Lucy Kate's 5 Senses

Here's a 5 senses project Lucy completed for school.  There's no sound, just pictures (I think it would be fun to add her voice reading, but that's going to take a whole lot of time for me to get done).  Obviously, we based our book on Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  by Bill Martin, Jr.  I think her favorite part was getting to make cookies and going for gelato for photo props.  My favorite part was the hug.

The Little Mermaid, Jr.

Riley payed Flotsam in the Aviano Community Theater's production of The Little Mermaid, Jr.  She got the part she was hoping for and did a terrific job. 

She was excited that Jetsam was one of her friends, and the two of them enjoyed working together to be "eel-y." It paid off--they got lots of laughs from the audience.

Backstage I got a picture of Riley with two of her friends, when a third friend "photo-bombed" them.  Middle Schoolers are a hoot!

Momma's Happy Place

A few weeks ago we went to Jesolo to see the Sand Nativity, which we've already shared.  What we didn't share are the photos we took while walking along the beach during riposo while we waited for the nativity to reopen.  I love being near the water like this.  The kids had fun looking for shells, rocks and other treasures.  Here are some of the pictures we took...

Ahhhhhh....

You're All Write

I'm borrowing the catch phrase from Riley and Mary's Valentine's this year for today's title.  We wanted to share a little fun our kids have been able to have learning something new.  We have a friend here who makes pens...yes, makes them.  He turns pieces of wood or acrylic, adds the mechanical pieces needed for a pen, does some sanding and polishing work, and voila--a beautiful handmade pen.

Well, he offered to teach the kids how to make their own pens.  So far Cory, Mary and Riley have each made at least one pen.  Lucy hasn't made hers quite yet (she's still a little nervous, but he assures us that with a little help from him she'll be able to make one too).

Here are some pictures from the initial instruction session

John helping Cory get started on a piece of wood

Lucy's turn--safety first with the goggles!

Riley take a turn turning the wood

I don't know what they're all looking at so closely, but it must be fascinating

Lucy got tired of working at the lathe, so they put her on coloring duty--the mechanical pieces of the pen that go inside need to be colored with a sharpie to match the color of the pen

After having some difficulties with the wood we were using, they began making this black acrylic pen

Sanding and polishing

Lucy practices twisting it open

Ted's pen--the first pen they made they gave to him.

One of the pens Cory made at a later date was with some drift wood from Lake Barcis that Riley and Ted swam out to get for one of these projects.  How cool is that?

Here are the current finished projects we have--awesome, no?