Art Wall

I took on a project today that I have been putting off for some time, cleaning off the art wall. I have devoted one of the walls in my kitchen as the place to hang the kids art work that comes home from school. The wall has actually been there since before school entered our lives. I returned home from the hospital after giving birth to Alexa to find that cute little three year old Chloe had hung pictures all over the house.

I do mean ALL over the house. Removing them was done over a series of weeks and also removed a fair amount of paint and wallpaper pieces from said walls. I decided then and there that Chloe's love of all things art should be fostered, but possibly we could direct it to just one area of the house. I typed up a very official looking sign and hung it on the kitchen wall. I figure that way the wall damage is directed to one place in the house. For the most part this has worked quite well, except of course for their bedroom walls. A few years back I divided the wall in half and add a sign for Alexa's art as well. I have been mentioning to the girls for a few weeks now that I would need to take down the art from this past school year to make room for the new things that would start coming home. I made today that day. This is what it looked like before I began...

I had become a type of art collage. As I unstuck the layers I was reminded of some of this years highlights.

Chloe's map of the world.

Alexa trying her hand at Chinese characters in honor of Chinese New Year.

Alexa's Hanukkah and Kwanza creations.

Her preschool even had a unit on famous artists and art styles. This is Alexa's attempt at pointalism.

And you have to have a hand turkey in there somewhere.

Chloe made this really cool chain of three dimensional shapes in her math class.

It looks a little bare right now. The wallpaper has sustained a bit of damage. I am completely OK with that as I feel our house has that lived in look that will never qualify us for a photo shoot in a decorating magazine. Besides I hate that wallpaper anyhow. I am just far to busy to change it. Some day I will take it all down and put up something else, or just sell the house and let someone new deal with it. Either way we are all cleared off and ready for as whole new school year of art to start coming home.

Clothes Monsters

It is hard to tell how it all got started. I remember reading books to Chloe about school and one of the characters always laid her clothes out the night before. Knowing how slow Chloe moves in the mornings and how much she enjoys control. I suggested that this sounded like a good idea. She readily agreed and thus began our tradition of her picking out her clothes for school the night before.

All was going along just swell and Alexa even picked up on the tradition. She dutifully picks out an outfit each night after bath and before teeth brushing. How that all got morphed into a creative endeavor I really don't know other than to say it began with Chloe.

She began hanging her clothes off the knob on her dresser. That wasn't such big deal until she started to make them into things. Alexa, again, picked up on the idea and now it seems to be a nightly event. Every night the girls make a monster out of their clothes hanging on the dresser.

Here we have Chloe's creation...

something to do with an ocean theme.

And Alexa's...

he considers hers to be more of a princess. The tights are apparently her hair.

I don't know. I had envisioned a neat little clothes pile all folded up with fresh socks and underwear on the top. I guess I really don't care as long as they are still OK with taking them apart and putting them on in the morning.

A Parade

Chloe's school had a parade down Church Street to announce their opening as a magnet school this year. It took place Thursday morning at 9:15. Since I was not able to go, my neighbors Doug and Marti went down to cheer for Chloe and took pictures. The parade finished at the Flynn Center, and the kids all attended a kick off celebration.

Check out the cute kid singing into her hand made megaphone behind the banner!

Along with my guest photographers today there is also a guest story teller...

Chloe's version of the events is as follows, " The two first grade classes were squished together in the front. I even saw people open their windows to see the parade. I had a really fun time. We walked to the Flynn Center. We saw people talk at the Flynn. Did you know that Lawrence Barnes School was an Academy too? It was really fun. My favorite part was when I saw some Wheeler kids up on the stage doing a dance. They were fourth grade or fifth grade. They did a really good job. There was really good music. I even got to be chosen for the lucky kid who got to go on stage. I was with Kamil and Stephanie. We performed a show called the River Alligators. I was the alligator. There was blue tape of the floor to show the river."

Chloe's Open House

It is always interesting to take step on the parent end of school. Tonight was Chloe's school open house. They combine it with the spaghetti dinner and a scholastic book fair. Thursday's are the night the girls have dinner with their dad before coming home, so I met them at the school so we could all attend. Chloe very proudly showed us all around the school. She was very excited about her hopes and dreams flag she made. She drew a horse on it and informed us her goal is to ride a horse when she grows up every where she goes. It should be interesting to see how that works out with her future commute to work.


She gave us a wonderful tour of her classroom and I was able to speak with her teacher for a few minutes. She noted that Chloe was stubborn. I would love to say that was the first time I had ever heard that, but to be fair it is the first time I have ever heard that with so few other adjectives attached to it. She went on to say it isn't too bad and that she is stubborn too so it all works out OK. Her music teacher says she sings with perfect pitch. I have no idea what recessive gene she accessed to achieve that little skill. I assure you it didn't come from either of her parents.

It was fun to see her so excited. She even gave her sister a little extra care in showing her around, "because she is shy!" As Chloe announced to everyone each time we encountered someone new.

Alexa opted to be the photographer. She took some pictures around Chloe's classroom. It is cute to remember how the world looks to Alexa... here is an Alexa view of me...

Chloe's teacher is in the blue shirt. Let's all just pause and send the woman some good energy now for all the patience she shows...

Chloe and Alexa eating at the spagetti dinner in the cafeteria.