Here We Are Together

In memory of Greatgrandad Peter,
1923 – 2009

This friday we are grateful for the time we spent together,
the memories we made,
the time the light was just right , allowing you to see your greatgrandchildren,
all the stories that we will tell about you, (like the time you asked Sue where the potatoes were, to go with your Spaghetti!)
all the ways we, your children, grandchildren & greatgrandchildren will always remember you.
You will be missed,
we love you.

We found the most lovely dark red leaves on one of our walks,
so we thought of this little project to use them.

You will need:

leaves
brown cardboard paper

How to:

Cut a hedgehog shape out of the paper,
brush glue onto it
& glue on the leaves.

(if you press the leaves before you glue them on they will stay flat & not curl up when they dry.)
Draw a little face for your hedgehog,too!

♥

A very special dinner for just the two of us, long after the family dinner, long after the little one’s bed time.

One of the best things about being a grown-up .
♥

We always want to use up every last little bit of our vegeatbles & fruit, we don’t like to throw things away (& rarely do) , so we find new recipes & try new things.
(This just might be the reason for those 62 beet-root muffins that currently living on our dinner table.. aehm..)
So when we got far too much rhubarb for anyone to eat, we came up with this:

This is a really simple & sticky sweet Rhubarb Syrup.

The Recipe:

You will need:
500g Rhubarb
2 cups water
3 cups sugar (white sugar will make pink syrup, brown sugar will make brown syrup)

How to:

Cut the rhubarb into 2 cm long pieces & cook those with the two cups of water for half an hour.
Pour the mix through a sieve into another pot, add the sugar & cook that for another 5 minutes.
Pour it into glass jars, close them & turn them upside down.
Let them cool down upside down as well.

Use one tablespoon for a tall glass.

Hope you like it!
♥

With all the lovely vegetables that are growing on the fields (& in the garden!) at the moment , we really want to remember how colourful & bright they are.

Whenever we cook something that has lots of vegetables in it, we keep the things you would usually throw away,
like the ends of carrots & zucchini, & use them for printing.

To do that we use some paint, some water & some paper.
With a paintbrush, mix the paint with a bit of water,
then just print!

Looks great!

Have fun,
♥

Today, when we went to the pond behind our house we did not expect to see what we saw.
We were visiting the ducks, to be specific Emi’s favourite, the “Cow Duck” (he’s black & white , obviously..).

After we were watching for a while , Cow Duck suddenly started quacking very loudly & dived down, came back up & dived down again, this time bringing up something from the water.
At first we could not see what it was, but when Cow Duck picked it up a little more we could see it exactly,
it was another duck.
Cow Duck was holding the young duck by the back of it’s neck, holding it’s head out of the water , trying to bring him to safety.
After a few moments the little duck started to move again & managed to swim on.
What had happened was, that one of the giant carps living in the pond had pulled the duck under water,
& Cow Duck had saved it’s life.

Cow Duck, moments before saving a life:

We were all really surprised, we never really thought about a duck drowning, or one duck saving another duck’s life.
Did you ever see anything like this?

Wishing you a lovely weekend!
♥

This week has been so very lovely,
we have had so much fun enjoying the weather, even the rain.
This week I am grateful for

the lovely games that have been sent over from germany

this pie that we made from lovely vegetables fresh from the farm:

This very detailed picture of balloons flying over the park on their way to the big city (!)

& the fact that we never did paint that last little bit of Emi’s bed, I think it actually looks very sweet like this!

What are you grateful for this week ?
wishing you a lovely weekend!
♥

ps// thank you to my lovely husband Anthony ,
who made the beautiful Grateful Friday banner that you can se at the top of every Grateful Friday post!

I am a bit worried about sharing this activity, but I know that you are all sensible enough to keep your little one’s safe during this.
I remember doing this in kindergarten when I was about 3 years old, but I also remember my best friend Sarah accidently setting fire to me, so it’s up to you to decide if you think your child is old enough to do this activity.

You will need:
Colourful candles
paper
paint

How to:

Let your little one paint the paper with the paint,
as colourful as possible :

Now it’s time to light the candles.
Carefully drip the wax onto your paper. Help your little one with this as much as possible,
remember to keep hair out of the way!
You might also choose to do this part alone.
Wait for it to cool down.

You can cut out shapes & decorate your windows!
It looks great with the sun shining through!
(please excuse the state of our windows, who has time for cleaning, anyway? aehm… )

Please be safe & do not let your little ones do this without your supervision,
& never leave your child alone with a lit candle.

( I light the candles in another room so that Emi does not try to figure out how to do it herself.)

♥

If your house is anything like ours then you go through a lot of paper.
Because we don’t like being wasteful we recycle most of our used paper into new paper.
(You can buy a paper making kit here )
Another very nice way to recycle all that paper is to grow some wishes.
To do that you will need:
Old paper
pen
cookie cutter (we use a star, as they seem most magical)
water
seeds

How to:

Have everyone write one of their wishes onto one piece of paper,

then tear up the paper & put the little bits into a bowl of water to soak.

Fill your cookie cutter halfway with the wet paper & sprinkle in your seeds .
We use one seed per wish , & like to use seeds that are actually useful, like tomato seeds.

Let your wishes dry for one day & then plant them in a small pot with moist soil & wait for them to grow.
Who knows, your wishes might come true..

Have a lovely day!
♥

I thought I should share this sweet little activity with you,
it keeps my little ones quite busy & the results are pretty,too.

You will need:
Paintbrush
White glue,
salt,
spices that look interesting, for example curry or a spice blend
colourfull paper (we like black & blue)

How to:
Use a paintbrush & glue to draw a picture or random shapes onto your paper,

then sprinkle the spices over it!

Just let it try, the white glue will be invisible then & all you have left is a nice smelling picture with lovely colours & sparkly salt!

Enjoy!

♥