Solstice

Well, solstice was a while ago, but we celebrated it a day late owing to a stomach bug that I had that left me completely prostrated.  We have definitely gotten into the habit of celebrating the solstices and the equinoxes, generally with a fire, for which marshmellows are de rigeur.  There is no way that we could get away with fires without marshmellows.  Anyway, the day before, when both children were away at friends' houses, I looked around on the internet for some ideas of something to make.  Suns seemed good, but I definitely couldn't get it together to do a weaving project with natural materials and fabric scraps, because I don't have any.  So, we got some big foamy posterboard, and attempted to cut it out kind of like a circle with our dull scissors, and the kids painted them with red, orange and yellow paint.  Then we added streamers.  I have to admit that it is kind of embarassing to post pictures because our yard is littered with stuff...I collected bamboo poles all last year, thinking I would make some kind of awesome bean teepee, but instead, David just chases Elsa with it like it is a spear.

We added some orange, yellow and red streamers, and they were kind of like sun kites,  which they played with for a long while, and now I have no idea what to do with them.  But they were pretty.

We also made a sun cake, which Elsa decorated with the wild black raspberries that we have growing in the azalea beds.  We didn't get that many this year, but it seems to go every other year.

I have several things to say about it.  First, isn't it cute, despite the imperfections?  Elsa and I worked on it together--the problem was that the second round cake fell apart, and so the sun rays were hard.  Second,  I am just not a perfectionist. Third, I read that you could use turmeric to dye the frosting yellow.  I tried, but it tasted really, really weird, so I went ahead and broke out the food coloring.  It felt very celebretory to make a cake, and was worth the begging from the three year old to eat it right now.

And we had a fire, although we could not stay up until it got dark.  David has given up his nap, which is great, but it doesn't get dark around here until past nine, and he is done by seven thirty.  Also, at one point in my life I had mad fire making skills.  I could bust out a coal on a bow drill, blow it into flames, and have a great fire burning.  Of course, that was in Utah, where everything was dry.  Jesse was late getting home, and I was in a hurry to get the fire going, get the marshmellows roasted and cake eaten and sugar high run off and children into baths and bed, and the fire did not exactly take off.  But it was a good time anyway.  I love summer, even pregnant and really hot.