the xylophone

as i already posted about the violin workshop we attended the past few days, here an other fun moment.
amos and i went for some short walks to forest hills cemetery. this wonderful xylophone was one of the sculptures in the cemetery.
we had fun playing and reading the words on the bars, making up our own verses.

a bit further in the cemetery on we also found the bronze nests,

the tree was just to wonderful not to be climbed. i'm sure we will go back and do some more exploring, be it for natures sake or finding trees to climb!

violin workshop

this week is shaped by the violin workshop we participate in. elias leaves the house by 7:30am, which is super early for our days, usually that's the time we start turning in our beds to get up some half hour later. naomi, amos and i are then having breakfast some time after eight, we are able to take it slower as we don't have to hop on our bikes before 10am.
we bike over to the park, as our violin workshop is held at an outdoor location. it's a lot of fun running around the woods and play surrounded by green trees and shrubs.
of course snack is the time the three of us don't want to miss so we show up for that and then start with masterclass for elias and naomi together with their friends. amos participates in the musicianship class he takes a little accordeon along, as he can't bring his piano, that works well. it's a lot of fun to experience how music is learned in such a green and natural enviornment. very playful and so naturally occuring for the children, just the way we really whished to be growing up. thank you to all the teachers who make it possible, to give ouf kids this fantastic opportunity.
once more living in the city doesn't mean we can't bike, we can! and we also enjoy the green spaces available, it seems like we live in a big park...

birthday garland

it started all out, with a creative burst last thursday. all of a sudden i felt inspired and energized to get started on a birthday project for our middle boy...
the cutting was fun, picking through all the small pieces or fabric with naomi's help.

the sewing went fast, everything had to be quick and i even found a long enough hemp string to sew all the little flags on to.

sunday morning, the first thing i did, was hanging the garland in our kitchen. it is still up and really brightened up my morning. sunshine with a hint of rain in the air, i didn't want to risk a drenched birthday party and our kitchen was cleaned up enough for the day.


mid afternoon, the cake all decorated and candles ready set to go.

we are blessed with a very deep thinker.... yes that's truly amos personality.
happy birthday 7 year old boy!

cuboro

our little friend a is loving the cuboro blocks. we all do, but he has such a love for them. it was very quiet for a long time, i had to check in a few times to make sure he was not missing. of course the nice hardwood blocks are great fun to build anything.
our boys as well as papa like to construct some fabulous marble tracks. it's definitely one of the most loved "toys" in the house. we got the basic set as a gift two years ago and have added some complementary since then. there is also a book with tracks to build, which is really a lot of fun too. it's a good starting point to branch out into all kinds of fantastic constructions....

naomi's quilt is done

it was so much fun quilting with the machine. doing all the swirls, or snails as the kids call them. the challenge was tho keep the stitch somewhat even in it's length. it was so quick, i was done a lot faster then i expected.

this is how the different squares look, uneven swirls which really give it a nice textured look.

the back is fun too. the fabric really plays well with the swirls and the stripes of different fabric are being softened with the quilting now done.
the satin binding is fabulous. naomi loves it's texture and that's what's count, at least for her. i like the colour and it's shininess...
i'm glad i had some of it left after the last quilt i did and it was enough, about one foot was left of the ready made stripes...
it's all done now and naomi has already used it last night, she loves it and i'm very happy too.

lego blocks

our friend came over for a quick visit after a trip to philadelphia....
we all looked at the tread she offered us! lego block candy!!!

the blocks didn't just look good, although the color was not as intense as the real lego blocks, but the sizing was very accurate and they even allowed us to build little things.
yes our friend is good for special surprises for the young at heart.
thank you c.

i looked at the candy catalog from branson, and wow there are some really fun and retro ones available, take a look yourself. and oops, i found an other place who carries them... candys confections

our neighborhood

a warm summer evening is seeing it's end....
there is not much more to say about this, we like to enjoy some spectacular sunset even in the city!
and this morning a new start with a very bright sun. we were out biking at 7:30am.... which probably done just a handful of days in the year. but it was nice, naomi and amos enjoyed it, and the racoon found it's friend again. (our friend a was the one really appreciating our early morning ride to his house...)

a game of bocce

there is a lot of thinking and strategizing going on in those busy brains. we had a fun evening with friends and all our kids pot luck dining and some very fun presentations by the kids.
a few games of bocce being played on the lawn with very involved dads....

lots of discussions and figuring out who's turn it is,
who's balls are closest to the boccino, of course there were the were real life and death arguments. it's a serious game and it involves all your strength, physical as well as mental. i'm glad it ended all peaceful and still exciting for everyone involved. definitly a game we have to add to our whishlist.

more sand

one more beach photo, i just liked when amos climbed onto the pail and ate his banana standing on it... here just his feet....
he is out at a little homeschool sleep over camp. organized by older homeschool girls, for younger kids at a friends house. we will all be invited for a pot luck tonight and i assume a little show of something or another done by the campers. they call themselfs "fort fidelity", i did ask what it stands for, but they don't know, just a fun name...
the parents got a detailed plan what the kids will be doing, wow so much organization! i was astonished, as the two girls organizing it have been so detailoriented and very diligent in their preparations. i miss amos, his fun jokes and just his wiggly presence is missing in the house!

at the beach

we enjoyed a good not too hot afternoon at the beach, digging and playing with hermit crabs. it was so much fun and just a big pleasure to sit and watch the kids and the water. we went to near by pleasure bay in south boston, which is very much a calm little sandy spot in the harbor. and we were fortunate that the wind was blowing in a direction (i don't know which one), anyway in order for the airplanes to not come into logan airport from the south. it usualy has been fascinating for the kids, but it is so loud and right over head, that i'm not left with very much joy for them.

midwifery in MA

i could almost not believe my eyes when i just recently came across an urgent matter about midwifery in MA,
the AMA has recently adopted a federal resolution to outlaw homebirth. it seems crazy that this bill could actually become a law, but homebirth, while a very tiny fraction of all births is increasing, and the obstetric lobby is not eager to share its territory with CPMs as they do in canada, the UK, or any other country with better maternal and infant mortality rates than ours.
so yes, midwifery is under attack. creating this bill will drastically improve working conditions for CNMs in MA and encourage more young ones to practice here and it will be the 24th state to license CPMs.
check out our blog for more info about the AMA homebirth resolution.
an other interesting site is the MA friends of midwifes.
this all sounds almost funny to me, but i'm really concerned and as i'm thinking of having a homebirth with my fourth child, i do care what my midwife friends have to deal with.
i'm right now seeing the midwife i have had for amos and naomi, but the wellesley birthcenter has closed as a birthplace and is left with general woman health. a few midwifes are working in association at the place but it seems rader sad, as all those babies will be born in a little hospital near by. i did really have wonderful experiences with naomi and amos at the birthplace a few years ago.

yard sale

today is yard sale day, and the kids have been preparing during the week.....
it's at our friends house and the money collected will go to a street children project in la paz. all of us have been excited and the weather is perfect for the event! i just stopped by at 10am and the very proudly the kids announced to me, that already 11$ have come together!
of course there will be home made lemonade, which we squeezed on thursday night before we had dinner with our friends. i'm so happy we have friends around the block, people we treasure to be with and have fun working together.

from here to there II

yes i did a second "from here to there" atc!
it was really fun and i'm happy the way it turned out. we went camping in the white mountains, through the rain and lots of water we traveled in our car down south into the hot and humid, sunny city of boston....

from here to there

i'm participating in creative mom's podcast atc exchange... it has really spurred me on to take out a few materials and get me going alongside my kids.
july's theme was "from here to there" and as amos was participating at a workshop in town at the MFA, we had to travel with the bus, from here to there as well as from there to here. so here is the result. earlier in the year elias was painting canvas sheets, we cut som appart to clue onto atc format cards. it inspired me to glue and colour with different materials, oil pastels, pen and pencil, and the little paper snip with the mfa signet on it. basically it is from here (green street, where we live) to the MFA (in town) with the #39 bus....

self portrait II

an other try on a self portrait, this time my feet with my beloved sandals on them.
it's kind of fun to experiment how those little photos turn out... the last one was all bare.

some more camping

being outdoors and doing this with friends is such a treasure. on our way home from the white mountains we stopped by a raspberrie farm. it took a lot of effort, as it was not really planned but joel with his GPS and the help of a farm stand near concord made it possible... the bounty was good and some of the berries went straight into our dinner dish, which was "birchermuesli" a traditional swiss dish, served either as breakfast or kind of a sweet dinner.
yoghurt, rolled oats, milk, finely chopped apples and any kind of fruit you have on hand, this time it was two nectrarines, a pint of raspberries, a banana and a lemon (just juice). top it with some nuts of your likeing and serve it cool on a hot summer evening, with a slice of fresh bread. mmmhhh!

camping in the white mountains

it was a very relaxing weekend up north in the white mountains of new hampshire. not that you would see all the rainy and wet hours in the photos above, but believe me, it was wet.
look at soul mama's blog.... it turned out that this family was putting their tents up just a few sites from us. i was delighted to see them, as this is one of the few blogs i really enjoy a lot. (hi amanda...)
we enjoyed a few hours at the river. the water was cold but the we enjoyed the splashing regardless. some music making in the afternoon and lots of birch bark burning by the kids.
some more photos tomorrow...

the week of swiming

(sorry, i lost elias's picture, it would have been him in the water, doing some newly acquired swim strokes...)

every morning this week the boys could go to free swim classes at stony brook pool. they loved it and the teacher was really fun and wonderful in taking every child at his/her skill level.
it's a dcr pool, which means, that's free and has life guards and is kept clean by them. a new discovery by us. not that i love pools, but the fact that the kids could go there with their friends and enjoy some very needed swim lessons was all it need to convince me.

we are getting ready for a weekend in the white mountains.... camping, hanging out and i guess some of us are ambitious enough wanting to do some real hiking....
we are planning to be back early next week.

red shoes....

i'm so thrilled about the latest buy i did....
already thinking of fall and colder weather, how can i not! i was stumbling upon these wonderful shoes from el naturalista. and what better, they were on sale at shoes.com! still not inexpensive but i will wear them for the next 10 years and decided that this is worth the money. i really like their "frog eco policy", which has focus on natural colours to dye their products, as well as the use of recycled materials.

transportation of choice

my bicycle with the trailer.... often we head for the garden now and we have to bring home veggies.... in this cases we can't go with the trailer bike, which naomi likes best. i'm so glad we got this trailer last year, after our burley got stolen (that's an other story!). with the bicycle it's the same my old beloved canondale was gone one afternoon last summer. a friend of mine took pitty on me and has given me her's. i loved it's colour from the beginning and realized that i really enjoy riding a woman's bike. i have not owned a bike with this kind of frame for about 20 years....
now as i'm pregnant i really apreciate the frame even more, it gives me so much more freedome to hop onto it and ride leasurely about town. i'm waiting for a little wicker basket to arrive for my lady's bicycle, a first for me too, i used to have very sporty attire in the past!

running

down the street at our so precious fountain park! yes in the summer it's the best place to go with kids and enjoy the water, within a reasonable walking time. enjoying city life...
there is lot's to be observed all the time, sometime it's a bit over crowded as you can imagine. some times there are two ice creme trucks competing with loud blaring music for the young customers...
most often i get to read a bit and to take some photos of who ever runs around and get's in front of the lens...
i have been enjoying "the box children", sad and very moving story. one more side of american rural life i guess...

picking up amos

last week amos was at the MFA school, participating in an art class. naomi and i dropped him off at nine and picked him up at 12noon. it was many times we walked up green street, hopping onto bus 39 and back. naomi often took a book along which turned out to be a great idea. one time we had to get off the bus half way, there was an evacuation, because of some kind of hazardous material on the street.... it turned out to be a nice 25 minute walk to the museum on the shady side of the street. we never really figured out what the hazardous thing was, just enjoyed to wave to all the firefighters and polic men. i'm once more glad we do not have to do that drop off - pick up life all school year long.... instead enojoy a good long breakfast and do lessons right after that in and around our house. we still get to walk up and down the street, ride public transportation and meet other kids in different kinds of settings, like geography club, or orchestra.

sailing

elias has been sailing all week long and he loves it!
the city of boston has a free program for it's residents age 8 and up, called courageous sailing. elias and his friend are able to walk down the road to the pond on their own and enjoy the freedom of being on a boat with an instructor and a few other kids all on their own.
now all tanned and happy about having acomplished to become a first mate and learning to become skipper... he is looking forward to be on the water again next week and the week after!

picnic at our garden

our garden belongs to bnan and they organize events at different boston community gardens. we all love these events, seeing friends, listening to fun music and enjoying our garden in a different way. our picnic consisted of pasta salad, ciabatta bread and iced tea. i was thrilled that the iced tea turned out so wonderfully refreshing. mint tea with fresh black raspberries and a few leaves of of fresh mint. all in a mason jar. i put them in the freezer for about 1h with the lid on and packed them as they were. something i will do again.

berrie breakfast

one more of those delicious breakfasts! i treasure our black raspberry bush in front of the house. it's still yielding berries every day. eaten fresh is still the best!

tonight i was in the garden, harvesting! broccoli, garlic, swiss chard and 7lbs green beans! as well as putting in some lettuce to cut in a few weeks, we will see how it does, as it is already mid july and realistically to hot for that kind of lettuce. but i felt like i wouldn't want to let the space from the broccoli empty and give the little summer cutter a try. o yes of course the first zinnia are also blooming, so i cut those in order to encourage more flowers...

unicycler 12

elias is still very enthusiastic about his unicycle and is making good progress. it's fun to watch him. he is now able to get up on it and do a few pedals on his own. i'm just amazed how he can balance on one wheel...
of course he is inspired by photos and you tube movies, there is so much people do on unicycles!

us

we had a friend visiting and she just happen to be a photographer....
it was a lot of fun to have photos taken of us as a family. as it is also something we usually deal with on our own and lately it has gotten harder. the boys love to make faces.
i'm looking forward to see all the photos she took of us and especially the kids portraits.
here we go...