Crazyon crayon hearts

So I've never been big on Valentine's Day. Even when Elmer and I were dating and everything looked like love. It's just become another crazy consumer holiday to get sucked into. But the spirit of a seven year old can really make you feel different about love. It is really so great to be seven.

 

If more of the world could operate on the spirit of a seven year old, it would be a better place. Be happy, be nice, share, love. If you're not having fun, do something else. And love unconditionally, because you don't know understand about boyfriends and girlfriends and societies expectations.... or does that stop at 4? Anyway,...

 

We made homemade Valentine's for first and fourth graders last night.  We hadn't made class Valentine Cards since Tigo was in 1st grade, three years ago (and those were AMAZING, by the way). When we were in New Mexico the kids' school didn't celebrate Valentine's Day, so no one was obliged to receive our home made crafts from mid-winter craziness. So this week I was feeling crafty, therefore the kids had no choice to be crafty as well. In the usual style of waiting until the night before the party to prepare, I decided that we would try for the hip "make broken crayons into a heart shaped crayon" to show our love. It's totally easy, fast and lots of fun I was told...... Well not so easy, pretty messy, definitely not fast, and well, still pretty fun.

I felt like I was up to the wee hours of the morning helping put these together. You know, 9:30pm is the wee hours of the night when you want your kid in bed on a school night. But these were created with love and sent on their way this morning.

 



Remove any paper off the crayons and break them into little pieces in a bowl.

 So I'd like to say that we just had all these broken crayons around that we re-purposed into better crayons.... but truth is, that's not what happened. We needed a TON of crayons so we had to break into the stash of new crayons. Setting to make 50 some Valentines, you need a lot of crazyon. (Yes, I said CraZyon, because that's how I was feeling when this was all over, like a crazy crayon lady.)
Go get your crazy on.

 

Ice cube tray that you get from Michael's.

 Yeah, so it's an ice cube tray and I stuck it in the oven. I was a little worried, but it seemed to work up to 230 degrees. I got the cupcake shaped ones first, but they were humongous and there was no way we were making that big of a crayon for everyone. Even if it would have been total cool.

 

Crayons in the tray.

 You really need to pile them on, but not over the edges, they melt all over the place, and don't plan on actually using these trays for ice when this is over. Unless of course you like crayon in your iced drinks.

But this is how they look before you stick them in the oven at 230 degrees for what was supposed to be 15 minutes a batch, but really seemed like 30 minutes to get a good melt.

 

Chevron print card stock paper.

 We got this cute little card stock paper to fold and tape the crayon to inside, and make into "Valentine" Azalea worked really hard to make sure that each of her classmates got a color that she thought they would like best.

 

Example of our original message.

 The message was supposed to read

"Happy Valentine's Day, for Crayon out loud"

but Tigo was too embarrassed to write the joke,

and Azalea was too busy drawing hearts everywhere.

 

Out of the oven.

OK, these took forever to cool. I even stuck them in the freezer for a few minutes. I wouldn't recommend doing that though. I think it messed up the consistency of the melted gunk.

 

Close up of hot melted crayon.

 These really looked a lot cooler on this side of the crayon than the flipped side, which was shown on the card. Oh well.

 

Little crayon hearts layed out like a flower after they've cooled.

 

Finished product.

So this is what they looked like at the end, but for they got bagged up and sent away. I could have made the finished product look more "store bought", but then that would have been me making them (or buying them) and not the kids actually making them. So. The kids are gone now, probably sharing their cards. I hope none of the other kids think that it's candy and try to eat it... you never know. I am also really hoping that they come back with some other fun cards, but if nothing else, I'll steal some of their candy that I'm sure they will have from the day.

 

Happy Valentine's Day folks.

 

The best way to predict the future...

...is to invent it. - Alan Keys

I so love a to take advantage of a bargain. Or maybe it's having grown up by DC where I could hope on the metro and go see some of the best museums in the world for free. Either way the first Sunday of the month at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History has free admission to New Mexico residents. So... that's where we were on the first Sunday of the month. At least Tigo, Azalea and I were there. We've been there a bunch of times but somehow missed the technology room stuck back in the corner, just past the Space Exploration room.

Turns out, Bill Gates and friends spent a good amount of time hanging out in Albuquerque while he was typing away to become a the richest of the rich.

Well, I'm not sure that the first computer game was invented here, but we still got to play it. Tigo and Azalea attempted to blow each other up with out being sucked into the sun's gravitational pull.
Um. That happens everyday, with out the video game...

 He's definitely a future programer.

 Order pizza. Pick it up. Go to party.

She was good. 

I 'm not as smart as I look.

 It's being invented right now. Right here.

Must keep remembering this.

 I was always thinking about the future as a kid. When you are a kid, you think anything is possible.

-Paul Allen.

True dat. I gotta keep thinking like a kid.

The inside of a tree

When Tigo was in Kindergarten, I would go help out in his classroom on a regular basis during work groups. The class divided into small groups and each would go to a table and work on a different assignment. One day when I was there, the class was learning about the seasons of the year. The assignment that I was to help the kids with, began with a piece of paper divided into 4 sections. Each section with a silhouette of a deciduous apple tree and its empty branches. Simple enough, the kids were to each write the name of the season below and then proceed to color the tree in to what it might look like during that season.

Now, Tigo is my son. I believe that we are all biased about our own children in one way or another. And if we, as parents are not, we should be or something is wrong. I am totally biased about my kids and think they are brilliant and creative and they continually surprise me. And frustrate me. And confuse me.

When Tigo came to the table that I was stationed at, I told his group what the assignment was. Some of the kids needed help spelling the names of the seasons. I prompted them for ideas on what the trees might look like during those seasons. But we were in Virginia then, and it's pretty darn hard for anyone, even a kindergartner to not know the seasons of the year. Virginia is case book scenario for 4 seasons.

But Tigo was different.

At first, I thought it was because of me being there. I was his mom, so he had to act a little different with me around. But as he proceeded, I knew it wasn't just him being difficult with me. He was really seeing something, in his own mind that was really hard for me to stiffle, but it also didn't follow the norm for the assignment.

Tigo began to draw the what the tree looked like on the inside during each season. As he colored away the interior of each tree, he describe out loud what it was he was coloring and why. "In winter when the tree gets cold and loses it's leaves. The sap inside the tree works hard to stay warm. It turns yellow and brown." "In the summer there are so many colors, it's so excited to be alive."

I don't remember all of what he was saying. I do remember a lot of confusion on my part. That back and forth in my mind of trying to figure out if he was just trying to change the assignment or was he really believing what he was saying. Or did he know something that I didn't. Could he feel something that I couldn't.

We block so much out as adults. There are rules to follow and things that need to be addressed. Bills to be paid, society desires to be filled. Wanting to fit in. Does this education really have room for variance like this? Can a large classroom function with deviation from the norm? But if everything is a deviation from the norm is anything really even taught at all? We stray away as we get older from the truthful thoughts and the purity we are born with.

Heck, maybe he was pulling it out of his ass to be difficult with his mom. But I'd like to believe that not just my amazing son, but all the amazing children out there have something to share with us that we have forgotten. I remember a camp counselor that I had growing up. He would always say "Now that's a good kid." And he would say that about almost, if not every, child that he met.

So where does that insight go? How does it slip away? With my three kids ages 5, 8, & 10, they are all at different levels of innocence and self awareness. I love watching them grow and change. Unfortunately, as this happens something slips away and it is harder and harder to hold onto what it looks like on the inside of a tree. Or the inside of a child.

So anyhow, for Spring Break this year, which came earlier than we are accustomed, we roadtripped it from our current haunts in central New Mexico through Northern Arizona. The road travel is a lot easier to stomach in the wide open west, than it is on the East Coast.  We made our first destination to the Petrified National Forest, just across the state line and did a little exploring. The scenery was amazing. Truly, truly a painted desert landscape. The layers of geology which I do not know but can, anyone can, with out a doubt know that magic was working, to create it. Or created by the hand of God.

The Petrified Forest has a main road that travels about 20-some miles through the landscape with pull offs and small trails for exploring. The deeper into the park you get, one wonders where the forest actually is as it's not obvious for some time. Slowly fragments of the trees that once grew on the now barren landscape begin to appear. Upon closer investigation these scattered tree stumps, as they seem show an amazing beauty.

Through the petrification process a rainbow of colors is preserved in the wood that once grew tall. My dingy camera does no service to beauty and the colors found. But right away when I saw the rainbow with in the tree I thought of the morning I spent in Kinder with Tigo, three years ago.

That's what he saw, I thought. That is what he meant. He saw the colors in the trees that were growing.

I reminded him of that day and the pictures he drew. He only vaguely remember and kind of laughed. I still don't know. Did he make it up or did he know. I want to believe that he knew and felt the trees. But that also means that he may be forgeting. How do we hold onto the innocence and sixth sense of knowledge that we may all have and may slowly hide under our layers and layers of bark?

Yes, of course I saved the picture.

(though seeing the real picture holds my memory better than the scan of it)

Cinco de Amaya

These pictures were taken last week at the Cinco de Mayo fiesta given by the bilingual classes at Lola and Tigo's school. Only Lola is in the bilingual program this year.

 The kids are preparing for their dance.

I have to say that this was SOOOOO cute! Not just Lola's class. But all the kids were ridiculously adorable. 

 Other than this picture, I only felt right really taking pictures of Lola's class. Didn't want to seem like a stalker mom.

Almost all the outfits were handmade by one of the teachers and her mother. The others were handmade by someone else. All the outfits were gorgeous and adorable.

And of course Lola, her teacher and two of her friends are all gorgeous and adorable too!

She's not supposed to be looking and acting so grown up.

And look at this Mariachi, eying my girl.... hmmm.

Even though we are Salvadoran around these parts, not Mexican, it's pretty hard to tell the difference in these fancy dresses. Azalea did not want to miss out on all the fun. The girl likes to perform, even if she's not the one on stage.

Azalea also wanted to act traditional. So she carried our dessert on her head. Unfortunately, I used an old plastic berry container that had holes on the bottom. I knew we weren't getting it back so I wanted to use something I didn't care about. I wasn't counting on her carrying the peanut butter bars on her head. Afterward it looked as it she had been in a peanut butter pit. (The dogs helped clean her up later!)

If we stay at Alvarado next year... which is in a big question right now, Tigo gets to join the fun. For now, he has no problem enjoying the after-party.

Phew!

I can't completely breathe a sigh of relief, but I can exhale a little.

Lola and Tigo started at their new school on Thursday. They didn't shed any tears or show too many signs of distress. Mom, over here, had another story. I almost lost it a few times as I watched Lola walk away into her class room. Luckily none of the kids noticed. Lola was able to get into the bilingual class with a great young teacher who she really likes, a class with lots of girls who have been welcoming her into their tight knit class. And there are only 15 KIDS. FIFTEEN!! How great is that. Haycock was great, but there were always at least 25 kids. How nice to be in a small class.

Tigo also has a small class of only 20 kids. His teacher, a man, is in charge of the school garden, which is attached to the community Open Space. We've been told to expect him to spend a lot of time there. Tigo gets tired to fast so I think the transition to being in school all day will be a lot harder for him though.

Azalea still attaches to me as she is unaware that we occupy two separate bodies. Luckily she is darn cute, but I've got to find her some friends to play with.

To back track a little. Because I was able to enroll them in school, this means that we have found another home. For superstition and track record purposes I will keep details few on that. But we plan to move into it over the Labor Day weekend. It's an old house, but cute and we should be happy there. Fingers crossed.