meaningful artwork in our home

In February, Theo’s teacher shared the picture below with the caption “Working on the class project” in the school’s private Facebook group’s newsfeed.  I’m always pleasantly surprised to see Theo’s little face pop up in my newsfeed, but this picture is especially cute to me because I love what he is doing. 

His class began working on this in January. Each day when I pick Theo up, he leads me through his Montessori classroom, past the class project (“the globe in sequins”), to show me something he worked on that day. I’ve been admiring the progression of this neat project for over three months.  Each individual sequin glued on, one by one.  Theo and his classmates collectively have spent countless hours working on this beautiful art project.

Last week, it was announced that this piece of artwork would be up for bid in a silent auction at the school’s International Fair.  I immediately looked up that picture of Theo working on the globes.  I forwarded the picture of Theo as well as a photo of the completed, framed piece to my husband, mom, and sister asking “how much is too much?” and “am I crazy for wanting this so bad?”

I have never bid on anything that I cared so much about. I didn’t realize that “silent auction” means you write your name and a price on a piece of paper and everyone can see your offer. I thought we just wrote down a price privately and whoever had the highest offer would win. WRONG! It was a little intense and I felt a nervous adrenaline as the end of the auction drew near.  Me and two other people were bidding for the piece.  Part of me felt terribly guilty as I could only assume these other bidders wanted it just as badly as I did.

We bid with just a minute or two remaining and no one else snuck in with another bid. We won. I tried to act cool as a cucumber but inside I was saying Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I felt immense relief and guilt at the same time. More than anything, I’m glad to now have this meaningful, beautiful piece of artwork (that my son helped create) to enjoy in our home for years to come!

I’m in love with it. Just disregard the mess.

One of a kind masterpiece.  🙂 

Theo asked to hang it in his room but I had to say, “Sorry, Charlie…this belongs to the whole family.” I told Ryan I’m all set for Mother’s Day this year. No need to shop.

Have you ever had an intense bidding war in person? What did you win? So nerve-wracking!

xo,
~C~

spring break catch up

I went through a month-long blog drought during which I only posted my weekly Catch the Moment posts. Part of me feels like Catch the Moment is to blame because I’m posting one photo from every day of my life so it seems that there’s not much to talk about that wouldn’t be redundant. On the other hand, maybe I wouldn’t have blogged anything at all for over a month if it hadn’t been for the project. We all get in funks sometimes.  Sometimes I just don’t have much to say. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood or get busy with other things.

Theo’s school was closed for two weeks for Spring Break and the babysitter was closed for 7 of those 10 days so we had to make some alternate arrangements. Ryan and I took off work the last two days of the first week and surprised the boys with a trip to Big Splash Adventure Indoor Waterpark and Resort.

We went 2 years ago and had a blast. I just remembered leaving that place feeling euphoric, thinking we would go back every few months. Well. Time flies.  We never made it back until this spring and turns out, we were okay with that. I ended up writing a fairly negative review on TripAdvisor. Despite the negatives that were hard to ignore, overall we had fun because the boys loved it.

They were both such big boys going down the slides. Theo was mad that he wasn’t tall enough to ride the REALLY big slides.  We were surprised how much they loved the lazy river and how much time they wanted to spend in it. It will be fun to take them to an outdoor waterpark sometime soon.

Scenery on the way home.

Friday night bedtime stories with my boys. 

Saturday we lounged at home and Sunday we went to the Lego store (about 30 minutes away) to let them pick out some new toys with money Grammy had sent early for Easter.

They always cooperate for posed pictures. ALWAYS never.
Monday and Tuesday the boys went to our former babysitter. She was gracious enough to watch them for us and they had a blast. I was worried that it would confuse them and they’d be asking every day why they can’t just go back there, but they seem to understand.  
Dexter Jay couldn’t even stay awake for the 10 minute drive home on Monday. 

Tuesday we stayed for dinner and the boys had fun continuing their extended play day.

Wednesday morning the boys went to Ryan’s parents to spend the rest of the week with Nana, Pop Pop, and cousin Spencer.  I picked up all three boys on Friday afternoon. 
Stopped for pizza on the way home.

Fun driveway play on Saturday.

D tripped over a ball and landed on his nose.  🙁 

Sunday was a fun day to go to Monkey Joe’s for some bouncing before Spencer headed back home. 
And the next day it was back to the ol’ grind. I think the boys had a pretty great Spring Break!  
xo,
~C~

catch the moment 365: week sixteen

Week 16: Check!  We’ve really had a great week. This is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. I can’t help but be in a better mood than usual. Have more energy than usual. Want to be outside ALL.THE.TIME. Enough small talk – on to the pictures!

I’m linking up again this week with the hostesses for Catch the Moment 365, Mindi (Simply Stavish), Sarah (Nurse Loves Farmer), and Stephanie (Behind the Camera and Dreaming).  It’s not too late to join in. Do you think you could keep up with taking at least one picture every day for a year?  Hard to believe we are just about a third of the way through already.

106/365: April 16th. Fresh from their first trip to the Barber Shop, I present to you…Theo and Dexter!
 107/365: April 17th. Dexter still loves cruising down the driveway on this baby riding toy. He calls it the Bat-beel. (Bat(mo)bile).

108/365: April 18th. Reading his book upside down on our way to Ohio for Easter weekend.
109/365: April 19th. Celebrating our nephew Spencer’s 9th birthday.
110/365: April 20th. Easter!
111/365: April 21st. Stop it, rural Indiana, with your unexpected beauty.
112/365: April 22nd.  No Dexter, you’re not supposed to eat the peanut shells. 
All of these pictures make me smile but I have to say that I love day 111 for it’s beauty. You can’t see all the colors in the sky that I saw that morning, but this roadside scene on my way to work was enough for me to pull over and get out of the car to snap a few pictures.  As much as I hated winter for photography, I’m realizing now that so many of my summer/spring pictures look the same. The boys playing in the yard or driveway.  Oh well! That’s our life. 
I’d love your feedback. Which picture above is your favorite? 
~C~