Happy Birthday, Nico Fantastico!

My Love,
You are three today and we feel so blessed that we are yours and you are ours.
You take my breath away with your exuberance for life.
Yes, it makes a mama anxious how you jump into all things feet first,
with nary a glance at the consequences,
but it also inspires my admiration for how you embrace life and all that it offers...
All the world is yours to discover

You are a whirlwind
You are beautiful
You are amazing
You are so very loved, little Nico Lico.

I love you my precious boy
Thank you for choosing us

With all my heart,
Mama

Singin' in the Kitchen

Matteo and Luca spent an afternoon playing in the kitchen...

Matteo was cooking up something tasty

We set fruit on the table

Had a Cafe Fanny postcard for inspiration

Luca set the table

Matteo served up the meal

Here we go singin' in the kitchen

all together now singin' in the kitchen
Everybody singin' in the kitchen
bangin' on the pats and pans

Mommy and daddy singin' in the kitchen
baby laughin' singin' in the kitchen
All the kids singin' in the kitchen
bangin' on the pats and pans

- "Singin' in the Kitchen", Shel Silverstein

Wishing everyone a lot of happy singin' this weekend!

WIP Wednesday- Little Furniture

I've been obsessed lately with the look of Waldorf Kindergarten Rooms and how I can replicate some aspects of them into our home.

(I had asked Ivan if we could make the boys playspace look more like a Waldorf Kindergarten and his reply to me totally without sarcasm was "you mean it doesn't already?")

Many Waldorf Kindergartens have these gorgeous lazured peachy pink walls, which sadly, even as forward thinking as Ivan is, he probably wouldn't allow me to do at home, especially in the dining room which is the boys primary play space. What is really striking for me is the use of natural materials as playthings and furniture. So we spent the weekend gathering wood scraps locally to outfit our playspace.

We brought home two of these redwood stumps from a site where there had been some tree removal.

The boys and I had a splendid time removing the bark from the tree. As much as I appreciate the aesthetic of leaving the bark on, redwood bark can be quite messy and houses some little guests that I don't necessarily want also residing inside our home. I used a hammer and a cold metal chisel to loosen the bark and the boys quite enjoyed ripping it off :). We ended up saving the bark that came off in big pieces as the boys wanted to use it for gnome homes.

After taking the bark off, I moved this massive piece of wood onto to our deck to do the sanding... I mention this only because the darn thing weighs over 80 pounds and I nearly threw out my back moving it! I spent a bit of time sanding the jagged surface and edges. The wood was actually still a bit "wet" from being recently cut and I didn't want some of the pieces hanging to dry and splinter. Matteo told me that he thought the grain looked like a rainbow :).

I have a bit more sanding to do and I'd like to put a finish it. A toymaker told me his trick of mixing flaxseed oil and beeswax, coating the wood object and then letting it sit in the sun covered with a black garbage bag for a few days to let the finish bake in. But for now, my Matteo was anxious to use the table for his own tree blocks building


Once it's done, I'll have Ivan move it indoors where I think it can be various things, like a nature table, play table, kids chair or even turn it upside down to be a teeter totter of sorts. I love that this was something free from nature and that it truly can be whatever we imagine it to be....

What are some of you and your childrens favorite natural toys?

Thanks for checking in on my work in progress! I'm hoping that I'll have something smaller (and significantly lighter!) to share next week!

A Mama Made Fright

The awesome Annie seemed to sum up my feelings on the whole all night costume debacle perfectly....

"I'm so stubborn that the costumes from the MIL would tick me off and I'd stay up all night tonight too finishing costumes even they were sewn upside down and backward ;)"

So with all due respect for my mother in law and her very sweet intentions, after staying up all night to make costumes I was certain that some unwritten cardinal rule had been broken, that after you give birth, you have the right to choose all holiday attire for your children, until they can verbalize what they want themselves OR unless you abdicate that right to someone else (you can see that the failed prelaw student in me comes out when I'm miffed;}).

I took Wednesday night off to let off steam with Ivan and take-out Indian food and I did what I had to do on Thursday night to make the costumes wearable. By Friday morning, my boys were dressed and ready to go....

Matteo is giving his scary dinosaur impression, while Nico looks on woefully.

Yes, woefully. The poor kid hated the costume. I used "ecofelt" (aka recycled plastic crap fabric) because it was cheaper and I thought it would be OK for something that would be worn for an hour maximum. I think he is just so sensitive to textiles that it really, truly made him uncomfortable. It also didn't help that I snarled at him tersely beforehand that He.Will.Wear.That.Costume. Definitely not my finest parenting moment. It was a hard morning for my lovely, sweet son. While his friends danced and sang in circle time, he huddled up on my lap and as soon as the teachers announced that it was time for the Halloween parade (a walk up the block and back), Nico burst into tears. I felt really and truly horrible.

So I very gladly and happily helped him take off the hated costume that I was up all night sewing and we followed the others up the street, my Nico dressed just as his beautiful, lovely self for the Halloween parade.

Holding hands with his friend, the highpoint of Nico's Halloween Festivities

So this Halloween day, The Small Tribe will spend it in a very low key way. During the day, a walk to a friend's block party, complete with jumpy house, and an evening making popcorn, homemade candy and telling stories sounds like a perfect Halloween for us all.

Wishing you and your little goblins a Happy Halloween!

WIP Wednesday- Halloween Costumes at Midnight

Last night at 11:30PM

Last night I unearthed my sewing machine from the ungodly mess that is my crafting area with the understanding that I only had 35 hours until the boys Halloween parade at school and I had better get crackin' on the dragon/dinosaur costumes that I had promised them 6 weeks ago and for some reason I thought last night was Wednesday night, which gave me less time.

(Wow, that was quite the run on sentence, I guess that happens when you're blogging after sleeping for an hour)

Yup, stayed up ALL NIGHT to sew those costumes. Even managed to sew a sleeve on upside down... and they are still not finished. I was making so many mistakes by 5AM that I decided to put them aside and go at them again tonight.

Obviously I am delirious and sleep deprived, but for some odd reason thought this was worth posting.

The best part? My dear husband mentions to me this morning that his mom bought dinosaur costumes for the boys and would be dropping them off today.

I'm going to bed

Happy WIP'ing Wednesday to you all.

And the winner is....

*erin* from My Faery Garden! Congratulations, Erin! Please email your mailing address to me (pablohoneysf at gmail dot com) and the two-tier stainless steel lunchbox will be on it's way this week!

I cannot begin to thank everyone who joined the fun and left a comment! I was amazed and inspired by everyone's snack and lunch suggestions!

Kay from Luncharound was also extremely very thrilled that the word is out there about Earth and kid-friendly lunchbox systems that she passed along this little note with a coupon code for those of you who are interested in getting one and for local folks, places to find them here in Berkeley...

OK, So, I was thinking.... for those loyal followers of yours who wanted to have a stainless steel tiffin or oval, there are MORE ways to find them!!

Locals can now test-drive and feel the quality of the Zebra brand tiffins and ovals. I find that when someone actually handles this products or have their kids work the latches, they'll understand why we were so impressed and HAD to make them available for ecological minded folks in the States. These products are made responsibly in Thailand since 1967 using high grade as well as thick gage, stainless steel. As we've seen in the seen from the Sigg BPA issue, knowing how and where products are manufactured is just as important as the products intended use. Also the tiffins are designed to where a child can easily stack them on top of each other, where the bowls are interchangeable and the lid can be used on top of either tier (the pyramid types were found to be trickier for younger children as they had to make sure that the bigger tier was on the bottom otherwise it wouldn't stack and lock in place). The Zebra brand products are built to last- and I'm so happy to know that this simple, old school product will help encourage parents to think about how our children's lunch is being packed and try to make a conscious decision to reduce the amount single use disposables and plastics that end up in our city's landfills. Ok, enough preaching- Luncharound proudly distributes Zebra brand tiffins and ovals to:

Hannah's Children's Resale

1871 Solano Ave
Berkeley, CA 94707

Berkeley's Ecology Center Store

2530 San Pablo Ave (near Dwight)
Berkeley, CA 94702

On line shoppers can receive15% off by visiting:

http://www.goluncharound.com/

Coupon Code: SMALL15

*Luncharound does not ship international, but I can help you locate an on-line shop that will. Just contact me at: kay@goluncharound.com

Thanks for your support everyone!!!

Thanks again to everyone for the well wishes on my blogiversary and for entering my first giveaway... you've made this a fun celebration!

My Blogiversary, Some Ramblings and FINALLY, a Giveaway!

What a coincidence, I finally some time to sit down and blog this morning and realized that it's been a year since my very first post! So much has happened, our little Luca has joined us, Matteo and Nico are in school together and we suffered some heartbreak. Through it all, you have been with our family on this journey, rooting us on and holding my hand through the tough times. Thank you so much my dear, dear friends. In my wildest dreams, I never would have expected to make so many lovely friends, near and far and I feel so much the richer for it. I'm sending my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to you all.

So, a funny thing happened while our computer was down and I was on an internet break...

I really, really liked it

My house was a little cleaner, I caught up on some reading and most importantly, I felt more connected to my family. It was eye opening how much being online can take over mental space even when you're not on the computer. For me, it was less time to be writing posts in my head, surfing for the "perfect" toy for the boys for the holidays (because goodness knows, the last thing they need is MORE toys!) and reading status updates on people who I haven't worked with in a decade on Facebook. But what I realized as well is that I did miss communicating with my friends who are in my now. I missed visiting your blogs for inspiration and I missed just the online community of dear friends that I have. So I wonder and ask of all of you, how do you do it? How do you make that balance work of being fully present with your family and then having the time to be present with the world of friends online? As parents, we all have so many challenges when it comes to time management and I wonder how others do it (and still have time to craft on top of it all!).

I am rambling, and thank you for indulging me on my blogiversary.

I've been wanting to talk about lunch for a long time now (since it seemed like a fitting conclusion for food week) and FINALLY get to do my giveaway!


In trying to reduce waste and the use of plastics, this year the very wonderful and generous director of the boys preschool gifted every child with these oval stainless steel tiffin containers! One of the many reasons why we love the school is that the director and teachers help make the children become better stewards of our planet. I had previously been using a plastic lunchbox system which worked well, but I hadn't been entirely happy with using plastic and actually had been keeping an eye out for an alternate lunch solution.

Kay Glanchai, the founder of Luncharound is a parent (and in full disclosure, a very cool crafty mama who is in my Inspiration Circle!) who has researched very thoroughly and endlessly to find a lunchbox solution that was very earth friendly as well as easily usable to young children. I have to admit that I am a bit of a geek when it comes to the presentation of the lunches for the boys. As well as being nutritious, I want the lunches to be aesthetically pleasing as well (as Kay calls it "the feng shui of food") and she has given me numerous tips on how to prepare the food using halved avocado peels as little bowls, leftover baguette bags to wrap items in... she is an amazing resource for how to make fun lunches!

I wanted to share the wealth and fun and giveaway a set of the two-tier, stainless steel tiffin lunchboxes so generously donated by Kay and Luncharound (Thank you, Kay)! All you need to do is leave a comment (help a mama out and tell me what you like to make for lunch or snacks!) and I will randomly draw a number/name on Monday afternoon 10/26, 5PM PST.... and of course I would love it if my friends overseas enterred!


As befitting my procrastinational (is that a word?) nature, I will also sew 2 cloth napkins to send with the lunchboxes, but the winner has to swear not to tell others about my inability to sew straight lines :D... I had all these plans to sew them and post pictures, but well, you know...

Thank you so much for reading my long novel of a post, for your patience and understanding during my absence and most of all for your friendship this year.
I love you all!

(now PLEASE go leave a comment!)

xoxo, Marina