Two Latest Circle Motifs!

In February and March, two big Circle Motif projects were my focus. 

Brianna 

The first one was commissioned custom work for a young lady who is turning 17 later this month. It is a birthday present for her, and her mother wanted to make this birthday extra special because they are moving again and it will be hard for her to leave her friends that she made (so if you know the birthday girl, be quiet until after her birthday! She hasn't seen this yet!). Her mother provided me with a lot of different facts, information, qualities, etc, and this is what I put together.

I suggested to the parents to put it in a square black frame with hanging hardware on each side, so it could be rotated. 

Lehi's Dream

My other project was LDS-specific - Lehi's Dream. I've always wanted to create artwork with this as the focus. Some aspects of it were more challenging than I expected, but I'm mostly happy with the results. There were a few things I took creative liberty with that those that are about the technicalities may have trouble with, but such is life!

Much Better, Thanks

Today is a much better April 1st then last year. April 1, 2011 we hit 100 for the first time that year. This time, we won't leave the 70s. That alone almost feels like a joke because it was record high in the mid-90s yesterday. But I'll take it!

In the spirit of the day....

Happy April Fools Day!

6th Grade List

It's the last day of March, so why not celebrate that by  covering some things from February that were neglected? lol

Back in February, one of the assignments in Mikelle's 6th Grade Language Arts class was to write something nice about EVERYONE in class. The comments were then compiled together on a typed list for each student.

I think this is a FABULOUS idea. The middle school years are so tough. This is a good activity! I know the middle school years are tough for everyone, but so far, it looks like Mikelle isn't suffering as much as I did. I'm relieved for that! I know I said that in another recent post, but it bears repeating. I'm crossing my fingers that her journey through the time period, while arduous, won't turn disastrous. 

I asked her if she had trouble coming up with some nice things to say about some of the classmates.  She immediately said, "Yes!" I asked her what she came up with. She said she couldn't remember on a couple of them, but then said, "Well, with this one kid, I said his last name sounds really cool." I don't know what it is. Maybe it's something like Amador or Lancaster.  I'm glad she was able to come up with something.

I had to laugh at some of the comments. In my mind I would think, "Are they talking about My Mikelle?" (especially with the third one)

But then when I saw some other comments, I knew for a fact that they were, in fact, talking about my Mikelle!  I also laughed at "I think it's awesome how you always have no fear" 

Again, this type of activity should be required in all classes! Especially at the Middle School level! 

This is one of the Spring pictures. She forgot about them and she never told me about it when the envelope was sent home, so she ended up wearing pink. She says she hates pink, but I think she *wants* to hate pink. It's kind of like some of us want to hate certain music, but when we're alone in our car and one of those songs come up, we close the windows and crank it up. I wouldn't know anything about that though. 

She doesn't like these pictures, but I plan on getting at least one sheet. She seems to think she is in charge. "Mom! I said I don't want those pictures!" Uh, yeah, but I do. The fact that your birth involved vacuum and forceps is just one of many reasons why my say trumps yours!

 

And does anyone see the problem with this one (below)? It has nothing to do with Mikelle.

I know I'm a history and geography nerd, but if you're going to highlight Arizona's centennial, don't have a picture with a beach background.  Just saying.

Spring Pictures 2012

Keeping up with tradition, the kids had their Spring pictures taken. Part of the tradition is to commemorate Christian's birthday along with Easter/Spring time. Since he turned eight and is getting ready to be baptized, this was even more special. Therefore, he probably had more pictures taken than he had the patience for, but such is life when you have crazy mom who insists on a million pictures taken every few months or so!

Eight is Great!

A Vision Verses Reality 

I had a certain vision in mind of the three kids together, but let's just say that AleXander was NOT in the mood for any stationary poses. Oh, he was happy as long as he could remain in motion. If anyone tried to stifle that, well....

See?

But this one worked...mostly...

And then there was this one...

Needless to say, this session had a lot of "single" pics. There's always collages, right?

Some other fun ones...

 

15 Months

Alexander turned 15 Months yesterday! CRAZY! The kids took an impromptu video (that's why there is stuff on the kitchen floor and dog food on the counter), but adorable nevertheless! I have it set on "public" on Facebook because trying to post videos here is a useless feat. 

Click here:
Alexander 15 Months!

In Case You Didn't Already Know, This is Pretty Dang Sweet

I don't know this kid named Flint. In fact, I've never even been to Austin, Texas. 

However, after teaching K-8 for two years prior to teaching high school, I can only imagine what  4th grader Flint would have been like if he was in my classroom or if I was Albert Ramon, the visiting Austin, Texas Meteorologist to the local school.

Flint's letter is featured on the right, but here is the text of the letter with its original spelling: 

Dear Mr. Ramon,

Thank you for coming to our school and teaching us about weather.

Some day when I become supreme Ultra-Lord of the universe I will not make you a slave, you will live in my 200 story castle where unicorn servants will feed you doughnuts off their horns.

I will personally make you a throne that is half platnum and half solid gold and jewel encrested.

Thank you again for teaching us about meteoroligy, you’re more awesome than a monkey wearing a tuxedo made out bacon riding a cyborg unicorn with a lightsaber for the horn on the tip of a space shuttle closing in on Mars while ingulfed in flames … And in case you didn’t know, that’s pretty dang sweet.

Sincerely, Flint.

Without knowing Flint, I theorize that Flint is one of those very bright kids with a huge imagination and bundles of energy because he cannot physically hold it in at once. These kids also have the tendency to drive teachers crazy, but any good teacher also knows how awesome these kids can be  (while we would pull our hair out).

This is just my own guess as I speak from experience. Then again, I may be completely wrong!  Kids are as much of a crap shoot than anything else!

Oh, and here is Flint's drawing from the back.

I think of some of the kids that stood out in my K-8 experience. One was this adorable kindergartener from my 2007-2008 school year.  For the life of me I cannot remember his name.  But his face is unforgettable.

He was full of energy and a real handful, but he was oh, so adorable at the same time. 

I know what that is like of course, being Christian and Alexander's mom. Being adorable is their "cover" so they survive!

This particular student was finished with his project, but a lot of other kids were not. Therefore, I often gave him jobs or things to do (he enjoyed sweeping, as long as he didn't turn the broom into a sword or blunt object to use as a weapon).

However, on this particular day when he finished early, I simply gave him a piece of paper and told him to draw a picture.  He mentioned he wanted to draw a rock band and a guitar. I about died when I first saw what he came up with:

Yes, it's a GUITAR!

He had already cut out his guitar and glued it to another piece of paper when I discovered it. He wasn't too pleased that I "borrowed" his drawing. But I had to take it home and scan it first before returning it to him. 

And in case you doubt that an innocent 5 year old meant that to be a guitar, here is one he drew the same day with straps:

Guitar with Straps

And if you still don't buy the 5 year old's innocence, here is the guitars in context with the band members (still drawn the same day. This kid did everything fast!)

That same school year, my kindergarten and first graders (and maybe second graders. I can't remember) did a project where they were given a plain shape and they had to turn it into something else. With a circle, I saw a lot of flowers, suns, moons, basketballs, ice cream on top of  cones, and that just names a few of the many creative possibilities that came out of this project. 

Then there was the Demon! LOL!

Not only was it a really creative way to make use of his circle, but look the detail and how well he could draw a Demon!

 And in case you didn’t know, that’s pretty dang sweet!

Our Leprechaun Turns 8

Christian wasn't upset about the misspelling. I just couldn't get much of a natural smile out of him.

Before I get into the St.Patrick's Day Birthday fun, a quick update to the Cookie-FAIL yesterday. On the fan page for the bakery that I posted the picture to informing them of their um, "error", I received this response this morning:

"Hi Jill- We're so sorry for the oversight! Can you please email the details (cafe location, team member that helped you, etc.) along with your contact info to (their e-mail) ? Thanks and we hope your son still had a great birthday!" 

In my e-mail to them (also attaching the picture of the cookie) I provided the location and how to reach me and I also said: 

"I do not know the team member that helped me because my husband ordered and paid for it and I was in a hurry when I picked it up.  I just glanced at my son's name to make sure the spelling of his name was correct. I didn't notice the "birthday" spelling issue and some sloppy spacing issues until about 10 minutes later. However,the kids loved it and it was yummy as always. I don't want anyone to be fired.  Just re-trained on spelling, how to draw shamrocks, and spacing issues.  Also, the employees need to know that auto-correct and spell-check won't take you very far with frosting."

Yes, a little snarky, but progressive stupidity due to entitlement and technology is a pet peeve of mine. Sure, spelling errors existed long before these gadgets, but these gadgets have given people the false notion that we don't need to know how to spell anymore - it'll get taken care of FOR us.  Drives me crazy!

THE LORAX

We began Christian's birthday celebration yesterday by taking the gang to see "The Lorax" Here they are outside the theater just before heading in. It was a beautiful cloudy and windy day - perfect for such an outing! Considering it was in the 90s the day Christian was born, yesterday's 3/17 was much better! 

And today? Yes, I digress,but it's in the 50s, raining, heaving snow up north - we finally get a taste of winter just before Spring commences!I can hear the rain fallig hard as I type! It's a sound that we are deprived of often, here in hell.  But anyway, back to the party....

PIZZA, TOKENS, CAKE...

Of course, as I mentioned with yesterday's post, the realization that we forgot the pick up the cookie-cake caused me to leave the movie early to run back down to the QC to get it and then run to the house to grab a few things. Then Alexander and I quickly joined the group again at Peter Piper Pizza!

Yes, I have some green teeth. Hey, the cookie-cake had its faults, but yummy sugary green, white and yellow goodness to mess up my weight-loss journey wasn't one of them!

Since we're digressing, here are my March toes. This was done a week ago, but it fits now with the green theme.  Mikelle has some sparkly green toes, but I can't get the camera to cooperate to take a pic right now. Hopefully that can be rectified soon.

Okay, back to the party....here is Mikelle and her green tongue with her friend Corbin. Corbin is the same age as Christian by only a few days and we've known Corbin since before he could walk!

Mikelle and Alexander.  As you can see, he's very happy to have his bottle. He's going to be a tough one to break from it.

Daddy and Alexander

I know it seems like we have a lot of pictures of Alexander, but the other boys (including our birthday boy) were running around crazy playing games, winning tickets, spending tokens, etc, and well, I wasn't about to follow them around with the camera.

...And we finally got a shot of Mikelle's sparkly green toes!