{diwali}

In Canada, there are many people from India. Some of the kids in Sienna's school learned about Diwali, the festival of light, which is celebrated in India.

They decorated paper elephants and made little clay lamps. Cute stuff. It's always good to learn more about other cultures. Knowledge is good. It expands our minds and we become more tolerant of others.

If you want to learn more about Diwali, click here.



(the last three images: via google image search)

{me likey}

i can listen to this song over and over again. never get sick of it. i'm sure i've even shared it here before. oh well. :)

then i must admit i'm already in Christmas mood. deal with it. :)



i don't care what some people say about JB, this guy can sing. one talented young man.

but hands down, David Archuleta's Christmas cd is my favorite. i'll be listening to it from now on until Christmas.

{that time of the year}

it's that time of the year again - cold and flu viruses are out and about trying to get you.

i thought it would be fun to ask if any of you have home remedies for coughs, sore throats, runny noses, etc.

i try to nip things as soon as i feel even little bit sick. i take garlic pills and ester c vitamin. i suck on fisherman's friend pastilles if my throat feels even a bit sore. for a runny nose, nasal rinses (available from drug stores) work wonders (flushes the bacteria out plus clears your sinuses so you can breath).

if all fails, stay in bed with a good book and some warm herbal tea.

the microscopic world is so amazing. sometimes i wish i could work in a lab and look at microscopic things. until i find a picture of a dust mite that is. then i quickly change my mind. those things are nasty!

your turn. what do you do to help your body heal itself?

(images via google image search) 

{lei ying lo}

:D

{halloween}

my plan was to keep it simple this year but i have to admit that i almost lost my sanity doing sienna's face. i must have said "please stay still" about thousand times. the result was well worth it, i think.



we went to our church's halloween party. by the time this picture was taken, the butterfly had flown to a more peaceful place. the bouncy castle was just too much for such a delicate creature. :)



the kids decorated pumpkins.

halloween is my least favorite holiday. sienna is super sensitive and gets scared so easily. she's had nightmares and you can just tell she's all freaked out. i wish people thought of little kids when they decorate their front yards and decide what costume to wear.

when i dropped her off at school today, i saw so many freaky costumes. sigh.

can't wait for Christmas and the beautiful spirit it brings with it. 

{i'm dreaming of a white christmas...}

...actually i'm not. it feels cold enough in the mornings that i'm dreading the arrival of the white stuff. i'm not ready for it yet.

but i am getting ready for Christmas.

my family lives in Finland and if i want to save in postage costs, i have to send my Christmas parcels to them in october. so usually i start thinking about Christmas in october. i really should start in september so that i'd have a month to figure out gifts. i'm always panicking when it's the end of october and i still haven't figured out what to send my family.

anyways...

i saw this Christmas count down santa on pinterest and i just had to make one right away. the original idea is from here.

ps. i scanned my santa and made it into a microsoft word document (two santas/ 8" x 11" paper). if you'd like me to send you the file, just leave me your e-mail address. then you can just print the santas.

{pumpkin, pencil gift for a teacher and fun with bubbles}

sienna made this "stained glass" pumpkin.

she glued tissue paper squares on plastic sheet protector. added some glue on top. after it dried, i cut it into a pumpkin shape.

the plastic comes off and you're left with a durable tissue paper pumpkin.



sienna saw mister maker  making this pencil and decided to make one too. i had to help a lot. you glue white tissue paper on a paper towel roll. let it dry, then paint it as shown. you then make a cardstock paper cone and glue it on one end. at the other end is a cut up pink sponge to block that end. permanent marker is used to do the details.

sienna gave this to her teacher. we put small chocolate bars and a mini arbonne lotion inside. we didn't know when we were making it that it was her teacher's birthday. she can store pencils or candy in it. great teacher gift if you have the patience to make one. 

sienna and i made felt animals (a kit she got for her birthday). i turned my bear into a picture.

then i have to share this cool thing with you. i went on a fieldtrip to the space & science center with sienna's class. we saw an imax movie about bugs and then the kids made amazing stuff with bubble solution. they made huge (and i mean huge) bubbles on a tray. when they popped, the kids used pennies to measure the diameter and the circumference of their bubble to see whose bubble was the biggest. they also dropped pennies inside their big bubbles. you just had to wet the pennies in the bubble solution and they would make it into the bubble without popping it. they also made snowmen and flowers by making various size bubbles. one of the coolest thing was to see sienna make a smaller bubble inside a big one. the trick is to wet the straw so it won't pop the bubble. as long as things(even hands) are wet, you can put it in a bubble and not pop it. to make the huge bubbles, kids had to learn to blow very gently and slowly. the tray had to be wiped with the bubble solution so it was wet too.



the bubble solution the kids used was better than the kind you buy in a store.

here's a basic bubble solution recipe:

1 part water

1 part Johnson's baby shampoo

1 - 3 tsp glycerine (for about a litre of solution)

and here's a recipe for a thicker, stronger bubble solution (strong enough to last 10 seconds or so):

3 parts Johnson's baby shampoo

1 part water

1 - 3 tsp glycerine (for about a litre of solution)

add the glycerine one teaspoon at a time and test for strength.

glycerine can be bought in most drug stores.

you can use a drinking straw to blow the bubbles. cut & bend one end as shown in the above picture.

i really, really encourage you to have bubble fun with your kids. sienna's class had a blast! :)