Chicks!!

We now have five peeping chicks in our kitchen - three black and two yellow...Stay tuned for details. This is our first adventure into chicken keeping/cooping, and so far they have survived day one of toddler ecstasy!

Backyard Bliss!

We never seem to have our backyard gardens growing and looking good until mid-July... and really, we haven't yet been super happy with our gardens b/c they are still filling out, dying out, and we are always replanting, relocating, etc.
But this year.....we have a yard that is starting to be cozy. We hung burlap panels up on the bordering chainlink park fence to help screen out the park, and it didn't cost us a fortune. The kids planted their own gardens, we have a coop ready...but no chickens yet, and the gardens are finally filling out! And our front yard looks pretty good too! It's a complete miracle for sure! Anders has mentioned a few times that he wants a tree house, so Anna has moved into the design stage with him! (It sure pays to have an architect who loves projects for a mom)

Birds of a Feather

These photo's are of Anders and his favorite friend at pre-school this past year. There is nothing better than watching your child play with a friend. Especially a really nice friend!

Italian Vespa's!

When I was in Florence I found this street artist who made the most beautiful prints. I bought 3 Vespa's - one red, one white, and one chartreuse, and a Pinocchio. I finally put the prints on my kitchen wall!

Neighborhood Children's Parade Coming Up!

This will be the 4th year of a tiny little neighborhood 4th of July kids parade around the block. It's exciting and old fashioned...which I like.
Kids come all decked out in red,white, and blue - decorate bikes, wagons, etc. and parade around the block. This year we even have a trumpet player leading the pack.
It's followed by games, cookies and lemonade at the park next door. It's turned into a real tradition and so much fun! Stay tuned for photo's!

Drawing Mama

This is Kuba's drawing of Anna.
Clearly he has moved up the scale of drawing development - which begins with scribling...and then more precise scribbling, and then drawings involving circles and lines that depict a form.
He told me he was drawing mama.

I am so impressed that he drew a body! And that the arms are not sticking out of the head.
When I was student teaching in a progressive elementary school in Bristol, England, I worked with a teacher who was so angry with one of her kindergarten students because they were drawing figures with arms and legs coming out of the head...it struck me even then how silly it was to be mad about something like that. I wasn't an art teacher at that time, but I was aware enough to explain that drawing had a sequence of developmental stages and he was just in an early stage.

I love watching my kids drawing development.

Unfortunatley, Kuba doesn't just stick to drawing on paper and sidewalks...nope, he has marked the steps, the house, furniture, tables, the bathroom door, his legs etc. It's real fun for him, but not so fun for me! We are working on this one!

I once read how parents get so excited about their child's first step, or first word, but don't even notice or get excited about their first marks. In fact the child's first mark is an equal milestone b/c it signifies his attempt to communicate his understanding of the world in visual form, visual literacy. I'm all about marking visual moments.

Here are a couple of links about drawing development in children.
www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/children.htm

and a fun blog with lots of art ideas for kids

www.artprojectsforkids.org/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=50

Self portraits

He really needs his own camera.