Day 35. Year of the Ox monoprints

I finally remembered to take the camera to school so I could take a picture of the prints that DD and her classmates made last week. I'm the class Art Parent, and this month tried to combine an art lesson with a CNY activity.

Monoprints are made by rolling paint onto a "canvas" of some sort, such as styrofoam meat trays or cheap plastic placemats, then "drawing" their picture by scraping away the paint with a Q-tip. Once that's done, a sheet of construction paper is placed over the canvas, patted down, then peeled up, which means that the words have to be "written" in mirror image in order to appear correctly in the end. The kids each got to choose any two colors of paint for their print, which they blended into a third color, and they had to include three things: 2009, Year of the Ox, and the Chinese symbol for Ox. Some of the prints turned out better than others.

When asked afterwards what they learned, some of the responses were: Red and green are not good colors to blend. Neither are blue and orange, which is very unfortunate given they are the colors of our local college football team and a good number of these 3rd graders are fans, including my own little one. Oh, and it is very tricky to write backwards in mirror image.

Day 34. The Rose

DD took this photo of the rose I presented her with after her dance recital last weekend.

For the second day in a row, it was past bedtime when we realized we forgot to take a photo today, so we had a continuation of last night with the child attempting to take photos of all things pink. Fortunately (not!) for me, I wore a pink shirt today and therefore made the cut as suitable subject matter. Since I reigned her in after only two subjects lest she be at it for another hour or more, the choice for today's photos was either a very unflattering shot of me or one of the dozen or so shots of this lovely rose. So I chose this one, with it perched on a stool from our breakfast bar. Isn't it nicely shadowed? I like the shadow.

Other choices were photos of the rose on the dining room table, on the living room coffee table, on the kitchen counter, on top of the TV, on the floor, on her bed, on my bed, and a few other places. I didn't allow her to put it on the piano for a photo because there's real water in that vase, which resulted in a pout, stomp, and eye roll, which promptly put an end to the photo session. (I should add that she had already received warnings for putting a water-filled vase on top of the TV and would have received strike #2 for putting it on the beds, only I didn't realize she had done that until I found the photos on my camera later.)

Day 33. Things pink

DD snapped this photo -- my cell phone and a pair of big pink foam dice that she selected from the prize box at the dentist the other day, which were sitting side by side on the dining room table. Nothing too exciting. You can sure see the dings on my phone here. It's been dropped a few times.

It was late in the day and we were on the verge of missing our daily photo, so she took about 20 photos of various things around the house that are pink. A pink pencil, the pink case for her glasses, a pink tissue box, a pile of dirty laundry with a pink shirt front and center (just what everyone wants to see, no doubt.)

Day 32. Speedos, ready for summer

Yesterday we in Costco, and I picked up these darling swim suits. It's still winter and the temps around here are well blow freezing, so it's hard to think about swimming right now. But at $11.95 each I've learned to snatch them when they're available, because they won't be there for long. The kiddo spends half her life in the swimming pool in the summers, and these are suits are wonderful. Cute and practical, nothing to come untied or undone, and they meet my standard for modestly. No little teensy bikini thing for my child no matter how cute she might look in one!

Day 31. Freeze Frame

Today was Freeze Frame, a pretty big performance with dancers from 15 (I think) studios from around the valley. It's the most important performance of the year after the annual recital, which will take place in June. Her class performed a ballet to "Garden Waltz," and did a wonderful job, especially considering they just started learning this dance not very long ago.

Doesn't my little angel look sweet here? Don't be fooled! The tights were brand new, right out of the package, and here they are, filthy already. I practically threatened her to hold the flower nicely and smile sweetly for a picture. Not five seconds late she was sword-fighting with one of her fellow dancers. Sigh. I just shake my head.

It was an eventful day in other ways as well. Earlier today she had her 2nd basketball game and scored her first basket! In a game, that is. She's made baskets in practice. She's really enjoying basketball, and is noticeably improved just in the few weeks she's been practicing. Compared to her first game last week, she got her hands on the ball a lot more, dribbled and made more attempts at shooting (as opposed to just passing to a more experienced teammate). Fun to watch! I have not still shots from today, but I did video tape parts of it, including her two-point shot. I have no idea how to edit it so I can post it here and show her off, but I'll figure it out eventually.

Day 30. Curls!

Check out these curls! DD's hair is thin, fine, and straight as an arrow. She got a new curling iron of her very own, one with a very small barrel, that works pretty well on her hair. Much better than my big-barrel one. If we use a ton of hairspray it will actually stay curly for more than 10 minutes. Really all she needs it for is dance performances, but today she wanted to try it out, just because.

Day 29. Our afternoon entertainment

DD had a somewhat major dental procedure this morning, so I kept her home from school for the rest of the day. I've had this jigsaw puzzle for some time, and she decided she was up to the challenge. She's good at jigsaw puzzles but hasn't ever done one with this many pieces -- 500. They're very small too. The finished size of the puzzle is only 14x18". So we'll see how it goes.