Thank you for Participating!

We were so glad to have you! We are thinking about organizing another swap seasonally. Melissa has a great theme picked out. I am thinking it will be fun. But, that I will need a lot of grace from my partner as the baby will take most of my time! Anyway, maybe you didn't get involved this last go round. Well then please send us an email so we can put you in our address book: megandmag(at)gmail(dot)com We learned a lot this go round and so the rules will probably change a little and the theme will be different of course. So check back often and also email us so that you can get involved in our swap community!

Ours weren't delivered by horses...

...but they did arrive to great fanfare and happiness by two little girls (and one little boy who didn't have a clue what was involved but was especially thrilled by a blue fabric ball made just for him).

Our Michigan swap partners came through with a package that made us all swoon. There was something for everyone, from the honey from their own hive (!) to beautifully crafted crayon rolls. Those crayons rolls have been in non-stop use ever since. Ingenious flower pens and a bib sewn for the babe. There were craft kits for foam mosiacs, soybean plantings, Borax flower crystals, a marble painting tin (so great!), stickers, books, tons of fantastic postcards and pictures...and, and, and. So lovely and thoughtful. We are a grateful crew to have been matched with such a gem of a family. Many, many thanks to our partners.

There are many more pictures (and much better quality because, boy, is it ever tough to take pictures once kids are let loose...) here

Here is the honey looking yummy on toast:

Goodies from Vancouver Reach Michigan

Yeah! The dray delivered our swap package from Vancouver on Monday! (Cars are illegal on the island where we live so everything is done with horses.) S & K were so excited to open it and explore all the goodies. Thank you so much L - they love it! Check out my blog for pictures. It still amazes me that we managed to get our packages on the same day. What are the odds of that?

From Madison to Cincinnati!

Little late here, but I've finally posted the pics from our end of the Swap in my blog, right here.
Pics of the super-wonderful package we received are forthcoming... thanks again Sophie and Mel for a great package of goodies!!

Mary Jo and Isadora

Thank You Village Mama and Family!

A great big THANK YOU to Village Mama and kiddo's. Little man got to open his package when he got home from school last night and he was SO excited! He loved the cool Greenpeace stickers on the outside of the package!

*Yelling at Blogger! The pics won't load where I want them to!*

Anyways...thanks for all the goodies. He played with the sea animals all evening. He and daddy read the Sports Illustrated for Kids (how did you know he LOVED sports?). He loved the T-shirts from Canada. He loved the stickers. He loved the crayons and the scissors. He even drew me some pictures last night AND cut them out with the curvey scissors too!

Thanks so much for everything! This was a great experience and little man really enjoyed making new friends. He was looking at their picture all night and even showed me where they live on the map!

Better Late than Never -

Right??

Okay - I am late in posting this, we had a rough week here but I shall spare you all the gory details. Apologies to Samuel and Cordilia in California - I hope you can forgive my tardiness.

William received a fantastic package - including a book (which we shall read together when we finish the one we are in the middle of now), some cool friction cars, stickers, a wonderful warmer that you put in the microwave - this was hand made and features a delightful little camping motif - I SO want that fabric!!!, blo pens - and then - because apparently Cordilia is so very tuned in to boys and what they love she included an assortment of plastic ties, a piece of material, some string, duct tape - the only limit is William's imagination - so pretty much no limit!

Pictures speak louder than words... look at the joy on this child's face... thank you thank you thank you!!!

Toronto Package Arrives in Florida

Wow...I think I must be the last one! Our package arrived this afternoon from Toronto! I haven't peaked yet since little man is still at school. It's funny how we sent our packages on the same exact day and going to Canada got there quicker than coming from Canada. I can't wait to go get him today and open his package. I know it's going to be GREAT!

Thanks to Alec and Jacob!

We are late posting our thank yous, because our package arrived lightning fast, but I wanted to wait a week or so in order to update you on how the girls have been putting their things to use. The theme for the box was outdoors and nature, and it arrived just as Spring came! Perfect timing. It was filled with interesting things like bug catchers, a rain guage, several books, a wind chime, pictures and maps of Montana, a jump rope, a sewing kit, and a compass. It was a great kit, and the kids were thrilled! Kaylynn was fascinated with the jump rope and we've had several talks about it being an outside toy. :) Kristin took her bug catcher to school and hunted worms and beetles. She also took her birding book to school and carries it around like a textbook; it's very cute. I'm sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of everything in the box!

Here they are opening the package. They were ALL SMILES the entire time!


















I have to confess that Kristin's interest in the package was purely interest in the packaging for the first day that it arrived. Here she is with the box on her head.



And here she is stomping the bubble wrap. I highly recommend bubble wrap as part of your packaging!



And now, a video of the opening!

See the Opening

(I had to host it on my own site because the file was too big to host here)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the swap. I loved seeing all of your creative ideas. We had a great time! And a special thanks to Angela, Alec and Jacob for helping my girls to have a good first experience with a "pen pal" of sorts.

Palm Harbor FL package arrives in Toronto!

There was such abundance, 'this is from Bryce too' they kept asking...



stern warning from mama...



these maracas are so fun, so green and sound great to boot!



they dug into the books right away ;-)


IMMENSE GRATITUDE, GRACIAS, APPRECIATION to Calley and Bryce for 'music & sunshine' represented in the amazing array of: painted rocks, sand and shells, air plants, a map from your home to ours, Bryce's pipe flower crane painting (signed by him!!), the photo of Bryce (kids love it!), The Toddler's Busy Book, the Dumbo Book About Shapes, the Paw Print Parade, the two wonderfully creative bottle cap maracas made from nature and trash, and most of all for this new friendship.

More to follow here, here and here.

Amazing swap Meg and Mag, thank you for orchestrating it!

Thank you WebMommy!

We really enjoyed receiving the package!

After reading your letter, the boys jumped right in and started with the playdough and "Toobers and Zots", what fun!
J loved the puzzles, and A really enjoyed the Playdough popper.

We look forward to getting into the puppet making kit, the story books and painting. They look really fun!

Thanks to Meg and Mag for putting the swap together, it was really fun!

Many Blessings to all!

for abby and sammy

Melissa asked how to make the felt journals. So easy! I cut the size felt we wanted, cut drawing paper to a slightly smaller size, then staple the drawing paper together and stapled the felt over top. Then I needle-felted yarn onto the cover for the edge and names. I felted some dots and needled them onto the cover. Next time I would do the cover embellishments first, then the stapling, but it was creative process. You know how it goes.

The headband is a strip of knit 2, purl 2, stitched together at the end.

We so enjoyed putting together a beach theme package (and the excuse for a stop at the beach, which is always an easy errand!) for our new friends who live inland but love the surf and sand.

We would love to do another swap anytime.
Thank you for organizing it!
It's always lovely to make time for family creativity.

Beads, stickers, and artwork

I'm posting this a little late, but better late than never, right? Tay received her package this past Saturday and because of the busyness of our everyday lives I couldn't find the right time to post.

Tay's swap partner was a little boy, Michael Carroll, from Florida. He was kind enough to send Tay a few things. The first is a picture that he drew all by himself which he called "Circle Maze."

Isn't that an awesome picture? We thought it was very creative. The other items included a bead set, a pink teddy bear, and a pack of stickers.

Tay was very excited when she received her package. I was just as excited as she was that I forgot to take pictures of her opening the box.

Tay and I want to thank Michael and his mom, Sharon, for the wonderful goodies. I also want to thank Meg and Mag for putting together this little swap. It was lots of fun and I do hope that we can do this again.

Fabulous bags and amazing books

Here are a few pics of my kiddos opening their packages. The fun they had. I think most of the goodies wound up in their beds last night, and haven't left their sides this morning. Thank you to the Millers.

THANK YOU, SWAP PARTNERS!!

We got packages from both our swap partners yesterday. We had two partners since there were an odd number of participants. Both packages were extremely creative, but very different from each other.

This one was from Mama Bird at Surely You Nest and her two children.

Their package was full of really unique projects for the kids and I to do together. They sent us the ingredients to make bath bombs, which is very cool because that is the type of project I would think sounds really fun, but would never go and track down all the ingredients. They also sent us the materials to make edible googly eyes, little pots with sunflower seeds and soil, and some craft supplies. My son is dying to make the googly eyes, but I want to wait until after we go to the grocery store so that we can get the stuff to make sandwich faces to the put the googly eyes on. I think the sunflower seeds are going to be great too since he has been really interested in a new book that we got about sunflowers (I mentioned it in a post on my blog). I think I am most excited to make the bath bombs and then see my kids' reaction when we put them in the tub.

This one was from the mama over at The Belly Chronicles and her two children:

They sent us an ocean themed package, which included a beautiful book about shells, drift wood, a conch shell, a heart-shaped rock and two amazing handmade felt journals with my kids' names on them (I will have to find out how they made these). This package really touched me because I had mentioned in the questionaire how we love the ocean but don't live anywhere near it. It probably would have been more accurate to say that I love the ocean and want my children to develop an appreciation for it too, so it was really neat to have these artifacts come into our home that they can touch and feel. My son immediately sat down to write in his journal and then wanted to use the driftwood to pretend he was camping. It was also very sweet of them to include a knitted ear-muff for me.
After receiving the packages my son said that he wants to go on an airplane and meet his swap partners. This has been a wonderful experience for us. My son has gotten the idea of an exchange and developed a curiosity for maps, and I feel like I have made some new blogger friends. Thank you again to my swap partners and everyone who participated.

From Coast to Coast

The beach came to us via a thoughtful, fun package from the Sheldons in California. Oh, if only you could have heard all the squealing and enthusiastic admiring of the numerous, amazing shells, beach glass, and a whole sand dollar!

We managed to coax one happy face to look up for just a moment as both children were completely captivated by the "hatching" of sea creatures. Many thanks to the kind Sheldon family for sending their sunshine (it was finally a mild day in New England!), natural treasures, and other sea-themed treats!

A glimpse of some of the things that we sent across the country: appliqued bags for each child and keychains made from polymer clay.

From a late winter's walk: a variety of pine cones and needles which we used to impress discs of polymer clay.

We read that the youngest Sheldon likes to play dress-up and hope that these masks will lend themselves to some exciting adventures. Meg and Mag, thank you very much for organizing this swap! We have enjoyed meeting a wonderful family and send our warmest wishes to all of the families in this swap. Happy Spring!

WOW!!!

I sure hope Ella and Paige didn't feel cheated.  Our package arrived today and we were overwhelmed by the bounty.  It couldn't have arrived on a better day.  Oliver is sick and it is starting to rain!  I don't know if everything made it into the pictures or not.  So I will try to list it here:  Each kiddo got a bag (fabric and great for keeping future stuff) that had sidewalk chalk, a book (train pull out book for Oliver and a new baby book for Lacy), a handpainted treasure box, treasure (shells and fairy jewels)  and then Lacy got pens and Oliver's had some cars!  Then there were two craft kits.  One is in a paint can (so clever) and has lots of supplies, the other is a clothespin doll making kit.  We also got a music cd, a map of all their favorite places to go, and the baby got its' first gift too!  We are so amazed and happy, I can't say.  (Sorry for the naked baby pics, the kids couldn't be bribed to get dressed.  Although I did manage a shirt on Lacy)  Oh we also got paper to draw on (which is great because we ran out this morning!)  and Lacy got a scrapbook to make.

we had fun!

We really enjoyed getting ready for the swap...here's us day of mailing...a few hints, but not too much given away...

God Bless the Postman!

Our swap package arrived today from Lacy and Oliver (and Michelle, too!)! Thank goodness or the girls might have chased the postman down the street! They were sooo excited to open their goodies and they weren't disappointed either! Paige imediately started carrying around both frogs in her bag and Ella ripped into the craft goodies. At this point I'll have to pry her away to eat dinner tonight. We also received many other wonderful goodies which were all adored. Thanks for the book also Michelle...I have actually had it in my Amazon cart twice, but not

ordered it yet! Ella is already asking what we can mail for the next swap (and whether or not she has to share the craft supplies with her sister! Thanks again...we had so much fun!

A Match Made in SWAP Heaven!

We were perfectly matched Calley and Bryce: I just blogged an apology to you and Bryce about our day late mail out!

Some of our last-minute swap accumulation pics are now up on our flickr page.

Susana, Sebastian and Savannah

I wanted to continue our journey here by telling you that I am FINALLY heading to the post office as soon as I'm done with this post. I know...I'm a day late...but I hope you will forgive us! ;-) Bryce and I had so much fun working on your package and we hope you enjoy everything that we included. Since you are in Toronto and we are in Florida we thought we would include some SUNSHINE and MUSIC to brighten your cold days! We stuck to our guns and didn't buy anything. Everything inside comes from found items around the house and yard. Bryce did share some of his things that he has outgrown since Sebastian and Savannah are slightly younger...he hopes they enjoy them. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of your package and hope you had as much fun creating it as we did! I'll post some additional directions and information on my personal blog after you receive your package! I'd share some pictures but I'm afraid you are going to have to wait! I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!