Guinea pigs for sale

Tristen and Willow made Guinea pig drawings and then set up an art stand.

The sign read, "One dollar for the little ones. Two dollars for the big ones." The big ones were Guinea pigs drawn on 8.5 x 11 paper. The little ones were smaller Guinea pigs drawn on 8.5 x 11 paper.

Guinea pig in a space ship

Winter bazaar

In theory, I really love the winter bazaar at Thornton Creek. Kids get creative and  make things, then sell their wares all afternoon and into the evening in the gym. It's big learning, even beyond the creative part: setting a price, marketing your stuff, making change...And it's a great way for kids to participate in raising funds for their school.

But whew, it was a slog. Tristen had more ambition this year than follow-through. He REALLY wanted to have a table and spent weeks leading up to the bizarre coloring mandalas, which we made into ornaments -- the few he decided he could part with. It was like pulling teeth to get him to let go of even a quarter of his inventory. He then priced the mandalas as if they were gold.

We made a couple of other kinds of ornaments as well: the Christmas tree fans (you can't seem them well, but the tree trunks are real wood) and nature ornaments (pieces of our evergreen trees stuffed into glass ornaments I bought at Michael's). But Tristen really only wanted to make the paper mandalas -- so the other projects were exercises in frustration, and the various projects cluttered our kitchen for weeks.

We used an upside down tomato cage topped with a bow for display and shared a table with Willow, who had made adorable little necklaces -- and plenty of them she didn't mind selling, I might add.

I took the day off work to set up our table and help out. Tristen didn't sell a ton of stuff, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he might not have even tracked on it -- sitting at the table waiting for customers was another part of the bizarre he didn't have patience for.

It was all loud, crazy, chaotic. Two saving graces: Willow's parents, who were fun to hang with, and the awesome kid who sold soaking salts and candles. I used them that night to decompress in a hot bath with a glass of wine. A toast to the theoretically awesome winter bazaar!

The upside down tomato cage: genius, no?
Thank you.

Artistpreneurs Willow and Tristen at their table.

Salmon lifecycle

Tristen is very engaged in school this year -- and he especially loves his class expedition, which is "What Do Scientists Do"? When they studied the salmon lifecycle last month, Tristen came home and drew it. He also drew "a salmon in a good environment for spawning and a bad environment for spawning." Salmon turn red when they spawn, he tells us.

Boo

This year's crop of window decorations. Check out Candy Corn Man. He's my favorite.

Catapult

We try to make sure Tristen has "independent time" every day. Here's what he came up with a couple of weeks ago: a catapult made of a kitchen spoon, ribbon, tape, and paper.

 

Ice lessons

1. Some beads float; others sink.

2. Water takes a long time to freeze.

3. Ice is too slippery to stack like blocks.

4. Red and blue food coloring makes purple.

5. Ice art melts fast inside.

Christmas prep

Not pictured: ornament-making. Which is weird, since it was a MAJOR part of our lives and kitchen in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The ornaments and the Christmas eggs and the window decorations we made...If I ever write a memoir, this particular chapter of my life would be titled, "Even the baby is shitting glitter."

We made wreaths from coat hangers, wires, and a backyard cedar marked for death.



Decorating the tree.




Tristen and I made these paper mache Christmas eggs for some family.
We filled them with art or office supplies, depending on the recpients.




Tillie at the ice skating rink.






Lots of drop-bys made the season fun. Yay, Dan!



Sharks from lillies

Chris and Tristen have been making dye from the anthers of the Asiatic lillies we get in our Helsing Junction CSA share.

Below: a shark. With a ninja. That's right.

 

Cloud City Coffee coloring contest

Chris and Tristen are now "featured artists" at Cloud City Coffee, which is just a block from our house and a second home for us. They are featured with all the other neighborhood kids. :)

The two of them spent a full morning altering the original drawing to include spaceships with little aliens drinking coffee, among other enhancements.

Lightening Lad and Lieutenant Robie

Lightening Lad: (1) has super vision and can burn things with his eyes, (2) is really strong and can lift up the world,  (3) can take people's eyeballs out to look inside them like a doctor, (4) can build special building with blocks, (5) knows everything in the world.

Lieutenant Robie: (1) shoots fire out of his belly,  (2) can gobble up robbers, (3), has really sharp claws, (4) can swallow apples whole, (5) has invisible stripes.

Hatching

On a recent Mommy and Tristen day, we made paper mache eggs to share with Ruby and Luca. After they dried, we painted them. And after the paint dried, I filled them with feathers, glitter glue, other art supplies, marbles, and small toys. The kids pretended they were chickens and hatched them.

Nature collage

We're working on a nature collage, the makings of which we procured from GoodWill and Ace Hardware: an old frame, some little nails, and twine. Next time you come over, bring something to add!

Creation station

An idea from Interlake: "creation station." Basically, we save junk, and Tristen creates sculptures using tape and glue. Nearly every one of the creations starts out as a boat and turns into a rocket ship.

We chalk.

Terrariums

Some days being a mom can be really annoying. Take terrarium-building day...

I had gone around gathering all the necessary ingredients: containers from Goodwill, aquarium rocks and charcoal from the fish store, potting soil from Ace... Then I could BARELY get Tristen to gather moss from the backyard with me. And he only stayed interested in terrarium assembly long enough to spill rocks and dirt all over the place. I ended up in the kitchen like the little red hen, doing everything all by myself -- especially the clean up! I felt so annoyed and under-appreciated, even though I know better than to expect gratitude from a three-year-old.

Now we have terrariums all over the house. The moss is thriving, and each container is sprouting little fiddle-head ferns (I had tried to throw some fern fronds in each one, hoping the spores would germinate). Almost makes that day worth it.

Ain't it a shame to go painting on Sunday?

This moring Tristen and I experimented with different painting tools: yarn, sponge-on-sticks, sponge shapes, and potato carvings. We also used the little sprouts from the potato.

Nature bracelets

Look at all the cool stuff we found on our walk! We stuck it to rings of tape around our wrists.