Happy Valentine's Day

 Happy Valentine's Day!  We received this adorable little peg doll in the mail we won from Mama West wind's Valentine Giveaway on her blog.    Please head over there today she is hosting another giveaway this time for Margaret Bloom's new book, "Making Peg Dolls", Two of my favorite bloggers and crafters working together!

 I have really enjoyed making peg dolls, they are fun and fairly easy to craft and they make such wonderful additions to stories and nature tables.  If you have not seen Mama Westwind's peg dolls on Etsy, I really encourage you to visit her shop, I am so in love with her Spring Bunnies, wouldn't they just be perfect for telling "The Carrot"? and a perfect addition to a Spring Basket?

We celebrated Valentine's Day today in Playgarden,  And keeping with the peg doll theme, I gifted each of the children with a Valentine Gnomes.  

I didn't really go all out for Valentine's Day this year, as we are preparing for Eoghan's 2nd Birthday on Sunday and his party on Saturday.  But I did cut out some hearts from the littles' watercolor painting and they glued tissue paper on them to make our kitchen feel a little festive.  I also strung some from fishing line to make a little mobile.

Today was bread making day and stone soup day in Playgarden so I created a little Valentine's Day story inspired by Stone Soup:

Two gnomes were wondering how to celebrate Valentine's Day, one gnome thought making soup with their friends would be a great way to celebrate.  The other gnome agreed and went into the Deep Deep Woods to invite all of his woodland friends to join their celebration. 

 First he went to Squirrel's tree to invite Squirrel to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Squirrel was very excited to be invited to the celebration and scurried off to gnome's house to add an acorn to the soup.  The acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and it smelled delicious!

Then Gnome went to Rabbit's house to invite Rabbit to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Rabbit  was very happy to be invited to such a wonderful celebration, and decided he would bring one of  his carrots to add to the soup.  Rabbit scampered off to Gnomes' house to add his carrot to the cooking pot.  The carrot and the acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and it smelled delicious!

Next Gnome then went to Deer's Meadow to invite Deer to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Deer too was excited to be invited to his dear friends' celebration.  Deer decided she would bring Kale to add to the soup and bounded off to Gnome's house to add her kale to the cooking pot.  The kale, the carrot, and the acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and it smelled delicious!

Gnome went to Bear's cave last (as bear was often sleeping) to invite Bear to their Valentine's Day Feast.  Bear thought this special celebration was indeed worth waking up for.  Bear decided to bring honey to sweeten the soup.  Bear lumbered off to Gnomes' house to add the honey to the cooking pot.  The honey, the kale, the carrot and the acorn bubbled and boiled in the cooking pot, and now that all the friends had gathered, they enjoyed their soup, and it was delicious!

After we baked bread and enjoyed our soup there was free play outside, and some of the children told their own stories.  I didn't take any pictures of our craft or bread but you can see a roll under Eoghan's boot in the picture lol and Lisa is holding the felt wands we crafted today.  The thought was to make heart wands but most of the children asked to have diamonds instead.

Knight and The Lady Giveaway

Don't miss out on this amazing oppertunity to win these beautiful works of art!  Enter Castle of Costa Mesa's Giveaway here.  Can't you just imagine the beautiful stories this couple would inspire?

A Birthday Gift

 My dear friend's little boy is turning 4 tomorrow! He's grown so much this year, has really turned into a little man.  He began his first year at our local Waldorf School and has really blossomed there.

Despite my friend's repeated attempts to ask her friends and family to refrain from gifting her son with media based toys, she lamented over the mountains of Transformer and Batman toys her son received this Christmas feeling defeated.  He loves those toys, but she has worked really hard since he has started at The Waldorf School to try to introduce him to toys that encourage more open ended play.

I know how hard she is struggling and how she feels nobody is taking her request/concerns about the media toys seriously.  So I decided to gift her son with a story.  I needle felted  a carrot, knitted then felted a little mouse, and knitted a chicken, a horse and the cutest little gnome I ever did see (if I do say so myself).

The story is inspired by this story which is inspired by The Giant Turnip, I believe.

One day horse saw what looked like a enormous carrot growing in Farmer's field, deciding this carrot would make a fine lunch, he tried and tried to pull it from the ground, but could not loosen it from the earth. 

Chicken saw horse struggling and came over to help, Horse and Chicken pulled and pulled but could not loosen it from the earth. 

Mouse watching the goings on, came to help. Horse, Chicken and Mouse pulled and pulled but could not loosen it from the earth. 

Mouse said he would ask his friend, Gnome to help. Mouse tapped on the earth and asked if gnome would help.

 Out popped gnome explaining, "I didn't know you wanted the carrot, I've been tugging on the other end this whole time!" 

So gnome came to help. Horse, Chicken, Mouse and Gnome pulled on the carrot and it popped right out of the earth, but horse fell onto chicken who fell onto mouse who fell onto gnome.

 Horse got up and said," I'm sorry chicken", Chicken said, "I'm sorry mouse" and Mouse said, "I'm sorry gnome". Nobody was hurt so they all laughed and enjoyed one enormous carrot  for lunch together.

I am so in love with the way this little gnome turned out.  I think I am going to knit up a few more in different color ways, I forsee my very first give away in the very near future.  The pattern is the same pattern my friend Claudia used for her second grade students and is available on her blog.

A Gathering of Friends

This is such a hectic time of year and its easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle, the shop shop shop, eat eat eat....and not to say we haven't done our fair share of shopping and eating, but today we slowed down and celebrated the simple things, beautiful music,  the magic of story, shared food, and lovely friends.

We moved some furniture outside around the firepit

Listened to some traditional Christmas songs on the Cello

Then Gathered for Story Time.

I so love "Waldorf Puppet Shows"  I really enjoyed seeing this one, C called the children to circle with a little tune on her glockenspiel then lit the candle with such reverence as she sang a sweet little verse.  Then she slowly unveiled her beautiful felted story apron that was covered with silk. She told us a sweet little story about many forest creatures making their home in a mitten the children had dropped after Hulda had shook our her feather comforter and covered the land with snow.   When the mitten could hold no more animals, Whiskers the mouse sneezed and one by one all the animals tumbled out of the mitten.  It was so very sweet and the apron was just lovely with little pockets for the animals.
I really think this was the best day my children have had this holiday season, I am so lucky to have such a wonderful community to share it with.  Many blessings to you and yours this holiday, may it be filled with magic!