The St. Charles School District sponsored an art show at the Foundry Art Center in Historic St. Charles, and one of Dylan’s artworks was selected for the show.  It was amazing to see how many different mediums were used for the exhibits.  Some of the work of the older students was good enough to sell in a gallery.  I wish I had talent like that.  Way to go, Dylan!

The assignment was to use only primary colors. From a distance, the applied layers added good depth.

With five family birthdays and Mother’s Day falling between April 26 and May 19, we have a mega-party when we can all get together at that time.  Over the weekend, Kathy was here, and we were able to celebrate birthdays for her (April 26), Dean (May 3), and Kari (May 19).  Teddy (May 15) opted to wait for his “real” birthday and Thom (May 4) wasn’t here.  Mother’s Day (May 8) was also included, with my traditional Vienna Torte birthday cake that I postponed until I could share it with the group.  It was fun to have so many things to celebrate and to spend a weekend together.

Double birthday cakes with easy-blow candle arrangements

Kari with her load of gifts

I said I already have everything, but could probably use a bag of M&Ms. My wish came true.

Science + music = fun!

Tonight we attended Teddy’s second grade concert at his school.  The musical the kids presented was named “Bones.”  Some of the kids had white capes with pictures of the different bones in the body, and the other kids were in the chorus.  One of the second graders narrated the story line, complete with lots of bone puns, and punctuated with songs about bones.  The puns?  Try these:

The ankle speaks to the foot and leg bones and asks, “May I join you?”

The leg joint speaks to the leg bone and the thigh bone and tells them, “You knee-d me.”

The pelvis tells us he’s pretty hip.

Someone tells the weak and bent backbone he needs to grow a spine.

Songs in the program included Shake, Rattle Them Bones; I’m a Broken Bone; and the ever-popular Them Bones, plus a few others.  It was a very enjoyable program and we’re so glad we could be there.

Teddy, waiting to begin singing

Teddy, with some of the kids in the chorus

The “bones” kids. Each one has a drawing of a bone on his/her cape. Note: The “hip” pelvis is second from the right.

Dylan and Sky like to build elaborate Lego scenarios and, every so often, they demolish what they’ve built and reconstruct something new and different.  While we were at Kari and Dean’s house last night, Dylan gave us an audio/visual presentation to describe his newly re-designed Lego city.

On the right and in the upper portion of the city, you can see tan building bases, as opposed to the green ones.  These are the desert areas.  Note also that in the upper right corner of the city is a mountainous building base–obviously the mountainous area of the town.  Whatever a city needs to survive is included:  merchants, parks, wheat fields, homes (including Lego furniture inside), trees, flowers, farm animals and pets, a well, a guard at the city gate, and even a king and his residence (which has fancier furniture than that of his subjects).  Dylan has always been very creative, and I enjoy watching his creativity develop as he grows.

P.S.  He definitely inherited some of his mother’s creative genes.  Just like her, he likes to use a lot of Scotch tape when he works on paper projects!

Legoville by Dylan

My baby brother and me

My youngest brother, Russ, will be starting a new job in Seattle on March 21.  This week, he’s driving cross-country from his current home near Philadelphia to Seattle.  He stopped at the Schroeder Hostel last night to spend some time with us, then hit the road again this morning.  Russ and I haven’t seen each other in person for ten years, so we enjoyed some face-to-face time.  My sister-in-law will stay in Philadelphia with their two youngest sons until the end of the school year.

In spite of Russ’s getting up early, driving for 15 hours, and arriving here at 8:30 pm, we stayed up talking until after 1:00 am, then got up right after 6:00 am and talked until he left at 8:00.  It will be less than ten years before we see each other again, since we go to Seattle regularly to visit Thom’s family.  I’m looking forward to that.

Teddy isn’t feeling well today, so Ted stayed with him while Kari went to work.  While Ted was busy with something else, Teddy went into his room.  In a little while, he appeared before his grandpa in his latest regalia.

What do you give to a man who has everything?  An M&Ms sculpture, of course!  This was a birthday gift to Ted from Jeff’s family.