School project = Art history lesson

Last week H exhibited a project during Open House at school.  It was an opportunity for the kids to to develop a project that reflects their special interests and abilities. Keeping in mind that she is only in Kindergarten, I chose something simple and enjoyable but incorporate a lesson as well. This gave me a chance to teach her about the artist Georges Seurat and Pointilism (a technique of painting in which small dots of color are applied to form an image).

WHAT YOU NEED
Paint
Canvas board or heavy weight paper
Q-tips or small paint brush

I chose one of my favorite photos of H&N from our beach trip last year.
I drew an outline sketch on the canvas so H had something to follow.
I explained to her how to create colors by painting on top of an existing color. She was fascinated by this technique and happily painted away.

This was pretty tedious process so she actually took a break and finished it up a little later.

Here is her masterpiece! I'm proud of my lil' Seurat. It was great seeing what other kids did in her class and all the other grades as well.

Do you have a favorite artist?
Have a wonderful weekend!

Eva

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing our (mommy) readers & your mother(s) a special Mother's Day! Whether its breakfast in bed or just a day to do absolutely nothing but relax, may you feel loved and appreciated today!

A great big THANK YOU to our mothers for their love and support.
Happy Mother's Day Mom! We are so blessed to have you as our mom.

Love,
Eva & Zi

Summer 2014 Bucket List

Now that the weather is getting warmer, we are starting to compile our family's summer bucket list (see here for last year's list).

Since we just did a big trip at the end of last year/beginning of this year, we will not be doing any big trips this summer. Instead my husband and I decided that we would focus on experiences that the kids haven't had yet.

So here is our list of fun experiences we plan to have this summer:

1) Plant a veggie garden. This was on last year's list but I only really tried to plant 1 veggie and it wasn't a huge success so we are trying this again this year. And I am glad to report that we are already off to a good start. Here are some pictures of the kids and I starting our garden:

* Everyone got a chance to participate!

2) Go bowling. There is a place close to us that has $0.50 games from Sundays through Thursday from 10am to 1pm, so we want to take advantage. And also because the kids have never been bowling before. See here for the website in case you live close by.

3) Fruit picking. This is starting to become a summer tradition for our family and we hope to continue it this year.

4) Go to the movie theaters to enjoy summer movie deals. We had done this once with the 3 older kids 2 summer's ago, hope to do it again including E4 this time! Check them out here. There could be a movie theater near you that is participating and this year the list of movies are pretty good.

5) Go visit a factory (probably Herr's or Hershey).

6) Go to a free concert at a nearby park. Kids have never really experienced a real concert so this would be a good start without spending any money.

7) Go to Central Park in NYC. We go to visit John's parents in NYC but never really enjoyed Central Park with the kids before, so we want to do that this year.

8) Go to a Drive-In Movie. This would be a first not only for the kids but for us parents as well.

9) Go to see the Liberty Bell. Considering the fact that we live only 30 minutes from Philly, we think the kids should really see it at least once.

10) Go to the beach. Would love to do this at least 1 time this year.

11) Go to Cape May Zoo. This is a free zoo that we went to last year and we all really enjoyed it, would love to do it again. See the post here.

12) Go to a traditional ice-cream shop. What I have in mind is some place that is not a chain.

Does your family have a summer bucket list? Would love to hear what is on your list!

Zi

Spring projects: DIY door decor

Now that it's finally warmer I've been able to clean up the yard and pull out the dead plants. Last weekend we planted some flowers out front. Amazing how color can lift one's mood. I've been searching for a nice spring/summer wreath for our front door but had no luck finding one that didn't look so "fake". And the ones I've seen cost at least $40+, if I'm about to spend that much it's got to look it. One day while browsing the web I found an interesting idea using a large umbrella and flowers. LIGHTBULB! I had this umbrella that my sister had given to me years ago from her college fashion show. I've always wanted to do something with it and this was perfect!

Here's my version...

Add tulips, berry sprigs and tie a ribbon to finish it off. A fast and simple project!
The best thing about this was I used things I already had. This jump started my motivation to begin some spring projects like painting the kids' bathroom, living room, and organizing our garage. Let's see how fast I can get those done... Have a great weekend!

Do you have any spring projects planned?
Eva