's what I do remember: 

She started rolling over when she was 4-1/2 months old. Her first tooth appeared March 16th. I remember sitting at school with her, waiting for Noah to come out of Spanish class & feeding her a nibble of something. My finger touched something hard. Tooth! The funny thing is that she wasn't teething prior to getting those two bottom teeth, but she's been teething ever since... However, she hasn't gotten any more teeth. Weird, huh? 

She started sitting up when she was about 7 months old. When she was about 9 months old, she started scooting around in a sitting position & doing 360 degree "spins." She also pushed herself around on her belly, but she was only able to go backwards & this caused some frustration at times. She started crawling right at 10 months and now she's all. over. the. place. - No kidding!  

Her brothers have taught her how to shake her head as if saying, "No." She loves to take baths & play in the water. She eats what we eat. I'm not a fan of buying baby food. She especially loves rice & beans, yogurt, kiwifruit & blackberries. Oh, and paper! She loves drinking unsweetened herbal tea, too.

So, I don't remember much. But that's at least a lil' something for the record.

I really don't neglect the boys. They just don't like to have their pictures taken. They don't like me blogging about them. I'll have two teenage boys come September. It seems that they are on track with the teenage milestones as well... You know, sleeping in 'til noon & acquiring debating skills. ;-) (They are also very helpful when it comes to housework & helping in general & I'm not being sarcastic about that!)

Oh, and another note: I'm a bit in "avoidance" mood right now. So I blog about the craft projects that distract me & other mundane things. 

Artsy...

Looking through the books my children created in class is always *the* end-of-the-year highlight for me. Here are my two favorite entries from Nathan's book. His drawings are just amazing. He's only twelve!

Zeus & Athena

[copyright Nathan Thomas]

Prometheus

[copyright Nathan Thomas]

'Twas May

Being a teacher, May is always a crazy-busy month. Here are a few recent pictures. And hopefully I'll be blogging more frequently again now that summer break has arrived! Yay.

With my 3rd graders I visited a city garden, an Alpaca Farm, and spent three days camping at Sustenance Farm in North Carolina.

Nathan & Nunu crackin' up.

Nunu at Mayfaire. The dress, one of those hand-smocked treasures, was a hand-me-down from one of my students. I made her a lil' flower-crown with herbs & weeds from the garden. It lasted for a photo moment. Really, she just wanted to eat it!

Nathan holding the flag for his city-state Corinth at the Pentathlon. His strongest discipline was the javelin. It was a nice day.

Nunu heading to Noah's class play, dressed in a fancy dress a colleague brought back from a trip to India. It's supposed to be a neck scarf, but it looks cute on her head.

Noah as Isaac Newton in his 8th grade class play. Scrambled professor. So totally him! His dream-hairstyle. No doubt. Ha!

Nuts!

Peanuts that is.

Nathan's drawing of a peanut plant.

Managing Tis Season

"Managing" seems to be the motto this season. Managing as in... achieve something with difficulty: to succeed in doing something, especially something that seems difficult or impossible OR cope in a difficult situation: to survive or continue despite difficulties.

I managed to put up a few Christmas decorations. Nathan made the stars on the left & right. I made the one in the middle (so did my 2nd grade students).

I managed to put up a tree on a snowday. I was hesitant about putting up a tree. I even managed to buy the tree where Brent & I had bought one last year.

I had a few good laughs. It seems it took 20 picture snaps to get a decent, well-mannered one. (No, this is NOT the one!)

I made a pair of Turkish Bedsocks (using Koigu) for a very special person. I managed to get all my swap envelopes & the package out... albeit a bit late - but still scheduled to arrive before Christmas Eve. I also managed to bake a batch of coconut thumbprint cookies & we managed to devour them in less than 24 hours. I hid them from the children, but there was no one to hide them from me. Maybe I will manage to make another batch.

And Nuriel aka Nunu aka Noodle and I did a wee bit of Christmas shopping today. Her sweet lil' gift arrived in the mail and I got two things each for the boys. - I spent less than $60, but I bought things I know they will love.