Grandma Time

 

Rara came out to see us in April and we got in some good grandma time. Peanut (finally!) was excited to stay with her while I did all the big kids' school runs and errands, which meant he had some alone time with Rara that he doesn't usually get. They played games, made puzzles, read books, watched Curious George, and asked/answered hours of questions about everything. I think they both really enjoyed it. 

This was also the first time in what feels like a million years that I got a lot of alone time with my mom on a visit--kids were all in school 4 mornings a week, which meant we had a few uninterrupted hours to talk and work on projects. Biggest accomplishment is my first quilt. I've been watching my mom quilt, and teach Bean and Bug, for years, but this is the first time I decided I wanted to try. I have so many random fabric scraps that I thought it would be fun to turn them into something and I'm loving how this turned out. Who knows--I might get crazy and try another one.

 

The weather during the couple weeks Rara was here was just about perfect and we took advantage by eating dinner outside whenever we could and had a fire one of the last evenings.

 

Bean has been practicing her whittling skills with her new(safer) knife.

 

And Bug is the typical 9 year-old pyromaniac.

 

S'mores are so good.

 

And sticky.

So glad we got a grandma visit.

Young Artists at Work

 

The kids' school hosted an art crawl over the weekend.

 

The 6th graders individual pieces were clay coil pots.

 

Each of the 4 sections did a group project as well. I wasn't crazy about Bean's class, until I started reading what each of the kids wrote, and suddenly, it becomes a much more personal fingerprint that would have been pretty cool to have. We'll have to settle for this picture.

 

Bug's class did this one, which is also pretty fun. I can think of a lot of fun things I'd like to try using the book as the basis like this did.

 

And then, there is his Andy Warhol inspired mugs. I really love how they incorporate professional artists into their own art studies. It feels like art comes alive at this school. 

These were a couple of the other class projects that I really liked--may have to have the kids do something like this for me:

A Visit to the Wizarding World

 

Dreams came true this week. These two wizards weren't the only ones who had the trip of a lifetime into a world that we have read and/or watched for years now. And Universal Studios really rose to the challenge of making the world of Harry Potter come to life--I never thought I'd say it, but I think I found a theme park I love even more than Disneyland. 

It was absolutely incredible to get to walk the streets of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and Hogsmeade; perform magic; to ride on the Hogwarts Express from platform 9 3/4; to travel through Hogwarts and Gringotts Bank; ride on a hippogriff and a dragon; eat at both the Three Broomsticks and The Leaky Cauldron; drink butterbeer, which is even better than I'd imagined. There were moments of crowds, and some longish lines, but there were also those pockets where the streets cleared out and we could have really been there. It was an amazing experience Seriously, I wish every book I love could come to life like this.

And now, because a picture is worth a thousand words. . .