Aubrey Does Plasticine

Hi I'm Aubrey. This is a project that our class did. We watched a children's book illustrator, Barbara Reid, make a book page using plasticine clay. She taught us that we spread plasticine in the back ground, and how to make little clouds and a mouse. Above is a drawing I did first of what I wanted to do with clay. Below is my final product. It took me the whole time before lunchtime.

This is the first one I ever did and I like it a lot because it is a bunny in the sunset, and it was really really fun to make. It took me a really long time but it was worth it.

Now I want to make another one! And I get to at ScienceWorks Camp next week because my mom is teaching a camp called Read it Write it Draw it Do it. She's going to read a book called The Subway Mouse and our class is going to make a bunch of little creatures in big scenes.

Nickel Slots With Mom

After sticking a nickel in my crack as I got a trash bag from under the sink, Aubrey drew this picture of me.

What a lovely girl.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Last Month's Poll

A big hearty thank-you goes out to the eight voters who weighed in on my poll. Yes, all eight of you -- you know who you are...

Essentially, the big issue was whether to have each kid play two sports this spring.

What we came up with:

Both kids are playing pony league baseball - coach pitch, everybody bats, no one keeps score, everybody wins - ON THE SAME TEAM. Easy-peasy so far. Practice two nights a week, a game on Saturdays. In the next week, one of those practices will become a game and eventually the second practice will get dropped. This goes on until June 4.

The clencher: the coach knows the kids will miss games in parts or as wholes - and is a-ok fine with it. After all, Ashland Little League prides itself on being flexible, in the interest of kids simply getting out and playing sports.

Cool.

Aubrey will still do a gymnastics class once a week at the Y. Soccer conflicted completely with practices, and that turns out to be okay. She loves gymnastics, and baseball and soccer might've been too busy for her.

Dane plays on the Y's soccer team - same team as last fall. They've changed their name from the Dangerous Jedis, though, to the Oregon Outlaws, in case you're following them. He's delirious with joy. Seriously, the boys are giddy out there on the field, and their skills are leaps and bounds improved over last fall. It's totally exciting.

Soccer practice is two nights a week - one practice overlaps with baseball, no sweat for either coach if he misses - and a soccer game on Saturday. This goes on into late-May.

Cool.

What last Saturday looked like: Dane soccer game 10am - 11am; both kids played baseball 1pm - 3pm. Full day, but manageable. And if it ever feels unmanageable, we just choose one to miss. No biggie.

Cool.


Next Up: Watercolor project

When Mick was gone for a long weekend at a dental convention, I found this neat looking watercolor project I wanted to have the kids do. They did it.

Aubrey made a couple sheets of the flowers and added some text:



Dane tried the flowers, but was unhappy with the result, so he broke away and went for a Halloween scene:

He's way into mummies lately (notice the little guy under the tree) and has been researching them in his Mummy Club that he set up at school with some classmates. (Aubrey joined, too.) I walked into the classroom one day to drop something off and found him and four pals reading a Magic School Bus Pyramids book out loud to each other - they didn't even notice me standing behind them because they were absolutely riveted.

Here's the link to Dane and Aubrey's current favorite mummy information site, if you have an interested kid at home: Discovery Kids - MummyMaker.


Last Up: Cooking

The kids concocted this dish (I'll avoid putting an adjective before it, letting you be the judge once you read the recipe!). They kept meticulous notes as they put it together, so you, too, can enjoy this, um, cake, if you ever need a new baking idea:

3 t. salt
Just a little under half c. sugar cane [sugar]
3 dabs of haf n haf milk
3 t butter
1 Lime sqwees jusie out
8 spoons of flour

Bake at 350 for an indeterminate number of minutes.


We all tried a bite. 'Nuff said.

HoMe AlOnE

Mick's headed to Portland tonight for three days at the Oregon Dental Association (ODA) convention. He gets plenty of Extended Learning credits, so that's great. He also gets to hang out and drink lots of Stumptown coffee, so more power to him! In the meantime, the kids and I will stay here: they'll go to school, I'll write, they'll have ball practice, I'll take 'em, we'll bike, we'll walk, we'll read, etc., etc. We'll miss Mick, but somewhere in there we might just do this Spring art project and desperately hope the weather warms up:

I randomly found this blogger and I like her ideas.

SCOOBY DOO AND THE MISTRY
OF PHANTUM VALLY by Dane Reynolds

One night when the gang was driveing donw a dusty road when they happen to find a little tonw called Phantum Vally and when they got out no one was ther.


The gang started to look a round town and fred said "Something must have scard them away" and Shagy said "like if you think so!!!" And Scooby said "ruhu." Velma said "You chickens be Quiet."

"O.K." Said Shaggy. "r.o.k." Scooby said. Velma, fred, Daffny, Scooby and Shaggy all said "hear that sound?" And there hair stoud up...

AND THEY RAN AWAY FROM A GHOST SCREEMING!

and they finally got away and they made a plan. Fred, Daffny, Velma and Scooby would get the ghost behind the mistry musheen. So Shaggy can cut the rope and catch that ghost.

The plan begins...


and the ghost relly was Dr. Mick. and he said, "I would have goten away with it if it weren't for those metleleng kids."

So one by one the people came back to Phantum Vally. the end


About the Author: Dane reynolds. my sister is aubrey. and I also like the movies and Books because they are good!*


*Author Dane Reynolds self-published this book at home and took it to school to read to his 2nd grade class, who loved it.

PUPPET SHOW!

Dane and Aubrey put on a mermaid puppet show for me the other day. They set up chairs, put their stuffed animals in them, and kindly left me a seat in the back row.

With my video camera discreetly in hand, I taped the show.

Here's the gist of it: eight minutes of weird voiced mermaids and mermen introducing themselves -- saying they were best friends with the partner they were introduced with (boy/girl) and either married or going to be married (whisper whisper whisper behind the table/stage). Over and over and over again.

The End.

And they all had one of the following names: Dagger, Talina, Ariel and Blue Horizon (or something like that).

Now, I like meeting the cast as much as the next person, but by about minute 5 (OK, actually, by minute 2) I was waiting for some rising and falling action -- some plot, if you will.

Of course, then I reflected on my own writing hurdles and wondered if telling a really slow story that's not going anywhere is just in my genes -- and, consequently, in theirs.

It's not that I was bored, per se, but for the next round I decided to gently nudge them in a more challenging direction. For the next day's show I mentioned they might want a plot.

My report back to you: On their own, they devised a team of good guys against a couple of bad guys. There was a battle, and the good guys won -- and the grandma and grandpa mer-couple were proud of them. There was still the weird voices to contend with, but I have to leave them with some artistic license.


Video available for purchase upon request.

BOUQUETS TO ART

I took in the De Young's annual Bouquets to Art event again, checking out how local florists chose to complement their chosen museum art. I lifted the above photo from their website (click on the "Bouquets to Art" title for more info) and, just so you know, it'll be the best photo on this post. Unfortunately, my skills do the exhibit no justice whatsoever, but I thought I'd at least give a feeble try.

Here's one of my favorite pieces in the museum. It's a South American tribal chief's robe (kind of like a poncho -- you can see where he'd slip his head through). It's A THOUSAND YEARS OLD, and it's made entirely of exotic bird feathers, some found only in the remotest parts of the jungle.

Below, the artist replicated the effect with tulips.

Next, here's the famous gumball painting by Thiebaud,
called "Three Machines," complemented by paper
origami flowers in this arrangement.

Hmmm.... don't know what this one below
is called, but it was stunning.

Okay, I'll include this simply
because it triggered my sweet tooth.

And so, without meaning to sound too nerdy, let me just say this exhibit is so cool because it always inspires new ways to look at an actual museum piece -- by offering the new lens of a floral interpretation.