Fruit Art Palette

I'm sorry for this very poor picture, but I was in a hurry and didn't take time to see if I got a good shot!  As we were working on one of our art pieces, I served the children this fruit art palette.  I originally thought I would serve mini-cupcakes with different colored icing but a healthy snack and ease won out!

P.S.  I promise the palette was clean!

Sunflowers

In the children's garden we have a most magnificent sunflower!  It stretches toward the sky and is heaven for about 5 bumblebees at any given time.

After reading, Camille and the Sunflowers, A story about Vincent van Gogh by Laurence Anholt we  spent an afternoon painting our sunflower.  I set the easel up in the garden, gave each child a canvas and some paints and told them to paint the sunflower however they saw fit.

I think that the results were darling- including the bees.

P.S.  I want to note that I have found that the children respond the most favorably to creating when they have quality art supplies.  I don't really buy "children's" paints anymore. Rather, I've found that it's not too much more expensive to buy artists paint at Michael's (especially if I use a coupon).  The results are worth it!

Anholt's Artists

As we are nearing the end of the summer we have finally found some time to do some themed activities! Instead of a theme day, we have been taking our time and exploring our subject, art and artists, at a leisurely pace.  Have you read Laurence Anholt's series of children's books about famous artists (I believe there are 9)?  It's a fantastic series that explores a specific artist through the eyes of a child who was involved in the artist's life.

The illustrations are wonderful and incorporate the artists real work!  These books manage to convey a lot about the artists and yet stay engaging as a story for children.  At the end of each book there is an "information" page that gives more details about the artists life.  The children and I both love these books and we learn a little about famous artists.  What more could one ask for out of a book?

Favorite Things #11

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from The Land of Nod offering a 20% off coupon for anything in the store.  I had been wanting to purchase their wire bin to corral the numerous balls we have floating around in our garage, so I headed over to their website.  Of course, while I was there I had to check out a few other things and I came upon something that made me get all excited and happy!

You see I have a love for first aid supply bins- especially vintage looking ones!  In my excitement I ordered both the red and white because I couldn't decide which to get (and I had a coupon!).  I had the intention of returning one after I decided which one would work best for us.  Guess what?  I love them both and have put them to use holding all of our first aid supplies and medicines!  It was a terrific opportunity to go through our supplies, throw away expired medicine and make a list of lacking supplies.  Also, it freed up a tremendous amount of space!  Bonus!

P.S.  I still love my mudroom first aid kit- it gets used all the time!

Angel Parking

While we were in Iowa, we stopped by the church Bryce went to as a child.  He told us about how for years he thought this sign said angel parking instead of angle parking!  Isn't that so cute?

Iowa State Fair

We timed our trip to Iowa so that we could attend the Iowa State Fair while we were there (that's another item checked off of our Empty Nest List!).  The fair was so large that there is no way we could have seen it all, but I think we gave it a valiant effort!  My only regret?  I didn't try any of the food on a stick!

Iowa! (Wisconsin and Illinois too!)

We've recently gotten back from a trip to Iowa!  Bryce has a lot of family there and though we did a lot of driving during the week we were so happy to be able to visit with almost all of his family!  Bryce's parents even made the trip from Colorado to join us!  I love visiting Iowa, the rows and rows of corn and soybeans are so beautiful to me, as are the farm houses and outbuildings surrounded by trees.  Oddly, I didn't come home from our trip with an excess of pictures- I was too busy visiting with everyone!  

Our first two nights were spent at Russ and Lana's beautiful farm.  On Saturday much of the family came over for lunch.  We also managed to fit in a game of Peanuts which made Bryce very happy!  It was wonderful for the children to get to play with their cousins.

We had dinner with James and Jackie (and his parents too!).

We traveled to Leah and Aaron's new house and got to feast our eyes on sweet Addie!  

We made a one night stop in Madison, Wisconsin to visit our friends Mark and Lori.  We got a little tour of the beautiful city of Madison, and Bryce got to ride and drive in his dream car!

We had a short visit in the suburbs of Chicago with our friend Leslie.  We even got to dip our toes in Lake Michigan!

We headed home (but not into the field of dreams!)....

Prom- 80's style

Our fun friends, Tucker and Cathy, celebrated a big birthday this summer and decided to have an 80's prom themed party to mark the milestone (Tucker didn't get to attend a prom while in high-school!). Everyone was asked to come in appropriate formal wear and I loved how all the guests had such a great sense of humour and were good sports about it.  It was definitely the best prom I ever attended!

I wore my own prom dress from 1989!  I tried to get my hair as big as I possibly could, I even used rollers, but I still couldn't achieve the volume that I used to get to back in the day!

Bryce, being the good prom date that he is, even brought me a corsage!

Of course, every prom must have a balloon arch...

and a cheesy (note the wicker chair!) photo backdrop for the awkward and cheesy pictures that will be taken of happy couples.

Are you ready for a nice, hearty laugh?  1989.

Oh, yeah.