Sweet Greens

One of my favorite fall activities is taking a fall family hike and collecting the brightest, most unique leaves that we can find. The problem is, we always come home with a large selection of leaves and no idea of how to use or enjoy them. I had a fun selection of leaves sitting inside a book, drying since our fall family trip to Montana last year. I had almost forgotten they were there, when I thought of using those leaves to create fun animal alphabet cards for my Eben’s bedroom.

This fall craft is super fun and can keep kids busy for an hour or two. You most likely already have all of the supplies you need in your craft closet, and it’s the perfect excuse for getting outside, enjoying the fall colors and taking a hike with your children. Jump over to Inhabitots for the simple directions for making a set of these animal alphabet cards for your child’s bedroom.

Hello, Friends! How was your week? Mine seemed to fly by and I can’t wait to kick off the weekend. The mister now gets home from work at 3 p.m. on Fridays! Hooray! The weekend have to be the most wonderful time of the week.

We are going to pick Eben up from school and spend the afternoon bike riding. One of the stops on our adventure this afternoon will have to be Whole Foods – we need a pumpkin or two. The mister was teasing me this morning saying that we will have to get pumpkins that are small enough to fit in our bike baskets or we will have to try to juggle them home. Ha!

While I get the bikes ready for our adventure, here are a few green things for you to enjoy this weekend.

– Students shun all beef burgers, demand 26 ingredient processed meat patties.
– Old entertainment center turned new toy storage – this is fantastic!
– Grass-grazed Cinderella Pumpkin Ice-cream. Yes, please.
– Will you March Against Monsanto tomorrow?
– If you are heading to the beach this weekend, stay alert coastal sharks are migrating right now.
– Why, yes – you can grow your own furniture.

I hope you have a amazing, cool fall weekend with your loved ones and enjoy a spiced pumpkin latte for me.

xo,
Sweet Greens

P.S. You are always welcome to follow along on our adventures via Instagram. 

photo credit

Lately, we can’t get enough paddleboarding! We usually spend at least one full weekend day on our boards. Last weekend, we decided to hit the intracoastal waters off John D. MacArthur Beach State Park. I love to paddle this area, because there is no boat access, which means you are definitely more likely to observe wildlife – and it makes the adventure so much more peaceful too.

As usual we saw a large variety of Florida birds and fish which is always amazing – we have the best birds here! Hello, Pelicans!

We decided to paddle along the shore of a small cove that we came across and right as we turned in, we were greeted by a small manatee. We immediately stopped paddling and quietly hung out. She was very curious and wanted to check us out too – she would swim around us, poke her snout out, then swim under our boards. We just sat in quiet amazement until she was finished and went back to her day. They are really amazing creatures! Sorry for the photo quality, I took all of the photos on my iPhone – I really need a instead. (It’s on my holiday wish list.)

Sidenote: If you live in Florida or are visiting Florida, please do not bother, pester, follow, touch, feed or ride the manatees – these are beautiful, kind, senstive, inquisitive creatures that should be enjoyed from a far, please give them their space. They are also very senstivie to loud noises, so please be quiet as to not spook or upset them. (Thank you for listening to my public service announcement.) 🙂

 Of course, we had to stop at a little island beach we can across to cool off! Overall, it was an amazing day – this is why we live in Florida.

What kind of adventure have you been on lately?

Halloween is on the horizon, and it’s time to start decorating your home to create that playful ambiance that makes this holiday so much fun for kids. Since little ones are often spooked by Halloween decorations, we’ve rounded up ten crafts that will help tots get into the spirit of Halloween, without all the scary stuff. These quirky Halloween crafts provide a great opportunity for you to bond with your children, and they may all be made using eco-friendly and recycled materials — many of which you probably already have on hand. Jump over to Inhabitots for 10 of my favorite eco-friendly crafts for green kids and get ready for some not-so-frightfully good fun!

photo credit A Grande Life