Transparency Installation

In honor of my first turning 6, an installation of sorts was in order. I had a real 'thing' for transparencies in college, and renewed my love for them this week.

I picked 25 pictures of M, some from each of the six years of her life. Turned them all into B&W, and had them printed onto transparencies. (75 cents each at kinkos). Punched a few holes into the top, and tied thread through the holes. Hung from the ceiling with tape at different heights.

Reliving the memories is so fun.

Hung in the living room to catch the first light of day.

M designs: part 2

On these last two designs of M's (see first post and second post), I took a few unauthorized liberties, and she let me know it. I really should have known better. I made them work, and she loves them, but there are a few things she wishes I would have stuck with.

For one: on the drawing on the right you will see a jagged, almost pirate-y skirt. I just implied the jagged edge with appliqued triangles. And the skirt fabric really is striped, it's just a little hard to tell in the picture.

She loves this and is completely happy with it, but really had hoped it was backless, as she specified to me several times. I just couldn't see sending my 5 year old to school in a backless dress.

So the school clothes come to a close. Truly, one of the best creative experiences a mother and her child could have.

Kindergarten Wardrobe

A few months ago, someone asked M if she was excited about getting new school clothes for kindergarten. Well, M had no idea that such traditions existed. I have, since that time, been receiving notes from M entitled "My Scool Clos", with a drawing of something she would like me to make for her. Most are dresses, and most include matching gloves. She points out details - "this is a scarf mom" and "these dots should be sparkles". I keep trying to explain that kids now-a-days (and for the past 50 years or so) are wearing jeans and shorts, but, she has her heart set on these. Hmm. I have a mere 7 weeks to make all these for her.

I em sad

Remember this?
Last week I asked M to illustrate an event in her life. I told her it could be anything. This is what she came up with - the story of when she tried to sew something and it didn't work:
That picture is one of my most favorite possessions.

Secret Pal

I found this while working in the art room last night:
"Dear Pam, I am your secret pal. I am a girl you might know. My name I will give you a clue."

**Today I actually received the note. It was placed by my sewing machine, with a gift of a few pieces of fabric. I love having a secret pal. M then informed me that she hoped she would wake up to a note from a secret pal. I'd better get on that.

4th of July

Getting all decked out for the parade.Liam making sure he loaded up on candy, even going so far as to yell at the floats, "fro me some! I NEED it!!"

Milli and Kella on the float in the parade. (Milli declared this part as a dream come true.)

Liam playing with sparklers.

Excerpts from Family Home Evening

Tonight Bryan thought it would be a good idea to teach the kids some emergency preparedness stuff. We covered the basics; 911, fires (Milli suggested that to put out a house fire we run outside, grab some snow, and throw it on the house), and strangers in the house.

Bryan teaching the kids about escaping from fires:

Sewing with M

M and I tackled her first real sewing project. About 6 years ago I bought about fifty 70's patterns at a garage sale for $1. Digging through them, M picked out this hat:
Of course I did the details and more difficult parts, but mostly, it was hers.

Homework

My oldest sister Sharon, who is also a Kindergarten teacher, has been sending home homework for me to do with M (basically just what she sends her kindergartners home with). The other day when we were at my mom's house, we began December's homework. One of the activities was to teach your child about 3 animals who live in the cold. I thought this would be so fun - and it was. We hopped on Wikipedia and learned all about Polar Bears, Seals, and Penguins. We started with Polar Bears and she of course had a million questions. Here is an exact discussion we had:

M: But what do polar bears eat?
Me: Hmm (scrolling)... they eat seals.
M: Big ones or little ones?
Me: Hmm (scrolling)... little ones.
M: Like babies?
Me: Well... little ones that are weaker and smaller than the rest.
M: Like the babies?
Me: Should we not talk about this? Is it scaring you?
M: No mom, I'm not scared, I just want to know.
Me: Ok, well sometimes they eat the babies.
M: But where are the mom and dad?
Me: Well they are fighting the bear to try to save the baby.
M: Do they save it?
Me: (seriously wishing I was not having this conversation) Probably not.
M: (quiet and serious) But do the mom and dad hold the baby and tell it where its going?
Me : You mean while the polar bear eats it?
M: Ya.
Me: I don't think they hold it while the polar bear eats it, I think they are trying to get out of there.
M: But sometimes if the baby is still in the mom's stomach do the polar bears eat it out of the stomach?
Me: (getting sad watery eyes because of this very sad picture she has painted in my mind) Are you hungry? Want to eat some candy? Want to watch something on TV?

What, you're sick of hearing about New York?

Ok, I have lots more New York stuff to post, but I figured I'd take a break to blog Halloween. The kids had a great time, but both have colds, so they started to ask to come home after about 45 minutes. They were so cute. What a magical holiday for kids....all that candy. M and Kella chose to be cheerleaders this year, and L, Nemo. The problem is that he thinks his Nemo costume is a jacket and wants to wear it every day, as a jacket. "Not this jacket! Nemo jacket!!"

Cultured Barbie

My sister Barbara got these stickers and challenged me to come up with a cool way to use them. Well, I instantly thought that they were just the right size to decorate a Barbie house, but better yet, why not make our own Barbie art gallery. Pumpkin and her cousin did most of the work "framing" the stickers. I painted a half of a box gray, and we were all set.

Big Dirty Van

This is our van that we inherited. It has been a real trooper, carrying me to and from the bus stop each day, for 4 years. (It doesn't go ove 35, so it's not much use otherwise). Pumpkin has said some funny things about the van lately. On Sunday, she asked me if we could take the van to church. I told her we could, and she said "Yay! The big dirty van! We get to take the big dirty van to church!"

Then tonight when we went to take a meal to a family that had a new baby arrive, she said "I'll just stay in the van." I told her that I didn't want to leave her alone and she said, "It's ok, I'll be with all these dirty things in the dirty van." (I've been known to be a little cluttery).

Heaven and Eve

A few days ago we were driving home from work when we got a call from our friends who live in New York. They were in town and wanted to get together - that night. They usually don't know when they'll be in town or for how long or when they'll have free time. We take any opportuity we can get to spend time with them since it's only been about once a year or even less. They have two little girls called Ruth and Eve. We tried to tell Pumpkin their names in preparation, but she kept calling them "Heaven" and Eve.