Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween Chalk Talk

Today was the School Halloween Parade. Halloween seems to rival Christmas now; the kids came home with a bag full of candy from school alone! Here they are, marching around the blacktop:


My daughter has been obsessed with cats lately, so naturally that was her costume choice. Somebody was giving out plastic 'fangs', and even though all the kids complained how it hurt their gums they wanted to wear them anyway.
Here is my son in his bat costume. He had previously added a jester hat to go with it, and was dubbed a 'ding bat', but he decided it wasn't cool enough to bring to school. Too bad, it was highly original.

No halloween parade is complete without the appropriate accoutrements. This little party crasher is a regular at the school playground; her owners are students!
After the parade everyone gathered for a 'Chalk Talk'. Chalk artist Elva Hurst tells a story while drawing a picture to go with it. She starts with a blank canvas (which I had a picture of, but was too dark to post), and while a tape plays her story, the picture unfolds...in 20 minutes! She was too amazing not to share. This year's program was about school days when she was young. Elva went to a one room Amish schoolhouse. As she recounted her daily school days routine, she drew:

This picture was taken 10 minutes into the program.



Here is artist Elva Hurst posing with the final piece. The picture doesn't do it justice. After her work is complete, the special light above it can be changed to reflect sunrise, mid-day, sunset and blacklight. The colors she uses are brought out with each setting and is truly beautiful. The children loved it; their unprovoked awe was obvious!

Monday, October 27, 2008

An Ego is Born

As is our morning routine, I corralled my children into the bathroom to tackle them into brushing their teeth, brushing their hair and washing their faces after getting dressed for school. My son goes through stages of being very particular in regards to his appearance, other times in typical boy fashion he just doesn't seem to care. Today he scrutinized his hair carefully in the mirror.

Son: You know mom, the girls think I'm very handsome.

Me: Oh yeah? Which girls are those?

Son: Any girl I want!

He says this matter-of-factly, as if I was silly to even ask the question. He must get it from his father.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Tag!


Kristin at The Fertile Infertile bestowed this award and tag on my infant blog.
Now, the way this works, is I answer the following questions with single word responses (well, as best I can anyway), and pass the award on to 7 other bloggers. I'm not sure if I know 7 other bloggers. Kristin is probably trying to kick my creative butt in gear and say "Will ya write something every once in awhile?" Yeah, I had that coming. Do I have to be honest in these things?!?! Onward!

1. Where is your cell phone? nowhere (don't have one)
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? golden brown
4. Your mother? far away
5. Your father? with my mother
6. Your favorite thing? Just one thing? Does an inclusive term like 'my stash' count?
7. Your dream last night? don't remember it
8. Your dream/goal? having my own cross stitch design company
9. The room you’re in? family room
10. Your hobby? cross stitching
11. Your fear? alien invasion (not really)
12. Where do you want to be in six years? financially secure and running my cross stitch design company
13. Where were you last night? at home
14. What you’re not? tidy
15. One of your wish list items? new windows for my house
16. Where you grew up? PA
17. The last thing you did? stitched
18. What are you wearing? jeans and a t-shirt
19. Your T.V.? The news.
20. Your pet? 1 dog, 3 cats and numerous tropical fish.
21. Your computer? decent
22. Your mood? happy
23. Missing someone? yes
24. Your car? Ford Windstar (Mom mobile)
25. Something you’re not wearing? a sweatshirt (it's cold here!)
26. Favorite store? dunno
27. Your Summer? very busy
28. Love someone? with all my heart
29. Your favorite color? it changes
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? the other day
I tag Jen of In One Ear, Venessa of My Life In Overdrive, Velda at Velda's Place, I'll have to return to this one later when I think of a few more...