Kid's Books

This past weekend we took a whirlwind trip up into New Brunswick to pick up Laurent from my parents. We were supposed to meet in Maine and be hiking Mt. Katahdin with them (and a bunch of other people) but the rain and thunderstorms thwarted those plans. So instead we were gone a mere 28 hours; spent the night at a campground visiting my folks and came back home a complete family again. 

The girls are happy to once again have their brother, friend and playmate back. Although we had some good times while he was gone I'm sure our days were not as special as being the only grandchild spending two weeks with your adoring grandparents. Quite predictably, Laurent had a fabulous time and (not so predictably) honestly didn't miss me a stitch (I just made up that phrase).

He's a live-in-the-moment kind of person and had just too much fun with Nana & Papa to think twice about missing life at home. I'm happy for this time he had and the memories, handbuilt wooden boats, beach stones and thrift store clothes Nana bought him that he came home with.

But while he was away the girls and I made a few memories also. And we even made some wardrobe updates of our own.

Pretty Sewing

One project I started that I haven't yet completed was to sew simple sundresses for the girls. I hope to finish these by next week and post my progress. Even more simple than those dresses though was making flouncy skirts out of existing sundresses.

The girls both owned sundresses with bodices that were either too small, itchy or just plain uncomfortable. After a few easy measurements I cut the tops off, sewed a casing, inserted an elastic and viola... pretty skirts. The perfect project for the girly groove we had going on. 

A Paper Doll Craft

The main creative project of the last couple weeks has been paper dolls. And in Celine's case magnetic dolls. What started this crafting was the store bought magnetic doll set (pictured below) the girls were given on our trip to Gaspé. Celine originally thought she'd like to buy herself a tin, so the girls would each have one, but changed her mind to making them herself. That's my girl!

Celine made magnetic paper dolls and their clothes using two methods:

1. Drawing and coloring designs right on the magnet sheet (purchased at the craft store).
2. Printing paper designs and glueing on the magnet.

Brienne stuck to printing paper dolls and their clothes to play with and add to her collection.

Liana's Paper Doll Blog was our go-to source for the past two weeks. The girls spent hours surfing her hand drawn designs, picking and choosing their favorites to print. Celine prefers medieval-like designs and Brienne likes anything pink or purple! 

The fashions on this blog are definitely womanly and not little girl paper dolls but they were perfect my girls' interest in grown-up gowns and period costumes. It's a very cool blog with many, many dresses and dolls.

Celine's own medieval dress design

A Princess Story

Knowing that I'd have just the girls for a couple weeks I even picked up a princess read aloud for bedtime. The Ordinary Princess is the delightful tale of a princess who is given the gift of "being ordinary" by her fairy godmother, much to the dismay of the royal court. She grows up looking rather ordinary, loving nature and the outdoors, not at all interested in normal princess life. When she is threatened to be married off to anyone who will take her (she is very ordinary looking after all) she runs away to live in the forest and eventually finds employment as a kitchen maid in the castle of the neighboring kingdom. While employed there she unwittingly falls in love with the young, very nice, "man-of-all-work" king, whose real identity is hidden from her, as hers is from him.  

The story ends as you might expect, with a royal marriage - but this one based on loving each other for who they are, not their royal identities or pretty complexions. I personally loved the honeymoon in the small forest cottage.

This was the perfect princess story to read to my outdoor loving girls with just the right amount of girly romance, being who you are and "finding one's true love". All three of us loved it.

And there you have it. Two weeks of pretty, dolls, pink and princesses. Now that Laurent is back the days are more rambunctious, goofy and filled with insects and fantastical creatures once again. Family life as normal. It feels wonderful.

PS. Please see FIMBY mainpage or click the button below to find my updated resource page for all our household and kiddo craftiness. 

This is the last Friday's Flowers for the month of June. We will resume the first friday in July. At which time I will also be drawing a winner for my soap giveaway from the May and June participants of Friday's Flowers.

I'll be totally honest with you, the photo of my picked lupine, the one in the bouquet is just a lame excuse to share the photos of the lupines growing wild and in our yard. I know Friday's Flowers is all about bringing the beauty indoors but sometimes the natural beauty that is only found uncut and untamed is so much more stunning.

So that's how I feel about these photos. Lupines in a bouquet - blah. Lupines out of doors - spectacular.

I put this little bouquet together to brighten our guest/sewing room. This week a childhood friend of mine and maid of honor at our wedding, whom I have kept in touch with over the years despite thousands of miles of distance between us, came to visit with her family. They were here for a couple nights on an east coast vacation. Catching up with her, getting to know her husband a bit, meeting her children - all of it so delightful.

There was a lupine for guest room (a little touch of Maine) but I personally think this view out the guest room window is much more beautiful. 

This is Brienne's lupine plant in her little garden. She is very proud of its beautiful flowers. I am so happy for her that this plant did not fall prey to the aphids that destroyed the lupines in front garden. It was disgusting.

This is what lupines look like growing wild in Maine. They have been blooming since early June and should last a couple more weeks along the roadsides if I remember correctly. 

While we're talking about lupines I'd like to recommend a good book, Miss Rumphius by author and illustrator Barbara Cooney.

The children and I loved the story's message to go to faraway places, live beside the sea and do something to make the world more beautiful. For Miss Rumphius that means planting lupines all over the country side in her later years.

Adventure, nature, finding home and creating beauty. What's not to love in a story like that? I've always said and I will repeat it again, one of the joys of raising children is the opportunity I get to read good children's books. 

~~~

If you are participating in Friday's Flowers linky list please consider the following:

• Your post should have a photo of a bouquet in it. I'm not going to be a rule task-master about this but the idea of Friday's Flowers is to bring them into our homes, or share them with others; to enjoy the bounty of summer's blossom both indoors and out.
• Your post should link back to this particular post on FIMBY. You get that link by copying the URL address from this window. If you are new to html you can contact me for assistance.

If you're just visiting today and want to know what's going on please read this post. Use the linky feature below to share your bouquet blossoms.

Pick some flowers, arrange 'em pretty, take a photo, post it to your blog, visit Friday's Flowers to share it with us.

Years ago as my children were transitioning out of daily afternoon naps I sought the advice of a mothering mentor about what I could do to get through those long afternoons. I wanted to know what she did when her kids woke up early from naps or when she needed them to be engaged in a quiet activity while working on her own projects.

She gave me one of the best hands-on parenting/homeschooling ideas I've come across yet. An idea that has saved my sanity many times.

Audio Books.

They used to be books on cassette tape but now you can find books on CD and MP3 files to download. 

We almost always have a story we are listening to. Not everyday mind you. Many days are full of other activities. But some days are quiet and relaxed, or it's been raining for a bit or is too hot to play outside (rare in Maine). Those are perfect days for listening to a story during the afternoon hours. 

We don't spend a lot of time in the car but now with summer trips to the beach, our csa farm and the u-pick farms we bring a story along to listen while we drive. 

My children are fairly close in age - 11, 9 & 7 and I usually look for books that are targeted to the middle of that range to best keep everyone's attention.

In our family audio books don't replace reading aloud, they are a supplement to our reading. I don't recommend electronic listening over the habit of cuddling together a little each day to share in the written word. 

Places to find Audio Books:

• Your local library - this is my first choice. Get to know your librarian and recommend titles you'd like them to add to the collection.

• Kids LearnOutLoud.Com - free and for sale audio resources. Includes the public domain LibriVox children's collection. We've listened to a few of Thornton Burgess' animal stories through this resource.

• Living Books for the Ears @ homeschoolradioshow.com - free weekly old fashioned radio show downloads. 

Post Update: Just today, on the day I posted this, inspired by my own writing (tee-hee) I dug out a bookmark I picked up from the library with instructions for using our library card to download audiobooks. I did a bit of searching and found hundreds of titles, some new and many of them classics, that we can download for free from the Maine library system. Yee-haw.

Recommended Audio Books:

• Jamie gives a list of age appropriate audio books on her post 4 Natural Ways to Learn on Vacation.
• stay tuned, more ideas coming

Where do you find (free) good audio books for children? What books do you recommend? I would love to add more ideas to my list.

This post is part of Steady Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge. (please note: I updated this post after publishing with Recommended Audio Books, so in the end I spent more than 30 minutes working on this post)