Map of Australia?

Last night we went to cub scouts for the pinewood derby. I let Luke do as much of his car as he could and he did such a good job! (That's not the number seventy five on the front of the car, it's "SL" for Super Luke of course.)

No, this is not a map of Australia.  It's just a little sample of Sylvia's new artistic creations on the walls.  Not markers on the wall anymore (well actually there is still THAT) now it's pasting construction paper on the walls!  Wow, what a talented kid!  (For those of you with out a "Sylvia" at home, judge all you want but know that the more you judge me for "not watching my child well enough" the more chance you will have of getting a Sylvia when you have kids.)

Erin, you are right, that was pretty sad that I didn't have a picture of Hazel.  She was sick most of the trip but even a sick Hazel is a better behaved baby than any of the other babies I've ever had.

Ten Years

We've been married for ten years! It seems like longer. I don't mean that in a bad way, I just can't believe that I've ever not known Joey. We met when we were pretty young, I was eighteen he was twenty one, so we've kind of grown up together.  We drove up to Salt Lake City where my sister and her husband live. They watched the kids over night while Joey and I stayed at The Anniversary Inn.  Here we are in the bathroom trying to take a decent picture of ourselves.  We used the timer but in the end, the hand held snap of us was, sadly, the best.  I love the toilet in the background.

Here is a picture of the outside of The Anniversary Inn.  They have themed rooms there.  We stayed in the Sultan's Palace...OOO LA LA!

We dined at The Roof.  Top floor, great view of the city and the LDS Temple.  Joey even had the pianist play Debussy for me.  Why is there a picture of Batsumaru in front of the temple and not us?  Just don't ask.

The highlight of Luke's time was catching bugs in their backyard and peeling off the shells of snails.

Isabel loved going to a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical with her aunt.

Sylvia just loved anything.

Art History/Art Class

Today I taught our first Art History lesson.  Luke and Isabel are in the class of course as well as Mason, Kyla, Ben and Luke S.  I first showed them pictures of many different kinds of art; paintings, sculptures, dancers, music, jewelry, landscaping, furniture, clothing, buildings, logos, etc.  With each picture I asked, "Is this art?"  They caught on pretty quickly that the answer was always yes.  We then discussed the seven elements of art and they got to practice drawing each element.  They are such a good group of kids and I love seeing how excited they are about learning.  Next week we will be learning about Leonardo Da Vinci and Jackson Pollock. The 7 Elements of Art
The elements of art are the components used to create, or build, a work of art
Line – is a mark, or hatch mark, made on a surface.
Shape – An enclosed area defined by line, color, value, texture, space, or form.
Form – Encloses volume. (cube, sphere, pyramid, and cylinder)
Value – Light and dark Texture - The tactile (touch) quality of a surface or its representation, what a surface appears to feel like.
Color - (Hue) Space - The creation of visual perspective, and the illusion of depth; the distance around, between, above, below, and within an object or group of objects

Zack and Sylvia played happily together the whole time.  Speaking of Sylvia, yesterday she asked me, "Can the toaster be my pet?!"  She asked so sweetly I would have said yes but I quickly invisioned her plugging in her "pet" and feeding him with a metal spoon.