Waldorf – Catching Caterpillars

a day on the farm with the Sullivans…

Kollene — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:16:00 +0000

I can’t express how much I love taking our kids to a farm… any farm!
The experience of being so close to where their food comes from is the best lesson ever! and they really love it too!

this sweet mama and I have known each other since we were in kindergarten (5 years old!) and we actually met on a farm too… picking strawberries! I know I can hardly stand it myself!
So we have been friends like our whole lives… grown up together… our parents are great friends… weddings together… babies together… and we’re even this cutie pie’s God-Parents!
so….. when the news came that they were moving back to Florida last year… I was beyond ESTATIC!!!
So any good warm welcome needs a Farm Tour!!!

So here we are with the Sullivans! You’ll see them a lot more now that we’re beach buds again!

I mean the pitch on this slide was the best… my little girl’s skinny bum was not hardly touching on the way down! That’s a good slide! The faster the better right!

This is Ridge… my God-Son… and yes, he is the cutest! and yes, he really loves me! and man oh man do we ever love him!

ok… this is pretty sweet… I hardly had a chance to change up my settings when my little girl squealed… SANTAAAAAAAAA!!!!! I was like… what!??… turned and BAM! yes, the jolly guy was at the FARM!
I know… pretty sweet! Sometimes things like this happen… I like to tell our little girls that it’s called Karma!
Isabelle: What’s Karma Mamma…?
Me: well… Karma is when good things happen to you because you’re really good! and don’t just be good so that good things happen… just be truly good… and Karma will find ya!
Isabelle: I like Karma Mamma!
Me: Me too!

are these two farm kids adorable or what!
and gosh, could their feet get any dirtier!
we had to scrub their feet raw to get close to their rose petals!
but it was worth it… running free on a farm… no cares… cow poop… chickens clucking… sun on our cheeks… cool breezes!
it was one of those… I love my life… kinds of days!

yes, they even got to feed the babies!

can’t take it! I want a baby cow in my backyard! maybe let’s start with chickens!

ok… prepare for a little bit of oooohs and ahhhs…
my girlfriend and I were talking when this view happened… our jaws dropped… it was like the most perfect light ever! we are both professional photographers so yes… the first thing that came out… ahhhh the LIGHTING!!! The yummiest lighting ever!
This is the sweet light we always try to find… the light that can make a shot AMAZING… waaaahbam!

….

but the lighting wasn’t happening for a client… not for a shoot… no, it was happening to us! to our children… as we watched the lighting fall so soft on our children… I know we were both thinking it… saying it out loud… look at our children… being children… naturally outside… free… just like we grew up!

I’m not changing… I’m letting my kids grow up like kids… outside!
call me granola but my kids have to be kids… I’m not going to tell my kids stories of how it used to be… because it still can be… if you let it! throw them outside and give them nothing but an imagination!
It’s the BEST gift you can ever give them!

Thank you Sullivan Family for moving on down! So happy you’re here!

happy rainbows!

Kollene — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 13:16:00 +0000

we’ve been really into rainbows lately… painting them, drawing them, blending colors, seeing them in crystals… rainbows make us so happy!

just hanging out around the home… being cozy cozy… painting… decorating for Easter… little projects and crafts… it’s been so fun and so productive!

This weather that we have been given lately has been making us all so happy… enjoying every minute of the freshness fills us up!… cheers us up… makes us smile!

we have some fun weekend plans such as 2 birthday parties… a drum circle… an Eco Fest… and sitting in the garden listening to the birds. The girls are wrapping presents right now for their friends… making cards… tying ribbon… getting excited!

What things are making you happy this weekend…?

felting fun!

Kollene — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:37:00 +0000

I really love how much our oldest loves to felt! she gets so excited when I mention the idea! it’s so fun when kids still like crafts… projects… creativity… and to hope that it never fades is a wish of mine… to keep creativity and imaginations blossoming is something that is so easy to do… if you just let it happen… their minds are full of so much possibility!

she then wanted to sew a little hat for her gnomes… I think they turned out quite pretty, don’t you.

lately Isabelle has not been too keen on the idea of an afternoon nap… no matter how much fresh air she has gotten in the morning… not even a wink! so it’s quiet time while her little sister rests… and little crafts have been her means of passing the time. felting… painting.. gluing… anything pretty much that is quiet and makes a BIG mess!

wash day…

Kollene — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:20:00 +0000

so nice with a little wash day… we have one day every week which is our wash day… sweep… vacuum… mop mop mop… dust.. sometimes even a little “switch-a-roo”

it feels so nice when the new linens are on beds… out with all the old.. a bit of laundry… the reward of a clean tidy home is simple but to me… HUGE! it’s so calming and I am loving how our girls really enjoy cleaning as well…. maybe just all the sloshing around in the mop bucket…perhaps?

it’s sweet to see the concentration of kids working on something… they feel so proud when they are finished… they get upset when things don’t go as they expect… they fix it… and move on… and hold up their token with such a smile… and show it to all that want to see… and those will too smile…

a day on the farm…..

Kollene — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:52:00 +0000

this day was such a treat…. we went out to the countryside with some special friends to see where milk comes from!

the kids learned so much… the cows were so beautiful and the milk was so delicious! it was quite a chilly day which was fun… and it was just before Christmas so there was a little skip in everyone’s step… thoughts of Santa’s visit… just being with friends together…. was lovely!

it’s so beautiful how children are so gentle with animals and it’s even sweeter how the animals are so gentle with the children… there is no fear really… just love.

the children take in nature… like it’s so easy… they love the animals so much it’s almost like they could hug the sweet creatures.. it was really fantastic how this farm really focused on teaching the children about the milk… nowadays kids really think that milk comes from the market… strawberries come from the little crate in the produce stand… but if we teach our kids where our food starts from… from the farm … from nature… to the table… it’s pretty much the most beautiful thing to me. it’s quite a circle… teaching children about the lovely rhythms of life… of nature…

making fresh butter… a real treat

we then came home and shook shook shook some more butter…mmmm!

what a day though… the drive from the beach to the countryside is just so peaceful… me and the girls… the windows down… singing… cool breezes blowing our hair carefree…. a fun memory.

pretending…

Kollene — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:19:00 +0000

before I had children I dreamed of being a mother… I wanted children that could play make-believe.. imagine… pretend. I feel it’s a lost art… a little like letter writing (I still do letters) I feel it could be maybe one of the most important things for children is pretending, imagining, and playing OUTSIDE in nature. This day in age when it comes to toys… if you just run through a store and just throw things into your cart it will be full of characters, buttons, and batteries… but if you focus more on your child’s imaginations and creativity you will give them the best presents of all. and they will thank you for it.

lately I have been listening to our girls play around… it’s been quite chilly here in Florida (don’t make fun) so we have had to have quite a bit of inside play… I hear lots of little make believe stories between the girls. Our oldest comes up with ideas… excitedly.. “Come Cecilia we have to hurry and catch our plane… we are going to visit China… then I see them tucking in their little baskets scarves, blocks (which are sandwiches) and scurry along to their pillow (which is an airplane)! I love it!

the other day it reached 65 degrees and we went outside for the afternoon… our littlest was snoozing inside… Isabelle was feeding her dollies lunch… on leaf plates… and fed them pasta which was really shells but she didn’t see the shells… to her it was yummy warm pasta that she cooked herself.

I feel so happy that all of my carefully choosing toys for their birthdays and Christmas has paid off… They can imagine beautifully and it is so rewarding to see it come to life. I feel their creative juices exploding…! we don’t have piles of toys but the few toys we do have are really beautiful and I do not mind them all over the house…

her pan is a frisbee

so this holiday season we are trying so hard to keep things simple… natural beautiful toys… handmade.. not too many batteries… things that possibly the Elves made… not Disney!

it’s not that I am against plastic toys… we do have some… but I try to keep things a little minimal so that our girls don’t get overwhelmed and forget how to pretend… toys with so many buttons don’t allow for creativity… they just require a push of a button… how boring… train sets and blocks and simple dolls are so much more fun…