New Years Day!

Ahem, only a month behind in posting this. :)

For several years now, on New Years Day, we've been creating concrete stepping stones with the kids hand prints and letting them decorate their stone. The kids love doing this and I love stepping out into my garden and seeing how my beautiful, personal garden has grown. We started with 4 stones a year and we now have 6 a year, that's a lot of stepping stones!. The size of the stones has grown as well. The smaller size didn't leave room for a hand print and date, plus decorating. So we bumped up to the bigger molds which gave them a lot more room to create their design and still give me what I want, the hand print and date. :) Such a tangible way to measure the time with my precious blooms.

 

  S and J waiting for the concrete to be mixed

J. was the first to go!

 Then R.

Next was E.

Then A.

S's turn

Last but not least, K got to take a turn. 

Nice technique, doncha think? ;)  We smoothed this out and redid her print. 

A and E being creative

J. is showing his artistic side

  Finished and all lined up in a row to dry

The finished products close up, minus the names which have been wiped out to protect the innocent. :) 

A's

J's

R's 

 E's

K's 

(you see those purple plastic things in there? Those are the letter stamps we used for names and dates. K's concrete was so soupy I left those stamps in, meaning to go back and get them out. Yeah, you're right, I left them in too long and they are stuck for good! I tried chiseling one out but it only broke up the concrete. SO, I bought her a new mold and we made a new handprint for her a few weeks later. :))

S's

I love how this year they all could pretty much do this on their own. Yet another bittersweet sign that my garden is growing up. *sigh*

  We bought a little fire pit and sat out by the fire

 Later in the evening, they all had hot chocolate with...

lots of whipping cream!

I can't think of a better way to eat homemade whipping cream than w/ a spoon, right out of the bowl, can you?

YUM! 

And that is how we spent our New Years Day. A quiet day with the people I love the most in all the world. :)