Martinmas

We celebrated Martinmas (the feast of St. Martin) last night for the first time.  The story of Martin is a wonderful one.  A young Roman officer in France, Martin sees a beggar in the cold so he takes his sword and slashes his own cape in two giving half to the poor man.  I painted figures during nap time and made two simple capes with elastic through them - they can be worn as one cape and then one can be taken off to be shared.  The boys loved the story and it was especially appropriate as we we've just finished studying Rome.  

After Dinner we headed out on a lantern walk - a Martinmas tradition.  The boys had such a fun time walking on the Lade Braes with their lanterns in the dark.  They are begging to do it again soon.

I was inspired by lantern images I found online.  We used some sheets of watercolor paper (the boys have been doing a lot of wet-on-wet painting) and then modge podged tissue over holes I cut with an exacto knife.  It was a simple and fun project.  Next time we will all use electric candles.  I like real candles, but Jim and mine blew out in the first minute of walking through the gusty Scottish night (the boys luckily had electric candles so their lanterns worked well).