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The Fairies at the Spring Ball


Today Hazel and I had fun with our fairies. While she was playing other things, I made her some new flower fairies and we decided they were getting ready to go to a spring ball. Then I remembered my prize from a dollhouse contest I entered pre-Hazel that I hadn't done anything with since I had Hazel by the time I got it. I haven't done much with my dollhouses since having her, but will get back to it again soon hopefully. She loves playing with them. Anyway, we put it together quickly and I grabbed some fairy lights to decorate it and some rose petals and some of her tree house furniture. Then we had the ball set up. I've had a story going through my head so maybe I'll tell it to you and get it down on paper or at least on a screen.

The Spring Fairy Ball
All the young fairies were so excited to go the Spring Ball. They all were putting on their best dresses--nice fresh flower petals and all. Many of the youngest did not have their wings yet, but Little Pink Rosebud's wings had just grown in so she was really excited to show them off. As one of the smallest fairies she hoped having them would help her feel bigger.

Lily and Tulip had the opposite height problem and since neither of them had their wings yet, they felt a bit self conscience due to their height. They were a bit embarrassed to be so tall and adult looking without wings. Still they put on their prettiest flower dresses and did the best with their green hair.



The Iris Twins were very excited but were not happy they both decided to wear the same color flowers. At least their hair color would enable people to tell them apart and of course Francine's new hat would stand out as well. In fact many of the older fairies wished they had guided her on clothing choice once they arrived--especially Mother Hydrangea.
Mother Hydrangea was dressed elegantly as always and went to help Princess Forsythia and Princess Peony with their clothing selections.
Princess Forsythia took her notes directly from Mother Hydrangea's style. It showed, but she looked beautiful and loved her petal tiara.
Princess Peony was dressed to the nines using two flowers for her gown and her leaf tiara stood out so nicely.
All of the young fairies wondered how the ballroom would be decorated. They had all been by the grand gazebo before but never on a Ball Night. They couldn't wait to see it. Of course it was decorated with fairy lights, flowers, petals and some wooden chairs and a table for refreshments.

Mother Hydrangea escorted the princesses to their first ball. She then chose the chair next to the refreshments to watch all the young fairies dance the night away.
Mother Hydrangea could not believe it when she saw the Iris Twins. Francine's leaf hat was a bit large for her head. Tulip seemed to be blocked by it all evening.
Little Pink Rosebud was so excited to show off her wings, but she hadn't learned to use them yet to fly so she blended in with the pink rose petals scattered on the floor. Truth be told, Princess Peony blended in as well.
They all had the grandest time though. Now they cannot wait until their next ball. At the Summer Ball, the male fairies will be there to dance as well.


To make the fairies, I used a pipe cleaner, a fake flower (or two for some), some roving or yarn for hair, a wooden bead and some of the leaves from the fake flowers. For the smaller type of flowers I also used a piece of felt to make the dress and then decorate with the flowers.

Cut the pipe cleaner so you have about a third for the arms and fold the bigger piece in half. Stick both ends through the bead and push almost all the way up. Put yarn or roving through the pipe cleaner loop as hair and pull the pipe cleaner all the way down so the bead holds the hair in place. Now you can either put a piece of the flower on the pipe cleaners or add the arms (twist smaller piece of pipe cleaner around to be arms. Then do the opposite thing that you didn't just do. Dress in flower petals and then roll ends of pipe cleaners to be hands and feet and to protect little ones from sharp ends. (You can also wrap the pipe cleaners with embroidery floss, but this is time consuming and uses a good amount of floss and I decided not to bother this time. Hazel wanted to play right away. You may need to glue some of the flowers on to be hats, etc. Then for wings glue two leaves on.

By the way, we have been enjoying Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. It is about a girl who goes on a vacation to an island off the coast of Maine with her parents. They find in the woods a sign about building fairy houses and the rules of the woods. She of course builds one and checks on it each day to see if she can spot a fairy. Instead she sees various animals enjoying her house. It is a very cute book and has a great ending and then at the end has instructions/suggestions on building fairy houses in any season. Sorry I don't have a picture of the book, but apparently there is a series of them.

Huckabuck Bread, Felted Can Opener and Wet Kitty

Fluffy in one of her favorite places
Since we do not have school this week or next, I decided we would make Huckabuck Bread on our own. I have the recipe the teachers use each week. Somehow ours does not turn out nearly as good, but todays was pretty good. Hazel has been asking to make it at home for awhile. She was not happy about me taking pictures however. And she quit part way through on me.

Huckabuck Bread

Ingredients


Frothy Yeast
  1. Dissolve the honey in the warm water. Then stir in yeast. Set aside to get frothy.
  2. Combine the flours, salt, cinnamon and cardamom in a large bowl.
  3. Combine oil, molasses and honey in another bowl.
  4. Add yeast mixture to dry ingredients and combine. Then add oil mixture. You will need to mix with your hands. Then turn out on lightly floured surface and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes.
  5. Put into oiled bowl and cover with cloth and let rise for 30 minutes (I let it rise for over an hour).
  6. Punch down and knead on lightly floured surface and shape into rolls. Place on greased baking sheet.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. (I found I needed to bake it longer, but I was not using a small toaster oven like they do in the class.)
  8. Kneading the dough
  9. Serve with honey butter (ok, I didn't make the honey butter today, but we do have it that way at class).

Before Rising
After Rising
Out of the oven

I also made Hazel her can opener for her kitchen. I decided to needle felt it. I was trying to make it so she could turn the handle and spin one of the buttons, but my method broke after I spun it a few too many times (apparently).
I used a hook button for the handle and two round buttons for the cutters.

I think she will like it when she sees it tomorrow. What do you think? I made it the same colors as mine (except mine does not have anything wooden on it).

And our crazy kitty, Fluffy was hanging out in the sink again. This is the bathroom sink in what we call Hazel's bathroom (it is the main floor bathroom that is not the master bath). She actually lay there while the water was running for a bit too and then decided she wanted a drink. She loves to jump into the bathtub after we have showered or bathed so she drink the water or roll in it. She is a bit of a crazy cat.

Farms and Zoos

Broad Tailed Hawk at Drumlin Farm
We are trying, but struggling to get back into our weekly rhythm. With my parents here Monday morning still it seems to have thrown us off a bit. Plus Hazel was up quite a bit Sunday night--I think the excitement of the weekend got to her and now I'm sick as a result. Oh, well.

Happy Family Times #3

Well we had a weekend full of family times--well extended family times. My parents visited for the Easter weekend. Our plans were my mother, Hazel and I would do Easter fun day and a tea party at church on Saturday, and Steve and my father would go to the shooting range and shopping. Well we went to the Easter fun day. Hazel had a blast. They had several crafts and activities and then shared a story and then there was the Easter egg hunt.
Magnet fishing for prizes
Foam cross craft
Easter Egg Craft (she got tired of foam crafts I think)
Lamb Egg Craft (We did a bunny too but his head is missing)
There were temporary tatoos and a prize tower thing as well. Plus they decorated bags when they first got there to put all their prizes and crafts in. Then it was story time. The Best Thing About Easter by Christine Harder Tangvald was the story. It is a great story about all the things that we do for Easter--decorate eggs, the Easter Bunny, dress up, etc. and that the best thing about Easter is Jesus and His Resurrection. Then it was out to the front lawn for the egg hunt. Hazel LOVED the egg hunt.

She did a great job filling her basket! Of course many of the middle school age students helped her. In fact some of them dropped the candy they picked up in front of her so she would find more since she was so excited to find it. It was so cute.  A friend took pictures, but I haven't gotten the copies yet. Sorry! Then we went home to find the men back. After lunch and some play time with Pop Hazel decided she no longer wanted to go to the tea party, so she stayed home with the men. Mimi and I however had a great time. (Not great pictures, but a great time.)

Then we came home to find everyone napping. Guess that is why Hazel didn't want to go--she was too tired. However after nap time, we dyed Easter eggs. My mother and I hard boiled a dozen eggs. Then we had Hazel help us mix the colors. We used a Paas kit. I thought about experimenting with natural dyes, but decided to go the easy route this year. The kit came with nine colors!!
I tried to show Hazel about wax resist coloring, but she was more interested in put the eggs in. After we had colored the twelve eggs, Hazel recolored them. The men wanted nothing to do with the messiness of dying eggs. Hazel decided to use her hands and not the spoons or dippers, so she dyed her hands as well.
Then we had a light dinner and Hazel went to bed. The Easter Bunny came and left her basket in her bedroom in hopes of giving the adults some more time to sleep. He also hid the plastic eggs in the living room of our guest suite so whoever got up with her wouldn't have to worry about keeping her out of a room she usually can go into. She went to bed late due to her nap so she actually slept rather late. Then we had her egg hunt.


She loved it!! We had the best time watching her find the eggs. She skipped/jumped around the room. Then we gave her the gift from my sister. It was two of her favorite books. She jumped up and down and giggled/screeched with joy after opening it.
Then it was off to church for the ladies again. Hazel was dressed like she was with pictures of the Easter Bunny, but wouldn't let me take any pictures. Then we came home and prepared Easter dinner. Our dinner consisted of a Honey Baked Ham (the church had a fundraiser to buy gift certificates where the church got half the proceeds), mashed sweet potatoes and a salad. For dessert we had a carrot cake (which I bought at church back around Thanksgiving and froze). It was all delicious and fuss free! Then Hazel played with Pop.
Here is a picture of them this morning playing with little hopping plastic bunnies. My father is trying to show her how to do it. He got up with her almost every morning they were here. She loves spending time with him.

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.



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Easter Celebrations

We have had a lovely weekend celebrating Easter. My parents came to visit and Hazel has been in her glory. On Saturday we went to church for the Easter Fun Day. I will share more about this tomorrow, but while there she was given a gift from one of our friends.
Rainbow sheep that she needle felted and the book Rainbow Sheep by Kim Chatel. Thank you, Barbara!!
The book is a wonderful story about a shepherdess and her sheep. They live through a week of rain and are all muddy when a sad rainbow comes out. The shepherdess tells the rainbow how she stays happy--often using some imagination of what might live in the forest and water below. Finally she gets the rainbow happy--so happy she is laughing so hard she cries and turns the tears turn the sheep colors. At the end of the book are instructions to make the sheep. All the pictures are needle felted and it is a lovely book and story.

Then at church on Sunday Hazel was given another gift. A few weeks ago when Hazel and I were cooking she asked if I could make her a can opener for her kitchen. Ok, I haven't made it yet, but said well what would you open with it. We decided to ask our friend, Jack, to make her a wooden can. Well, he of course agreed and made her not only one can, but three and more.
They are all labeled with Miss Hazel's Soup or Hazel's Soup. One even says home cooked and made with love and kisses. Aren't they wonderful?

He made her an apple and some eggs as well as blocks and wooden balls.
Sorry the picture of the wooden balls didn't come out. But wasn't this a great gift. Needless to say, Hazel loves it!! Thank you, Jack and Donna!!

Hazel was also extremely excited to receive two books from her aunt. She got two of her favorites and recognized them when opening them from their backs. She got Ant and Grasshopper by Luli Grey and Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes. I posted about the Ant and Grasshopper here. We still need to make Ant's house for Hazel. We love Kevin Henkes books. We fell in love with his Little White Rabbit last year and then My Garden. This year we have loved his Chrysanthemum and Sheila Rae, The Brave. His writing always shows imagination and these two also show some normal children fears and life. For a short time Hazel's Ducky was named Chrysanthemum after the book's character.

Anyway, that is all for today. I hope you are having a wonderful day!! Tomorrow I'll share more about our family activities this weekend for Happy Family Times!