Life, Gluten Free

Happy Halloween!

Boy have we been busy! Homeschooling, crafting, and in general enjoying this Autumn season.

Sophie had her annual Halloween party with friends and it was a blast. For the cake, she wanted me to make a 2-layer vanilla bean cake. 

Above, Sophie painted the spooky cat at an art class! We love it.

We've been making pop-ups cards and she made a haunted house pop-up card for a friend.

If you need us, you'll find us at our craft table:

That's where we have been spending most of our days.

This morning we woke up to a small bit of snow, and we spent some time outside.

When we came in, Sophie had her usual post-snow warm coconut milk with cinnamon and maple (sometimes honey). This time there was a spider in it. Not really sure how he got there.

After that we made a fun, last-minute Halloween spider craft!

The spiders are our fingerprints, the web is watercolor resist.

We used dental floss for the spiders to hang from, and black embroidery thread for their little legs.

Happy Halloween! We hope you have a spooktacular day!

Okra stamps

We grew okra in our garden this year, and it's yummy. But we had a few pieces that were overgrown and too tough to cook.

So we made art with them!

You just slice the okra and use them as you would a stamp. We used paint, but an ink pad would work as well.





The inside of an okra looks like a flower, lending ittself as a tool to make flower art.

Sophie's okra art is hanging up on our art wall. I love her clouds and how she made a row of blue and red flowers.



I had fun, too!



Try it out if you have some okra :)

Summer Days

This Summer we've made memories, passed milestones, made discoveries, laughed and cuddled, faced challenges, made simplifications and reflected on what life is all about.

We've gardened (kind of. this year we haven't had the dedication to it like past years, rather we've spent our time on other parts of our lives).

rode a horse

spent time in the water 

 made fruit leather

 celebrated a 30th birthday

Spent time in nature, biking, taking nature walks

Sophie learned to ride a bike without training wheels (milestone!)

and she lost her two front teeth.

How's your summer? 

Roll a Pumpkin Game

Halloween is almost here and I wanted to share wih you a fun game that we've been playing.

It's fun for all ages, and we've even played it long-distance with family on Skype!

All you need is:

1) a pair of dice

2) paper

3) markers

4) the instructions which you can print here, which is courtesy of Julie at Happy Home Fairy.

Plus this game helps kids hone their counting skills!

One of our favorite parts of this game is when someone rolls a 10, which means you get to pick a person and draw a part that is missing from their pumpkin.

Like the picture above where my husband is drawing eyes on Sophie's pumpkin...

and this one below, where she drew a bunch of teeth on his pumpkin :)

Here's one of my pumpkins:

If you roll a 7, you have to draw a fun accessory on your pumpkin. We decided it could be anything-- a hat, scarf, earrings, hair, eyebrows, arms, etc.

It's a game with lots of laughs :)

Our Organic Garden 2012, Part 2

After working in our garden, I have dirt in my finger nails, dirt in my pockets, and a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. My husband and I feel like we're creating a strong foundation for our daughter.

We watch her picking weeds, searching for bugs, sampling the cherry tomatoes we're growing and we know that she's learning what life really means.

She's learning invaluable lessons; how to grow food, how to be nourished by hard work and that there's nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty!

Since our last post, our seeds have sprouted and grown! So far we have harvested zucchini, chives, swiss chard, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.

On those really hot days, we work in our garden later in the day - around 5 pm - accompanied by a nice cool breeze. As a result, we have seen some lovely sunsets.

Sophie has turned out to be an excellent helper in the garden.

Here are a few tips on gardening with kids:

1) Provide kid-size garden tools (shovel, hoe, rake)

2) Bring lots of snacks and water to drink

3) Pack a backpack with activities (books, drawing supplies, doodle pro)

We also bought Sophie a little bug examiner container. It has a magnifying glass, so she can gently put the bug inside and have a look. Then we let it back into the garden where it belongs.

So far we've examined earth worms, various beetles, a cricket, a grass hopper and an earwig.

One of Sophie's favorite parts of gardening is to help plant the seeds... and then of course, to harvest the fruits of our labor.

Do you garden with your kids? Share if you have any tips on gardening - with kids or not. :)

Allergy-Friendly Kids Snacks & Lunches: Gluten-free, Nut-Free, Dairy-Free

Summer is in full swing, which means we are out and about more. We love to go on weekly bike rides, work in our garden, go on homeschool outings, etc. And especially since we have food allergies and celiac, this means snacks and lunches need to be packed. We don't eat out.

Here are a few snack ideas from what we've packed recently.

1) Dehydrated banana chips, grapes, a plum and carrots cut into flower and heart shapes.

(Do you want to know how to cut carrots into hearts and flowers too?  I followed this simple tutorial for the hearts, and this one for the flowers).

2) Sliced apples, banana chips and black olives.

3) Two apricots, slices of nectarine, grapes and sugar snap peas.

4) Dehydrated mangoes, grapes, raisins, water, plantain chips and lettuce wraps (avocado, beans and olives) in our Goodbyn lunch kit.

I bought a GoodByn lunch kit when I saw them for a good price on Zulily. The Goodbyn is fun and holds a lot of food, and the kids can decorate it with fun stickers (included). It also includes a water bottle inside the lunchbox. The Goodbyn is definitely large, and is designed to carry a lunch rather than a snack.

I knew this when I ordered it, because I hopped on Amazon.com and read the reviews. Most parents said it was really bulkier than they had anticipated.

The measurements: 13 x 8.5 x 3"

Our Goodbyn works well when we are going to be out longer. If I want to make sure she's eaten lunch before we get home, so we can transition easily into nap time, then I will pack her Goodbyn with enough food.

Since Sophie rides her own bike really well now, we go biking a lot! The Goodbyn was just too bulky for bike rides, and it carried more food than we needed since we would have lunch when we returned home. 

So for small snacks we use our pink LunchBots Duo, which fits perfectly into Sophie's bike basket :)

5 Water Games to Play Outside with Kids

 

We brought out our melissa & doug caterpillar sprinkler this weekend to enjoy the sunshine. This morning, Sophie decided we should head out and play in the sprinkler again. It's in the 80s today, so I decided that sounded like a pretty good idea too!

While we were playing, we created some fun games.

1. Water Chalk

This is an easy take on DIY chalk paint. Simply place different colored chalk sticks in the path of your sprinkler. Once the chalk sticks get wet in the sprinkler, you can use the wet chalk sticks and "paint" with them on the side walk. You can compare and talk about how the texture of dry vs wet chalk is very different. A lot of fun!

2. Chalk Shoe Prints

Once our chalk sticks were wet, we used them to color the bottom of our shoes (Sophie had keen's on, I had crocs.. her keens worked a lot better because they have a nice texture, my crocs are way worn out). It left little shoe prints all along the side walk in a nice pink color. It's the little things :)

3. Chalk Race (Sophie deemed this her favorite game)

Once you get to the end of your chalk stick, toss it on the wet sidewalk and squish it with your bare feet. We took one pink and one blue to make two teams. Team pink and Team blue. Squish your feet nicely into the chalk and then race down the sidewalk. You'll leave colored foot prints along the way!

4. Max Liquidator : a "water gun"

Sophie and her dad picked out one of these Max Liquidators at our local toy shoppe and for some reason, I went along with it. I like that it's a "water gun" but it's not shaped like a gun. And it's a lot of fun, but mostly when you are the one soaking everyone else. Suddenly, it becomes less fun when you're the one getting soaked. Go figure.

We also like to use it to clean chalk from the side walk. And it does cool off the feet nicely. We use a bucket from the sprinkler to fill it up with water.

5. Water the plants as fast as you can

This isn't really a game, but we wanted to conserve some of the water that we were wasting while the sprinkler was on so we put buckets under the sprinkler to catch some of the water. We watered our flowers and herbs and felt a bit more earth friendly.

Do you have any favorite outdoor games to play? comment & let us know!

5 Fun & Educational Gifts for Kids

Still doing your christmas shopping and need a gift for a kiddo in your life? Look no further.

I visited The Stubby Pencil Studio and put together 5 great gifts that are fun, educational, non-toxic and inspire creativity. Gifts that you can feel good about giving!

Here is a sample of what you will find there:

Do-It-Yourself Kaleidoscope Kit - ages 3+

Tea Party Puzzle - made from 90% reycled paper, ages 2+

Creative Scissor Pack - Ages 3+

Glob Natural Blends Paint - biodegradable botanical ingredients, ages 3+

Finger Printing Art Kit - ages 3+

Honestly, it was hard picking just five items! I could go on and on.

Okay just one more. Real quick. #6 Jumbo Felt Pens. I may have to break down and get these soon! What a fun stocking stuffer.

Visit The Stubby Pencil Studio and check it out for yourself, while you are there be sure to check their bonus + specials.

You will be pleased, I guarantee it!

*PLEASE NOTE*: I was not asked to blog about The Stubby Pencil Studio. I have ordered from there in the past, I love the product selection they offer and I want to support them by spreading the word. This post was my idea, and it was not sponsored in anyway.

Pumpkin Hopscotch

Not to toot my own horn but I had a stroke of genuis. My daughter wanted me to draw her a hopscotch, and since it was a nice cool fall day.. I thought... why not make a PUMPKIN hopscotch?!

Yes. Hurray for orange chalk.

All I did was draw circles instead of squares, and I added green stems!

We love pumpkins!

And hopscotch!

Then we went on a scavenger hunt...

3 flowers, 1 rock, 1 stick, countless mini leaves

Welcome Fall :)

What our garden grows

Pumpkins, kale, tomatoes, onions, potatoes - oh my!

What fun it has been to have a garden this year.

Next year we hope to rent two plots!

The pumpkins make me really happy. I love pumpkins, and I have a bit of an obsession with them.

Every Fall, our house is decorated (inside and out) with a lot of pumpkins. And this year, the pumpkins will be ones that grew in our own organic garden!

Growing a garden is also a great lesson for young kids. My daughter has become a good weed picker and we have seen more bugs than ever.

Ladybugs, crickets, grass hoppers, praying mantis and an array of bettles in different shapes, sizes and colors.

When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson