Later this week, we leave for Oaxaca, Mexico and we will be there for a month! We're pretty excited and feeling pretty lucky that we have this opportunity. Homeschool perks for sure! We booked this trip only about 2 months ago and haven't had as much time to prepare for it as we did for Ecuador. After Christmas, I borrowed a bunch of books about Mexico from the library, and we did a bunch of cactus art. The art was so much fun, but my kiddos may be sick of cacti! We made cacti with white glue dyed black, watercolor paint and tissue paper flowers. We made cacti cut from construction paper and drew the prickles on with permanent marker. We made cacti with hand prints and used our fingers to make the flowers (Maeve did this one too!). And lastly, we made cacti with shaving cream and food dye swirled together and then pressed on watercolor paper. The shaving cream one was the favorite, but the black glue one was a close second! I love all this wonderful, vibrant cactus art hanging up at the back table! I can't wait to go to the Botanical Gardens in Oaxaca and see all the plants! We read a couple of great books about the Saguaro Cactus, and while I'm not sure we will see any in person, they are so fascinating! 

We're in the flurry of packing and getting ready for this trip. All the nerves and butterflies and worries about the flight are setting in. We're all pretty excited! One month is going to fly by! 

Maeve was very interested in playing the shaving cream and was pleased to swirl some around on a tray herself, but she doesn't like getting anything on her hands such as shaving cream. Crumbs and yogurt are also included in the list of things she doesn't like on her hands!

Here are the links to the different cactus art projects:
Black Glue Cactus
3D Paper Cactus
Handprint Cactus
Shaving Cream Cactus

It was a good Mother's Day. I wasn't anticipating a little sleep-in, but it happened. And as I was waking up, a freshly-bathed and still naked Greta popped her head into my room and said, "Happy Mother's Day! Chachacha!" I received handcrafted cards from my littles and all throughout the day, Holly and Greta frequently wished me a happy mother's day. As we put Holly to bed, she wished me a happy mother's day evening. They really were so sincerely excited to celebrate me - it was perfect. Although, Holly is ready to march on Washington to establish a "Kid's Day." Love that girl - she's the best!

One huge highlight is having my own Mother here! So far, we've had such a good time and I'll be savoring my last few days with her before she heads back north. She's been so helpful and has greatly reduced my anxiety and stress while Conor was in Chicago. She thoroughly scrubbed my kitchen table, helped me pick out house plants and tomato plants and plant them. She's read a countless number of books to Holly and Greta... the list goes on. A lot of service and love!

And a continuation of a tradition... Mother's Day photos!

I've wanted to try out the Oliver and S hopscotch dress for a little while and I finally tried it this month. These dresses are not my first try... I began dresses for the girls with different fabric, but I melted Greta's dress... and then Holly's size 4 barely fits her, so it's still unhemmed. It fits Greta much better. It was good that I made the melting mistake and figured out the O+S small sizing on this pattern (their patterns usually run a little bit big) before I cut into my Heather Ross knit fabric. I cut out Greta's dress in a 4 and Holly's in a 6 (!!!) and I didn't alter the length on either. Holly and Greta were waiting at the edge of the table as I finished their dresses and as soon as I had trimmed threads, they threw their dresses on and wore them for the remainder of the day! And then they wore them for the next 2+ days. Holly wore her dress 4 days in a row! I love it when I nail homemade clothes for them. I'm thinking about buying Heather Ross's strawberry knit fabric and making another set of dresses this month...

And what's better than two sisters that love each other? Conor and I love how well they play together. Holly and Greta are best friends!

The weather was amazing this last weekend and has continued to be gorgeous into this week. Holly, Greta and I planted our spring garden on Saturday - I'm hoping to get something out of it, especially since I spent my spending money on it! We spent most of the weekend outside in the backyard. On Sunday, I made cauliflower crust pizza and we picnicked outdoors. It was dreamy...

On a completely unrelated note, I'm considering blogging about some of the things that mean a lot to me... like how we eat, fitness, my journey to finding calm and peace... who knows if I'll write it, there's a lot of critics out there (especially towards vegetarians!).