Baby Shower #2

Time for another fun baby shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our newest addition. My friend put on a very adorable mad tea party baby shower for me. We had a blast playing fun games like "Paint the Humpty Dumpty", "Painting the Roses Red", and "Guess How Many Tea Bags". Also, everyone had to wear a crazy hat, and I was thrilled with how almost everyone participated. Great hats!

It was smaller, quicker, and less overwhelming than the first baby shower, for my son. This was great! The first one was huge and exhausting. Yes, this one was exhausting also, but not as bad. Again, however, we were fortunate to get just about everything we needed. A small handful of things are still left to buy, which gift cards and returns should cover.




I was going to go all out with a hat of my own (as my friend designated me the red queen) but I ran out of time and I made myself a headband instead. I loved it, it turned out great and wasn't uncomfortable or hot. When I got home my son played with it. He had seen me wearing it all day (he wore white rabbit ears) and he wanted to wear it all night. Perhaps this is what our daughter will look like.



He also helped me try out all the new baby gear as I opened it up and found a spot for everything.

Garden Crafts

Just a couple days later and we were able to get our plants going. I got the great idea that we could start some Earth Day gifts while we were in the gardening mode. That was a crafting adventure for my son while I planted my new herb garden in the front yard. I've never actually planted in a yard before.

We bought some peat pots, seed starting soil, and grass seeds. With these supplies I sat my son down in the grass. I placed all the pots out on a tray and instructed him to fill each one with dirt. He went to work and made a mess, but had so much fun. It's just dirt, and the grass outside didn't mind. When he had filled them all up I helped him add seeds to each one and then fill them all with water. I talked to him the whole time about how grass was going to grow and then we could give them out as gifts, and we named each person we would give a pot to. I hope 4 weeks is enough time to give them as Earth Day gifts.



For my side of the gardening, I had basil, sage, cilantro, and rosemary for my herb garden. Separately in the garden I got a lavender, tomato, and aloe vera plants. With my fancy new dollar store hand tools (which did break as I used them), I went to work digging holes, placing plants, and filling with amend soil along with our own. I also got these cheap metal fences from the dollar store and they decorate and separate my herb garden. I am proud of the work I did, as it was my first time. I hope I can keep them alive.

Ostara Celebrating

Pagan celebration time in our house usually means craft day. That's always a good time for my son. The boy loves arts and crafts, and I am thankful he does, as I do also. I try to figure out fun nature activities we can do for each sabbat to honor the Gods and the Earth. For Ostara this year we made potato stamps, painted eggs, and bought some plants for our garden. I am determined this year to get into gardening and composting, so that was a gift to myself kind of, in honor of mother earth of course.



It wasn't until after our crafts were done that I learned the easy way of making potato stamps. The easy way is to press a small cookie cutter into the cut side of each potato, and then use a knife to come from the outside and meet up with the cookie cutter shape. At that point the outer edges will (ideally) come right off leaving a great clean shape. What I did was very similar. The difference was I tried to carve out the shapes instead of using a cookie cutter. But looking back, I don't currently own any cookie cutters small enough to have done the job. They still came out pretty cool, and my son still liked using them. Maybe not as much as I did though.

Painting eggs was fun. Dad even joined in on the fun. He's not pagan, so the fact that he did that meant a lot to me. Neither of us are going to convert, but it is important to respect and celebrate the others tradition and beliefs. In my opinion. So, he painted an egg. We painted 6 eggs to decorate our home. I did one, my husband one, and our son 4. We all had a good time. Thank goodness for the washable tempera paint too, as our son found the carpet was the best way to remove the excess paint. Versus the large paint towel under all the crafts that is.

Happy Ostara, happy fertility. We will be planting the new additions for the garden just as soon as the weather is nice enough.