Sunshine Cake

Sometimes it's hard to get my little boys out the kitchen.  They love chopping, cooking, baking, mixing, folding and lots of finger licking.  This fun sunshine cake was an idea I got from Twig and Toadstool.

I used a basic sponge cake recipe and made two of them. Then divided them into 8 pieces...a little math fun for Sasha.  They enjoyed putting on those suns rays.  Sania waiting patiently to put the flowers.

A beautiful golden sunshine

We used raw cream from the morning's milk that we beat and it turned an off white color...kind of yellowish.

The children dressed the sunshine with some pretty flowers and petals.

Happy summertime fun!!!

Waldorf Window Stars

I was very excited to receive our colorful kite paper. We finally could make these bedazzling window stars. It's such a simple project for the children, a reminiscence of folding their favorite paper airplanes.

I took photos of the folding process but I think they were accidentally deleted. Gardenmama has a simple tutorial to follow for the Waldorf Window Stars and Childhoodmagic's wonderful photography captures the mood of all the colors.

My babies sitting gazing out the window at the little rain fairies pitter pattering on the metal roof.

Sasha finally allowed me to cut his long beautiful hair.  With our torrid summer heat I thought it would be more comfortable for him.  He looks rather cute with his new little hair cut.

Later in the day the sun began to shine and dried up the rain. We walked through our garden and found many of the Amapola (African Tulip) Pods. The afternoon breeze had blown them to the ground for the children to turn them into magical boats.

My beautiful little golden locks

A Ride to the Stream

A quick glimpse of our tropical paradise.  Every day we are marveled by our rolling hills. Our dense jungle and towering trees provides us with a cool, earthy freshness.  We love to escape to our stream which borders most of our property.

A day on our farm

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Summer Sun Mobiles

A simple summer craft to celebrate the summer solstice.  Even though we usually have sunshine all year round we have subtle changes in the weather during the seasons.  Our rainy season usually starts the beginning of spring and this year we've had an abundance of rain.  It's still raining!!! Our property displays a beautiful deep green and everything is growing in abundance, except my veggies which are quite waterlogged.   I do enjoy the coolness the wet weather brings but now am ready for everything to dry up so lets hope this little mobile will encourage those rays to shine.

A little water color painting on those rainy days

The beautiful sun mobile.  Maureen and Shanti at Twig and Toadstool have some amazing summer activities and crafts and the tutorial on how to make these mobiles.  I haven't figured out how to link other blogs but here is their address  http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/2010/06/here-comes-sun-week-lets-make-sun_18.html

And my other little sunshine who is always smiling

Our summer season fairy that we've carried over for years.  My children think it's the fairies that prepare it for them.

Harvesting Sesame Seeds

This is the first time we have grown sesame seeds.  Such  tiny, delicate seeds encapsulated in a beautiful green hairy pod.  The sun has ripened them and the tiny seeds fall easily onto the ground and in our bowl.

The children had fun shaking them out and sifting their hands through the little seeds.

and tasting them.

A delicious Tahini sauce is made from the Sesame seeds.  I toast them first on a frying pan to bring out the flavor.  I put a cup of seeds in the blender with 1/4 cup organic flax/veg oil and blend to a paste.   I usually make double the quantity.

For the hummus, I soak the chickpeas overnight in a tablespoon of whey that we get from our homemade yogurt.  To the food processor I add two cups of cooked chickpeas, a quarter cup of tahini sauce, 3 crushed garlic (or more), juice of 2 - 3 lemons depending on taste, blend together - whilst blending, slowly add 1 Tbs olive or flax oil.  You can add a pinch of cayenne pepper to spice it up a bit.  If the chickpeas consistency seems to thick you can add some of the cooking water left over from the chickpeas.

A healthy delicious snack for the children served with carrots, broccoli, celery sticks and pita bread.

A photographic adventure with the Mooses

It’s so beautiful out in the summer evenings.  We went to collect herbs for tea when Sasha wanted to take my camera with him. He has a passion for taking pictures capturing his own version of moments. Close-ups of nature are his favorite.

What a beautiful experience watching him and his brother on their photographic adventure.  Sania set up the props, of course the Mooses were center stage and Sasha took the photos.  These are some photos I selected.  I wish I could post them all.

A little moose became a part of my children's life when Sania found a moose in his christmas stocking 2 years ago.  We didn't realize that this little plush toy had music inside and was played all the time, almost driving us crazy.  We were almost considering helping with his disappearance. When the batteries ran out, I thought that was the end of Moose.  It wasn't.  He's become a part of our lives.  Moose eats with us, sleeps with us, swims and baths with us.  Moose enjoys BBQ's, driving in the children's graders.  They make beautiful forts and find incredible treasures for him.  Nothing is for the children, it's ALL for moose.

Sasha, my eldest, has a great love for plants and flowers.  I remember the walks we took when he was little, he would spend so much time admiring all the pretty flowers and he still picks them for his mama and the dining table.  Sania loves all the bugs, worms, lizards and frogs.

Mama and Sania resting under the banana palm

Amazing Calabash Gourds

One of the gourds we opened and left out to dry shriveled up and turned a beautiful, dark shade of brown because it was burnt from the scorching sun.  It reminded me of the African huts in Zimbabwe.   So we set up an 'almost' african nature table.

A smaller gourd that I painted.   I wanted to make a hole for the birds but I don't have the tools and it was too hard with an ordinary knife - I'll wait for Fabien to return from Miami to help me.

The gourd fruit of the Calabash Tree grow off the trunk.  Their flowers are pollinated by bats.  They are painted and decorated then used as bowls, containers, shakers and made into beautiful lamps.

Beautiful orchids found on the Calabash gourd tree.  It is common to find many varieties of orchids on gourd trees.

Anes, one of our farm helpers from Hiati helping us carry them from the car.  They are very heavy.

The boys enjoyed digging into the slimy, stringy pulp and then they smeared themselves with it!!!   The shells are on the roof drying.

Especially Sania

Some older photos of bottleneck gourds we harvested

Little garden helpers

Our property is quite large and it takes days for Ocello to mow the lawn.  My husband does all the larger areas with the tractor lawn cutter and Ocello mows the places that can't be reached with the tractor.  Tractor rides are so much fun for the children.

Then our little workers follow along side the lawnmower waiting for the magical shavings so they can deliver it to the compost pile and of course dive into it every now and again.

Taking a break

Kitty ride

Loading the rocks

My children decorating a flower bed in our garden with beautiful big white river rocks. They made the flower bed look very pretty.