welcome summer

welcome summer
welcome lazy mornings
welcome riding our bikes to the library and the park
welcome picnics
welcome afternoons at the beach
welcome all the time in the world to do anything and nothing with my favorite girl

leslie,  i really love being your mom.  your presence on this planet - in my home - in my heart  - has made my life better, richer, happier, funnier.  i loved being your mom when you were a baby.  i didn't think life could get any sweeter than when you were a 4 year old slipping your hand in mine as we ventured off to explore the world outside our door.  i couldn't believe my luck when, at 13, you still wanted to hang out with us and let us in.  now, 16,  you are really more adult than child.  after having you off in chicago for a week on your own, i can see how much you've grown this year.  you are truly lovely.  inside and out.  i am blessed to have that invisible cord that connects us still intact.   i am getting used to sharing you with the rest of the world - but it's so sweet when you do come home.  welcome summer.

a few final tidbits from our last days of school . . .

dragonflies - oil pastel, watercolor, and stick-on jewels

for our watermelon slices - green crayons, pink stamp pad and a big fabric brush, and  black finger paint for the seeds

. . . and finally - playing with tape - we made tape collages using tiny rolls of colored masking tape and pieces of cardboard from our recycling stash

Handmade Paper Flowers

Last weeks of school.  Using up supplies on hand and I came across a box of handmade paper.  I asked the littles to tear the paper into 3 circles - one small, one medium, and one large.  Then they layered them on top of each other and glued them down.  Handprint leaves and a painted stem finished it off.  I love the way our garden grew :)

Cupcake

It's my birthday this weekend and I guess I have cupcakes on my mind . . . When I found this cute book at Target, I decided we needed it for our classroom collection.

After we read the story - and talked about silly things that you could put on cupcakes - we added birthday candles and cupcake liners to the playdough table for some baking fun.  I meant to bring in some muffin pans as well but found they had already been packed for the move!

At the art table, I drew some cupcakes with a Sharpie and the littles decorated them with crayon and watercolor paint.  After the paint dried, some of them added stickers.

And the best part of the day:  a picnic lunch with (of course) cupcakes!

On The Day You Were Born

My friend, Sal (redwoodenshoes.blogspot.com), gave me this cute idea and the cardboard pizza circles!  Thank you, Sal :)  The littles loved it!

 We finger painted the cardboard circles with a shaving cream & paint mixture.  Then we cut and added green paper.  For a final touch, we added their photos.  I think my little munchkins look so cute standing on top of the world!

wiki art

I found some shiny, smooth cardstock (meant for stickers) in my stash and partnered it with a package of Wiki Stix.  I showed the littles how to bend the Wiki Stix to form letters and shapes and then let them go to it.  I love the results.  Some really cool portraits and abstract art.  The great thing about this project was that the littles got to play around with it and get it "just right".  The Wiki Stix peel right off the shiny cardstock.  When they found a design they wanted to keep, I told them to press hard so it would stick.

Little Robin Redbreast

When the northern part of the country has an especially cold winter, we will sometimes get robins that migrate this far south.  Being a Michigan girl at heart, I am beside myself with joy when I see them.  Alas, it is the time of year when all of the migrating birds leave us and try their luck up north.  I miss robins and eastern bluebirds and . . . chipmunks!  I miss them, too!  I miss columbine and trillium and  all of the other flowers I grew up loving.  I am doing a pretty decent job of embracing this place we have called home for the past nine years - but something about my birthday month gets me feeling a little nostalgic for the flora and fauna of my home state.

And so . . . we made robins.  And the littles kept calling them parrots.  And I really had to stretch a little to make this relevant for them but in the end they just had fun making Ms. Kathy's favorite bird.