candles, cookies and ziplines

Our area of NC does not have a Waldorf school, nor do we have a Waldorf community. In fact, we have a hard time finding very many families like ourselves who choose to live in a deliberate way, exposing our kids to more of the natural, creative world and less of the commercial, plastic world. We have been fortunate to find a few select friends who are also choosing to raise their families in a similar manner.

On Sunday, we were very fortunate that another mom in our area who homeschools using a Waldorf curriculum invited a few friends, who also invited a few friends; and a small circle of mamas and children gathered for a few hours to become acquainted and make a few candles to light our way into spring.

Of course, once we arrived at the house of the hosting family, my kids discovered her backyard, complete with creek, climbing trees, a swinging rope and a zipline. I'm pretty sure they would have been happy to skip the candle-making to spend all their time in the backyard. :)

Eventually, we pried the kids off the zipline and the candle-dipping commenced.

We so enjoyed this lovely experience of walking around the table dipping our candles, one after another while singing:

Quiet, quiet do not make a sound.

Holding now the string so tight,

we all make some winter light.

Quiet, quiet, do not make a sound.

Dipping, dipping candles smooth and round.

(you can listen here)

What an adorable sight...so many candles dipped by hands, large and small, together as a community.

After some cute little snacks (this bee snack was made by another mom using the Vegan Lunchbox cookbook),

they headed back out to the zipline.

I hope this becomes the beginning of a wonderful new trend for us!