Posts filed under ‘Art’
The Mexican “culture box” (a.k.a loving our library)
The students of the Rainbow House of Learning were studying Central American civilizations in their history class this week. Serendipitously, through a search for “Aztec”, Ordinary Spouse discovered that our local public library has “culture boxes”. Evidently, a culture box is one of the really big Rubbermaid™ storage containers filled with “artifacts” from the culture of interest. The library allows teachers and homeschoolers to check these things out. Well – the women decided to bring home the culture box from Mexico.
Oldest Daughter decided to create a museum in our living room…
… and create an Aztec sun-catcher on the front window.
Middle Daughter and Youngest Daughter collaborated on a dance…
(I have no idea why YD is in the laundry basket in that last pic.)
(Mexican costume, Spanish sword dance, and classical ballet! If the video doesn’t want to load, watch it on YouTube.)
Farkle trophies
The Ordinary Family enjoys playing farkle. It’s a dice game that doesn’t require much time or thought – five minutes is enough. Ordinary Spouse and I frequently play a few games after the girls are in bed for the night.
We played two weeks ago, and OS was the winner. She made herself a trophy:
Behold! Wifey's #farkle trophy! http://t.co/0gkt1Vrc—
ordinary (mostly) (@ordinarymostly) September 25, 2011
Last night, we played farkle again. Once again, I was the loser. And OS decided to make me a Loser’s Trophy. But I said that I wanted a good one since I was the first-place loser…
@ordinarymostly mmhmm, because you know second place is the first loser =]—
Amy Mellinger (@ktmmcc24) October 07, 2011
Here’s what she came up with…
“The Loser’s Trophy” by Ordinary Spouse
Watercolor on recycled office paper, approximately 3″ × 5″, October 2011
This trophy consists of a flat tire sprouting some kind of weird, red antenna dice. In the center, there is a stylish 2nd place plaque. There is a vessel of sour grapes (should I get hungry), as well as an eternal flame for being the eternal loser.
Nice, huh?
Happy Anniversay, Y-Φ!
In my eagerness to blog about Sunday’s congregational meeting, I skipped over the fun from earlier in the weekend: Extraordinary Spouse and I went to Chicago to celebrate our 15th anniversary! It was nearly two months late, but we got to go without the girls, thanks to a visit from Grandma. (Everybody wins!) Here’s what we did with our 24 hours:
- Y-Φ gets a massage. I think she was still feeling relaxed the next day. (Thanks, Dennette!)
- Check in to our hotel – a suite at the Hampton Inn downtown. Not too fancy, but we like having free breakfast and internet and a kitchenette table for playing new games (see below). (We generally like the 24-hour coffee, as well, but it was sub-par this time.)
- Supper at Karyn’s Cooked. A delicious vegan restaurant, with an atmosphere perfectly suited to our personalities. (Thanks for the recommendation, Steph!)
- Strolling the Magnificent Mile, including a stop at Marbles.
- Playing “Flip Out“, our new game from Marbles.
- Touring the Art Institute of Chicago. (We frequently heard parents encouraging their children to go just a little farther. We were glad to go at a leisurely pace.)
Including the years when we were dating, OS and I have now been together for over 20 years. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that. It doesn’t seem that long at all.
Happy Anniversary, Y-Φ!
- The view outside our hotel: Trump Tower
- The view inside our hotel: Us
- The Chicago River
- Cloud Gate (a.k.a. The Bean)
- A noble cause
- “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by G. Seurat
- Outside the Art Institute
Autumn arrangement
Oldest Daughter created an autumn arrangement this afternoon…
And Middle Daughter rendered it in colored pencil…
“Autumn Arrangement” by Middle Daughter
Colored pencil on paper, approximately 5″ x 7″, September 2011
Elizabeth
“Elizabeth” by Oldest Daughter
Acryllic on canvas paper, 5″ x 7″, September 2011
(Elizabeth comes from the American Girl series. This week in art class at the Rainbow House of Learning, the girls learned about drawing proportional faces. Oldest Daughter applied that lesson to this drawing.)
Like this:
Random blogging, part 2 – Fun with felt!
Oldest Daughter has been learning to sew from Ordinary Spouse, and the projects have been getting creative. First, hi-tech has taken a decidedly lo-tech turn…
Here we have her cell phone and her netbook. You’ll note that she didn’t create a smartphone. That reflects more on the fact that her parents are still living in the stone ages than it does on her creativity.
Next, we have a delectable and tempting selection of desserts.
Enjoy!
Ornithology at the Rainbow House of Learning
Middle Daughter has taken a huge interest in birds – she probably knows more about them than I do at this point. Given her imagination, she sees quite a few more than I do, as well. 
A couple of weeks ago, she called our whole family together to do an art show. She welcomed us in to her “gallery”, read her artist’s statement, and then showed us around. I loved that she took the initiative for the whole event. Here is some of her work…
And I asked her if she’d do a drawing of my favorite bird for me…
Eastern Bluebirds by Middle Daughter
(Watercolor and pencil, 8½” × 11″, September 2011)
Playing Pictionary
This is for those of you who like cute stories about children…
Last evening, Ordinary Mommy and the girls decided to play “Pictionary”. First, here are some fun drawings:
Can you guess what the drawings are?
Celebrating the beginning of summer!
Summer is here! It started on Tuesday at 12:16 pm, Chicago time, for those of you keeping track of such things. Me? I am apparently one of those who “keeps track of such things”.
And of course, summertime means that school is out! But Ordinary Mommy is tricky! She disguises school as a celebration of summer and a scavenger hunt to the park.
Here is what Middle Daughter saw in our backyard:
And here is Oldest Daughter’s completed scavenger hunt page:
The funny thing is that Oldest Daughter didn’t really want to go for a walk. But once she started finding things on the scavenger hunt page, everything changed.
Youngest Daughter didn’t want to fill out the sheets, so she wrote a poem:
She stopped writing before she had recorded the entire verse. In its entirety, it goes like this:
How do you know I love daffodils?
I just love, love, love the daffodils!
How do I know I love daffodils?
I just love, love, love the daffodils!
(According to Ordinary Spouse, they were actually day lilies. But that’s ok.)
