Friday, January 16, 2009

We're Research for Art!

We love our visual arts museum, I use it and the art lessons they provide my children once a month as a wonderful supplement to our homeschooling. Because we're there so often, our family has been asked to participate in a year long research project! The goal is to understand the value museums bring families and how they use them, with an emphasis on the interactive aspects. We'll be accompanied by a researcher on 6 of our family outings over the course of a year. The kick-off meeting last night was to inform us more about the research and for the 5 study families to get to know eachother a little better. As an icebreaker, we were asked to introduced ourselves with a family saying. The first saying that came to my mind was something my dad always added after we'd use the phrase "just kidding"...he'd say..."there's always a little truth to kidding!"












We then made an art representation of a family story to share with the group.







Our Funny Family Story...


My children often look through the scrapbooks I've made them, one day last year Maya & I were looking through her baby book when a postcard of a monkey at the zoo fell out. I had slipped it in her book for safekeeping because her great-grandmother Warren sent it for her. She asked me why it was in her baby book of all places and I laughingly said, "Ok, it's time you know...I brought you home from the zoo". We laughed and laughed about it, ofcourse she knows her Momma's sense of humor by now! And now when I make comments like "You are all behaving like wild animals!" they respond by making little monkey sounds and asking me if I'm really so surprised, they came from the zoo afterall!!


In this case, there's no truth to our kidding!


(although they often behave as if there were :0) heehee!

I expected to enjoy this meeting, but I didn't know how much fun we'd have reflecting on our family & creating together! In later thoughts, I know my parents would make the "there's always a little truth to kidding" phrase, because yes we are all a bunch of jokers, but they also wanted us to be careful to always think before we speak.

Aside from giving us an art filled family night of fun, we were also given a book to keep record of our experiences over the next year and some much appreciated art supplies! What a special night to remember!

By the way, I'd love to hear some of your family sayings out there, please share!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Maya served dessert on the new little dishes she got for Christmas.







Making her raisin design. We like to use "The Cooking Book" by Jane Bull. The recipes are step by step and in picture form.
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1tsp vanilla
2 eggs












The girl can crack an egg!
Maya cracked the eggs like a pro, this means her baked good will no longer be...crunchy :0)




Kyle telling Maya that he should mix the batter because afterall, he is "the chef". (she didn't find that too amusing) What are little brother's for! I love watching them work together.