A Story for Springtime

Eostre, the Goddess of Springtime, was bringing Spring to the land when she happened upon a young girl who was weeping in the forest. The girl had found a bird who had frozen to death in the snow. Taking pity on her, Eostre went to the girl to bring the bird back to life but Eostre could not save the bird's wings so she turned the bird into a rabbit instead.

Having once been a bird, the rabbit retained its ability to lay eggs and every Spring thereon the rabbit would lay eggs in all the bright colors of Spring as a thank you to the goddess Eostre for saving its life.

And that is the story of the Easter Bunny and the tradition of why we decorate eggs in bright colors. Eostre was the Goddess of Springtime and fertility hence the further symbolism of rabbits (procreation), eggs (fertility) and chocolate (aphrodisiac).

Day and Night Divided

Today is the Spring Solstice, otherwise known as the Vernal Equinox. The day is said to bring us equal portions of both day and night. So on this day, earth is considered to be truly in balance. Are we?

A very simple and beautiful way to celebrate the return of the Sun is to create transparencies out of card stock and colored tissue paper. The light shining through the cut outs is a beautiful symbol of the return of the Sun and reminds us of our own light within that can shine through to the outer world through our being.

Simply draw and then carefully cut out your design, attach tissue paper to the backing with tape and place your creation in front of a strong light. You may even like to attach it to a window so the sunlight can shine through it during the day. This is a wonderful activity to do with children and they come out quite beautiful. They can be kept very simple with just stars, moons or suns or you can get a bit more involved with your project.

Here is an old Native American Legend you can share with the children on how Day and Night were divided:

After the world was made, some of the animals wanted the day to last all of the time. Others preferred that it be night all of the time. They quarreled about this and cold not come to an agreement. After awhile they decided to hold a meeting and they asked the great Bear to preside as the judge.

The Bear proposed that they vote to have night all the time but the Ground Squirrel said out loud "Wait! I see that the Raccoon has rings on his tail divided equally, first a dark color and then a light color. I think day and night should also be divided equally like the rings on the Raccoon's tail."

The other animals were very impressed with the wisdom of the Ground Squirrel and they quickly voted for his plan and divided day and night just like the dark and light rings on the Racoon's tail, succeeding each other in regular order.

The Great Bear was furious! He was so upset with the Ground Squirrel for taking over his position that he thrust out his paw and scratched the Ground Squirrel's back with his sharp claws. This is why all of the descendants of that Ground Squirrel now forever have thirteen stripes on their backs.

The End.

Dee's 18th St. Patty's Day Party

This year we celebrated Dee's birthday on St. Patty's Day! What a fun holiday to celebrate a birthday on. I am mostly all Irish and growing up St. Patrick's Day was almost as big as Christmas.
I absolutely LOVE how pinterest makes it possible to find such amazingly cute ideas to plan a party. We made Shamrock Jello,

A Pot of Gold Leprechaun sign,

Irish Beef Stew, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Veggie Shepherd's Pie, a Baked Potato Bar and had SO much fun decorating the house in Green, Orange and White.

I still cannot believe I have an 18 year old daughter. If I think back to the day I gave birth, it all still seems so near. I remember how I felt, what the room looked like, who was with me.... I remember holding Dee for the very first time in awe. I can still remember her as a little baby with her 'sucky' and how absolutely beautiful she was (and still is).

And now she is an adult. Our family is 'growing up' and it makes it all so real how very short life is and how much we need to cherish the people in our lives and be good to them. My grandmother who is no longer here taught me that family is the most important thing about living... because our families are the first place that we have the ability to help change the world and I cherish mine.

I surprised Dee by having a few of her closest friends show up.

The party was a lot of work. The day before I prepped and cleaned for hours and then the event itself kept me in the kitchen most of the day. But it was so worth it.

Making memories is always worth it.

Happy St. Patty's!

To Catch a Leprechaun

We tried to catch a leprechaun with tricks and traps,

We set it up so carefully with sticks and maps.

We tiptoed to our beds and listened for a peep,

Waiting for the sound of little leprechaun feet.

The night came on so suddenly, the next we knew

The morning sun was rising bigger as it grew.

We ran downstairs to see if we had caught the man,

We'd love him an we'd feed him as often as we can.

But as we opened up to see what he would do -

The trick was ours, he left a mess and candy too!

~ E. Straiton

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

18 Years

Today is my oldest child's eighteenth birthday. I really cannot believe I have successfully raised one human being into adulthood.

I am so extremely proud of Dee. She is everything that a mother could ask for.. she is intelligent, responsible, caring, a lover of animals, giving, beautiful and has grown through both difficult and joyful times into a wonderful young woman.

In less than 6 months, she will be leaving for college. I hope I did everything I could to prepare her for the world she is about to go into on her own. I will never stop worrying, loving and mothering...I still feel as if she is my little girl and always will.

Happy Birthday Dee!

xoxo

Simple Shamrock Crown

We are getting into the St. Patty's Day spirit at Little Acorn Playgarden and today we made these Simple Shamrock Crowns.

We went on a simple leaf hunt and found whatever type of green leaves we could... some were big and some were little. We didn't have much to choose from yet as our Spring hasn't entirely sprung here in CT.

So, after bringing our various shaped leaves inside, we actually used scissors to cut them into a more Shamrock Shape. Then we sewed them together to make one big Shamrock. In retrospect, I think the sewing could have been skipped and the leaves could have all be simply glued or stapled on which we did later with the rest of the crown.

We added our Shamrocks to strips of cardstock that were cut pretty :)

And spent the afternoon playing Queen of the Shamrocks and other such games!
Happy St. Patty's!

Embroidery Floss Organizing

This is such a wonderful idea and something I hope to let my little Playgarden children help me do this week. Organize your embroidery floss on clothes pins!