Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Torch Has Been Passed



Thomas The Tank Engine has once again found his way to our house. The bad news is that he takes up a lot of room. The good news is that I now know what to get Charlie for Christmas.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Team Day

AJ's school had team day yesterday. It is a day that consists of a lot of game playing, crafts and general hoopla. The kids love it. The theme was Rock n' Roll with a little Peace and Love thrown in. Hence all the tie dying last week.

It was so fun to see all the kids in their shirts. It was a sea of color. Every single kid's shirt was the same color as the rest of their grade. But each shirt was completely unique.

I was asked to lead an art project for the day. The organizers wanted to do symbols with the kid's hand prints surround the symbols.

1) So I painted the symbols on the canvases.


2) Then I taped the canvases off to make sure the kids didn't get any paint on the actual symbols. (This ended up being a good call. There is always that one kid. . . )

3) and the painting started

Here is the beginning:


Here is the end:

And here are the final products:

They are going to be hung in our new cafeteria.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Career Advice From a Third Grader

First Student: I want to be an artist when I grow up!
Me: That is fantastic! Do you like science? You could be a medical illustrator. Do you like buildings? You could be an interior designer. You can totally make a living being an artist. That's great that you want to do that.
Second Student (looking at me): Yeah, you might want to get a real job.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Men at Work



I know this picture is a little blurry, but it cracked me up. Both of them were so intent on their work.

And speaking of blurry, I really need to figure out how to take a decent indoor shot. If I use the flash, the picture looks horrible. If I don't, the picture is blurry. Maybe I should ask one of the three professional photographers I know. Nah.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tie Dying- In Bullet Points

  • 650 ish shirts
  • 1/2 day where the water had to be turned off
  • Almost 100 packages of dye
  • Thousands of rubber bands
  • 5 shirts dunked in the wrong color
Countless kids saying the following:
  • Is this dye going to come out of my clothes?
  • The red looks like blood!
  • That doesn't look green!
  • Can you make it say my name?
  • Can you do flames?
  • Can you make a rocket ship?
  • Can you make a dog?
And then I answered with the following:
  • No
  • I know
  • But it is.
  • No
  • No
  • No
  • No
Teaching is so rewarding.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Artistic Expression

You may have noticed in some of the pictures (including this one) that we have a bunch of white pillows on the back of our sofa. That is because the cushions on our sofa made it so uncomfortable, we took them off and got plain square pillows to replace them. I have gone and gotten about 20 samples of various fabrics in the hope of designing new pillow covers for them. So, that was what I was doing tonight. This peaked Charlie's interest.

I wish I had gotten a picture of Charlie while I was the one drawing. He stood at my side, hands folded, still as a statue, watching every move I made. Then, when I finished, I gave him a paper and pencil so he could try himself.

This was the only picture I got. Because once he realized I was taking his picture, he said "Cheese!" and did this:


Wild Suburbia

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

San Diego- Last Day

We started the day at the playground in Balboa park. It wasn't anything too special, but it did have this cool sundial that was very accurate.

It was 9:30 when we looked at this.

After, we walked over the science museum. It was a very hands-on museum so AJ loved it.

This is Shawn and AJ making electricity by pedaling.

This is Charlie in the Kid City. It is designed for kids under 5. Charlie, as usual, became very attached to balls and never let them go. He took the balls from one display and then proceeded to use them on all other displays. He had a blast.

Next we went to the Japanese Friendship Garden. It was beautiful garden, just the way you would picture a Japanese garden.

I caught AJ near the pool being contemplative. I took a picture, because he may never stand still long enough for it to ever happen again.

This is a collection of bonsai trees. I had never seen so many in one place before.

After, we moved on to the Museum of Sports. It was kind of lame. But, we did get some ice cream there, so all was not lost.

This is AJ expressing how cold he is in the 65 degree weather. I can't believe this kid was born in MN.

Here is Charlie enjoying his ice cream. I don't know what it was about this trip. Maybe it was all the walking and hands-on activities. But I have never seen the boys eat so much.


And finally we went to the aerospace museum. That was very cool. They had planes, hanging from every corner. They even had displays dedicated to Superman and Snoopy. I loved how they didn't take themselves too seriously.


This is AJ and Charlie in the cockpit of a plane. Once again, Charlie wanted no part of it until AJ gave it his blessing.

We had a fantastic trip and I can't wait to go back. There is so much to do, and we didn't do nearly all of it. But next time, we are definitely going to the beach!

San Diego Part 4


We had a lot of family togetherness.


Here is Charlie checking out the antiques. :)

Bath time went much better when I brought in the zoo animals for Charlie to play with. He had a great time lining them all up and knocking them down.

The Packers-Vickings game was on. So, we ordered some takeout and watched the game. Charlie had to go to bed, so we turned the t.v toward the patio., opened the curtains and sat on the patio and watched the game on mute through the sliding glass door. It was then that there was a discussion about getting the two room suite next time we come.



Look who we brought back from the zoo! Gran and Grandad were visiting CA and ended up flying into the San Diego airport. We were walking out of the zoo, and who should we see, but the two of them walking towards us. They came back to the inn with us and visited for a bit. Then they were off again.

San Diego Part 3

Even with some big brotherly encouragement, Charlie was having nothing to do with the animals at the petting zoo.


AJ's mission for the day was to get his picture taken with every cutout the zoo offered.


He aslo wanted to ham it up for every pose with any statue we saw as well.


That is AJ under the elephant's leg.



Here are the boys checking out the map.

This elevator totally cracked me up. It was in the middle of the aviary and had a very "evil lair" vibe to it. I shouldn't have been to surprised since we had to take an escalator up to the aviary in the first place.

San Diego Part 2

After the train museum, we walked around a bit.

AJ found this sparkly dragon statue that caught his eye.


There was also this great fountain outside some of the museums.

San Diego Part 1

We spent the last few days in San Diego. It is truly a beautiful city and I love going there. There are so many parks, museums, playgrounds, and art.

We stayed at the Balboa Park Inn. The inn was created from buildings used to house people during the 1915 World's Fair. In a world where everything that is new and technologically advanced is valued, it was nice to spend some time in a quirky older building. Our room had a small kitchenette, queen size bed, a pullout couch for AJ and a small porch. The rooms of the inn surround an interior courtyard that was full of plants and seating.

If you are looking for the height of style, this place is not for you. The interior design left a lot to be desired. But it was comfortable and relaxed. And you cannot beat the location. We were able to walk across the street to the zoo and Balboa Park.

Balboa Park is fun and full of things to do.

AJ is standing in the archway of an outdoor theatre.

Charlie is enjoying his hotdog. We weren't up for sitting in a restaurant since we had just spent 5 hours in the car. So we got lunch on the go.


This is the front of the botanical gardens. We got there 2 minutes before they were closing, so we weren't able to go inside. But I love the pool out front. AJ was trying to catch a glimpse of the fish that lived in the pond.


We also went to the Miniature Railroad Museum. It was very cool. They had complete cities set up. It is hard to tell from the picture but to the left of where AJ is standing is a full working studio where the model builders are building new sets. They work on their new projects while the trains go by them

.
They even had a Thomas the Tank Engine room for all the smaller kids. Charlie was very upset to leave Thomas behind. It looks like we will be setting up AJ's old Thomas collection soon.


Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Cool Stuff From San Diego


Imperial Dunes

Japanese Friendship Garden

Balboa Park







I will do the kid pictures tomorrow with stories from our trip. But, these are just pictures I took of stuff I thought was interesting or beautiful, for whatever reason.