Fun in the Afternoon

Deck the Halls

You know how much I love children's artwork, right?? These are just amazing creations for preschool children. These tree treasures were on display in the preschool classroom. I love the unique personalization of each child's work of art!! Brilliant idea that will please parents and their refrigerators, but simultaneously pleasing the old art teacher in me. Patterns. Color. Form. Chihuly would be proud. These actually make me think of Eric Carle and his use of color.

You know that you're a genuine dignitary extra-ordinare when the teachers plan a pizza potluck around your visit! Trust me. I felt the love. Cheese cake deserving of a magazine spread -- it was so artful. Let me assure you, it tasted even better.

Flying Lessons

"He who would learn to fly one day

must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance;

one cannot fly into flying." --Friedrich Nietzsche

Really then, what we're all about is 'flying lessons.' We gather together and we celebrate the standing and the walking and the running and the climbing and the dancing...... all in preparation for flying. Learning about balance is an enormous lesson on the road to flying. Body control. Knowing where your body is in space. Harnessing your energy. Freezing frozen. It's all part of a wonderful continum. It's great to be a flying instructor. Makes everything worthwhile.

Then a puppet show, actually all about flying. Cause and effect. Flight. Baby birdies. It's all one and the same thing. It's all about exerting that cause and feeling that effect. Nietzsche and preschoolers. Would you have it any other way??

Childhood Enthusiasm

Pump up those muscles! Pump up those muscles!! Pump up those muscles!!! This is my group right before lunch. Enthusiasm. Joy. Big smiles. Smiles in all sizes. Smiles in all shapes. Smiles in all colors. You've just got to love a smiley group. These guys were the best. Oh what fun, indeed.

We're Singing......

....... We're Reading!!! I love when we get to have enough time together to do it all: sing, dance, read, sign..... This is the morning crew and we had so much fun! I hope that these pictures convey just a bit of the fun that we shared. More to come............ this is just the beginning.

***Today was the premiere of my new birthday tights! Those green and black stripes were hand selected on Zac & Noelle's west coast adventure. Noelle said it was a whole store largely devoted to happy legwear of all sorts & descriptions on a hill in San Fransisco. My birthday week continues to unfold: giggle, giggle, giggle.

Happiness & Joy

We've talked about it for quite a long time..... I'd meet teachers at conferences & then we'd realize that I lived just blocks away and say, "Wow, that would be awesome, you're just around the corner." Well, we finally pulled it off!! I made my inaugural Artist-in-the-Schools visit to Graham Road Elementary. What a great day. A seriously great day!!

Birthday Blessings

Birthday brunch. Birthday box. Birthday beauty. Birthday breath-taker. Birthday bounty. Birthday bonanza. Birthday best. Birthday bauble. Birthday bling. Birthday benefits.

Imagine my surprise as Sarah presented me with a little box after our meal together. Lifting the lid on this fuzzy black jewelry parcel, my brain was imagining all the possibilities that could await inside. As many thoughts raced thru my mind, not once in those nano-seconds did I imagine what was in store for me as I opened the lid.

There cozied inside was a rose gold ribbon, complete with three shining pink saphires. Sarah had taken the lead on designing a custom made celebration, a custom designed victory marker. She explained that everyone had been involved with this gift...... that the three gleaming stones represented the three of us, mom and both daughters: Deborah, Sarah and Noelle.

What an amazing benefit comes from birthdays. The chance to reflect. The opportunity to count blessings. A unique platform to survey the journey behind and anticipate the adventure ahead. Birthdays: bring 'em on!

The three stones mean a lot of things to me: past, present and future. Beginning, middle and end. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Faith, hope and love. Mom and each unique daughter. And as I pause to enumerate the triads I'm also reminded by the three stones that I am headed for my third 'cancerversary' -- just around the next corner. I'm reminded of the miracles of this season. The miracles of family, friendship and faith. Faithandfifty is now faithandfiftyTHREE!! I always get choked up by the commercial from the American Cancer Society that intones 'the official sponsor of birthdays.'

Now I'll be getting choked up putting my choker round my neck in celebration of that very fact. (It will be the shining compliment to my new striped tights and my new pink & white striped high tops.... I've always told you that it's all in the details, it's all in the acessories.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.