A week in Maui

Years ago, Hubby and I (and Ellie as a baby bump) took a "baby moon" trip to Maui.  At the time, a dear friend lived there.  She pointed us to all the best spots at the perfect times to enjoy an incredible trip well off the tourist trail, which we loved.  We have held that trip in memory as such an amazing, relaxing time that we have talked about going back ever since.

Alas, my dear friend does not live there anymore, but we are finally close enough (relatively) to consider a trip once more.  On a whim, we looked up vacation rentals and found one during the first week of our Spring Break, a little cottage right on the beach in a quiet, residential area of Makena.  Swoon.  Feeling crazy, we nabbed it (Hawaii $$ = eep!), booked flights (12+ hours!), and wondered just what we had gotten ourselves into.

Quite simply, we got ourselves into this:




The temperature was absolutely perfect: not hot and only cool late at night, warming quickly with the sun each morning.  Sunshine blessed us every day but one.  The sound of the waves lulled us to sleep each night.  Our internal clocks reset so that we all woke early to greet the day and closed the evenings watching the constellations rotate through the skies until we sought our beds far earlier than we could have expected.  It was a rhythm of waking and munching, snorkelling and water play, out for big breakfast, downtime during midday sun and later back to the beach for more playtime, more munching and happy exhaustion.

Aaaaaaahhhhhh.

We returned as jet-lag-wearied-but-oh-so-contented travellers to a forecast of snow and temperatures hovering around zero.  Spring is coming to our neck of the woods, but it has not arrived yet.  Until it does, I am trying to hold the sound of the ocean in my ears and the memory of sun on my skin.

No-sew valentines bags

Valentine's Day is this Friday!  Hubby and I don't typically celebrate, but the girls do!  Their school ensures that Valentine's Day means valentines for each member of the class, and a box or bag to carry them all home is required in advance.  I spied this adorable project a few weeks ago, but it took me until today to actually make it.  Thank goodness I did, because the girls love them…and they are due in the classroom no later than tomorrow.

The project directions are in the link.  For each bag, you will need a cereal box, felt, ribbon and copious amounts of glue.  I used a hot glue gun for speed, but a good craft glue like Aleene's would work well if you have the time.

In case you are searching for homemade valentine ideas, we shamelessly borrowed from DesignMom, making the lollipop photo cards and the animal cards.  There are quite a lot of great ideas for different kid ages and interests shown on her sidebar.  Other creative card ideas can be found on inchmark.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Sewing Halloween costumes

There is something vastly pleasurable in the sensation of sewing fleece fabric on a brisk autumn morning.  The fabric is so soft and cozy beneath my fingers, and I smile knowing how warm it will keep my munchkin in the days ahead.  The print is a bit wild, though.  I am sewing a tiger costume for my wee girl.



Unfortunately, my girls seem to have inherited my procrastination gene.  They only decided last Friday (under duress) what their Halloween costumes will be.  Of course, we cannot buy them.  For one, everything good has been sold out for weeks anyway.  For another, making them is so much more satisfying.  Thankfully, we have three whole days left before the deadline (ha!).

After much debate, our sweet Eleanor decided she wants to be a black bat.  She wants the costume to be as simple as simple can be "because my teacher doesn't like Halloween and I don't want my costume to upset her."  As thoughtful and sensitive as that reasoning is, I couldn't accept it and insisted she at least look at some grander ideas, still on the simple theme.  I want her to like it, not just her teacher.  Luckily for me, her friend was over when I pulled up this bat costume tutorial on MADE, and her friend gleefully proclaimed we had found the perfect costume.  Ellie scaled it back (wearing a hood or sewing shiny material on the inside were out), but then proudly participated in the making.  She helped draw the pattern onto the felt with chalk, cut as carefully as she could and then loved her first experience sitting at the sewing machine with me standing by (rather than her in my lap) as she sewed the detail lines in dark grey.



I added the arm loops and attached bat ears to a headband with a hot glue gun, and voila!  Now, I just need to track down a black long-sleeved shirt and pants for her.  I have two more days, right?



Stephanie wants to be a tiger.  Of course, not only are there no tiger costumes to be found, but there are no tiger costume patterns to be found either!  All sold out weeks ago, the sniggering lady at the fabric store assured me.  No matter.  I'm winging it.  I bought some tiger-print fleece from JoAnn's and am sewing a tunic, pants, a hood (similar to the MADE bat hood) and possibly mittens, if I can get it all done in time.  The pants are my favorite basic pant from Happy Handmade Vol 2, and the tunic is a basic peasant dress adapted from this tutorial.  Everything is cut and the pants are sewn.  If I plow through the school day today, I might just get it done!



My favorite part of Stephanie's as-yet-unfinised costume is her creativity applied to the idea.  When I brought home fancy fabric hoping to inspire Eleanor to bat wing enhancement, Ellie rejected it...but Stephanie loved it!  She immediately declared she wanted to be a flying tiger and promptly drew me a picture.  I love love love this.  I can't wait to see the result!



Will your family be dressing up for Halloween?  What costumes did you choose?

Acadia National Park

Last Wednesday, we disappeared off on our last hurrah before school starts again to Acadia National Park in Maine.  For years, Hubby and I have wanted to go.  The promise of sea and mountains in Maine in late August was too much to resist, so we headed up to explore for a few days.

It was just as beautiful as we had hoped, and the weather could not have been nicer.

We puttered around the top of Cadillac Mountain, swam in Echo Lake, wandered the low-tide sand bar in Bar Harbor, hiked to the summit of North Bubble, enjoyed a scenic lunch spot at Jordan Pond where the girls devoured the signature pop-overs and jam, and played at Sand Beach.















For the girls, the unbeatable highlight was the sea creature tour with Diver Ed.  Diver Ed and his wife, Captain Evil, run a family-friendly boat tour out of Bar Harbor.  The boat motors out to one of the nearby islands (we went near Burnt Porcupine, I think), and then Diver Ed suits up in a dry suit (the water is cold!).  He invited all the kids to come help give him and his heavy equipment a big push off the back of the boat, and then down he goes to the sea floor to find and collect small sea creatures to bring back up to show everyone.  He carries a video camera that is connected live to a huge screen on the boat so we can all see what he is seeing.  His audio equipment crapped out, so Captain Evil seamlessly (and hilariously) narrated his discoveries for us.  The kids especially loved his safety dive buddy, Mini-Ed, a Playmobil diver he brought along for size reference and fun.





We had three full days in Bar Harbor, where we rented a little vacation home through HomeAway.  What we hadn't realized is that several hundred other people also thought Bar Harbor in late August would be irresistible (the place was completely overrun for the first two days).  On the weekend, it cleared out as families went home to prepare for Back to School.

We are already talking about going back, but we know we'll try to make it off-season next time.  As Ellie said, "We just have to come back to Maine!  It's too good."

Ocean Springs, Mississippi

A week ago, we were in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.  It was once a small, sleepy town on the Gulf Coast.  My dad was posted to the military base near there when I started high school, and he loved the pace and the views so much that he returned for good after he retired.  He passed away the year Hurricane Katrina barrelled in and changed everything forever, but we still go back.  We go to see our Grandmary.  We indulge in cake doughnuts at Tato Nut, barbeque at The Shed, chicken salad at Martha's, and iced tea everywhere.  We savour the views and the peace and relaxation it brings to us each time, even when the pain of that horrible year comes back to squeeze and bite and hurt, because sometimes in feeling that much pain and sorrow, I am reminded of all the good that has come since, all that I have to be thankful for in the present, and of all the strength and peace that can be found, just when it is needed most.

Memorial Day in Sewickley

The Memorial Day parade in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, is locally famous.  It is a genuine, small town, homegrown parade including the local fire companies (thankfully not blaring their sirens), police cars, Girl and Boy Scouts, the local high school band, two bagpipe corps from nearby universities, and, naturally, local war veterans.  Cool weather helped bring the residents out en masse to observe this simple but meaningful Memorial Day tribute.









My father was in the military, but he never went to a war.  Nevertheless, I teared up when I saw two Air Force veteran officers marching proudly.  Fortunately, no one noticed as the kids were too busy scrambling for, trading and eating the little candies some of the vehicles tossed to the crowds.



 

Thank you to all who serve and the families who support them!  We are reminded that our freedom isn't free.  On this day, we remember those who have passed on and those who have fallen.

Crafting valentines

This was our first year making and giving valentines for school.  In Australia, this wasn't common practice and definitely was not embraced in our staunchly Montessori school.  Here, there is no escaping it!  Valentines is a big affair, complete with class party, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity for some crafting.

Ellie was very clear on her idea.  She wanted to glitterize candy heart boxes and attach handmade valentines notes to them with tape.  Alas, not one of my pictures of those came out.  She was so proud. I'm sure the glitter was a hold-over from all the Muses glitter just last week (and the class presentations about it this week), but I'm sure you agree everything is prettier with glitter.

Stephanie, too, knew exactly what she wanted.  She wanted to create valentines that could be laced by the kids who received them.  She wanted heart shapes.  She wanted liquid watercolours.  A bit of trial and error resulted in some seriously awesome valentines, I do believe.  We cut heart shapes out of thick watercolour paper and then used a sponge to paint on a layer of water.  Then, she could drip liquid watercolours on with small little droppers until satisfied.



How cool are these?!



Our hole punch is old and got the better of her, so I ended up punching all the holes in these.  I ran some gift ribbon through one valentine to get the measurement, pulled it out again and cut all the lengths we needed.  Then we just threaded a few holes on each valentine so they could get the general idea.



She was so proud of her work, and rightly so!  I only wish I had thought to cut an extra heart so we'd have one of our own to keep.

Homemade hot cocoa elf-ing

Our wee one's school finishes for the season this Friday, so we needed to get busy on little gifts for her classmates.  I was inspired by this post on Angry Chicken to make homemade hot cocoa mix in jars.  This is easily something our 4-year-old can do for friends with a minimum of adult help.

 

Amy's recipe was similar to Martha Stewart's: just sugar and cocoa powder.  She filled each jar about half-way and then topped it with mini-chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows.  We followed that pattern, but we used a different recipe.  I wanted something richer, and we found it here.  First, I double-checked with class moms to be sure no one had a dairy intolerance (otherwise, the sugar and cocoa recipe would be just fine).  Since it isn't an original recipe, I feel it's okay to repost.

Rich and fabulous homemade hot cocoa mix

3 cups non-fat dry milk powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Pulse the blend in a food processor until the white chocolate chips are reduced to a powder.  Store mix in an air-tight container for up to 3 months.
To make hot chocolate drink, stir 1/3 cup of mix into 1 cup of hot milk or water.



If you are interested in encouraging independence in your wee one, most stages of this project can be done easily without adult intervention:

• pour the measured cups into a large bowl
• stir the mix together
• pulse the food processor or simply press the "on" or "off" buttons
• use a small scoop (like a 1/4 cup measure) to scoop the finished mix into clean glass jars
• sprinkle the mini-chips and mini-mallows on top to fill
• place the lids on top
• screw the lids in place 

Photo gift tags

Scrambling to make the international shipping deadline, I wrapped these gifts today and realized the girls hadn't yet made gift tags for them.  On a whim, I selected special (several years old) photos of the recipients and printed them out as a contact sheet.  I cut wide borders around each and simply taped them onto the package.





Now, it's very simple to see whose is whose, and the photo memories are so sweet.
How is your elf-ing coming along?

Tea Advent calendar

Last year, I received my first "grown-up" Advent calendar from the wonderful Aussie Mum: a bag of tea for each day of December leading up to Christmas.  Such a simple idea but it felt so special, I had to return the favour this year and pay it forward as well.

Before Thanksgiving, I posted out four tea Advent calendars to girlfriends Down Under and two more stateside.  I love that my tea-drinking girlfriends will have a cuppa from me each day, a small daily reminder that I'm thinking of them.

With so many calendars in progress, I could vary the daily flavours quite a bit so I bought eight varieties of tea.  I wrote out the numbers 1-24 on white card stock and my girls helped me colour them in.  I stapled the numbers to each tea bag on the border and posted them out in a padded envelope.  For the one calendar that didn't need posting, my daughter helped me to redecorate one of the empty tea boxes, which made perfect packaging.

Tea Advent Calendar idea originated from Domesticali.  Thanks, Ali!

Halloween decoration

With my realization that Christmas is exactly two months away (eep!) came the realization that Halloween is less than a week away.  For the first time in a long time, we are in a country where this fact actually matters, and I needed to spring into action!

After stretching some fake spiderwebs around the front of the house and securing in place a large, non-creepy spider (my girls are small after all), I moved onto crafting.  At the start of the year, I offered to provide decorations for my daughter's second grade classroom.  I had seen cheesecloth ghosts on Pinterest last year, so today I gave it a go.



I was unable to find "liquid starch" as specified in the directions.  No one seemed to carry it.  I did, however, find heavy duty spray starch in the laundry aisle of the grocery story, so I sprayed that liberally and hoped for the best.  Check it out:



These are the coolest!  I can't wait to make more.  As I only have one soda bottle to work with as a support during drying, I shopped around for ideas.  My neighbor sent over a box of swag from her garden shed that I will try out.  Another idea is to place a ball of foil atop a paper towel roll for smaller ghosts.  We'll see how I go.  I hope to have plenty of these for the classroom...and some for our house too!

In Dubai

We made it.

Friday was an incredibly emotional day. Most of it was spent with me trying to suppress tears (because I discovered yes, it does upset and worry the children to see me cry about the move). On top of the emotion, the stress level has been ridiculous. Perhaps it's because it is the first international move with children old enough to know the difference. Perhaps it's because I felt so immersed in the community of friends I had made. Or perhaps it's always that stressful, but international moving is like childbirth: you forget how painful it is so you can do it again the next time.

At any rate, we made it. We are safe and sound in a parallel universe that is Dubai.

Coming from Perth to Dubai was a smart move. I think if we had gone directly to the US from Perth, the differences would have stood out so much that the sense of loss would have been more acute. As it was, when we boarded Emirates in business class, every link to our normal reality simply ceased. Business class on Emirates = lifestyles of the rich and famous. So much space! Flat beds (so kids slept 8+ hours of the 11 hour flight). Huge personal TVs with fabulous movie selections (I agree with the critics; Michelle Williams was fantastic in My Week with Marilyn). Then we arrived in Dubai, stood in the slowest-moving immigration line of my life (ironically, the Emirates fast track lane), collected our luggage, and opened the airport doors to a different world: a concrete jungle built on sand.

We are in Dubai for two nights to break up the flights for the kids. So much has changed in the six years since we were last here. The Palm was still being built then; today we drove out there in a taxi and visited the amazing aquarium of the Atlantis Lost Chambers. We couldn't resist taking the girls over to the Mall of the Emirates to see the indoor skiing (so surreal!). Now, they are happily splashing away in the hotel pool with Papa as I write this up, waiting for my pool-side lunch. Lifestyles of the rich and famous indeed!

Happy Australia Day!

Nice fireworks, Perth!

We especially appreciated the coordinated lightning storm.

We watched the display from the Mosman Park escarpment with a few hundred of our closest friends.

Happy Australia Day, everyone!

December 1st

Being a Northern Hemisphere person living a Southern Hemisphere life, I struggle with feeling Christmas-y when the temperatures climb towards summer. My girls, however, do not have this problem. They were up bright and early, decorating the tree in their pajamas before we could even persuade them to eat breakfast.

My mom selected the perfect advent calendar for our family, which arrived in the post just in time (yesterday afternoon!) not to miss a single day of advent fun.

And then my so-very-thoughtful friend turned up at our door last night with a gift in hand: a daily tea advent calendar just for me!

This Christmas season is off to a beautiful start!