Art Show

May is busy around the schools here. There are Field Trips, performances and all kind of activities going on and I've been volunteering in school around as much as possible to help out. One of the nights, they presented some of the students Art Work in the cafeteria in an Art Show. The kids were so excited that they were going to be part of this event, and ofcourse I took them there to check it out.

We soon found their class and ofcourse I needed to take a few pictures!

The kids with their art teacher Mr. Kimmel

Some volunteers did face painting on the kids and Isabella choose a rainbow.

Proud little artist showing her work.

Proud artist nr. 2 showing off his work!

They had to choose to draw one of the little monsters in Picachu in the beginning of the school year. And these were the ones that Benjamin and Isabella choose. Pretty nice and great to let the kids take pride in their work and actually do this Art Show instead of just letting them pack it up in the backpack and bring home. This way it was so much more special!

Children's Art Festival & Warm Christmas Feelings

These pictures are from November 8th, about two weeks ago, when there was an annual Children's Art Festival down town. I have totally forgotten to download them to the computer, and came across them today. So, I figured, that I'd post them here right away before they get forgotten again.

There are always so much going on here in town in the weekends. Almost both Saturday and Sunday. It's impossible to be able to participate in all, but I try to pick out a few activities every weekend that I try to take the kids to, and I am glad that we have so much to choose from.

They really go all in when it comes to children here in town, and most of all these events that you see me take the kids to, are free. All supplies provided, come as you are and enjoy! What is not to love about that!?!

We must have missed this one last year, and I didn't realize that it was so huge, and all Main Street was blocked off, and there were so many different stations and activities to do. We had to go up and down first to at all be able to see what we wanted to do, and still there were too much to choose from. All three kids love art and love to draw and paint. So to start off to give them some paintbrushes, was a given station to go to! Here are some pictures from our wonderful afternoon:

Ben drawing a blue dinosaur. The "theme" for the festival was dinosaurs, and I think that this one is absolutely wonderful. I don't even think that it was meant to be like I see it, but I see a blue big dinosaur bird sitting with his orange feet sticking out in the front, and with his orange beak open to eat.

 Very concentrated getting all the details!

This was a fun station. The kids got to place three plastic dinosaurs on a "magic" paper, then count to 30 while the paper was laying in the sun, then the sun had marked the paper and the dinosaurs where dark. Ben & Isabella thought that this was so fun!

 Beads and dragon teeth combined made great necklaces..

Ben using a different technique while creating this piece of art. Tearing his paper up and then gluing it onto the other paper. He created a volcano with hot lava shooting out at the top and pouring down the sides. Isabella and Cassie had already moved along, but Isabella did the same thing and had fun doing it!

 Proud artist!

Creating with clay was a fun (and messy!!!) station!

Cassie got to try pottery.

Messy but fun!

 Ben made Olaf from Frozen..

I think it looks like a beautiful bird, look at those eyes and beak, and even wings and tail feathers...but no, it's Olaf the snowman..

And Isabella made Elsa from Frozen.  

Lots of details, eyes, nose and lips, even worked on the hair to the side for the braid!

When they started to close up the stations later in the afternoon, we thought it was a great idea to have an ice cream before heading home. There are a lot of small little shops along the old town, and I never have the opportunity to look around here, many of them are not open regularly, especially the cute little interior design, home living and gift shops. So while the kids had their ice cream outside in the shade, I had a peak inside some of the stores, and one was especially cute, with nice little Christmas decorations.

 I thought these little pillow ornaments were so cute, I think I might have to go back and get them, I should have gotten them right away!

Inside the store, one could really get into the Christmas spirit, walking outside into the bright sunshine, the feeling soon went away. It was after all over 90F/32C that day!

Palm trees and bright blue skies instead of ever greens and snowy skies...

Art Show

Last night, we had a nice event to attend. Cassies' school was for the first time arranging an Art Show for the public to see, and Cassie's Art Teacher had picked one of Cassie's works to hang in the show.

I was excited to see her final work, as I knew that she had to make a picture with an Arizona Landscape picture, and she had told me about her sunset over the mountains that she had been working on. As I love sunsets, I was eager to see her art work. It was so beautiful, I am so proud of her and it was great for her to have this opportunity to attend this show. There was no prizes, only the pride of being handpicked.

 Cassie's sweet teacher Mrs. P.

 Even refreshments were served!

 Cassie's Art Piece - "Arizona Landscape"

It was fun to see that actually many other of Cassie's teachers were attending the show. She was especially excited to see that her Science teacher, Mrs. D, was there and she gave her a sweet comment that people that are great in Science, have a connection to see and create great Art work. Well, maybe that's just sweet words, maybe it's actually some truth to it, still very sweet of her to say to Cassie!

There weren't many 6th Graders amongst the students attending, actually most of them seemed to be 8th Graders. There were many different themes, and it was fun to walk around and see what they had been working on.

 Personally, I thought this was a very great piece of art. Made by a girl in 8th Grade.

Isabella thought it was fun to watch the different styles, 

here she studied a piece made out of thin metal.

Ben was a bit tired after all the sun and outdoor play, so he didn't care too much. Had a few pretzels from the buffet and played a game on my phone until we were done. 

After awhile it was time to leave and go home and get dinner started, and it was such a warm and nice evening. Cassie was happy that the show was such an success, and I got an impression that this wasn't the last Art Show that she wants to attend..She has already made clear that she would like to keep Art as one of her two electives for next school year. That she is going to keep AVID is a given. I hope for her that she'll get it, which won't be clear until later.