Little Elephants » Nature

Maggie is the swan piper

Veronique Christensen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:26:37 +0000

Last night after dinner Maggie was practicing her clarinet and Tomas espied a swan (!!!) outside our kitchen door. Apparently, it really liked her sound. It hung around as long as Maggie played, and waddled off when she stopped.

It was pretty nerve wracking, waiting for him (her?) to cross our busy street. Eventually, a neighborhood birder came by & asked if we’d seen the swan, so we pointed her to where it was by the side of the street. She explained to me & the kids that our bay has just one swan couple now, so it was extra important that we save this one. She also informed us that swans could only take off and land from water (who knew?), so I directed her to the nearest inlet (and pools), and watched her shoo the bird in that direction.

I can’t tell you how thrilled the kids were, and how they all chattered excitedly about how their friends and teachers would never believe this without pictures:

Spring has sprung and it’s muddy

Veronique Christensen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:33:13 +0000

Yesterday was the perfect early spring day. The kids spent the entire day out of doors, on their bikes, playing hide-and-seek, and naturally… making huge mud puddles. Today we all have sun kissed cheeks and cheerful dispositions to go with them.

So odd to think that just a week ago we were digging out of a big snow storm.

February 28th:

March 7th:

Every month is bird-feeding month

Veronique Christensen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:44:11 +0000

My friend Candace has a great post up on Naturally Educational about National Bird-feeding Month which is under way right now where she shares a great bunch of activities to do with your kiddos.

In our house, we feed the birds year-round and have a special bird-watching corner in our kitchen that I do my best to keep clear of junk (a never ending effort). It’s one of my favorite spots in our home, especially early in the morning when the rest of the family is still asleep and I have a few minutes with my coffee or tea.

Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I catch the birds watching me

Spring’s on its way!

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:44:13 +0000

I just got my most awesome new camera strap from Erin over at House on Hill Road, and was inspired to head out to my snow laden garden to snap a few shots of melting snowmen. How happy do you think I was to discover these lovely bulbs popping up? Very! I’m assuming it’ll be crocuses (croci?), but the fun will be in heading out to see how they progress every morning.

I’ve been thumbing through my gardening books and catalogs, making my little plans for our vegetable & flower gardens this spring and summer. I can not wait to start planting! How about you?

Pip’s blog tour: Embroidered Bug Keepers

Veronique Christensen — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:57:20 +0000

So exciting! Today, we have a visit from Pip of Meet Me At Mike’s. Pip is on a blog tour and I was lucky enough to be picked for her first stop. For those of you who are new here, I hope you’ll stay a while & poke around a bit. I’ve plenty of fun activities for kids & grown-ups alike.

{for those of you paying attention to dates: I’m posting this on the 7th because Pip is in Australia, and her 8th starts earlier than mine!}

Here’s Pip:

…..

I thought a back to nature crafty tutorial would be just the thing for my visit over here at Little Elephants! Go look under rocks with the kid in your life!

…..

I am totally devouring the tales of writer Gerald Durrell’s childhood, so descriptively spun in books like ‘My Family and Other Animals‘. The young Gerald was forever catching bugs and other creepy crawlies, which he would then research thoroughly and (usually) return to their natural habitat. In honour of Mr Durrell, I thought you might like to craft up some bug-keeping matchboxes. They are the perfect accessory for the junior naturalist in your life. They are quick to make and you can also use them to keep little non-crawly treasures in!, if bugs are not your cup of tea. I borrowed my bug designs from the Charley Harper Coloring Book. These would make great party favours, too!

Embroidered Bug Keepers a la Gerald Durrell

Matchboxes
Calico or Muslin to embroider onto
Embroidery Hoop
Transfer Pencil
Bug Image resized to fit onto face of matchbox
Embroidery Floss
Needle
Scissors
Stapler
Iron and Ironing Board

First trace over your design using the Transfer Pencil

Next flip your tracing over and pin it face down onto your fabric. Make sure it is centred nicely.

Iron with firm presses to transfer design onto fabric. Don’t move the iron backwards and forwards or your design might move too!

Take a peek – without shifting your paper – to see if it’s transferred. If not keep pressing. Once it HAS transferred to the fabric, remove pins and paper and draw in any bits that didn’t transfer properly with a grey lead pencil or embroidery marker if you have one.

Pop the design over an embroidery hoop and stitch over your lines with small stitches. I used two strands of the embroidery floss to keep the details nice and fine.

Once done, trim all your loose threads neatly so they don’t show through your fabric later.

Next make the strip to go around your matchbox. Trim your fabric so that it’s 5″ long and 4″ high. Your embroidered design should be centred in the middle of this piece.

Go slowly so you don’t make any blunders. Head to your ironing board. Now, with right (embroidered) side down, fold each raw LONG fabric edge in to the centre so that the raw edges meet nicely and create neat folded edges at the top and bottom of your strip. Press.

Now fold just one of the short edges of your strip in 1/2″ and press.

Then wrap this whole folded and pressed ensemble around your matchbox outer.

Tuck the raw short edge under the folded short edge.

All your edges will be neat and folded now, with the embroidery centred nicely on the front of the matchbox. Yay!

Staple into place at the back, being sure it’s pulled nice and snug around your matchbox as you staple.

Go look for some critters to study : just be sure to return them to where you found them after you’ve done our investigating!

So cold out there!

Veronique Christensen — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:35:34 +0000

I can’t imagine all that ice on our windows can be a good thing, but it sure is beautiful, eh?

Impromptu snow cones

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:32:17 +0000

The kids begged and pleaded to make snow cones from the fresh powder that covered the landscape yesterday morning. I hemmed & hawed … we had no syrups in the house & wasn’t snow bad for you?

Well, it probably would have been bad for me in New York City where I grew up, but out here? It was pristine.

So I handed them a squeeze bottle of honey & told them to have at.

They were thrilled, and I had an extra few minutes of quiet to putter about the house.

Snowman kit

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:23:36 +0000

Tor was given the most awesomnest gift ever today — a snowman kit! One of the parents at Tor’s school made this set, and I need to meet them to tell them how much they rock.

The snow was too powdery today to make a snowman so I stuck the pieces in a big drift to give you an idea of what it looks like. After I took this picture, Tor went back outside to move the flower from “her” hair into “his” hand. Turns out our snow-drift is a he.

Each piece is hot-glued to golf tees that you just poke into the snow. The gloves are sewn fabric, and the carrot nose is a sewn and stuffed felt cone. The eyes and buttons are all Sculpy clay. So simple. So perfect!

Reindeer snacks

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:23:14 +0000

Bjørn’s classmate handed out the sweetest Christmas treat for his buddies at school yesterday — reindeer food!

Very simply, it’s oatmeal (uncooked!) with some glitter sprinkled in for the kids to scatter on their yards as a thank you to Santa’s reindeer for all their hard work.

I love this, and plan to send the kids out to dispense it when it’s time for us to bring all the presents out of hiding (between dinner & before the dancing around the tress dancing commences).

The poem reads:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

Santa’s reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home

I love paperwhites (and so do my kids)

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:22:32 +0000

Now that the weather has turned too cold & blustery to grow things in the garden, we’ve moved our efforts indoors. A couple weeks ago I bought a dozen paperwhite bulbs and had the kids help me plant them all in various sized bowls and two re-purposed clay yogurt containers.

Maggie has taken it upon herself to be the official waterer and they all delight in reporting on our flowers’ growth. Last night one of our plants blossomed and you would not believe the excitement!

This is such an easy way to bring a bit of green learning into the house and makes everything that much cheerier all around — even when it’s pouring rain outside as it is now.

I’m curious, how do you bring green into your home in winter?