Art...right?

The art supplies.

The canvases. (above and below)

The artist.

While reading with Trista one mornning I realize suddenly that Ava has been too quiet for awhile. Immediately my heart begins to race and I go bounding up the stairs to her bedroom where I find the door locked.

Mom: Open the door, Ava.

Ava: I'm getting in the corner!

(That's Ava language for I've done something wrong and I'm punishing myself.)

Mom: Open the door, NOW!

(As I sniff the air I begin to notice a strange odor.)

Ava: I can't I'm in the corner!

(Light bulb! The "Strange odor" is nail polish!)

Mom: AVA, open this door right NOW!

Ava begins to whimper, swings the door open, and runs out protecting her bum with her hands as she streaks by me.

I have to distract myself so I don't beat her. I get my camera, pose her and take a picture. Then I put her in the tub to protect everything else upstairs from the lipstick all over her body, while I begin to scrub.

Home Ec at Home

Thursday night no one was thrilled about what I wanted to make for dinner. When I told them that if they didn't like what I was making they could make dinner themselves, Bella took me up on it. On the menu that night: Peas, Spaghettios, and baked beans. Sounds different, but they all ate it.

Microwaves: a 6 year old cook's best friend.

Peas

Ahhh, Spaghettios.

Kassy has been learning to use the sewing machine and set to work on Trista's birthday present. This was her first solo sewing project on the machine and she did great. She used scraps from cut-off jeans and made an adorable denim purse. I tried to help her by giving her a few ideas of what to do, but she simply gave me a blank stare while I talked and then informed me that she already knew what she was going to do. I backed off and she did a great job on her own. She just finished it, so I'll share pictures in a later post.

100th Day of School

Kassy and Bella celebrated the 100th day of school last Tuesday by participating in a school contest to see who could come with the most unique costume. They chose to cover their shirts with 100 stickers each. They were excited to come home with a new bracelet for participating. The 4th grade winner had a sash of 100 pencils, and the 1st grade winner was covered in 100 gift bows.

Photo blog update

I've updated my photography blog, so check out what I've done lately.
lesleyhuntphotography.blogspot.com

The Christmas card that did not come to pass

I took the pictures. I created the card. I just did not quite get around to having them printed and sent off. I hope you all know that you were in our thoughts this holiday season.

Cashews beat my kid up...

..or at least she looked like she had been beat up, and it was all because of cashews. This was the result of one of those things that will guilt you as a parent for the rest of your life.

Bella is allergic to cashews. We still have them in the house but have always been careful to make sure she doesn't come into contact with them, even washing our hands after handling them to make sure we don't contaminate anything.

Well, Last week I made a smoothie while she was at school that had cashews in it. It was pretty big so I saved half of it in a sealed container in the fridge for later. Bella came home from school and spotted it when looking for a snack. Being a pretty obedient child, she brought it upstairs to ask me if she could have some. Before she got to me, she had noticed a tiny bit that had seeped out on the edge, whiped it with her finger and licked it off. It was only moments before her tongue started burning and she was screaming.

Now, a little background information on our family. If any type of catastrophe or illness is going to strike our family it's going to do so when J.T.'s out of town. It happens time and time again. Why should this emergency be any different? He's doing a rural medicine rotation out of town. He's only home on weekends. So, I was alone.

Even though I was panicking on the inside with my heart about to beat out of my chest, I feel I held it together pretty well. I rushed her downstairs and quickly dosed her up on Benadryl. By this time she's not only screaming because her tongue is burning, but her throat is as well and she's getting hives. I made sure to hide the epi pen in my pocket, praying I wouldn't have to use it but keeping my eyes glued on her for signs of breathing trouble or a new purplish hue in her lips. Luckily, that didn't come and all she was left with was a sad little swollen face until the next day.

Yes, the guilt still remains, and I'm sure it will for quite awhile. My poor child!

It's Origami Time

I picked up this book at the library the other day and decided to bust it out tonight and try out a few things with the kids. Over all, it was a success. We had no tears and they even asked if we could do it again tomorrow. I did learn one lesson, and that was to try everything first myself before having the girls join in. I did that with the house and the cup and then got a little over confident and tried to wing it with the spinning top. We never did figure that one out.



Kassy's cup in progress.

Trista was so proud of her house that she asked if she could keep it forever.



This was the ill-fated spinning top. I had Kassy hold it up to show what it should have looked like.



The cups were a success. The girls wanted to laminate them so that we could really use them.



Bella's having fun. It's really starting to look like something.

Here are a few fun facts I learned from my nifty little origami book.

*Leonardo DaVinci folded parchment into flying machines to understand the principles of flight. Many consider DaVinci the father of paper airplanes.

*The magician Harry Houdini amazed audiences when he folded paper into into unusual shapes. In 1922, he wrote a book called Houdini's Paper Magic, which included four origami models.