I felt as though this needed its own post for many reasons. When we decided to make the leap and start a new life out here in eastern Canada one thing that we wondered was how easily we would make friends. Dylan started school just a few days before Christmas holiday, so she really had not met many kids before the school Christmas party. It was at the Christmas party that a sweet woman came up and introduced herself to us, helped us figure out how the party was to work and then introduced us to a couple of other families at that party. About 2 weeks later, it was one of the women's birthdays and they invited me to join them for a trivia night at the local Brewery. From that effortless beginning, friendships began that I could not be more grateful for. To be able to have a group of women who I can be myself with, bounce ideas off of, share excitement with and spend quality time with is invaluable. For Easter, one of the "gang", Nina, offered to host a mom and kids breakfast at her home. She is so incredibly creative and has expressed how much she enjoys having people over and feeding them. Well, for this party, she went above and beyond. First of all, she planned and prepared an incredible meal for 13 kids aging in range from 2 months - 8 years-old and their six moms. On top of that, she went all out with the decorations and the activities to keep the kids entertained. On the day of the party it was raining off and on the entire morning. Although a little wet, we did have the egg hunt outdoors while the rain slowed slightly and the kids had a BLAST. The day could not have been more lovely. The kids all got along so well, and truly enjoyed each other's company and all of the special extras of the morning. And the moms all got to sit to a meal, around a table, and share smiles and stories. I can't express how blessed I feel to have found this incredible group of women to spend time with and support each other in this crazy road of motherhood and life.
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Our first Easter at the Little Yellow House on the Hill!
For well over a decade, the Bollder family tradition on Easter has been for all of us to spend it in the desert. The Easter bunny leaves the kids a basket full of treasures outside their tents and then the adults (usually Auntie Rachel and occasionally other chosen family) hide plastic eggs, filled with treats among the red rocks. So, what will be our new Easter tradition here in Nova Scotia? I don't know that we figured that out this year, but we did have a fantastic Easter here at the Little Yellow House on the Hill. In the days leading up to Easter we.... 1. Dyed eggs with natural food dyes (see a separate post for instructions) 2. Went to an Easter celebration at one of our meet up groups 3. Made felt eggs to stuff and hide to avoid having to buy loads of plastic (see separate post for instructions) 4. Visited the bakery to get all of their Easter treat bake goods 5. Attended the town Easter egg hunt 6. Spent a very lovely morning with friends for a lovely mom and kids breakfast at Nina's house 7. Had a visit from an Easter bunny at school 8. Woke to Dylan's Easter basket full, followed by an egg hunt around the property 9. Bunny pancakes for breakfast 10. Helped friends move on Easter Sunday and received a lovely Easter gift from friends. Last year was the first year we attempted to dye our eggs using natural dyes and they turned out OK. This year we wanted to try a different method to see if we could get more vibrant colors - and it worked. I think the key was to use a good amount of vinegar, and soaking overnight.
Here are the steps we took to dye our egg... How to Make Boiled Easter Egg Dyes
An added version would be to wrap a natural object (flower or leaf) around the egg after it is boiled, and then put pantyhose material around it and pull it secure so that it holds the object in place on the egg. Tie the pantyhose tight on the top (as if you are are closing a bag). Then place it in the jar of the colored water over night. As most of you know, our little family tries to make strides to live a more sustainable, less wasteful life. Our Easter tradition has always been to spend it camping in the desert as a family. The Easter bunny always seems to find us and leave a basket of goodies outside of the tent for each of the kids. We then have a huge egg hunt, in which the parents hide plastic eggs all over the area and the kids fill their baskets. Now that we are living in Nova Scotia, we are switching up our traditions slightly. As we don't have any of our belongings yet (they are still in storage in Colorado), we didn't want to buy more plastic so I found a pattern to make felt eggs to fill and hide. They were quite easy to make but were quite time consuming. Knowing that they will be used year after year does help justify the time it took to make them. If I had my sewing machine here, I probably could have made them much quicker - but hand stitching did take a good amount of time. I do love the fact that they will stack and pack away much smaller than all of the plastic ones we have in storage.
Carolyn From February 14th-18th, 2019 the Fundy Shore came alive with the first annual Fundy Shore Winter Carnival. It was 4 solid days packed with activities designed to get everyone in the community out and enjoying all that our Canadian winters have to offer. Each day had something to offer - community breakfasts and lunches, kids' activities, snow people building, sledding, igloo construction, snowshoe hikes, craft/bake sale, pick-up hockey, sledge hockey, bingo, shuffle board, and public skating. We got out each day and participated in as much as we could. One of our families biggest commitments was to help with the glow in the dark ice igloo construction. Check out our separate blog post for the full description. We had freezing rain on top of snow right before the carnival - which turned the town into a sheet of ice. That didn't stop the festivities....the snow people creations ended up as snow block sculptures or designed with buttons on the ice, tug of war ended up on concrete so they didn't slip on the ice, sledding was extra fast as the hill had a coat of ice and we were able to play games like toboggan whiplash. It was a fantastic way to get the community excited about this cold winter weather.
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April 2019
AuthorCarolyn and Will Bollwerk share their adventures with their 5 year-old daughter, Dylan. |