Autumn Delights

Alot of change for our family this fall, a new job for mommy, daddy at home full time with the girls for the next year, a new routine for the girls...and with all of that the beautiful change of season. Change brings about a whole lot of emotions...excitment and anxiety for the unknown, but nothing makes it truly as good as committing to just doing whatever you will do and not looking back. Once you embrace your decision and set sail the wind will guide you to your new destination (oh I know I am totally sappy here but bare with me as I recover from H1N1, I'm not totally myself today). So all of this to say...we have embraced our decision and things are booming...well until we got hit with the flu...but be sure it will not stop the excitment that is about to come our way! I wanted to post today since it has been so long and I have a huge backlog of beautiful photos. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, for the many reason but mostly for the colours. When my parents came to visit in September we took them to Fletcher's Wildlife Garden's for visit and I captured these with my mom's camera...I plan on getting them framed for my new office soon!

Petite Grenouille

We knew when we bought the house that we would not have a backyard for the girls but what we settled for was far more beautiful. Plenty of green space close to the river with swamps, ponds and so much biodiversity. This year was our first year exploring the nearby ponds for all of it's mystery. We got a wonderful monthly guide from Little Acorn Learning in which you can find, stories, songs, rhymes, crafts on nature oriented themes. The month of June had frogs, the summer solstice as well as fireflies. So we embarked on a frog theme to the library where we found out all about tadpoles and how to care for them to see the evolution of the frog. And with that, off we went to the pond with our nets and buckets, nature journals and our snack on a little adventure. We searched and searched and found a beautiful field of forget-me-not, beautiful clear water with little snails, lots of water gliders...but no tadpoles. So off we went to the next pond where to our delight we found a frog. That was all too exciting when our oldest seedling got to hold the frog and it jumped right out of her hands and into the Stroller and hid under the seats. A beautiful hot summer day! Now we have to bring all of our friends!

Welcome little summer fairies, make yourselves at home!

A beautiful long week-end with the girls...what to do? I finally got my summer copy of the Living Crafts in the mail and what a beautiful inspiration. An article about creating a fairy garden! So we found some potting soil, went to our favorite little organic store to get some beautiful little flowers (these are my favorite Lobella?) and dug up some moss on the side of the house. An hour later we had a really cozy little heaven for our mysterious friends. Our oldest has been looking for signs of their arrival she is convinced she saw little footprints in the moss. She even left them some clover to munch on in case they were hungry. And the little one, well...she really likes to pull the moss out and touch the flowers with her index finger! The little fairy I made from this book. by Salley Mavor.

Une journée pas comme les autres!

Qu'est-ce qu'on fait aujourd'hui? On va prendre une marche dans le bois me répond ma grande pousse! Passer une superbe journée dehors avec elles, qu'elle bonne idée. Une promenade qui a durée 3 heures ou nous avons vue un Oriole de Baltimore, un Cardinal, un Chardonneret Jaune, des gros corbeau, une maman donner des verres a ses petits dans le trou d'une maison. Ma grande a courru pendant 10 minutes apres un papillon jaune, nous avons cueulli des pissenlit, sentit des lilas, ramassé des roches, découvert un gros Linden et mangé un beau popsicle a la fraise. Ma petite pousse elle, a beaucoup aimé faire la course dans le Chariot contre sa grande soeur, qui en passant cour beaucoup plus vite que sa maman. Et plus tard un petit dodo bien comfortable dans le Chariot. Le ciel était ombragé et il y avait un beau petit vent...ma journée préféré!

The Star Children by Lesa Sevin

Star Children Story by Lesa Sevin
Father sun and mother moon had many children, and those children were the stars. Father sun was wise and kind and good. Mother moon and father sun loved their children so. When the star children were old enough they carried yellow lamps to help light the night sky with their mother moon for all those on earth to see.One evening several stars wanted to play instead of helping their mother light up the earth. They had worked especially hard during those long cold winter nights when the people and animals were sleeping.One winter night they forgot to twinkle and instead ran off and played in the nighttime sky. They pretended not to hear their mother calling and calling her children to help light up the nighttime sky. The star children hid behind a fluffy cloud.Suddenly a warm Chinook wind began to blow. The wind blew with huge gusts. The trees groaned as the wind pushed their trunks and limbs. The gusty wind reached the sky and found the star children’s hiding place behind a cloud and all of a sudden those poor star children lost their balance. They tumbled far, far, far down to the earth below. They were blown right out of the nighttime sky. When they reached the earth below, they looked up at the dark sky. Maybe the sky was darker because they no longer lived in the sky. The star children became frightened, for they were lost. They called out to their father sun and mother moon to ask for help. They wanted to come home to the sky. In the morning, father sun heard his children call. He said he was so sorry, “Once twinkling stars leave the sky, my dear children, they are not able to return”. He promised the children he would think of something.The poor star children were so lonely; they missed their mother moon and father sun. Mother moon also missed her children but she found a way to comfort all. Every night she sang. “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder where you are…” The earth children must of heard this song because all the children of the earth sang with her.Finally spring came to the earth. Wise father sun looked down at the brown spring ground. Father sun decided to bring some color to the spring earth. He beamed his golden light down to his star children and gave them into little golden flower lamps to light the earth. The children were happy to hold the little lamps and bring happiness and color to earth. These flowers became known as the dandelion flowers. Wise father earth found a way that the little star children could visit their mother and father. After the yellow petals of the dandelion fade, littler white hairs form on the flower, which are so light they, blow all the way up to the sky to visit mother moon and father sun when a warm wind blows.

Art by Tanya Davis

I have to share this beautifully inspiring song and video by canadian artist Tanya Davis. It always puts a smile on my face! I hope our girls will feel the same way about art as we do ! I apologize I cannot rememember where I found out about this video, one of the many wonderful blogs I follow!

So I just celebrated another birthday and we've come full circle. As in my childhood my birthday highlights included a chocolate cake, eating out at a restaurant and a trip to a well equipped park. Once again a beautiful sunny late April day fooled me and this time my family with me that I was born in the summer. Our bare legged trip to the beach was greeted by chipper cold wind who came along to say hello. Alas, we did not return the winds enthusiasm, we retreated from the picnic table to a wind blocked play area. Playing with the girls outside is a treat that I won't soon trade for anything. It is usually time that robs parents of theses moments as children age and seek their fun and fortunes on their own terms. Thankfully, sunny days at the park with my little seedlings makes time slow right down, just the way I like it.

Welcome May!

In celebration of May we didn't have a Maypole dance (perhaps next year), we disconnected the TV! We didn't actually move the TV to the basement as we had been planning for the last year but Daddy made it too much work to reconnect that we haven't dared tried. It has been wonderful to see our 4 year old find her way around without her TV routine. We realized how much it was starting to take over and how it was becoming a first resort when she was bored, she was clearly getting more focused on it and it just left both Daddy and I feeling awful. She has been doing so well, even though it's an adjustment and adjustments are not always easy, she has been working it out! More stories, drawings, puzzles and lots and lots of outdoor time. Nous avons donc commencé des petites balades dans le noir au dodo pour explorer les animaux de la nuit! Hier soir nous sommes allées voir les chauves souris du voisinage....

Flic, Floc!

Il a plus!
Chapeau pointu!
Avec mes bottes de pluie,
je goute l'eau glacé,
sur la pointe des pieds.
Flic, floc!
Je fais des vagues dans les flaques!
Le soleil est revenue.
Turlututu!
Dans le ciel, mille et une couleurs
font es farandole.
Un arc-en-ciel fait des cabrioles...
'Mes comptines pour les jours de printemps' par Karine-Marie Amiot et Michel Boucher

The gifts of imperfect parenting are made possible through authenticity (Brené Brown)

I was once again going through our Omega Institute catalogue, dreaming of one day taking our family for a workshop and vacation when I came upon this really interesting workshop with Brené Brown. I googled and found out more about the work that she does around shame and empathy. Her work spoke to me and this beautiful mantra about authenticity resonated very deeply.
I think this will be the most difficult thing in the world to do right now but it just feels like I really need to try.

A new beginning

So we embark on this new adventure with our girls...both of us working part-time and keeping these amazing little ones home with us! It has been alot of preparation, alot of organization, alot of decluttering, alot of playing with our routine but finally we are in a rhythm that feels so good. The arrival of spring has been a blessing and such an immense motivator to get active and into our seasonal rhythm. Nous avons eu déja la visite de nombreux oiseaux, et de charmants écureuils qui font bien des pirouettes pour du popcorn!

We hope to start sharing our weeks with you in the hopes that it will bring a smile to your lips. Et bien sur je continue un partage en francais de nos aventures!
And so I leave this first post with a little poem from our Parent-Child program.
Voici un petit poeme tout mignon de notre programme parent-enfant Waldorf.

Petit lapin
tot le matin
grignote le thym
et le romarin
au moindre bruit,
vite, il s'enfuit!