Solstice Fairies: Week 3

Linden tries on some dress-up glasses at our wonderful Sunday night dinner at the Leveques'

My goodness!  The solstice countdown is drawing to a close - today is, after all, solstice eve. Big things are afoot. There will be much to report next week, I am sure.  This week, however, on top of documenting the solstice fairy shenanigans (with, unfortunately, some not-so-great-quality photos), I have some other very special treats.  Enjoy!

December 13 (Friday): Today was a double header - it began with a morning playdate at Helen's house, and ended with a movie night.  Much fun was had at Helen's, complete with a good old-fashioned romp in the snow before we left.  I got loads of great pictures. Upon returning home, however, I found that I had neglected to put the sd card back in the camera, and therefore had actually recorded nothing. Domage! I do however, have an action-packed shot of movie night, taken mid-movie.  We opted for "Muppets Christmas", and I can honestly say I think all four of us enjoyed it immensely!

Nothing says "movie night" like popcorn, pjs and some knitting. I think that's Kermit in the reflection...

December 14 (Saturday): Today the fairies suggested we take a day-trip to Hyannis to take a ride on the carousel. This also meant braving the mall, and attempting quick pop-ins at places you can't go here, such as Trader Joe's, Joanne's, and the Cape Cod Beer Company. It was ambitious, and involved *some* frustration.  But at least there were, as promised, a number of much ballyhooed rides on the carousel. 

Mrs. style maven

Mr. Dapper.  Can't go wrong with a sweater vest.

December 15 (Sunday): Anticipating that we might all be a little worn out from our day trip, the fairies kindly left a book today, rather than planning an ambitious activity. It is a classic, and seemed very appropriate for the solstice season:

December 16 (Monday): This morning started off straggly, as Juniper woke up at 4am, and threw up twice.  I assumed it was going to be a rough day, and that the solstice activity would just have to be skipped or postponed. When she woke up again at 8am, however, she was right as rain, ate a huge breakfast, and was completely fine for the rest of the day. This was particularly great, as today's solstice activity turned out to be a huge hit.  The fairies suggest that Juniper create a book (perhaps holiday-themed), and include both story and illustrations.  This was a spin-off on oral story-creating that Juniper and I do all the time - I was reminded of it when Lauren showed me a book that her son Noah had made when we were there for dinner the night before.  Anyway, Juniper LOVED it.  She did all the illustrations first, and then decided which order to put them in, and then dictated the story to me as we went through it page by page:

The very first pages

Due to Juniper's chosen medium (watercolour), everything had to dry before it was assembled.  It turned into a full-day project.

Anyway, the result was so awesome that I decided that I should really include it in full here!  This is "special treat" #1.  Without further ado, I bring you Solstice Calendar in the House, written and illustrated by Juniper Richards, transcribed verbatim by me. All rights reserved.

(as best as I can tell, this is some abstract art for the title page)

Once upon a time, there was a lady chasing a gingerbread man

So, they saw a lot of smiles, and they wondered what they were. Then, they saw some balls.  Spooky balls.

Then they saw a forest. The forest was dark, and they saw spooky snowballs.  They saw big trees that had spooky eyes. They screamed and ran right home.

Then they saw logs.  Then they ran right home, because they were actually dinosaurs, not logs.  They knew this because suddenly they heard a ROAR. The dinosaurs ran after them.

They found an igloo, and they hid inside. The dinosaurs didn't see them. So the dinosaurs went home sad, because they had wanted to eat them, but now they couldn't. They threw up a lot because they were sweaty, sweaty, sweaty, sweaty, sweaty, and then they got cold and sick.

Then the lady and the gingerbread man saw a whale. They noticed they were in the middle of the ocean. And then a shark came and attacked them.  And then they ran straight home.

Then, they saw a fairy in the solstice calendar.  She was beautiful - all different colours. She said, "why, I've been looking for you!"  Then she flew away into the woods with them, and they lived together forever and for always.

There was a pond near where they lived, and one day they saw an alligator. It was scary, and ran after them fiercely. But then the alligator said, "why did you run away from me? I'm a friendly alligator!" "Ohhhhhhh!", they all said.  They became friends.

They were happy and they lived with the alligator.  Actually, it was a blue crocodile. THE END.

So, wasn't that amazing?  I hope she maintains the enthusiasm she currently has for it (and the great pride that she clearly felt in the finished product). It reminds me of how much I loved doing the same thing as a kid. 

Now, you may think that was already a lot to cram into a quasi-sick-day (I decided to not leave the house all day just to play it safe), but that was not all that transpired.  You see, I had just received a pair of hair cutting shears in the mail that I had ordered from Amazon, and was keen to try my hand at Linden's crazy mop.

The happy test subject.  Little did he know what was coming.

I semi-successfully gave Juniper a trim.  It was easy enough, really, and though I am now seeing lots of little uneven bits, on the whole you would never notice.  Linden, however, was a different story.  I mostly wanted to get rid of the crazy mess at the back of his head, and I thought I'd try shaping it.  Bad idea.  Oh well, if his hair grows as fast as mine (which it really seems to), then hopefully this ragged weirdly-sheared semi-bowl cut will be a thing of the past soon enough.  I may let Clark try his hand at it next time.

Clark tried to "fix" it afterwards, but not much could be done at this point.

 December 17 (Tuesday): Every year, we make a gingerbread house, but it has to be done in stages. The first stage is both simple and fun - picking out the candy to decorate it!  Linden and I picked Juniper up from preschool at noon, and headed to the local candy shop (it is one of the only times of year we actually go in, so it is a pretty big treat). As I was doing this alone, however, I decided that for everyone's sanity, I would strap Linden to my back and keep him there. He was incredibly displeased with this turn of events ("Take mittens off!" "See candy!" "Touch candy!" "I NEED GET DOWN!"), but the loud protestations were better than the alternative.

Like a kid in a candy shop...

December 18 (Wednesday): The fairies suggested it was high time that Juniper started making some Christmas/Solstice gifts. This was very good timing, as we needed to whip up a gift to bring in to Juniper's teachers the next day. Luckily, I had thought ahead, and had all the supplies ready for a huge batch of my current favourite granola (including some lovely glass jars to put it in). Juniper certainly helped, but as you might notice from the picture, she was also very busy dancing that evening. (The day previously, a "ballerina" came to Juniper's preschool, and taught the kids some moves from the nutcracker.  Juniper has been donning this dance suit and tutu every day since then).

Granola! 

December 19 (Thursday): Today we went out for dinner.  We actually hadn't been out to eat in quite awhile, so the fairies were correct in assuming that this would be a popular solstice treat. They had also assumed, perhaps, that the kids would be happy to go wherever we suggested.  Oh, those silly, naïve fairies. Juniper's eyes lit up as soon as she read the note, and exclaimed, "I want to go to Friendly's!!!" Oh, Friendly's.  For those who have not been, it is a very popular restaurant chain in the States, which serves food that can only be touted as *slightly* better than MacDonalds.  The draw, however, is their ice-cream. They have many, many flavours of ice-cream, and it is included as a central component of all kids meals. Also, the kid's menu (including food, beverages and desserts) has pictures on it, so the kids can peruse it and make choices for themselves.  Really, Friendly's is a kids's dream, and my idea of food hell. Anyway, we hadn't been to Friendly's in a VERY long time (over half a year, at least), due in large part to the many months that we had Juniper on a dairy-free diet following her awful stomach troubles in the summer. I had hoped that she had forgotten about it, but she had clearly just been waiting, oh so patiently, for the first chance she could as soon as dairy was re-introduced.  How could we say no?

About to embark on a culinary adventure

Perusing the menu

Linden was pleased with the choice of establishment.

And today?  Why, it is solstice eve! A very important day to be sure.  It will include, among other things, the choosing and procuring of a tree.  Details on that (and all the other wonderful things that will undoubtedly occur in this most magical of weeks), to come next Friday.  Until then, I leave you with treat #2: a few little videos.

Video #1: Linden has a rough morning.

So, yesterday morning was rough.  For whatever reason, Linden (usually a champion sleeper), had been up multiple times during the night, and then was up for good at like 5:30am.  He was exhausted.  I was exhausted. I was, I'm sure, more than a little cranky.  Linden, however, was completely out of his gourd. For some unknown reason, Clark thought it would be a good idea to let Linden watch a video while I was getting dressed, and he was trying to get Juniper out the door. This was all fine and good, until I (who had nothing, may I remind you, to do with giving him this video in the first place), told him it was time to turn the video off.  What resulted was the most epic, crazy tantrum I have ever witnessed in my entire life.  It went on for so long, and in so many different rooms and poses and manifestations that I eventually stopped trying to comfort or divert or distract or make him him laugh, or reason with him (all of which were making him angrier).  Instead, I opted to develop a sense of humour about it until the fuse burned out. The fairy wings he was sporting helped in this regard :) I also decided to snap a couple of video clips from it, and strung them together.  You'll be happy to know that he eventually snapped out of it when I suggested we play "boats"(the first suggestion that he accepted), and that after a long, long nap, he was back to himself that evening (I think all that ice-cream at Friendly's helped).

Video #2: Juniper the "ballerina":

As I mentioned earlier in the post, the kids had a ballet dancer visit their pre-school earlier in the week.  Juniper was clearly quite taken with her, as she has been donning her dance leotard and tutu every chance she gets since then. Her choice of music and moves might be slightly atypical in the world of ballet, but I can assure you that she fancies herself a ballerina in the making! Clearly we need to get her into a class of some sort to help fuel her enthusiasm...

Video #3: Some miscellaneous musical moments from the last month or so:

Friday Update: Solstice Fairies, week 2

Clark and Linden found some secret bridges on an adventure one day

Happy Friday!  The solstice fairies continued to leave things this past week, so I faithfully recorded and took pictures. 

DECEMBER 7: As it was a Saturday, this day was particularly action packed.  The fairies reminded us about the Renaissance Fair going on in the Village, and let us know that this would be a good day to start making some holiday cards. Somehow, we didn't make it down to the fair last year, but it was great fun - there were tables set up with people selling their wares, a whole room devoted to beautifully constructed wreaths for sale, and a "tea room", complete with homemade lunch items, treats, flea-market items, and a kid's corner.  Though I have no pictures from the fair itself, I do have some photos of the spoils:

Linden chose this headband from the flea market table. He was obsessed with it for three days.

Juniper also scored a headband. It is actually hugely useful in keeping the hair out of her face. Unfortunately, it mysteriously disappeared after only a couple days.

The beautiful wreath we bought. I couldn't resist...

… because of the beautiful juniper berries, of course!

After naps, we hauled out the sparkly paints (is there anything better than sparkly paints?), and started in on the cards. The kids got a good start, but I feel like this will be an ongoing project.  Perhaps even after solstice and Christmas have passed.  We'll see.

Hard at work

December 8: Sunday was the Christmas parade! The fairies, however, always feel a little bad about making the treat of the day be something that they had absolutely no hand in, so they also left some beautiful new festive clothes that they likely found at a nice consignment store.

Watching one of the many marching bands. (is that me?)

Posing with their new duds. Juniper's Bolero is the only new part of this outfit, but it is red and sparkly. Linden has new pants and shirt, and could basically be twins with his dad.  Except that none of Clark's jeans are fleece lined. Sad, but true. 

December 9: A day to make some salt-dough ornaments! Somehow the fairies even knew that there would be friends coming over to help. Really, it was quite a fun morning, and we managed to make the dough, roll it out, cut out the shapes, bake them, and paint them all in one morning.

The funnest part: the painting stage. (closest-farthest: Linden, Miguel, Helen, Juniper)

Close-up: Helen and Juniper

Two sweet blond boys: Linden and Miguel

December 10: Girls night! (and boys night!)  Girls night is an ongoing tradition throughout the year, but it is a treat.  So the fairies didn't mind making that one of the solstice treats.  Besides, a girls night means, by default, that there is also a boys night, so much fun is had by all.  Girls night involves going to Starbucks (really, the only option we know of that is open at night). We buy apple juice and tea, sometimes we get a treat, and we always bring a game of some sort (and maybe also journals and books depending on our mood). This particular night, we brought along a game of memory, and spent the evening playing multiple games.

Apparently, the boys also had fun.  They played some music, sang some songs, and watched a little "Dinosaur Train" on Netflix. I asked Clark to take a picture, but he "forgot". 

Setting out the cards

Action shot. Notice the beautiful sweater?  That was another one of the clothing items that the fairies left on Sunday.

December 11: This was another big day! Not only was there some freshly fallen snow in which to play (our first of the season!), but there was also a holiday party at the Woods Hole library in the evening.  Once again, however, the fairies felt they really didn't have much to do with either of these things, so they also left a couple of pieces of chocolate.  Organic fair-trade, of course. We made the mistake, however, of making the kids wait to eat the chocolate until after supper.  This meant after the library party, which meant directly before bed.  Linden was up until almost nine, clearly drunk on sugar, singing songs loudly to himself in his crib.  Ah well.

Snow!

Clark came home at lunch to play as well. Canadians and our snow, eh?

Ahhh… finally getting to strap on the good ole' skis

Linden tries the skis for the first time!

This is the kind of raucous good time one might expect at a library party. 

Enjoying her much-anticipated chocolate. This is vintage 80s dress that Yvon had saved from when his daughter was Juniper's age!

December 11: Games night!  The fairies even left a brand new game - one that they felt could be enjoyed by all four of us.  Though it is a modern twist of some sort (involving a "Dinosaur Train" theme again - what is it with Dinosaur Train, anyway?  It is a PBS show about dinosaurs that we stumbled across one day, and I unwittingly also bought them Dinosaur Train toothbrushes, and now this game.  Is it super popular or something?  Or is it just destined to keep appearing in our lives?  I don't know the answer to that question, but I'll keep you updated if I figure it out. *Edit from Clark: It's a show about dinosaurs and trains. What more could a kid want?*).  Anyway, it is basically the exact same thing as the good old classic "Trouble", complete with the dice popper. I figured if nothing else, Linden would enjoy popping the dice when it was his turn. Result?  I think it was a good choice, and that we'll end up playing it quite a bit. This particular round of it, however, involved a whole lot of trying to keep Linden from moving all the game pieces and incessantly popping the dice. We'll work on it.

Figuring it all out

And that's it!  I think I might as well leave today's solstice treat for next week's post, because otherwise there are no pictures to go along with it. Here are a few other pictures from the week.  Have a great weekend!

We warned Linden that he shouldn't be climbing on and in things that were not meant to be used in that way. He didn't listen. Then he got stuck. We let him sweat it out for a bit.

There are some very elaborate picnics that happen at our place.

Juniper and Linden both had to tuck their babies in before we left for the library party. They were still snuggling when we got back.

Friday Update: The solstice fairies

Often when things get too quiet, I enter a room, and discover untold atrocities.  Other times, however, I find this.

December is here!(?) This means that the solstice/advent calendar that I made last year has been hung on the wall.  More than simply adding some festive decor, however, this also means that I have the nightly task of coming up with something new and inspiring to be found within this calendar the next day.  (here is a picture of it that I posted this time last year)

The "Advent/Solstice" Calendar 

Juniper, now being the wise and savvy 4-year-old that she is, started asking questions about the calendar.
Juniper:  "So, does this mean that Santa comes by every night to put something in it?"
Tara: "Hmmm... I don't think so, Juniper... I think Santa only makes his rounds on Christmas eve."
Juniper: "Well then who puts things in the pockets every night?"
Tara: "Ummm... I'm not entirely sure how to answer that question."
Juniper: (thinks about it for awhile) "I think it must be the solstice fairies. But I'll leave a note and ask them, just to make sure".

Here is the note...

... and a picture of what Juniper imagined the fairies might look like

And so there you have it.  The magical beings that come out during the holidays are increasing faster than you can imagine.  Besides the old standards, we've now got a Hallowe'en Fairy, and a host of magical solstice calendar beings.  In any event, if I am going to spend the better part of December living up to the growing expectations bestowed upon these magical solstice entities, I figured I might as well make it the focus of the blog for the next few weeks, right?


DECEMBER 1: Lollipops.  We only got the Calendar out on the night of Dec. 1st, so the fairies had to retroactively leave something.  The kids didn't mind.

Yes, lollipops can make you THIS happy.

DECEMBER 2: The fairies left a note directing us to go on an adventure to find berry branches and other such things to make a solstice decoration for the door.  Here are some shots from said adventure:

Our first berry branch!  Juniper put Honey in her ring sling and took her along for the trip.

Taking a break in the woods

Juniper leads the way

The finished product!

 DECEMBER 3: Juniper was left a note suggesting that she find some things to plant.  This was not difficult, as a week ago she had found a seed in a seed pod that had fallen from a tree, and already wanted to plant that.  We also have a few avocado trees that I sprouted from pits that were ready to get potted, so I thought this would be a fun no-brainer. Did you know, however, that potting soil is almost impossible to find this time of year?  After a completely unsuccessful morning spent going from store to store, Linden and I found a mostly used bag in the garage, just in time for Juniper to get home from preschool.  Phew! 

Planting her tree seed

Potting one of the avocado trees.  We ran out of soil AND pots at that point.

 DECEMBER 4:  Juniper had been pushing the "what are these things?" question, so I decided to try and answer it in as meaningful and magical a way as possible.  What resulted was clearly an answer that was far too esoteric. 

Not only did Juniper not really understand, she also wasn't thrilled with her challenge for the day.  I had suggested she keep track of all the kind things she did throughout the day, and that maybe we'd write a note to the fairies, to tell them all about it.  When I asked her at the end of her preschool morning, however, her answer was not quite what I expected.

Tara: "So Juniper, tell me all the nice things you did today!"

Juniper: "Well.... I was going to throw sand, and then I thought 'no! The fairies wouldn't want me to!' So then I didn't".

Tara: Oh. Ummm - anything else?"

Juniper: "("so-and-so") pushed me on the playground, and I didn't push them back.

Ah well.

DECEMBER 5: Today was the day where we were to get out the owls that we made last year (from a kit from our good friend Zsofi), to continue with the festive decorations, and to make some snowflakes to add to the decor.  Juniper didn't stop there - she also wanted to make MORE owls.  So we had a very crafty afternoon, all said and told.

Before we put the snowflakes up, Juniper wanted to play the game where she threw them all up in the air and pretended it was snowing. More than a couple got wrecked this way, but look!  It really does look like it's snowing!

Here they are on the window

Juniper, making a new batch of owls.  Linden actually joined in later on, and made a pretty awesome one himself!

The new and the old, all hanging up together!  Up top is a branch we snagged from a Juniper tree on our berry branch escapades.  This is also where we will hang our Holiday cards, if we get any (hint! hint!). And just fyi, I have a feeling that the fairies might be designating one day very soon as a card-making day, so if you want one and think we might not have your address, send me an email! Longest picture caption ever!

DECEMBER 6: This morning was a package of (organic) gummy bears. The fairies were going to leave a note exclaiming over the excitement that we would all be going to the WHOI Christmas party this afternoon, but Clark declared that that was way too lame, and that the kidsat least deserved a treat if that was all they were going to get. So there you have it. At least they were organic, right?  So were the lollipops, by the way. Only the best quality sugar and dyes for our kids.

And what's been going on besides solstice calendars and the resulting shenanigans? A lot of knitting, for one ('tis the season, after all...)

Juniper, sporting her new hat and gloves

I make a pair of these for Clark every couple of years, so Juniper felt she needed ones as well. They are ridiculously cute on her.

I had originally made this for myself, but it ended up too small.  So I made another one for me,  which means, we now have (sort of) matching hats.  I even fleece-lined them!

Again, I made this hat to fit a head my size. I have no idea what happened. It is actually even kind of too small for Linden.

but look how cute it is!  I think I'll add ear flaps and a tie so that it will stay on properly.

Eating oatmeal and being cute

Story time on the couch

See you next Friday!