We have had a weekend unlike any other, and there is much to tell, and so I will start at the beginning of the weekend, which for us is Friday night. Friday night we visited the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens for the Garden Aglow. The Gardens are a two minute walk from our new house, and so after dinner the Girls and I walked over for quick look. Nina had mentioned this event a couple of times and we did not really know what to expect, and it turned out to be a lovely outing. There were hundreds of hand carved and decorated pumpkins – jack-o-lanterns of great creative diversity. Some were carved by local students, some by the garden Volunteers, and some by the general public. Entry was free, which is always nice, especially when it is near bed time and we do not want to stay long. Food and beverages were available to purchase. There was live entertainment, a hay bale maze, and a hot air balloon that was being inflated by a giant fan. We were able to go inside the balloon, which was really cool as it was largely orange and so it was like being inside a giant pumpkin!

Garden Aglow is for one evening only each year around Halloween, from 6-9pm. We arrived at 6:30pm and there was a large crowd already in the gardens. We walked around until 7pm and like clock work Elle became tired, so we soon made our way back home again. It is a great family event, definitely a thing we will do it again next year.

Happy 3rd Birthday to our beautiful Girl, we love you so much, you are our sunshine.

I started an exciting Art project with Maya’s class today  that I will work on with them throughout the rest of the Kindergarten year. A few weeks ago I had the idea that I wanted to paint a tree on the classroom window, and then make  seasonal items with the Children to decorate the tree. I ended up painting two trees as I liked the way it would look for the trees to form an arch in the windows. Being Fall, the first item to go on our trees was to be golden leaves….so today, Elle and I spent an hour and a half with Maya’s class, painting and making leaves. Made from yellow and orange tissue paper, painted on one side with red acrylic paint, and then glued together with a piece of yarn for the stem. It was the perfect project for them, simple and quick, and as a whole very effective. I loved spending time with the Children, and I am quickly learning all of their names. The Children enjoyed this task and it is a lovely way to decorate their classroom – with relevance. At the end of the lesson, when the Children left for their Music class, Mrs O, the Teacher’s Aid, said, “Can you come every day?”. I said I would like to come once a month, and they talked me into once every second week. When we return from Australia, the leaves will come down, and Winter snow flakes will go up…I am looking forward to Spring, during which I plan to sew felt flowers with the children, and grow wheat grass at the base. Then Summer it will be green leaves and toadstools. Hmmm….what else shall our trees have…birds, bees and butterflies I think!

We are starting to repeat some of the hikes we have been on previously, and while the tracks are technically the same, the scenery is starting to really look different because of the change of season. We are in the midst of Autumn now and the colours of Fall are all around. Yellow, orange and red are replacing green on all but the evergreens. There is much stomping and clomping through leaves, and what was once shrouded by leafy growth is now a view with much greater distance.

Last Wednesday we went to Eagle Rock Reservation. We walked along the Bridal path to a lovely moss covered stone bridge. There we sat for our delicious homemade snack. We worked on a rock cairn, and then made our way back to the cars, the same way we had come.

This week Wednesday is once again predicted to have rain – we have rescheduled our hikes many times lately to work around the rain, but we have decided we will try hiking in the rain with the Girls. Raincoats and rain boots packed – after all it is only water! It is now cool enough to pack a thermos and so I am bringing hot chocolate to keep tummies warm. We shall see how we go on our first rainy day hot chocolate hike…I wonder where Anneliese will choose?

Jump, spin, dance, sing, skip, twirl, laugh…

This is what you do when you get rainbow ribbon wrist bands…

Here is the next item for Maya’s Rainbow Halloween Costume – rainbow ribbon wrist bands – you will see I followed her design exactly! Created in much the same way as the fancy Wrist Bands I made for her 5th Birthday. I sourced the ribbon from here, which has a good, reasonably priced range of ribbons. I used felt for the cuffs, and velrco as the fastening. I think the crown and the cuffs are a really lovely set, and would make a great Birthday present for friends…and honestly, making anything rainbow is a delight!