We’re having a Team Challenge! Members of our team create a new item based around a theme – currently “Bountiful Farm.” Here are the items that are inspired by and crafted for this challenge! We hope you enjoy and please be sure to let us know how you think the participants did! We’d love to hear your comments!
painted butterfly nose ~ mamawestwind
Each Wednesday I’ll be sharing a simple image of kids just being kids, Natural Kids.
We’d love to have you join us and share an image of your own natural kid.
Leave a link in your comment below so we can all visit one another…..
salmon berries ~ by gypsyforest
Each Wednesday I’ll be sharing a simple image of kids just being kids, Natural Kids.
We’d love to have you join us and share an image of your own natural kid.
Leave a link in your comment below so we can all visit one another…..
My kids and I have been enjoying the cool rainy weather here in coastal Alaska. Most days we pull on a rain jacket and rubber boots and head down the hill from our little apartment to walk along the sea. Our real home is in the deep south of Louisiana where the humid heat is reaching sauna temperatures this time of year. This summer we escaped the heat to stay seven weeks at Grandma’s house. I would so love to share a bit of our summer here with you.
One of my favorite things about being out of doors with my kids is the invitation into their world. With camera in hand I follow behind them and try to capture their small treasures as they share them with me. They are especially fond of anything that looks tiny. The makings of a fairy forest. Little leaves and fungi sprouting up from the damp earth. Tiny flowers.
We talk about fairies and animals. Fungi and berry blossoms. Birds and food chains. And of course, gnomes and trolls that might live in hollow tree trunks. They tell me how we need to protect the forest, so animals (and fairies) are all safe. They say this to me with such importance, as if it were the first time this great cause had been discovered.
Sometimes we come home and pull out books to identify what we’ve seen. I see the patterns and shapes of their walks in the woods show up in their drawings. They begin to remember some of the names we’ve learned and some of the bird calls Grandma has identified for them. I know these walks are good for their little bodies, hearts, and minds.
But most of all, I am grateful to share in a bit of their wonder.
Tell me, what is your favorite part of adventuring with your children?
On a crisp, spring day, Hungry Bunny went out for a walk in Tryon Creek State Park in Portland, OR. I am so lucky to get to work in this beautiful park and I was able to capture his adventure with my camera.
Hungry Bunny decided on a trail with waterleaf lining the edges and sword fern arching overhead.
The forest is coming to life thanks to spring’s sunshine and the fiddleheads are like starting to uncurl above the bunny’s head.
Did you know that violets aren’t always, um, violet colored? These are yellow wood violets and the young leaves and flower buds are edible. Our bunny friend stopped for a little nibble. His name is Hungry Bunny after all!
Hungry Bunny passed under some salmonberry plants and decided to take a break to play dress-up with the buterfly-shaped wings.
Every hiker knows they have to share the trail so he stopped to let a banana slug pass by. There’s nothing icky about these creatures. They’re decomposers that do great work in the forest. Watch out for the slime!
At the base of a huge western red cedar tree, Hungry Bunny met up with his pals Love Bunny, Woodland Bunny and Pretty Bunny.
From their low vantage point the tree seemed to go up and up forever!
The friends frolicked in the forest and climbed the roots of a fallen Douglas fir tree.
In the soft, decomposing wood of a western red cedar stump the friends had a picnic of candy flower, also known as western miner’s lettuce.
Happy and finally no longer hungry, Hungry Bunny made his way back home, careful not to linger too long next to the huge skunk cabbage plants with the smelly flowers.
He ended the afternoon with a nice nap on the broad leaves of a trillium. These pretty flowers take 7 years to bloom and the petals start out white then turn pink and, finally, magenta as they age.
Hello all!
Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya! We are bunting baby dolls from the ziezo label and we would like to take you around our garden and neighbourhood, now that we woke from our nap under the baby pawpaw tree.
This is the flame tree, with gorgeous red – orange flowers blooming now that we are reaching the end of the long rains.
When we lay under the pawpaw tree, these are the dark skies of the rainy season. . . the sun is hiding behind the clouds.
The two of us like to climb trees and bushes, and there are plenty of those around in our neighbourhood and garden. Here we are in a baby banana tree and a mango tree, unfortunately there are no fruits on them at the moment.
Here we are in a small acacia tree. It’s difficult to climb this one, because of the long thorns. Did you know that giraffes can eat the leaves from these trees despite the thorns? There is something in their saliva to soften the thorns and then they pluck the leaves off with their tongue.
Once in a while we visit the Waldorf Kindergarten in Kileleshwa, and we then like to hang out in this lovely shrub that smells so nice and is commonly called “yesterday, today & tomorrow” (Brunfelsia) because of the different colours the flowers turn.
If you go for a ride in Nairobi, you have to be ready to wait, traffic jams are the matter of the day because of the number of cars, the state of the roads, and ongoing construction for the “Vision 2030” plan. Here’s a view of the Nairobi Arboretum at the bottom of the hill, and some of the road construction around it.
And in some places the old road has been replaced by a new dirt road to allow for road improvements, while you also can see the rapid construction of new apartment buildings that are replacing the single standing houses.
However, after a bumper to bumper drive to Karen, reknown from Isak Dinesen’s (a.k.a. Karen Blixen) ‘Out of Africa’ it is also nice to be ending up in the lovely green environment of the Nairobi Waldorf School there.
Nairobi and its environs have lots of sunshine (even in the rainy season), but one thing that is always certain as you could see in most of the pictures, there is never a lack of some dreamy clouds in the sky with many imaginative creatures.
We liked taking you on a short tour and know that we soon join our friends in the ziezo Designs shop to find a new home and explore new places on this lovely earth. However, now it is time for a nap again. . .
The NaturalKids Team hopes that all the mothers out there have a wonderful and love filled day!
Have you seen the NaturalKids Summer Gift Guide yet? Make sure to stop by and check out all the summery goodness!
Several members from the team are participating in a giveaway over on team member mamma4earth’s blog, Natural Suburbia. There are some really, really great items!
There are even more prizes available from NaturalKids Team members over at The Magic Onions, a blog by member FairyFolk. She hosts an amazing, annual Fairy Garden Contest and has tons of inspiration for creating your own!
The Willodel shop is having a Mother’s Day Sale, use coupon code MADAY12 for 12% off at check out.
This Cosy Life has a giveaway happening on this site right now, so make sure to enter if you haven’t already! She is also offering a coupon code good for 15% off your entire purchase in her shop through May 19th. Enter NKMAY at checkout.
Niko & Nonnie is celebrating its one-year anniversary, so free shipping on the website and in Etsy shop til June 15th
The Enchanted Cupboard is having a Mother’s Day sale too! Make sure to stop by and take advantage of the great deals!
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Wow, it’s nearly May! It’s so hard to believe that summer is just around the corner. Make sure you stop back later this week to check out the NaturalKids Summer Gift Guide when it arrives!
Also, if you haven’t yet participated in the Earth Day Giveaway, there is still time! Today is the last day, so make sure to enter right away – so many goodies to win, and your chances are pretty good.
Summer has me thinking about planting gardens, picking flowers, and plenty of dreaming about the little farming homestead I hope to eventually have. Here are some of my favorite NaturalKids picks for farming fun:
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Gypsy Forest is having a sale! Lots of $10 & $15 dollar hand sewn goods. The sale items are all over 50% off.
The Magic Onions blog by FairyFolk is running a Fairy Garden Contest – many great ideas and inspiration, and many prized provided by members of the NaturalKids Team!
