Wooden Saint Dolls & Nesting Blocks

Last night I walked into the living room just in time to hear our little guy say "It's nighttime!" as he was building beds for all of the saints. "Sssshhhhhhhh!" 

When our old schoolroom became the younger boys' bedroom a couple years ago I had to find new homes for everything that was kept in there previously. These awesome blocks, that had been displayed on the shelves and played with occasionally, ended up being placed in a basket in the living room and are now played with nearly every day.  They are the perfect size for our various wooden saint doll collections, the small dolls I handprinted years ago and the larger dolls that have been handprinted, purchased or given to our family. The German-made wooden nesting blocks are worth the expense and have held up beautifully!

Our nesting block collection includes:

"Little Flower" Wooden Puzzle Stacker - Large

Wooden Tree Nesting Blocks (first birthday gift)

Fire Flames Wooden Nesting Blocks - Large

Rainbow Stacker Wooden Nesting Blocks - Large

Stone Caves Wooden Nesting Blocks - Large

Water Waves Wooden Nesting Blocks - Large

Casa Sole Fantastical Stacking Blocks

Wooden Fairy Tale Village Block/Puzzle Set

These sets make excellent gifts for birthdays and Christmas!

My Daybook :: On the Traditional Feast of St. Thérèse

Outside my window...
The weather has been gorgeous this week, it has been cooling down some at night and the leaves have started to change colors.   I just hung our fall wreath on the front door and picked up a few little pumpkins to use as decorations.   Hopefully we can make a trip to the pumpkin patch soon!

I am thinking...        
about how nice it is to have a new iMac! (It ended up being our anniversary gift to each other, along with dinner out.)  It has made blogging so much easier and way less time consuming.  Blogging had become quite a chore, since it was taking forever to work with photos - the old computer was freezing every time I'd try and use PicMonkey to add the copyright to pictures, and half the time when I was online at all.   It wasn't in the plan to purchase a new computer quite yet, but with the back-to-school specials for educators, and the interest free financing, I decided to just order one.   Hubby had taken the laptop with him on that fire assignment after all! ;)  

I am thankful... 
for my husband!  And that he didn't kill me when he called home from fire camp a couple weeks ago and I said he should "try and find access to wi-fi so we can Skype... Now that I have a computer that works around here!"  He responded, "Yeah! That would be great!  Wait... What did you just say?!?"   Yes, I have been so very blessed with such an awesome (and forgiving!) husband.  :)

Learning all the time... 
The last few weeks have been busy for sure!  In addition to our regular studies and the Alphabet Path, we've also attended two field trips!  Last week we went on a field trip to a "farm" (more on that later, maybe) and yesterday we went to the Planetarium.

Celebrating the liturgical year... 
Like Charlotte, we have had a week of very simple, yet sweet, celebrations for the saints! A Cake for the feast of St. Michael  (though I was able to make our traditional Michaelmas Dinner on Sunday), Rose Cupcakes for St. Therese, Angel Treats for the Holy Guardian Angels, and maybe some Wolf Paw Cookies or Friendly Beasts Crunch for tomorrow's feast of St. Francis.

"Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity."

~ St. Thérèse de Lisieux

From the kitchen... 
tons of snacks... The kids always love it when their Daddy saves some of the snacks from his sack meals from fire camp.   After two weeks, and some of his co-workers adding to his stash, he came home with quite the collection!  On Sunday the boys decided to graph what was left, not counting the bag full of "uncrustables" in the fridge.

I am working on... 
plans for this year's All Hallows' Eve Party!  I wasn't going to do it this year...  For some reason the thought of hosting another huge party at our home was just slightly overwhelming.  But, after talking to my husband and the kids (and finding out that my liver troubles are behind me!) I decided we will host it again after all.   How could I not when one of the little boys told his momma that last year's party was "the best night of his entire life" and another mom (who I was planning on hosting a baby shower for next month) said she'd rather I host the party than her shower!  Sigh... It's going to be fun!

I am creating... 
a few accessories for this year's saint costumes.   They all (7 costumes!!!) surprisingly came together extremely easy a couple weeks ago, after a trip to Costco during which we found a perfect (inexpensive) costume for Snuggles who wants to be St. Michael this year!  We just need to make wings for him, but isn't it cute!   I love it!!

Rascal decided he wants to be St. George this year.  For his costume I used my Gymbucks to order this Brave Knight Costume and Shield from Gymboree. (What a steal at just $10.21 for the costume and $3.80 for the shield!!!)

Captain has decided to dress as St. Paul, with the costume inspired by the picture in Picture Book of Saints.  We already had the perfect Robe and Sash, but ordered a gray beard and yellow turban to complete the costume...  So fun!  Twinkle Toes wants to dress as St. Catherine Labouré  using one of my sisters' old costumes from forever ago.  She is going to make a large Miraculous Medal to complete her costume, or maybe just choose one of hers to wear.  Chiquita is still trying to decide between St. Joan of Arc (with our Fleur-di-lis Shield) or Mother Teresa.  Rose is going to dress as St. Therese!  And Bud is going to be St. Francis of Assisi, complete with lots of sweet little animals pinned to his costume.

I am going... 
to run to town in a little bit to pick up my nursing cover.  I left it at the restaurant last night.  Oops.

I am hoping... 
that I can find time to get my hair cut sometime in the next week or two.  It is definitely time!

I am reading... 
The Telmaj, a newly published science fiction book for children, as our daily read-a-loud!  It was recently published by Erin Manning, a Catholic author, and our copy arrived last week.   We are only on chapter three, but I've already caught my boys reading ahead!  Rascal declared that it really needs to be made into an audio book, so that they don't have to keep waiting for me!

I am praying... 
this prayer from The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer  in addition to the prayer on our anniversary:

     O holy Guardian Angels, heavenly friends of my children.  I address myself with confidence to you, as the children whom the Lord has confided to me are also looked upon by you with love and care. Implore for me the grace that I may cherish for my children sentiments similar to those which you have for them, and that I may, like you, be anxious above all to educate them for God and for heaven. Oh, that I may be such a mother to my children; that I may never appear unworthy of your love and friendship! Obtain this grace for me.  Amen.  

Pondering these words...
from I Believe in Love:

"A great cross is, very often, the prelude to a great grace, even for an unbeliever.  Suffering ripens the soul, sometimes very quickly.  A great trial can, with one stroke, detach a soul from all that is created; it can be the source of a total conversion."

I am listening...  
to my four oldest read picture books about the saints' who celebrate their feast day's this week to the little ones.  They each choose a day/saint (St. Michael, St. Therese, Guardian Angels, and St. Francis) and corresponding books off of our bookshelves.   Some of the new additions this year include Therese: The Little Flower of Lisieux and Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi, which were both Christmas Gifts from my husband's parents (along with a couple other books from the series).

Around the house... 
lots of sweet little saints - both homemade and from Catholic Folk Toys and St. Luke's Brush!  I also ordered this sweet little St. Therese doll from St. Anne's Pixies to give to our little Rose in honor of her nameday.  She loved it!!

One of my favorite things...  
I love, LOVE, my binder and checklists for this school year, and all the progress we have been making!  It's going to be a great school year!

This week's plans...

• Celebrate the Feast of St. Therese
• Field Trip to the Planetarium
• Park with Friends
• Celebrate the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and our 13th Anniversary! 
• Lego Robotics Class for the older boys
• Feast of St. Francis
• Tutor on Thursday Afternoon
• First Friday Mass
• Festival of Cultures

A little peek at my day...

Taken by Captain on our 13th Wedding Anniversary ~ Oct 2, 2012

An Alphabet of Saints :: Painted Wooden Peg Dolls

Just over four years ago (in 2008) I started painting An Alphabet of Saints to go along with our first journey Along the Alphabet Path, inspired by the illustrations in An Alphabet of Catholic Saints...  I started out with a handful of saints and then continued adding to our collection as the girls completed each letter of the Alphabet.  I only made it half way through painting the very last doll, St. Zita, during Z week- before setting her aside as we began our major kitchen remodel and home addition in June of 2010.

Poor St. Zita has been sitting on that shelf ever since, constantly reminding me that I still haven't posted about Z Week patiently waiting for her lovely hair, face, veil, cross necklace and broom to be completed.

I carefully cropped her out of that picture I posted the other day, but had a feeling it would trigger a few questions!

The cubbies... yes, those lovely tiny cubbies...   

In addition to the Highlights from "Z" Week, I also haven't posted about my awesome saint display...

Is it bad that I am displaying our sweet little collection of saints in a... ummmm.... Shot Glass Display?!?

I searched and searched for the perfect thing, before settling on an inexpensive "Black Shot Glass Curio which holds up to 36 Jiggers Saints!"

Despite it's intended purpose, it really does work perfectly for our painted saint dolls!  I found ours on ebay, and was able to find a few more that are currently available. (Though I think they are a little more expensive... I remember paying $20.00 including shipping for ours, but that was a couple years ago.)

So yesterday afternoon I finally dusted off St. Zita, pulled out my painting supplies, and finished painting her in less than 10 minutes while on the phone with my mom.

It makes me so happy to see our Alphabet of Catholic Saints finally completed!  

*However, looking at the picture above, I should have given St. Zita a hand to hold that broom... Hmmmmm... I wonder how long that will take me! ;) 

And just incase anyone would like to get started on their own 4 year project set of saints, here's the link to my favorite source for the wooden peg dolls.   Happy Painting!

Along the Alphabet Path {The Plan for 2012-2013}

"Once upon a time there was a little boy named Michael who lived with his family at the edge of a beautiful woods...." 

And so begins our second adventure learning Along the Alphabet Path!

Despite thinking that I might need to come up with a different theme/story this time (Woodland Creatures, Knights, etc) for a certain little five year old boy of ours, Snuggles was quite captivated by "Michael and Mrs. Applebee!" And how perfect that our family even happens to live "at the edge of a beautiful woods!"  Perhaps we'll just skip the "girly" flower fairy coloring pages this time and focus on our faith, the saints, and more.  I just love how easy it is to modify the Alphabet Path to work for each child.  There are so many fun ideas and options to choose from, it's going to be such a fun year!

Since Snuggles just turned five during the summer, he is starting Kindergarten younger than any of our other children. (Captain did start at this age, but he really wasn't ready and ended up repeating 2nd grade due to his Auditory Processing Challenges. And for Twinkle Toes, our other late summer baby, we "waited" until she had just turned 6 to officially call her a Kindergartner.)  I'm not going to worry about whether or not we complete the Alphabet Path in one year or two - taking our time and spending two weeks on each letter, or more if necessary.  If it takes us 3 years to get through K & 1st grade, no big deal.  I'd rather this extra little guy of mine be the oldest in his class with a solid foundation, rather than one of the youngest struggling to keep up!  (Not that it really matters, since we homeschool, but still...) 

Anyhow, now that we are a couple weeks into our new school year, I've had time to figure out just what the Alphabet Path is going to look like for Snuggles!   I've run across a few fun new additions that I am looking forward to sharing with you all.

In addition to his daily Religion, Math, and Language Arts, we will focus on one area of the Alphabet Path each afternoon:

• Monday :: Letter Introduction & Formation
• Tuesday :: A, B... Seas & Storybook Science
• Wednesday :: Arts & Crafts
• Thursday :: My Catholic Faith
• Friday (or on the weekend) :: A to Z Recipes

Here's the list of some of the resources we will be using this year:
(Note: Most of these books were already on our bookshelves, with just a few new additions.)

Letter Introduction:

Monday - Week One

Along the Alphabet Path Story Book by Elizabeth Foss

Flower Fairy Alphabet & CD

An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

Monday - Week Two

All About Reading - Pre-1 (My Book of Letters, The ZigZag Zebra, and Lizard Lou)

Handwriting Without Tears Wooden Pieces

Modeling Wax

(Over the two week period will will  complete worksheet from My Book of Letters.  For each letter he will complete the worksheets for Capital Letter, Lowercase Letter, and the Letter Sound.  Even if you don't want to use the All About Reading Program as a whole, the My Book of Letters Activity Book is such a great supplemental for the Alphabet Path!)

A, B... Seas:

Participate with older siblings study of Swimming Creatures

Tuesday - Week One

Sea Life Alphabet Coloring Book

Ocean Life From A to Z Book & DVD

Make an Ocean Box - adding one item for each letter of the alpabet

Various Ocean Movies and Documentaries

Storybook Science:

Tuesday - Week Two

Apples, Bubbles and Crystals: Your Science ABCs

Let's Read and Find Out Series

Various Picture Books

Arts & Crafts:

Wednesday - Week One (Art Appreciation)

Museum ABC 

My First ABC Board Book

Museum ABC Nesting Blocks

Wednesday - Week Two (Letter based Craft and/or Activity)

Various Arts & Craft Projects/Activities

My Catholic Faith:

Thursday - Week One

An Alphabet of Saints
S is for Saints
An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

An Alphabet of Mary
Various Saint Picture Books & Coloring Pages

An Alphabet of Saints: Painted Wooden Dolls

Thursday - Week Two

God's Alphabet

A is for Altar, B is for Bible

Writing ABC's on Little Hearts by Pondered In My Heart

A to Z Recipes:

Friday - Week One

My A to Z Recipe Box: An Alphabet of Recipes for Kids

"From Ants in My Applesauce to Zany Zucchini Sticks, these 26 recipes offer young chefs a wide variety of hands-on cooking adventures. Each recipe has clear, simple steps that children will find easy to followand in the process, they'll learn about the foods they enjoy and practice skills like following directions and measuring, too. "

I'm loving this little recipe box...  For Aa week we made Ants in my Applesauce, and next week we will be making Blueberry Buckle!  In addition to all the great recipes, each card also offers suggestions for servings and variations, plus fun facts.  The letter tab at the top of each card works as a divider for any additional recipes you might want to add to the collection, using the 26 blank recipe cards which are provided, or your own.

Friday - Week Two 

Additional Recipe of Choice - Add Recipe to Recipe Box using one of the 26 Blank Cards

You can find all of our posts for the Alphabet Path listed on this page.  I'll continue to add to the current label "Alphabet Path" for scrolling through everything.  I also just filed all the posts from when the girls were learning along the Alphabet Path here:  Alphabet Path (2009-2010) and will begin a new label for Snuggles: Alphabet Path (2012-2013).  I'll be back soon along after awhile to add all about Aa week!

Is anyone else learning Along the Alphabet Path this year?

Christmas Gift Ideas :: A Few of our Favorite Toys

I posted some of our favorite past Christmas gifts the other day in my Daybook post, but since I have recieved a number of emails regaurding gifts and toys, I thought I would answer a number of questions and mention a few more of our favorites.

Update:  I wanted to add that our Christmas celebration does not revolve around the gifts our children receive.  They usually receive three each, just like Baby Jesus, and the focus is on attending Mass and giving to others.   What you will see below is a combination of many years of gifts from Christmas and birthdays in an attempt to answer many questions all in one place. 

~ Play Kitchens, Tea Sets and Food ~

One Christmas our girls recieved an adorable Pink Retro Kitchen & Refrigerator.  It was during a year in which Hubby told me I had a budget of only $25.00 to spend on each child...   I saw the set at Costco and wanted to purchase it so badly, but it was $140.  I can't tell you how excited I was when we went to a St. Vincent dePaul Auction and they had this kitchen set!  It was "new" but it did have a little bit of damage to the fridge from the assembly - no big deal!  I won the auction for $40! YAY!!  Anyhow, I don't know where to send you all for a steal like that, but Amazon does have it right now at an affordable price.

That same Christmas, a friend of mine crocheted some darling food to go with the kitchen.  Since then we have added a number of play food sets, mostly by Melissa & Doug.  The favorites have been the Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set and the Melissa & Doug Deluxe Ice Cream Parlor Set (which you could see Rose playing with on her birthday).

As for tea sets, we love the little tin tea sets by Schylling.  We have the one that now reminds me of Serendipity (the Alphabet Path) every time I see it, and the other is covered with Roses (which is also available in a tin basket)!  They are so pretty - though they do tend to bend if they happen to be stepped on!  :-(

~ Fairies, Castles and Calico Critters ~

The girls' favorite toy is their Princess Castle!  I still can't believe that it is only $49.99 (50% off!) at Amazon right now!  (I think I paid around $60 for ours, and it has been worth every penny!) We also have the furniture to go with the castle, which is also 50% off right now! 

My girls mostly play with the hand-painted dolls I have made them when playing with their castle, as well as their Calico Critters.   I just LOVE all the little animal families.   We have the Fisher Cat Family and the Norwood Mouse Family.  My girls love the Kitchen Set that they have, but I don't think I will be purchasing any more tiny pieces anytime soon.  (Perhaps when the baby is a little bit older, or my girls are better about keeping the little pieces off the floor.)   I am thinking about getting the little Carriage for Twinkle Toes and maybe another family of critters for Chiquita.  

Last year Twinkle Toes received an adorable Fairy Forest Lodge. I just noticed that there are a number of new "furniture" pieces to go along with it including: Fairy Forest Harp, Bathroom Set, Fairy Forest Pianoand Fairy Forest Cooking Hearth! (You can find the new set available here.) They are all SO cute! I might have to order one of them for her. I also might order Safari LTD Fairy Fantasies Tube since my children enjoy playing with our other Safari Tubes.

~ Baby Dolls ~

Ever since the girls were little I've been purchasing them the sweet baby dolls by Corolle and Gotz.   For real little girls, a few of our favorites are the 8" with hat and 8" blond Mini Muffin Dolls by Gotz, the 13" Muffin Doll by Gotz, and Miss Rose and Miss Grenadine by Corolle.

My girls also loved the Poupette line of dolls by Corolle.  We currently have the "Fifi" and "Lulu" dolls.  For some reason Corolle discontinued this line and I can only find the Loli doll (which we do not own) but you can see the others here.    Twinkle Toes also loves her Elizabeth Cloth Doll (which she received on her 6th birthday), but it too seems to have been discontinued!  

Looking at these dolls, reminds me of when Twinkle Toes was a few years old and she was "trying to keep her baby dolls warm."   She lined them all up on the edge of out wood stove and Hubby & I ran to the living room to see what was on fire.  The backs of ALL her poor dolls heads were completely burned/melted.    The funny thing was that we lined them all on the front porch trying to decide what to do with them when some JW's came to the door.   (I wish I had a picture!)  I still wonder what they thought of all those "torched" dolls!   Needless to say, Twinkle Toes recieved a couple new dolls for Christmas that year.

As my girls have gotten a little older they are now very interested in the Historical American Girl Dolls, and they have a number of the mini versions.

My girls also LOVE the Faith Filled Friends they received last Christmas.  Many of you have emailed me asking where you can find these dolls...  Unfortunately, the only one I was able to find was the St. Therese Doll at Catholic Child which has recently sold out. :(

Though I haven't purchased one yet myself, another lovely option would be the beautiful Zélie Dolls from Family Cloistered Learning Center.  Someday I would like to order  a couple of these dolls for my girls.

~ Dress Up & Imaginative Play~

Our children all love to Dress Up!!!  We have lots of Saints Costumes, Vestments, Princess Costumes, Swords & Shields, Camouflage, Leather Vests and Chaps, Toy Guns, and the newest addition Play Silks!  Our children rarely go a day without dressing up for play! 

For young boys, I highly recommend the Miniature Mass Kits from Our Fathers House.  Our older two boys each have their own, and when Snuggles gets a bit older I would like to get him a set as well.  (Ooh!  They were quite a bit less expensive when we bought the set for Captain, and our second set was a gift. Still I think it is such a great thing for boys to have!) 

Christmas 2005

~ Folkmanis Puppets ~

Last year, I purchased a bags of Folkmanis Puppets at a local going out of business sale.   My children's stockings were filled with them last year and they are played with all the time!  They are so cute and fun and make great little gifts/stocking stuffers.  

I saved the Gray Squirrel Puppet I bought last year for this year, and we will give it to either Snuggles or Rose.  They would both love it! 

~ Lincoln Logs ~

My boys have loved Lincoln Logs since they were little.    I am always amazed at some of the things they will build... They made the Church above back in 2007.

~ Playmobil ~ 

We haven't yet branched out into Legos (I'm still trying to convince Hubby since he is hesitant about all the little pieces...) but our boys really love their Playmobil collection.   I love that it ties the sets we own tie so well into their schooling, and we often find the boys reenacting the stories they have read in their History books!

The boys also love setting up their Playmobil Romans for Good Friday and Easter, and the Nativity Set for Christmas!   I haven't purchased any of the Egyptians yet... Perhaps in a couple years when we are studying Ancient History again.  

~ Board Games ~

We have a lot of board games...  In years past each of our children would receive a game on Christmas, and they added up QUICKLY! Last week, I gathered all the games from all over the house - they were in 5 different spots - and moved them all into my hall closet, getting rid of a few that we do not play.   Now that we have a pantry in the kitchen, I don't need this cupboard for food!!  Anyhow, our family really does enjoy playing board games together.

Our family favorites are Settlers of Catan (Hubby & I play this with our oldest two boys - though we do have the extension pack for when we have guests!), Stratego, Battleship, Lionheart, Sequence, and my children especially love playing the Game of Life and Mancala!  Captain's favorites are Risk (we have the Lord of the Rings version) and Axis & Allies - he has the D-Day version and the Spring 1942 version - and I will often find him off playing whenever he has the chance!

This year the boys will be receiving Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan Seafarers Game Expansion (for Settlers of Catan).

 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Well... That pretty much sums up most of the toys we have in our home at this time - though you'll run across a bunch of others in my our Alphabet Path posts!

We do have a collection of Little People, a great Wooden Train Set that has been boxed up for awhile, but will come out again soon for Snuggles, a cute little wooden doll house,  and, of course, a couple drawers filled with Army Guys and Matchbox cars.  Now, I need to get back to checking off the last few items on my own list this year while there is still time to order online!

I would love to hear what toys your children love to play with!  

Also, you might have better luck leaving any other toy related questions in the comments and I will try and answer them here... My inbox has spiraled out of control once again and I can't guarantee a response (or at least a quick one!) if you send me an email.  ;)