Art Show Opening Night

Gavin's preschool hosted an art show featuring samples of the students' artwork from the year.  Tonight was opening night and parents were invited to attend along with their children.  The teachers served as docents, directing us to our child's artwork and giving us some background about the different creations. 

Gavin had two pieces on display.  The first masterpiece was something he created entirely on his own during free time at school using materials available at the arts and crafts table.  The typed verbatims are descriptions of each "scene" that he provided to his teachers.  In case it's too difficult to read, here are Gavin's descriptions:

Purple framed drawing: "Ryan and me are jumping out of my airplane."
Connecting tape:  "The tape is a hook.  It's hooking up to Daddy."
Green framed drawing:  "Daddy is falling out of his airplane.  Me and Ryan grabbed him and put him back in his airplane and he said, 'Thank you, Ryan and Gavin.'"
Pink framed drawing:  "Mommy's airplane."

While the teachers raved about his creativity and ability to tell a story through his artwork, I was equally grateful that I didn't fall out of an airplane and horrified that Ryan, Gavin, and Mike did!

 

His second masterpiece was a photograph.  The class was shown how to use a camera.  Then each student got to pick an object to photograph.  Gavin chose a bench on the playground.  (He insists it is a train, but I'm not seeing it.)  He centered the object in the frame, focused the camera, and took the picture. 

 

 

 

Whether we have a future artist, storyteller, sky diver, or photographer on our hands, we're super proud of him!  (Although Mommy would prefer you not jump out of airplanes, Gavin!)

 

 

Night Vision

For the past few months, Gavin has been sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night and crawling into bed with us.  Sometimes he sleeps curled up at our feet (like Guinness used to do - sniff, sniff) and other times he nestles between our two pillows.  Usually he shows up sometime between 1 and 3 am.  We're always amazed that he makes it safely down the stairs and into our room without stumbling in the darkness.  The other night we heard the shuffling of little boy feet as we were getting ready for bed.  Then in walks Gavin with night vision goggles on!  Without saying a word (or acknowledging our giggles), he walks over to the foot of our bed, removes his night vision goggles, crawls up to our pillows and goes back to sleep.  We love our little snugglebug!

Just One Cookie

This is what happens when you tell the boys they only ate enough dinner to earn one cookie for dessert....

 

A Special Valentine's Surprise

The Sunday before Valentine's Day, Mike surprised me with a trip to Washington, D.C. to see Bon Jovi in concert at The Verizon Center.  He literally told me about it 15 minutes before we had to leave!  We arrived in D.C. early enough to walk around Chinatown, browse the gift shop of the Spy Museum, and enjoy a leisurely dinner at Clyde's at Gallery Place.  The concert was amazing, but my favorite part was spending the afternoon alone with Mike.  As if that weren't enough, Mike also invited me to dinner at Mancini's in Fenwick the night before Valentine's Day.  I think I got spoiled by having so many date nights in one week!  Fortunately, I got to enjoy the actual holiday with the other two special men in my life!  We made homemade pizza and gorged on chocolates and candy for dessert.

 

The days leading up to Valentine's Day the boys worked hard signing cards to exchange with friends at school.  They also created special cards for each of their teachers.

 

 

I knew Ryan had been working on a project several weeks prior to Valentine's Day.  He had hidden the finished product in his closet and forbidden me from opening his closet door.  Early on Valentine's Day morning, he presented me with my surprise - a robot made out of a Christmas gift bag, a discarded popcorn box, felt chair sliders, hot pink straws, and a marker.  His imagination, creativity, and inventiveness never cease to amaze me!  He got the idea from the book, "Henry and the Paper Route," by Beverly Cleary which we had just finished reading together.  A character from the book made a robot out of tin cans and screws and all the kids in the neighborhood were in awe and thought he was a genius.  I guess Ryan wanted to prove he could do it, too!  He asked that I use it as decoration for the house, so our robot is now proudly displayed over the fireplace in the family room.  I doubt that any store-bought gift or decoration could convey such love or bring me more happiness than that robot.

A Busy Night

Just when I thought my sleepless nights were behind me, both boys called out separately in the middle of the night for help.  I couldn't help but smile at their "emergencies" because they remind me what it's like to be a mom of boys! 

Ryan called  out around 1:30 a.m. because he was too hot and wanted me to help him take off the ninja costume that he insisted on wearing to bed.  Gavin called out about an hour later because he said his "socks flew off his feet like bullets" and his feet were cold and he couldn't find them under the tangle of sheets and blankets. 

100th Day of School

One hundred days of learning,
One hundred days of fun,
One hundred days to work and play,
The first one hundred days of Kindergarten are done!
Today is a day to celebrate with silly costumes and games,
However, tomorrow the school work returns because it's day 101!

Happy 100th day of school, Ryan!  We are so proud of you!