Bottle Village

S came home from school today and told me about Bottle Village. His teacher read a story about Grandma Prisbrey, who built the village and so we looked it up together to see more photos. Guess where we are going this summer! Yup. We were mesmerized by her creations and the documentary on the site. I want to hear the whistling sound when the wind goes through the bottles.

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/10/14/message-in-a-bottle-a-village-made-of-recycled-bottles/

Check it out!

D cut a huge chunk out of her hair on Christmas day. I laughed so much when it happened and thought of my mom and my sisters and the stories they've told me. It was sort of this right of passage that I had just passed through. Then, the next day I panicked. It was really bad. So, I cut a good 4 inches off to see if that would help. . .it sort of did. But in the back, right in the middle there is is this huge short spot (pixie length) that I'm still not sure what to do with.

S entered his school art contest with the theme being: Diversity Means. . . I knew he had to enter it and kept encouraging him. He did two 3-D projects the first was really cool and he used leaves from outside but after a few days they started to wilt so we didn't submit that one and he made another one. He called the second one Nest of Diversity. Friends, it is so lovely. It's beautiful to see him creating things-- forming the pipe cleaner, strings, elastic. . .he likes to work quickly. Then he found this huge nut outside and various beans to put in the nest. I knew he would get an award, not because I'm his mom, but because it was deep and his concept was strong. We had little discussions about what diversity means and why it is so wonderful and important. And, yes, he got the award of Outstanding Mention and got a ribbon and some fantastic art supplies!

I'm really happy with his school. Arts education is so fundamental in my educational philosophy and I have this wonderful sense of peace when I walk down the hallway and see so many colorful works of art by all of the students and fantastic quotes by famous artists. For the art contest above there were many categories to enter--there was even a dance section for original choreography! How's that for progressive and just plain awesome! I love it.

My kids really love each other and as my mom puts it "incite each other to riot" often as they feed off each other's energy. I make dramatic babies-- fuchsia, turquoise, --not for the faint of heart. I love them so much. My heart feels so big as I think of them.

It's getting late and I have this new insomnia thing that makes me stay up way too late so I'll post some photos domani.

x

PS. Happy New Year!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Sand Dunes with my beautiful Mum

Little D and Daddy

Elizabeth Warren

Here is one of her awesome quotes:

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody."

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.

“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

A good one. . .

Mom: S do you want to finish these pancakes?

S: Yes, with haste!!

Someone got his ears lowered. . .

It's been so hot and little S was ready for a change. Good bye beautiful hair. Isn't he adorable!


Little D is getting so big. I think she is 2 going on 6 and keeps right up with her brother.









She looks so much like her Grandma DD. Below is a shot of D with her pal O at the park.

Enjoy

The Maryhill Integration Network, the organization that I use to work for, was just featured in a documentary on the BBC. Unfortunately, I can't view it in US right now. . .but I did come across this short clip of some of their work on you tube. I can't wait to go back to Glasgow.