Arts and Crafts

Although I am vehemently anti-diorama (don't get me started), Trevor's green iguana project did turn out really well, and merited a proud pic.  Iguanas always make me think of Ecuador, so I loved helping him research this one.

I also have to share a new art project I tried with the class, that I am super happy with (not my original idea- borrowed from the internet).  We learned about Marc Chagall, and his love of letting things float, and blending reality and dreams.  We used pastels on brown paper, and I had the kids turn their paper after drawing each object.  Love.

Moon shadow, moon shadow

We had an amazing view of the annular solar eclipse here.  I had planned on making pinhole cameras to be very teachery and sciency about the experience, but I didn't get around to it.  Luckily, our trees did the job for us.  The back wall of the house had thousands of little eclipses all over it, and I was really quite blown away by the coolness of it.  And then I had to spend the evening listening to Cat Stevens.

Commuting

I will never, ever take for granted the fact that my commute is a 4-minute walk.  I love walking in general, but walking to and from work just seems extra special, because hardly anyone I know has the luxury of doing it.  My commuting buddies are pretty cute, too.

Let them (and me) eat cake!

One of the great perks about teaching is the fact that you can amass quite a collection of gift cards.  I've been a very, very lucky girl over the years.  I can usually feed the entire family through all of our annual airport layovers with Starbucks cards alone.
Today, I set out to spend some of these:

I didn't really make much of a dent in the cards, but I'm ridiculously happy about the angel food cake pan I bought at Ross (for free!).  And when you're happy, you need to celebrate with cake, right?

 

I'm thinking that tomorrow I should buy a springform cheesecake pan.  :)

The Gap

I'm starting to wonder if that other front tooth ever plans on coming in.  It's taking its sweet time, that's for sure.  Not that I mind – Trevi looks darn cute.  And, as far as he's concerned, "It's one less tooth to brush!"

Outside

Just take a look around our beautiful May backyard.

The front yard isn't too shabby, either.