Oh My!

It has been 3 weeks since I last posted! Yikes! My parents have made it very clear that this lack of photos is not working for them. So, here's an attempt to wrap up the last weeks with some pictures...

Peter's class had a year end field trip to Mrs. B's farm.

The end of Pre-K - Peter and his teachers

Just a sample of artwork sent home with Peter on the last day...with this caption...
It seems I have quite a bit of power. : )

Last day of school silliness.

And on to strawberry picking at Butler's...

with our crazy friends.

Oh, and we have enjoyed many make up soccer games in June's heat, end-of-season soccer parties, swim practices every day,
and a piano recital...

(last year her feet didn't touch the floor...)

And the highlight of this past week... a preview of our new American Girl store! My dear friend Laurel somehow got us reservations for the "Friends and Family" complimentary dinner at the American Girl Bistro 4 days BEFORE it opened. Hannah was over the moon!

We were actually there when they ripped the paper off the windows!

Kit, Hannah, Elizabeth, Lindsay

We are inside!... still a little left to finish before the opening.

Dinner at the Bistro complete with seats and place settings for the dolls.
And the hair salon needed some extra practice, so all the dolls were taken away dolls for free styling while we ate. : )

And there's more to come. It's been too long.

Create-a-Face

I picked up this Create-a-Face pad at our local toy store a few weeks ago for $5. It's perfect for portrait practice and makes for a very easy, low-prep art project. Before they got started I had the kids look closely each others faces for eye placement, proportion, and shape of features. Pencils, colored pencils, markers, stickers, colored paper, glue, buttons... just throw it all on the table and watch them create!

Hannah's portrait

Peter's portrait - I love this

And here is another face I keep seeing this week.
The I've-been-sneaking-Easter-candy face with the blue-tinged lips.
At least he's honest about it. : )

Lollipop Valentines

I'm so thankful I had this valentine idea filed away. It fits Peter's personality so well.

There are many easy ways to adapt this. You could simply print the photos and write a valentine message on the back. I love the simplicity. Now getting Peter to write his name 14 times will be a challenge... : )

Valentine baking plans this weekend? Check out this cuteness from smitten kitchen...

Complementary Hearts

For a valentine-themed art lesson on complementary colors, we picked up some 11"x 14" canvases (on sale at Michael's) and used inexpensive, acrylic paints in the six colors of the color wheel.

Art Projects for Kids has a free color wheel download HERE.


I drew the grid (extending the lines over the edges) and the hearts lightly with pencil. Then I asked them to paint the background colors first - 2 squares for each color, careful to make sure that colors are evenly distributed over the canvas. They finished with the hearts in the complementary color.


Hannah and Will are so happy with these bright and beautiful paintings...
now to find a place to hang them.



Peter did his own thing - which turned out very well. So cute.

Five

My baby is FIVE!... despite my pleading with him to stop getting older,
to which he always replies, "Mom, stop it! I have to get big."

Happy Birthday, Peter!


***************

I designed these cupcake toppers for his school cupcakes,
but in the process I found these super cute free printable ones
and had to share.

Kandinsky's Circles

January needed a little color.

Our inspiration: Wassily Kandinsky's color study, Squares with Concentric Circles.

The idea for oil pastel circles and watercolor squares is from Usborne's Art Treasury. This was a easy and fun project for a snowy January afternoon. Art Projects for Kids has another take on it (that I love) using only oil pastels... maybe next time.

Just Lego-ing

I had to share Peter's proud moment. His first, all-by-myself, Lego creation...

Will stayed close to offer counsel if needed. : ) While on-call, Will created this weapon-equipped segway.
I hope to never see one of those zooming around DC.

Hannah, eager to see what all the fuss is about,
spent her birthday money on her own Lego set.

It's so quiet here with all this building. Now I should get back to my
year-end cleaning/organizing extravaganza.

Hope you all are enjoying this last week of the year!

A New Year

This week has been all about new books, new schedules, and getting back in the groove of school. Hannah and Will have been waking up early and diving in to their lessons before I am even back from my morning run. I know this won't last, but for now it sure is nice. I wish I could bottle up that energy and bring it out in February.

my first grader

and my third grader

Getting Peter to and from preschool has added an interesting twist to our days, but with a great carpool starting up next week, I will thankfully only be driving a few times each week. Peter is out the door by 8:00 everyday and that is our hopeful start time at home. It's quiet not having him around, but good. He is loving all the time he gets to play with little friends at school. And I love that he is creating and playing and having books read to him... something I was finding less and less time for here.

Hannah and Will's school days are very morning heavy, which gives us more time for afternoon activities with Peter. In attempt to have a regular rhythm to our weeks and to guard time for the things we love to do, I have created sort of themes for our free afternoons.

Tuesday afternoons are outdoor afternoons - a day where we can leave our city-crammed neighborhood and explore, hike, visit a farm, sketch in our nature journals, enjoy creation and some big open space. The kids were thrilled to hear about this plan, and now have a big incentive to be extra diligent on Tuesday mornings.

This past Tuesday afternoon was super hot and there was a "Code Red Air Quality Alert," so we stayed close to home and only spent about and hour hiking. We all gathered around an marveled at a huge patch of Jewelweed... so very appropriately named.

(I'm loving this new site I just discovered...
The Natural Capital: Getting outside, inside the beltway.)

Wednesday afternoons are art afternoons. When we close our books for the day, we will pull out paper, paints, and pencils. I hope Hannah and I can spend some of those afternoons working on our scrapbooks (you know, the ones I was going to get so caught up on this summer). On those days I pray will be ok with the mess, ok with unfolded laundry, and sit down to create alongside them. I so miss having the time to do that.


Monday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons will be full of Latin classes, soccer practices, piano lessons, and year-round swimming.

So, off we go into another year of school...
clinging to God every. single. day.

Peter's First Day

Peter went to school for the first time this morning.

Hannah and Will cheered him on and then went out to breakfast with Dad. We will dive into homeschool lessons tomorrow. Getting Peter to school for the first time was enough for one day.

All I have to say is...
watch out Pre-K!