Amityville Afternoon!

The party is just reaching the second of three phases. It's time for the afternoon antics in Amityville. Bring on the p.m. kindergartners and their fellow PreK friends. We'll pump it up & use our muscles, all of them: fine motor, gross motor, brain motor, smile motor..... get all your motors running. It's time for some more fun!!!!

After Lunch: Quilt Revisitied!

Coming back into the gym after lunch I am in awe all over again. THERE IT STANDS!! It's new to me, all over again. I just took another several dozen pictures. This just overwhelms me, all over again, even though I'd spent all morning celebrating music with this creation. Yet as I walked back into that space I was humbled and 'whelmed' all over again. It bears repeating..... thought you'd appreciate some other vantage points on this work of art.

Yet More of da LOVE!

More and more group hugs! More love!! More amazing interactions! More fun! More smiles! More laughing! More sharing! More show and tell. More "look-at-this"!! More appreciation!!! More energy!

Feeling da LOVE!!

Back in Amityville. After the conclusion of the morning concert, there was still enough time to go thru the halls -- in & out of classrooms and grab me up some "LOVE" complete with hugs, squeezes, questions and thank yous! It's truly a treat to meet the children on their own turf..... in their classrooms. They love to show me their stations, folders, and play centers. I even receive both birthday party and slumber party invites. Ya just gotten love the open hearts of young children. They make me feel like a rock star!!

Blogging ABOVE EARTH!!!

"Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms -- if only you will let them!!!!" -- William James

Today is a first. A red letter day. A day of enthusiasm & exclamation marks. A day for the books. A day of record. Today. This day. This day at hand. This is the one!!!

Does anyone remember the first time I "blogged" from the road, in the car, traveling around 70 MPH, with my laptop hooked to the car's axillary pack -- thru my dear husband's phone?? I do!! Does anyone remember the VERY first time I blogged at all? I do!!!! [Even more amazing to me now, over a thousand posts later] Well today is even more amazing in my mind.... more amazing that all of that. Today I am blogging to you from an airplane which has surpassed 10,000 feet at who knows what speed, hurtling far above the clouds where the sun is indeed shining!!!! Maybe all the rest of you have blogged above earth before, but this is my first trip. Due in large part to Delta making the service 'free' as an introductory, holiday addiction inducer, I am blogging from genuine cyber-space into genuine cyber-space.... what complete symetry.

Wow!!!!! I am flying to Utah. I am crossing the country in a morning, with a computer in my lap & I am able to share what I did last week in NY with you, my supportive friends & family. Is anyone else as mind boggled as I am?? This is seriously thrilling.

Today is a new day. I awoke happily at 3:15 this morning -- even before my 4 a.m. alarm, with a delightful sense of calm and clarity. I awoke feeling that I had "arrived" to this day. I had "arrived" to a day when I would be invited to fly cross country to share my story. I had "arrived" to a day when I would be rewarded well to share my journey. I "arrived" to a day where I'd received a yet new & amazing invitation just yesterday. I "arrived" to a new day where I'd just been given a clean bill of health a mere several hours earlier, by a specialist I admire, a specialist who has no need to see me for 12 full & entire months. I HAVE indeed arrived. Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa!!!

So it's a new day. I told Allen this at 4:30 as we departed for the airport. I think he was a little groggy to catch my enthusiasm. I plan to treat myself better from here on in. I started out by grabbing my warmest, softest wooley socks -- cuz my feet are always cold in flight. This is a signal to me that I mean it. I'm going to be kinder to me. I honest-to-goodness am going to drink more water. I golly gosh darn-it am going to swallow the vitamins I purchase...... and by jove I'm gonna sculpt more breathing, yoga, reflection & joy into every day, so help me, I'm gonna.

Better hit post. Don't know how long the battery will last on the laptop. LOL. No auxillery power supply on board. (That's coming in the next generation of airplanes & laptops...... what would the Wright brothers think of this development??)

AWESOME ART in Amityville!

Northeast School. Amityville, Long Island, New York. Dateline: December 1st, 2010. Amazing-est author visit of all amazing author visits.

Imagine six months of planning and a stream of emails getting more & more excited as the day approaches. Imagine walking into the back door of a gymnasium -- having traversed around the playground outside. Imagine opening the door and seeing this incredible, one-of-a-kind labor of love. To say I was breathless, to say I was speechless, to say I was over-come, to say I was impressed, to say that I was in tears -- would at least get you into the right hemisphere of my response.

What you see here is a community quilt created by over 300 PreK & Kindergarten students under the direction of Melissa-the-Art-Teacher as coordinated by Tina the library-teacher/early literacy specialist as authorized by Mrs. Collins the principal. Those of you who have followed my travels for any length of time know that I am often met with "love" on my visits, yet this day was superlative in every possible facet of it's expression.

What you're witnessing is passion-in-action. A committed team approach to literacy. My own work was the focus of Tina's library study for the entire month of November with all her classes of children. Each week they 'worked' on and became familiar with another one of my books and or songs. Wow!!!

To see the culmination in this community project set my pulse racing at a gazillion miles an hour, before I met the first child. WOW!!!!

Melissa explained that each child was allowed to select their own 3 squares in the colors of their choice to anchor & construct their individual & unique quilt square. It is obvious that she supplied oodles of foamie 'shape pieces' and there was obviously sufficient glue available to affix the foamies in a collage arrangement. The individual quilt squares were then applied to the classroom's backdrop of butcher-paper-on-the-roll with some simple tape.

Did you follow that? Are you impressed?? Overwhelmed??

These squares were created by our miniature Picasso-Nevelson artists in response to the quilts that I created for the illustrations in my first picture book, "You're Wonderful." Let me just go on record and say: "Northeast School, students, staff and administrators -- I think YOU'RE WONDERFUL!!!" Thank you one and all for this amazing wall of color, of creativity, of energy, of enthusiasm -- of JOY. What a well spring of ideas for others to inspire others.

The BUMP Reunion!!

Upper East-side Manhattan. East 80th Street. Caedmon Montessori School. PreK kiddos under the direction of my ol' friend Carmen. We were buddies back in the ol' days at BUMP in Bexley and now she is sporting a baby-bump of her own..... being just weeks away from bringing baby into the world. There will be lots of highlights to remember from my NYC/LI tour, but singing a duet with Carmen on "Tall Giraffe" will always rank right up there at the top!!! Carmen left the cow-town of Columbus to land on BROADWAY -- yes THE Broadway, singing and dancing in a short lived musical of several months duration. So I can honestly, genuinely say that I've sung a duet with a Broadway caliber songstress.

My favorite part of this afternoon? The first several classes were already gathered at my feet and we were awaiting the arrival of the final class. So as I was 'warming-up-the-crowd' I started some banter. I told the preschoolers that I lived VERY far away...... all the way in Ohio!! The response from one of the boys was, "wow, I live on the sixth floor." Then the other chimed in, "I live on the eleventh floor." "I live on the sixteenth!!" My response?? I said, "I live on the first floor." Are you ready for it? One of the girls gives me the most puzzled look ever. She skews up her whole face and says, "You live in the lobby???" Classic. Timeless. Worth the price of parking in the garage across the street -- that's for sure.

"You live in the lobby??" Wow. I'll be telling that one for the decade ahead. Thanks Carmen, for making it all possible. My goal was to get this newest picture book into the big apple -- to share the actual quilts with kiddos in the city. Here's the evidence of crossing that hurdle!!!

"You live in the lobby??"