Preparations

And so...the preparations begin for the big celebration. His birthday is actually next week, but because of memorial day and the move, we're celebrating on Saturday. I'm a bit nervous about this one because it's his first kid party, but mostly because at this age, he gets it. He knows this celebration is for him. He's very excited about it and tells me so several times a day.

When I asked him a few months ago for ideas regarding decorations etc., he gave me these instructions:

• "some fishies"
• "some worms"
• "some balloons"
• "and some cake"

I think I know where his soon-to-be-three-year-old mind is going with this so I'm:

• covering the windows with blue film for an underwater effect
• hanging paper fish from the ceiling
• hanging green crepe paper like kelp
• getting lots of balloons and trying to make some look like jellyfish
  

And with inspiration from THIS MUST-HAVE BOOK by Elaine Cohen of Cupcake Caboose , I'm making two kinds of mini cupcakes...





one topped with worms and the other topped with fish!











(Photos by Zeva Oelbaum)

The favors are red beach buckets...












and inside are little octopuses that I made from dyed work gloves and vintage buttons; a bottle of bubbles; a sea shell shaped chocolate; a fishy tote bag that I made; and a copy of the mix cd that will be played during Satchel's party.








On Friday eve Satchel's grandma will arrive and we will have a lantern walk on the trail along with a birthday eve story and in the morning a trail of paper stars leading to a special pre-party breakfast - ideas adapted from The Birthday Book! This beautiful and touching book has page after page of meaningful ideas and traditions to celebrate birthdays.

Satchel chose three friends to invite. We will be playing a few parachute games and singing songs from The Birthday Book, before painting some wooden wiggly fish. Afterward we'll break out our super-duper bubble making devices.

Lastly, Satch will carry his *Hugg-a-Planet Earth around a lantern three times to represent his three years (another idea from the beautiful aforementioned Birthday Book). I'll be making paper stations on the floor to mark the seasons and make the passing of time more vivid. After Satch completes a year I'll give him a photo mosaic from that year and on the third cycle we'll all sing Happy Birthday and eat cake!

*By the way, what I love about the Hugg-a-Planet Earth is that it inspires such wonder. Every time Satch picks it up, he searches fervently for Antarctica because that's where the penguins live AND Australia because that's where the kangaroos live! We have regular globes up in the studio, but there is something wonderful about this soft and huggable, Earth! When he gets older, I imagine that we'll be making up some geography toss games. Check out the whole hugg-a-planet line here! And if you enter "Peace Please" at check out, you get a 10% discount!

I'm signing off so I can ruminate over the upcoming events. Did I mention that I accidentally sent one of the invitations out blank? YES! Now you know why I'm worried. I guess my "Inner-Martha" was sent to prison. Can I blame it on sleep deprivation?

Have a good weekend, everyone!

*To our new and much loved friends (if you're reading this), these plans were made before we met your beautiful souls, but we hope that you will join us for our next celebration!

What the Note Said

"Mama I made you sumping...it spells DEAR MAMA LOVE SATCHEL!"

A Certain Part of the Day

There have been parts of great beauty that produced squeals of delight for the gosslings that crossed our path...and tender parts with tiny hands rescuing fistfuls of caterpillars from the tennis courts...and parts of wonderment at having discovered the tiny Red-banded Hairstreak Butterflies (Calycopis cecrops) at the playground with Satchel's friend H...

and parts that left me slack-jawed and the only thing that came to mind were these words by Walt Whitman (from Leaves of Grass)

"There was a child went forth every day,





















And the first object he look'd upon,














that object he became,















And that object became part of him






























for the day or a certain part of the day,





















Or for many years or stretching cycles of years."














-Walt Whitman (There was a Child went Forth)

Most Alive Monday: Lets Get Shakin'!

"jump up clouds are passing
look up the sky is laughing
I know we'll be laughing too
jump up I want to dance with you" - Dan Zanes



Satch had front row seats to see Dan Zanes & Friends play in Bethesda. We purchased tickets about a year ago. Life is magical, my friends! This marks the beginning of his 3rd birthday extravaganza!












He had this stunned look on his face as if he couldn't believe that Dan Zanes was really in front of him. For the first few songs, he hid his face shyly into Robert's side. Then I scooped him up and danced with him in my arms to "Polly Wolly Doodle", after which he relaxed, but remained rather serious.

He clapped at the end of the songs and waved bye bye to the band when it was over. He noticed that Dan had the same exact harmonic as his which excited him and so he wanted to play his harmonica all the way back to the car. He clutched it tightly and only released it to put on his first concert shirt that he insisted on wearing IMMEDIATELY! (small photo above)

OH and the concert was amazing...children and parents rocking out together...dancing in the aisles!















But don't take my word for it...check out this clip that I took...


And if that wasn't cool enough...we had the extra pleasure of seeing the talented (and totally hot) Derick Grant dance his beautiful heart out. (sigh)




And I'm feeling quite giddy this morning because my ribbon stick is featured on Crafty Crow!


*About Most Alive Monday: I've decided to make at least one "most alive choice" each day and post my favorite each Monday. This, of course, is to motivate me to consciously "live juicy"! I hope you'll join me and share your "most alive moment" in the comments section so we may inspire each other.

You may also post photos of your "most alive moments" in my most alive flickr pool! (If you post a photo in pool, be sure to include your link in the comment)

What's Up With Pocket Tees Anyway?

I have a question for all you crafty mama's out there, but first the story:

Thoroughly disgusted with the lack of imaginative clothes for boys and completely appalled by the use of camo in children's clothes, I've been trying to Satchelize my son's threads. I bought some cool trim from SuperBuzzy and tried to trim the pocket of one of his t-shirts.

• First I tried Heat-n-Bond no-sew adhesive and it didn't work!
• Then tried two pieces of Heat-n-Bond and it didn't work!
• Finally I just sewed over the darn thing...because no one really uses that pocket, right?
  

Well, wouldn't you know the first thing Satch said when he put on the shirt was, "Where's the pocket, Mama?"

Now the question:

• Any ideas how I can trim the shirt without sewing over the pocket? (It's too small to fit over that thingy that enables one to hem etc.)
  

Have a good weekend, everyone! We're taking Satch to see Dan Zanes this weekend...this marks the beginning of the birthday festivities to follow.

Some New Kind of Air

"You can tell what's worth a celebration because your heart will pound and you'll feel like you're standing on top of a mountain and you'll catch your breath like you were breathing some new kind of air" - Byrd Baylor (I'm in Charge of Celebrations)
















Satch recently began drawing what I call prim-peeps (primitive people) or headfooters and he was so pleased with himself and his new discovery that he could draw something symbolic, something anyone could recognize...I just had to find a way to celebrate the moment.

The shirts above were inspired by a project from the wonderful book, Making Stuff For Kids. I transferred Satchel's drawings onto the pocket of his shirt and embroidered over it. I tried two different stitches, a back stitch (left) for his pencil drawing and a split stitch (right) for the thicker crayon drawing.

Making Stuff For Kids is packed with simple and imaginative projects to create with and for kids. The chapters are compiled by skill level (teeny talents - tough cookies). My faves are the amazing floating bookshelf and the whimsical wall decals, both of which I will certainly be making at the new nest. And the tutus and tea-towel dresses for wee girls are just darling!

We've been having some yucky rainy days and so we've been spending our time crafting and playing and making to-do lists of future projects. I'm always on the qui vive for new ideas and I recently discovered a few more gems...

This book has a tutorial for an adorable cardboard castle that is on our to-do list. The tutorial for bottle cap shakers inspired an idea for a beaded curtain that I've been working on for the window in the play/living area of the new nest that we're moving to in June (photos to come). And I'm absolutely wild about the tutorial for rag coasters. They look like mini rag rugs...very colorful, very folk-artsy!

Nature's Art Box has a nice collection of nature crafting that includes instructions for some very magical fairy houses and textures stones as seen all over blog land. I can't wait to try the fern print t-shirt and I'm sure Satch will enjoy the hammering process needed to create it.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Pupa

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious" - Albert Einstein














A dying bug, crawled in from the outside. Though it was clearly on it's last leg, Satch looked at it with his magnifying glass, insisted it was just fine and marveled over it for some time before putting it outside. "I miss the bug", he sighed several times, but his longing gave way to joy when he found several tent worm caterpillars trying to cross the sidewalk. We carried them home and made them a house in a jar with some leaves and grass. He calls them the "Cah Bears".






*Note the allergic shiners!













I did a bit of reading on how to care for the pests...I mean critters until they pupate and complete their life cycle. It seems that they feed for up to SIX weeks before pupating and the pupation can take 2-4 weeks before the moth emerges.





















I was going to set them free because I didn't think Satch had the patience for this pupation, but one had pupated over night. It looks like felted wool! I wish I had it on film.















I set the other caterpillar free and we're going through with the pupation project.

On that note...Satch has two new favorite bug books that I would like to share:

This story, based on a song by Phillip and Hannah Hoose, teaches tolerance and respect for diversity. Hey, Little Ant has been featured on Reading Rainbow and in Teaching Tolerance Magazine.

Roberto the Insect Architect is a story encourages children to build their dreams. I love the message of the book as well as the funky illustrations. But what I think I love most of all is the line on the last page, "Be Creative!"