Turkey Tails

I borrowed this cute idea from Laura at My Montessori Journey.

She has the greatest ideas and many are seasonally inspired, which is right up my alley.
It was easy to make with some felt and buttons I had already on hand.
Whipped it up in a night.
And he can play with it year after year.

 This is a great way to build skills
and
have fun at the same time.

This was also good practice in dealing with frustration.

Lil' Monster doesn't have much patience and quickly jumps into fits or avoidance.

But he persevered and look at him!

Proud as a Peacock....

I mean Turkey!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Model

Here's a follow up to this post:

+=

 Still confused?

 VS.

 The Recipient of Mamma's Endeavours,

And

The Handsome Model:

 He always melts me at the knees,

Even when he is hamming it up...

 This is my first handmade scarf.

Don't look too close, you might see what an amateur I am.

But it will keep him warm, and it provided good activity for my hands these cold dark nights.

Next goal:
Make a scarf for a Christmas gift for a special woman out there...

details to follow.

Jack-O-Lantern's Many Faces

This is actually a project I did last year with the Lil' Monster. 

I borrowed the idea from Laura at My Montessori Journey.

This is a great way for children to make their own Jack-o-Lanterns without knives or mess.

It is easy to make and provides hours of fun.

I took orange felt and cut out a pumpkin pattern, then drew some crease lines.

Took black and yellow felt and cut out different shapes for mouths, eye, eyebrows, and nose.

Made a little stem and a couple of leaves.

 (Mamma Sass's example)

Enjoying the fun.
He can't remember the fun from last year,
so it feels new and exciting this year.

Creating his own Jack-o-Lantern.

With so many pieces,

there are so many possibilities

'Tis the Season.

Happy Autumn!

Happy Halloween!

Simple Delights

Received a

special

Delight

today

From the sweetest and loveliest man I know:

Mr. Elskan.

Thank you, my dear husband.

Glad I have you for eternity.

The Itch to Pick: Or What "bad-rooms" are made of.

When we moved in, the Master bedroom was high in the loft.

This was not going to work. This Mamma wakes to often in the middle of the night, and the stairs are too steep in the dark, so we had to relocate the Master bedroom. We only had two choices: one of the two rooms in the basement. The boys called dibs on the room with the cool under the stairs closet. The other room was the only other choice. It is large (larger than the loft), located next to a bathroom - much needed for this mother - and yet it has one BIG - HUGE problem.

A bat lives in there.

A big HUGE WALL SIZED BAT!

Yuck.

Good thing it is just paint and can easily be remedied - with a little money and time.

We have a plan.

It will hopefull happen later this winter...when the days are dark and we aren't so strapped for

time and money.

Yet, one day while sitting on the floor and talking about the important stuff, (maybe it was my obsession to pick at things the stress of heavy the heavy discussion) I picked at the paint. Then some more, and before we knew it, we had stopped talking and were picking and peeling away paint.

But, hey, who paints crappy paint on walpaper that easily comes off...well at least we don't have to worry about it later...and one small clean wall looks better than those AWFUL colors.

Too bad the bat wasn't painted on easily peeled of wallpaper.

That things haunts my dreams.

Every time I close my eyes, I can still see it.

Post Edit:
It took more time than I planned or wanted, but this ghastly ugly room has been transformed into this:

 We used this bright green, as this is a basement room, and with the many dark grey days, this green feels light and joyful.

 

And a peek after the bed was in (I am still in need of getting some matching linen.

 

Fall Foliage Frisking

Every year we go on a
hunt
in the
Autumn.

A hunt for
COLORS
hand-painted by
God.

The key elements of this hunt are:

*We eat delicious pastries and drink hot chocolate.

*We play a special music play list for the season.

*We make a day (or two or three...) of it.

*We take a bazillions pictures...

most of which are never as good as what our eyes can see.

*We don't care about the weather...though it usually is nippy.

*We usually find new jaunts

and revisit ones we have loved from years past.

We have done it for years.

Years ago, we dreamed of times when we would hunt with our kids.

Now

We actually do it with our child.

It's tradition!

This year we had to find a path

and

new types of pastries

having moved across country.

The pastries we settled on Pumpkin-licious donuts and muffins from the local

"The Moose is Loose."

The path was Skilak Loop up to Cooper Landing and back home.

The weather was grey and rainy.

The sun only peeked out about the time we got home.

Our favorite playlist (including Johnny Mathis, John Denver, Karen Carpenter, Tony Bennett, etc) is still waiting to be brought up from the lower 48...

so we had to settle on substitutes or 2nd favorites.

But we still had a blast!

And so it began:

 

Dancing and singing while waiting
for Pabbi to get some bear spray (a must for Alaskan Adventures).
Lil' Monster had his rain-boots and coats
and some warm chocolate milk
to go with our delicious pumpkin treats!

Lil' Monster showing his "afraid of bears" face
while holding the bear spray!

 Alaska's famous Fireweed

 The tree colors are mostly yellow which turns to brown.

 Skilak Lake

 Lil' Monster has to pick up sticks and leaves to throw in the water.

 Pabbi is mostly worried about bears.
Gotta protect his own cub.

 Mr Elskan always knows how to make me weak in the knees.
I could photograph him all day long.

A great thing about rain boots:
you can play in the water and not worry about wet feet afterwards

 Mrs. Elskan peeking through the leaves.

 Mamma tempted everyone to get their feet wet - just for the fun of it.

 Another favorite shot.

Lil' Monster leading Pabbi into the cold waters.

Running on water is only possible when a strong father lends support.

 Our journey not only lent itself to beautiful plants
but also to wildlife:
(Bears not included)

Bald Eagle takes flight.

Red Salmon take a swim


What Fall Traditions do you have?