Frankie's Art These Days

Frankie loves to do art.  Always has, and I hope always will.  Here's an update since last year!
I loved the way this project from school that they did for Valentine's Day turned out.

I love...

Mermaids

Penguins

Underwater

Valentine's Day!

Frankie's been very into patterns recently.  I'm not quite sure what all the thinking is behind this one, but there are lots of number 3s, several 1, 2, 3s, 2 tulips of the same color, and a shaded (or not!) circle.

This is one of my favorites.  There have been a lot of cowboys drawn recently, with fringe.  This big cowboy has a hat on, is standing next to a tree, and there is a smaller cowboy riding a horse in the back.  The best part is the white paper that she cut into fringe and taped on to the big cowboy's pants.

She has some of these little notebooks and likes to draw miniature scenes in them that all tie together.  This is a princess standing in between two castles.

This underwater scene was done while she and Dex were waiting patiently for me to finish with the H&R Block man

This was a cowboy she envisioned and then spent about an hour making by herself.  I love that she can work on big projects like this now all by herself!

I'm sure most of this is made possible by her sweet teachers at preschool who are constantly coming up with new crafts and encouraging her art.  This was one of our favorite units and art projects of the year so far:

They took a trip around the world in January, "visiting" many countries and learning all about them.  We all learned so much that month!

The trip started in Atlanta on the Marta - "Frankie wants to go with er Mommy, Daddy, and Dexter to Ohio to visit her Nonnie.  If it's summertime, she will go swimming.  If it's wintertime, she will play inside."

Egypt - "I want to have a ride on a camel because I want to see if it's bumpy.  I'd see pyramids and see people making chairs."

India - "I'd like to ride in a howdah on an elephant, and look at the fancy clothes."

China - (Junk Boat) - "I would like to go to the dragon festival"  (There are 4 doggies in the boat.)

Mexico - "I'd like to go the pyramids, and also eat the candy skulls at the Halloween party"

Holland - "I would like to go see the rainbow colored tulips and the blue butterflies with purple polka dots."

Space - "I want to go really close to a star and see how big it is."

At the end of the book is a little passport with stamps for all the countries they went to.

Yoga

Aunt Masha sent this yoga video and yoga mats to the kids for Christmas. They're a big hit! Friends up North who are looking for cold weather activities, this is a great one!


Take this one, Momma!

Frankie the Photographer

We got Frankie a used Canon powershot for her birthday. She has gone hog wild taking pictures. Seriously, it's been so fun. She's actually pretty good! I love seeing life from her perspective. Check out her handiwork:

Uncle Matthew, Aunt Grace, and Momma at Chuck E Cheese on Frankie's birthday

There are a LOT of pictures of the boy. Usually doing something like this.

Sometimes with his cheeser grin



She's really proud of this one.  "It looks like the sun is above the bird, Momma!"

more photo bombs

our fridge

love the perspective on this one

This one reminds me of a certain awkward dog we all know and love...

Frankie's 5th Birthday Party

My baby girl is turning 5! Her actual birthday is Sunday, but we had her "friends" party today at 2 Crafty Chicks, a local art studio that has art classes for kids and also hosts birthday parties. We had a blast!


Since I didn't have to clean my house, I had time to make this cake (and for the record, my house is still rather messy, but that cake was way fun to make!). Vanilla with Strawberry frosting, just what the birthday girl ordered.


I got Frankie a new dress for her party. She was soooo excited about this. I love that she loves fancy party dresses. It was an easy way for me to help her feel special about her special day.

Blooper reel: this one says so much about life in our house.



Setting up, waiting for our friends to arrive



Chris and I actually got to relax and enjoy the party!

The girls worked on mermaid paintings

The boys worked on pirate's treasure chests (Frankie invited all the girls in her class, plus Lawson, well, because he's Lawson)

Happy Birthday to you!

Everyone helped blow out the candles!



The party was so well organized!  They moved the kids swiftly through art time and then kept setting out new manipulatives on these little tables.




The completed mermaid

The boys finish their treasure chests

Happy Birthday, Frankie!

10 Things we love about Atlanta

Most of you realize that we recently moved to Atlanta after living in Boston for over 8 years. While there is plenty we really miss about Boston, we have found many things we love about Atlanta! We are very happy here, and feel it's a great place to be raising our kids right now.




1. The daffodils in my front yard start blooming before January was over. I know it's been unseasonably warm, even for Atlanta, but we have had a wonderful time enjoying the signs of spring a solid 3-4 months earlier than we did in Boston. I realize we will pay for all this wonderful weather this summer, but at least we'll have central ac! (she says with an awkward, unsure laugh)

2. Umm, the food. Wow. I love to eat, and Atlanta has some amazing restaurants. It helps that we've landed in Decatur, which is like craft beer and foodie heaven, but we continue to be impressed with all the delicious independent foodie restaurant options here at a variety of price points. My favorite burger so far is at Kitchen 155 on Clairmont. The kids love their milkshakes - they're huge, made with Ben and Jerry's, and are only $5. I am also in love with Your Dekalb Farmer's Market. Yes, Your Dekalb Farmer's Market, or YDFM. It has bulk prices, just about any produce you could dream of (they sell Durian fruit, Oil!) and it feels a little like shopping at the Somerville Market Basket.

3. The YMCA. I grew up at the Y, on the gymnastics team, and have a great affinity for the YMCA and their family-oriented approach to fitness. the Y system here "in town" is great. None of the facilities are large, but we have two very close to us we can go to. One has a great pool with family swim times every day from 2:30 to 6, and they keep the water at 87. Dex will actually swim here! We try and go once a week. The kids are also in gymnastics at the Y, and I have found an incredible yoga class. The kids will take soccer this spring!

4. The kid's preschool. The kids are enrolled in a Methodist preschool here in Decatur, and they love it. We love it. They have made many friends, and I have been able to make friends with other moms as a result. I get to volunteer in Frankie's class to help teach Handwriting without Tears, which is really fun way to help the kids learn handwriting. There really are no tears. Dex looooves his teacher, and actually looks forward to school days. For those of you who know how much Dex has struggled with social anxiety and being away from Momma, this has been huge for our family. They have music every day for 20 minutes. They come home signing all kinds of songs. Frankie spent a while yesterday singing "Valentimes, Valentimes!" to the tune of "All night, all day, Angels watching over me my lord!"

5. Stone Mountain. We're only about 20 minutes away from Stone Mountain, which provides us a great mid-week place to hike and get our fresh air. I'm looking forward to the day when we can all bike the 5.5 mile loop around the mountain together - it's where they held the Olympic Cycling event in the 1996 Olympics.

6. Plenty of Green Space. We were worried about this, coming from Boston which is known for its parks, and for having a rather fitness-focused population. We're living intown, so I can't speak for all of Atlanta, but at least the pocket we're in seems to have plenty of really nice parks for the kids, and some decent running paths. The community we're in also has a big focus on walking and biking. Many of the kids in Decatur walk or bike to school.  But boy, is it hilly!  I haven't run this many hills since my Indian Hill Cross Country days.

7. Proximity to family. We're now withing driving distance to all our extended family members, and since moving 3 months ago we've already made multiple trips to see family, or they have come to us. We love this! We even have some family in town, and I'm so glad to have our kids (and us!) be able to see family more often.

8.  Our church.  We've already started to get settled in a church here, which is such a blessing.  We've moved other places where we've looked and looked before finding a church home, but we have found the local PCA church here to be a place where we feel we can find community, grow in our faith, and worship God.  And it's only 1.5 miles from our house!

9.  The hipsters.  Like I said, we landed in Decatur, which is home to many a hipster.  While I'm not a hipster myself, hipsters usually have good taste, and I usually kinda like them.  The dream of the 90s is alive and well here in Decatur.

10.  Chris loves his new job!  Yay!

So friends, rejoice with us that this has been a successful transition for our family.  It's been a lot of work to move our little family of 4, and there are definitely things we miss (and, really, people we miss), but we are settling in here.

Brambly Hedge

I was so excited to discover on Amazon that you can now buy a hardcover complete set of all of Jill Barklem's series on Brambly Hedge for a mere $20. Do you know these stories? They have the best, intricate illustrations coupled with the sweetest "just enough adventure" stories for my preschoolers. I think early elementary aged children will love them too. They are wonderful for both boys and girls.

The illustrations are amazing. You can mull over them for long periods and find new things. The stories take the readers to a little world where the mice of Brambly Hedge have parties, get lost in the woods and have to be brave, and discover secret staircases.

Jill Barklem is a Bristish author illustrator who published these works in the 80s. They were quite popular upon their release, and then fell to an unpublished state until this past year. You may be able to find the stories at your library, but even the Minuteman system didn't carry all of them. If you want to try one, The Secret Staircase is my personal favorite.