Stick Bunnie: Pickin' a Booga

I finished the Booga Bag this morning before I took Liam to school this morning. I decided not to put a magnetic clasp on this one and to use a button closure instead, and I'm pleased with the results (I got mad props at the school when I dropped them off). Since I actually had a comment on Sophie (I'm so excited that someone read my blog!), I'm going to post pics of how I did (or maybe should have done?) the magnet closure in a separate post following this one.

I bought 3 bags of value buttons from JoAnn's a month and a half ago for the purpose of making sock puppets, as requested by Liam for Valentine's gifts for his classmates, but that never materialized. Gosh, can't imagine why. Anyway, I found the perfect button out of this stash. I *shudder* (I still can't get used to cutting my knitting...even when I know it's not going to fall apart) cut the front of the bag for the buttonhole and used pink thread to sew round the buttonhole to stablize it (not that it was unstable to begin with...it was felted after all).

The picture of the bag was taken at the school this morning in one of the little buildings in the meadow where the preschool and kindergarten children play. I didn't want to crawl inside to take the picture so there wouldn't be backlighting, as the inside of the little house is a mudpit, though Jonah would have loved to see Mommie squooshing in the muck.

Because I finished it this morning and was in a hurry to get it to the school this morning, I didn't have a chance to take the myriad crazy pictures like I did for the Sophie bag. I really didn't do anything drastically different than I did for the one I made for myself. There is only one pocket on the inside, and I added the button closure. Other than that, the specs follow the Booga pattern. Here is the finished product:

I usually let Jonah play in the meadow in the mornings on the days I take Liam to school (hubby does not, since he's on more of a time crunch). It gives him a chance to run around with other children (many of them siblings of children in Liam's class or the other pre-K/K classes) and blow off steam outside before going to hang out with the grandparents while I'm at school. The children always find plenty to do to keep themselves busy. There is a gazebo to stand in with a crazy huge root/stump from a fallen tree (I should have taken a picture of it while I had the camera there today), the little playhouse above (not that you can really see much of it), a bridge over a trench, an archway, and lots of grass. At the rear of the meadow are trees where the meadow borders neighboring property. Oh, and did I mention the mud in the fall, winter, and spring? Posted on our newsletter this month as being overheard by someone at the rink: "When the Waldorf kids fall on the ice, they leave mud streaks." (Grades 1-8 go skating at one of the universities during the winter) I quit washing his muddy outerwear on a daily basis. Now it might get washed once a month or every couple of weeks depending on how bad they are.

Anyway...I digress. Every once in a while, strange things show up in the meadow for the children to investigate (the root/stump, for one). Some stay, and some disappear (a large tire from a tractor, I'm guessing, was there for a while but became a problem and is now gone...the stump has stayed. Over the last week or so, a broken bench has appeared, and the children have been delighted with it. It's amazing to see how children can see fun in something that appears completely non-entertaining and useless.

This morning, the children were taking turns using it as a jumping ramp. When Jonah saw the older children running up the bench and jumping from the highest point, he thought for sure this was a job meant for him. While I did not catch him on camera in the act of jumping, I did catch him sitting. He was hesitant to leave, even when the teacher rang the handbell, when normally he would run to follow the children to line up in their trains. I did eventually convince him to leave without too much of a wrestling match. In this picture, you can see the bottom of the playhouse...

The winter coat belies the true weather of the day. While it was cool when we left for the school, by the time we were ready to head back home, it was much too warm for the coat. By the end of the day, we were all running about in T-shirts with NO JACKETS! Yay, spring!

My flowers are getting ready to put on a show. The crocuses are in full bloom, the snowdrops are coming in second, followed by the daffodils, the hyacinths, and finally, the tulips. My crocuses are all blooming in these showy clusters. I think my favorites are the purple and white striped ones. I have yellow, purple, white, and the striped purple.