i am back!

wow, i took a really long bloggin' break. there is so much to catch up on! well, right now i am 28 weeks pregnant with my third girlie! i know, i know, crazy but we are so happy and so blessed that everything is going well. a little while after my last post in march is when we found out and i probably had about a week until the mother of all morning sickness gave me a visit. holy moly i was a mess! for all those mamas out there who know what i am talking about, it's a rough existence. and it lasted over 16 weeks! anyway, that is mainly the reason for such a long hiatus.

so, what's new? well, i have put design work on hold and maybe for a long while because i graduated from integrative nutrition last month. woo hoo! it was truly a great year and i actually miss my classes. after the baby is born and things settle, i am going to put my focus towards this next venture. until then i am looking forward to nesting, cooking away, being creative, blogging and maybe even catching up on some reading. it is going to be a peaceful autumn. aaahhh.

here's a little recap of our spring and summer. peace + love.

washington square park

one more time at moomah

buttermilk falls

serendipity frozen hot chocolate

a rare occurance

natural egg dying

tea party

lounging in the dandelions

liberty school garden

baseball

 school play

 strawberry picking out east

 our japanese cucs

 4 years old - mermaid party

 sweet girl

 rockland feis

 baby "girl"

 a harvest

 mermaids

 long beach island

 gramp's pyramid

 salt dough shell mosaics

 we found a starfish! we put him back, too.

 liberty garden's legit pumpkin patch

 stone barns center

 our bountiful garden this year!

the summer approach

as the school year comes to a close, i am relieved and yet a little melancholy that my little girl will be entering third grade in september. third grade!?! i remember being in third grade! third grade for some reason sounds so much more serious and unfortunately these days, with standardized testing and a jam packed curriculum, it is. i wish that there was just a little bit more room for play. today, for their end of the school year party, the kids went to rockland lake. they played ball, painted the landscape of the lake, did crafts, hung out under trees, ran around aimlessly... it was great. the lake is literally a few steps from the school, yet the children only go there once a year! one of the teachers and i were expressing how the kids should be out here year round. she said that in order for them to make the trip today, each child needed three sets of permission slips. to me, there should be an open permission slip for the entire year but there is so much legislation about so many things, your head would spin. anyway, i think my point is that these kids need to play. just run around and play in the fresh air. where are we as a society if to some, this is considered unproductive? it is so much more productive that they think...

i'll end my rant there to show you a few crafts we enjoyed this week. eden has made a few winning father's day t-shirts in the past for her dad but the little screenprinting place in town closed down a few years ago and so that tradition was put on hold. until recently, i found this great idea of using a bleach pen on a dark t-shirt to create prints. so cool! ofcourse this is a craft for about 7 years and up due to the use of bleach. the bleach pen (sold at the grocery store) is easy to use and not messy at all. to make prints: put on some old clothes and some plastic gloves (shh we didn't have any), lay out the dark colored t-shirt and slide either a plastic bag or some wax paper inside of the shirt so that the design doesn't go through, sketch your design using some chalk and then use the small end of the bleach pen to outline. set aside for 2 hours and then wash the t-shirt alone on cold and dry. and there you have it. i was expecting thinner lines for ours here but i think it spread due to the amount of bleach we used (she went over it twice or more). i bet if we only outlined once, the lines would have been thinner but eden loved the way it came out. she said, "it's awesome!"

another fun craft were fireworks pens that the children made at the end of the year picnic i was talking about. i got the idea from familyfun magazine. 

i love this monthly magazine. it has really creative ideas for kids. this craft was simple and fast for first and second graders. they were pleasantly surprised how great they came out and were so proud to show them off to each other. they look like sparklers sans the ouches from the sparks.

hanging on to summer

september is here already? it seems too soon for this summer to be over. back to school is a phrase that has so much more attached to it now - now that i'm a mama. it's back to our routine and schedule. dance classes, soccer practice, brownies...... i couldn't really understand how the average american family did not sit down for a family supper until now. it is very difficult to carve out the time and plan in between everyone's schedule. it's hard but not impossible i guess. so to start out the school year (which should really be called the new year) my goal will be to have as many family moments as possible. dinner, walks, games. i am looking forward to autumn - i do love this season. the air seems different. autumn is my ever-reminder of the reality of Change. change is the constant. and in autumn you can actually observe change.

above are some recent summer pics. a view of the tree tops during a family hike, the infamous "barbie cafe," the cafe refrigerator, and our one lonely tomato (the abundance of rain truly had an impact on gardens this year). 

when camp is out and playdates are far and few due to vacations, summertime play is beautiful to watch. eden plays for hours on our porch. she has set up a cafe/market. i love when she engages in pretend play because so much of the time is school, activities, tag along mama chores. when i was a little girl, i so enjoyed my baby dolls and playing with small figurines outside in my grandma's rock garden. those are some of my fondest memories as a child (an only child that is). anyway, i hope to keep the cafe up and running through the fall. maybe she'll serve hot cocoa?