A Day of Art

Bug's class just finished their artist unit and held an art crawl for us to come by and talk with them about what they've learned and see the works the artists inspired them to create.

Bug passionately described his works, and his love of Leonardo Da Vinci. He couldn't find a better role model--a man who was an artist, inventor, and scientist and who was thinking beyond his time. Not sure if Bug's creations and thoughts are beyond his time, but some are certainly beyond his years. I was cracking up at the end when his teacher told me that one of the other parents who was talking with him about Da Vinci got off subject and ended up talking about blowtorches, until Bug stopped him. "We're not supposed to be talking about blow torches, we're supposed to be talking about art." That's my boy--keeping things straight.

"Morning In The Country" inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's creative use of swirls.

"Dinner Center Piece" inspired by Diego Rivera murals and use of flowers and fruits as focal point. Bug made a point of including as many different flowers as he could think of in his boquet.

"Evening Tree" inspired by Vincent Van Gogh.

"Snow Jim" inspired by Vincent van Gogh's techniques, and is in worm's eye view and one point perspective.

"Mona Otter" inspired by Romero Britto's use of vibrant colors and Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Most of the kids declared Romero Britto their favorite artist because of his use of bright colors, and almost all of them said this was their favorite piece to create. They had written a non-fiction report on an animal of their choice a couple months ago, so they created these Mona Lisa's using their animal. I love how they turned out.

 

"Cowboy Hat" inspired by Dale Chihuly. Chihuly may work in glass, and the kids used plastic, but these are so cool. Sharpie on a plastic plate that was then melted into these 3-D shapes.

It was fun talking with all the kids about their art. They were well-informed and exited to show us what they knew.

 

At the very end, their teacher showed us a music video they did with the kids to the song, Let Your Colors Shine. It was cute--love this teacher!

Love this little artist of ours, too!

A Capitol Weekend

We've been wanting to go to Raleigh for a weekend for awhile now and decided to make it happen this weekend. Museum of History, Museum of Natural Sciences, a friend from home, and Duck donuts. . .there was plenty to pack into the 32 hours we were gone.

Bug loved the museums as much as I knew he would when Bean and I were out here last year for her class field trip. Actually, we all really enjoyed them, even Bean and I who had already seen it. But it's different when you can go at your own pace, without being distracted by your friends who want to run through the exhibits at record pace.

The history museum had some fun hands on stuff that let the kids immerse themselves in the history of NC, which is impressively comprehensive. This state has been pretty significant in the history of our nation.

Even Peanut loved it.

 

 

The 1920's soda fountain replica was pretty amazing. It felt like something you'd find at Disney, only they weren't actually selling ice cream.

It was funny to see how medicine and treatments have come full circle--a lot of these things are part of the natural treatments people seek out these days.

The cabinets and counters were originally in a drugstore that opened in the 1890's. Such beautiful style--too bad Walgreens doesn't look like this.

Peanut loved the farming exhibit, but it took him awhile to warm up to the cow. He watched me "milk" her, then slowly approached and finally decided to give it a try. Well, even though there was only a little milk squirt sound when I did it, of course when Peanut tries, the cow also moo-d really loudly, and Peanut ran away from that thing so fast, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to catch him. He calmed down pretty fast, but he was shaking when I got to him. Poor thing has never been a fan of surprises or loud noises.

Enlisting in WWII felt safer to him.

After lunch, we were off to the Science museum. I'd saved that for second because I knew it would be the kids' favorite, and because my friend, who met up with us for the afternoon, is an entomologist and I figured the insect parts of the museum would be a lot more fun with a personal tour guide. And it was. Bean said that she hadn't really cared about the insects when we were here last year, but this time, it was her favorite section. It's always more fun when you can hear real stories and get the little insider information on a topic.

All my kids love K, but Peanut could not stop asking all day when we were going to get to go to her house, when we were going to see her, where she was. And as soon as she showed up, he kept her busy, dragging her around to see everything that he found.

 

There are so many cool things to learn about and see. Daddy-o was pretty excited to get to touch a meteorite that is 4.5 billion years old. Not every day that you come in contact with something so old.

 

Bug's favorite was of course the dinosaurs, including this Acrocanthosaurus, which is the most complete skeleton of this they've ever found.

Nothing like a footprint the size of a bathtub to play in.

All that playing totally wiped this guy out. He spent the last hour or so dragging himself from spot to spot and flopping down on every bench or even just the floor. He was more than ready to head to K's house for dinner.

 

We stayed the night and went to church with her this morning, which ended up being great. We both have jobs at our own church, especially Daddy-o, which keep us busy and mean that we don't get to just sit in the meetings, but today, even Peanut agreed to go to his class and Daddy-o and I got to sit in Sunday School and a class on teaching, together. It was really nice.

 

Then, we made a quick stop at a branch of the Duck Donuts that we fell in love with in the Outer Banks, and made our way home. It wasn't a long trip, but it felt like a good little vacation and it thoroughly wore everyone out. Peanut was asleep by 6:30 and the rest of us had taken a nap in the car on the way home (well, except designated driver Daddy-o, of course.) or we may have crashed that early, too. 

RAK

Peanut and I were the recipients of a little Random Act of Kindness today coming out of the grocery store. As we were returning our cart, a woman and her toddler who I had noticed at the checkout area stopped us and the woman handed me a package of Play-Doh. She told me she wanted to give Peanut a little Easter present because she had bought a bunch of stuff for her son and wanted to share some.

My first thought was How incredibly nice! I can't believe someone would do that! I thanked her profusely and Peanut was grinning as I handed it to him, so I knew she saw our gratitude, but then, as we walked off in opposite directions, I started to question why she would do that.

I had actually picked up that box of Play-Doh from the clearance aisle, where it was obviously misplaced and asked the cashier how much it was because I figured if it really was a deal, we could always use backup playdough. But when she told me it was $4, I decided I didn't want it since we didn't actually need it and it wasn't some crazy deal.

Had the woman overheard that and felt bad for me that I couldn't buy my child a $4 pack of playdough? Did we look destitute? We were on our way home from a 3.5 mile run so I'm sure my sweaty face and dishelved hair didn't look the greatest. And Peanut was still in his PJ's and wearing a slightly dirty sweatshirt that has gone through 3 kids. Maybe it wasn't that she thought that I couldn't afford the playdough, but that I couldn't manage to take care of my child or myself. I wondered if I should be offended, or feel guilty that she'd spent the money on someone who really didn't need it.

And then I had to stop myself. Because who am I to question why someone does something nice. I know how fun it is to do the random kind act. I know how good it feels and I know that whenever I do things for someone, I hope it makes them feel good, too. Whatever the woman's thoughts were, I'm sure it came from a place of kindness and her purpose wasn't to make me feel bad or guilty. And really, if I didn't overthink it, it did make me feel good. It's always nice to get a reminder that there are good people everywhere, doing little things every day that make someone else smile.

And now, Peanut and I are going to go play Play-Doh. Because the new stuff is always better than the old. And apparently, I have to help him make a white zebra with rainbow stripes because that is what is on the box, so that is obviously what this package is for.

George vs. George

The day finally came, the culmination of months of learning, work, practice, and giddy excitement: the 5th grade opera.

Where we got to see the Corvian interpretation of the conflict between King George III

and the father of our country. The classes read George vs. George to kick start their learning about the American Revolution, and then, the real work began. They divided the story among the 4 classes and each class was responsible for writing lyrics and music for their section.

They helped design the sets and then did all the painting. This backdrop, for the shot that started the war, was the part Bean's group painted.

The cannons and cannonballs were one of the best parts--bouncy balls painted black that the two armies threw back and forth at each other on stage. You know they were having fun with that part, even if Bean lamented that "no one got to die". Her teacher cut the dying because she didn't like how the kids were doing it. Bean thought it had been very realistic looking, but I'm guessing that meant a few too many theatrics for the time constraints and size of the stage.

Peanut loved the boats. You could actually hear him up on stage when he yelled, "Look! A boat is coming!" 

And there's our little Cornwallis. We were cracking up at her "directing". It went way beyond a general directing his army--she was the stage manager for her side of the stage the whole show. Her teacher actually told us afterwards that she had picked her for that part because they needed a third person to be in charge, since Mrs. M was out in front, and Mr. J was on the other side of the stage, but they knew they could count on Bean to keep everyone on track. Hahaha.

She told me that she was going to make sure she knew all the parts and stage directions for the entire thing so she could help anyone who forgot.

I loved the wigs. This is the first full-on costumed play they have done.

Usually they go more for the essence of the part--maybe a hat, or coat, or props, but this time, they had everyone decked out in proper rebel and Redcoat gear.

Lot of hard work, by the students and the teachers! So crazy that these kids only have a couple more months until they'll be elementary school graduates.

Here's videos of a couple of the songs. We missed getting the one that Bean wrote. I have to ask around to see who recorded the whole thing.

Spring Day!

Spring has sprung. Along with celebrating out anniversary this weekend, we also had a season change to mark. It's finally getting warm,

the flowers are coming out,

 

and we've even got our first green tree of the year! I'm not even sure when this happened. One day, it was all brown out there and then we saw this sign of life.

 

In traditional fashion, we did our "Spring Egg" dying. Don't be fooled by these cherubic smiles. There were a lot of tears and whines that went along with this. I'm accepting the fact that egg dying is not my favorite thing to do. But in the end, I think the kids had fun.

Peanut's little monster egg.

Bug's yellow monster.

That boy still loves yellow.

Bean's monster.

The final assortment.

Then, we moved on to the buckets and egg hunt. I stopped myself from buying too much dollar junk when shopping for these and instead spent more money, but actually got some useful stuff, like new spring church clothes.

Peanut got really into the egg hunt this year, although he did hit a slight road bump when one of the eggs opened and he realized they were full of candy. He almost sat down right then to start eating his loot. You know what they say about one bird in the hand. . .

(Good thing we haven't done the first spring mowing so we had these nice clumps of weeds to hide the eggs in!)

And here are my little spring chicks in their new clothes.

Cute vests for the boys and a new dress for Bean.

Love seeing these kids dressed up.

And then back to their normal behavior.

My boys.

And a cute Daddy-daughter shot. Look how tall she's getting!

 

We're now official--it's spring and Mother Nature can get serious about some nice weather.