Castle Building

Aunt Beth and her mom bought Dawson an extremely nice set of wood building blocks for her baby shower. Over the years we have used them for various things but recently, they are being used for castle building. I walked into the family room yesterday to find this castle.

Here she created a little bed for everyone to sleep on. Even the horse was a little tired.

I did ask her what this was above and she told me a draw bridge over the water. Wow! I had no idea she knew what that was? Then I asked where she learned that and she said her teacher showed her how to make one at school. I was quite impressed!

Clay Creation

Dawson and Grace had their first art lesson today. We tried to get into the art museum classes but, were closed out. Lucky us, we found a closer place that is going to be just perfect for the girls. The class has one teacher for the two of them! It's a small studio that offers classes 7 days a week by various artists with different talents. As our class was going on, there were two other boys drawing castles in a perspectives class. I really like the way the teachers bring a lot of art history to the lessons in general conversation.

Here is a part of the studio. The girls were sitting at the closest table.

What I liked most about today is that the girls were a part of the "whole" process. The project today involved clay. The teacher showed the girls the large block of clay. They touched it and then moved it to the machine above that would flatten it. It took both of them to turn the wheel and flatten that clay!!!

Next, we used textured rollers and stamps. The choices were endless on what they could use.

Here is her clay work in two pieces.

Dawson was very focused and interested in her creation. I did not touch her art at all...I want to make sure that what she creates is entirely her work!

It's a little hard to see but, she used a walnut and a fork to make the edges rough. She also was able to pick some cooking cutters to make some 3D shapes to paint. Here is the in progress piece of art.....

The teacher is going to put an antique glaze on it and fire it in the kiln for us to see next week. When finished, she will tie a ribbon on the top we can hang it up!

The Year of the Rabbit

Winter this year has been quite snowy and almost too cold to be outside much. With this in mind, I have been searching high and low to find things to do to get out of my house! Over the weekend, we made a few Valentine crafts with Grace and headed out to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our family and friends.

We started with few cards...

Then we did a little string dipping (in cornstarch and water) to make some heart decorations.

Here is the almost finished product. It takes a few hours to dry and then we can hang it in our house for Valentine's Day.

We then headed out for Chinese New Year. Dawson has been asking to see the Lion dance again since last year. We went a year ago and she thinks whenever we go to this restaurant it's going to happen again!

The Dragon always starts outside the restaurant.

Grace and Dawson shared a Shirley Temple. I think their favorite part was the umbrellas and the swords filled with cherries!

Next came the rose. There was a rose on the table and they kept wanting to smell it. Anything to occupy their time for a few minutes!

Next came our favorite...chicken low mein. She is getting so good at chopsticks already!

We heard some drums pounding and looked towards the door, the dance had begun. The Dragon danced around the entire restaurant stopping by each table for a little visit. It is Chinese tradition to feed the dragon a red envelope with some money. Both of the girls were a little hesitant to feed the big beast this year!

An up close and personal view....no fear here!

Part of the dance is for the dragon to throw the orange out for good luck. He threw it right towards us and, with a little help, Grace caught the orange!

Last year was supposedly a rough one since it was the year of the tiger. This year should be much more calm and pleasant as the year of the rabbit! Let's hope this is true.

Mayna's Birthday

Happy 4th Birthday Mayna!

We had a great day at the Little Gym for Mayna's 4th birthday! It was so much fun running, climbing, jumping, dancing, swinging and just playing with a bunch of friends. We especially loved the snacks and the cupcake. Thanks for a great time Mayna!

The birthday girl!

Climbing up on the beam....fearless!

Look at this...not even a wiggle!

It was so much fun to jump on the airtrack (it's like a trampoline but, air inside)

Grace and Dawson waited so patiently for their turn on the airtrack.

Climbing under the ropes.

Bubbles on the airtrack.......

Waiting for the airtrack to deflate...all smiles! What a great way to make our cold Saturday a lot more fun!!!

Toy Story on Ice

Disney never fails to provide us with an event that is fun and full of action. Toy Story on ice was no exception of amazing entertainment! We walked in, found our great second row seats and were just ready to settle in when, Dawson decided she wanted a Jessie hat. This was probably my favorite souvenir of all and it has already been put to good use! Our dress up trunk is filling up quickly!

If you have seen all the movies, you would know exactly how the ice show was going to go. The first scene involved the army men. It was a very cool beginning. Any adult would have been able to enjoy this show!

This was the look on my little "Jessie's" face the whole time. As usual, she was taking it all in while her own little Jessie doll sat on her lap!

My two favorite characters. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

And another fun character...Bull's Eye.

Winter Fun

Thanks to Aunt Kathy, Uncle Ric and Mother Nature, we have been outside ice skating and enjoying the winter weather.

Dawson wanted to walk on the ice first and see what it was all about.

Thinking about it with Aunt Kim.

And finally going for a skate...kind of...if you can call lifting up your feet skating???

Children's Museum

No we are not at the beach (I wish)! We are at the Children's Museums Egyptian exhibit. This museum fills a very large room with 70 tons of sand and and buries treasures for the children to find. It also had some pyramids to go through, a large sand sculpture and some ancient Egyptian dress up clothes. Dawson and her cousin Sophia had a blast just digging, building, and laughing in the sand.

Time to fill up the bucket.

Where are my feet?

Dawson and Sophia kept filling up their buckets and flipping them. Sometimes they fell apart and the two girls thought it was very funny!

A little water table fun. Everyone had to put on a raincoat to stay dry. Great idea!!

Another fun section of the museum was the grocery store. It was fun to pick out some food and put it in the cart!

When it was time to check out, Sophia made an excellent cashier.

Next came the farm. I'm not sure what these two were shouting but they were doing it from the second floor of the barn.

Part of the farm section had dress up clothes. When Dawson tried on this hat she said, "look at me, I'm Jessie." (from Toy Story)

Then she became a chicken...

And Sophia became a pig...

Oh, I'm having so much fun this Xmas break I'm not going to want to go back to work next week! Five more days of fun to come!