5 Dollars

My life as an at-home momma of 3 amazing kids...it's kind of like shoveling snow in a blizzard.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

American hostage Jill Carroll freed in Iraq

What wonderful news to start the day! After nearly three months of captivity, Jill Carroll was released today. She says she was never told why she was kidnapped. She also says that she was treated well and just wants to see her family.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

More Museum Pictures










We spent two days at The Children's Museum this week, so we have lots of pictures to share!

My favorite Fireworks of Glass pictures!








I love these pictures of the kids laying on the floor looking up with the ceiling reflected around them! I haven't seen anyone else take any pictures quite like this of the exhibit yet. The one of Kaylee is a bit blurry, but I love her smile. I also like the one of her feet, with her shadow reflected below her in the sea of color. Ruby and Keithen's expressions are just priceless!

Kaylee and her glass sculpture







Here is the sculpture that the Hot Glass people created from Kaylee's drawing. So cool that she got to hold it and examine it herself! (The bottom picture shows where it was disconnected from the blowpipe.) The sculptures that are created from the drawings the children do will be on display in the Museum starting in June. They will put out the picture that each child drew along with their name and age. They may be there as long as two years! We'll be sure to let you know when Kaylee's masterpiece and the sculpture go on display so you can see them for yourself!

Dance Kaleidoscope "mini-matinee" on Thursday 4/6

The final production of DK's season will be Silk Road, April 6-9, 2006. China is the inspiration for this collection of dances. Returning from the sold-out production of East Meets West in 2002, will be China Boy, choreographed by Hochoy and based on his ancestral heritage; and Red Thread, a portrait of love and adoption choreographed by Butler University’s Cynthia Pratt. In addition, the program will feature the World Premiere of Norman Walker’s Orchid from the Cave with music by Zhou Long.

There is a special 1 hour "mini-matinee" being presented on Thursday, 4/6/06 at 12:00PM at IRT and tickets are only $6. What a great way to introduce young people to dance!

Monday, March 27, 2006

Museum Monday!

We were back at The Children's Museum again today to enjoy Fireworks of Glass and visit with the Hot Glass Roadshow glassblowers. All three kids took some time to draw a picture for the "You Design It, We Make It" program that the Hot Glass artists have been doing. (They made a submarine that our friend Graham drew last week.)

I tried to keep an ear out for any announcements, because if they pick your drawing they announce it over the loudspeakers. Well, I guess I need my hearing checked. I missed out on the announcement that they were blowing Kaylee's drawing into a sculpture! When we went back out to festival park later in the day, Eric (one of the glassblowers we met last week) asked if this was Kaylee. He told her that he made her drawing and he held her up so she could look in the annealer and see her stegasaurus. It looks AWESOME! I can't wait to take her back and see it once it's cooled and they can take it out of the annealer.


(Blogger is giving me fits with pictures again today! I will add more later!)

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Bringing home the hardware!






Their season was a long and hard one this winter. The Black Bandits ended the season with 1 win, 8 losses and 1 tie. Even when you fall in 10th place, it's still fun to bring home the hardware! The girls enjoyed dancing in the aisles and staring at the mirror ball during the presentations.

Big Hair!




Kaylee wore her hair in 6 braids on Saturday. This was the result when we took it all down on Sunday. Goldilocks!

Friday, March 24, 2006

Long Live Addwaita: Tortoise Dies at 250

Addwaita was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought to India by British sailors in the 18th century. The giant tortoise was believed to have been about 250 years old. He has died in the Calcutta zoo where he spent more than half his long life.

Wow.

Do Your List!


I recently got tired of searching for Skitty, Magic Bunny, Jojo and other stuffed friends who were MIA when bedtime rolled around. Everyone would be tucked in bed and we'd be ready for the lights out countdown when someone would burst into tears over a missing stuffed friend. So I made a bedtime list for the kids. Kaylee and I glued pictures to it so that the girls could follow it without having to be able to read it. We decided to make a morning list as well in hopes that they would all be more independent reguarding getting ready in the morning. So far, the lists seem to be helping. And the great thing is, I don't have to nag them with reminders of what to do next. Instead, if I see someone who is off track then I just say, "Go do your list" or "What's next on your list?" Here are our lists:

Good Morning!
1. Go Potty
2. Nightlight Off
3. Get Dressed
4. Shoes, Coat and Backpack Ready
5. Eat Breakfast
6. Brush Teeth

Good Night!
1. Bathtime
2. Pajamas On
3. Brush Hair
4. Go Potty
5. Brush Teeth
6. Find Guys
7. Nightlight On
8. Story Time
9. Countdown!

Thursday, March 23, 2006

This is just too frightening to look at

Normally, I'd be into looking at some really beautiful birth art of a woman in labor actively birthing her baby into the world. But not this sculpture. A life-sized statue of a nude Britney Spears on a bearskin rug giving birth to a crowning Sean Preston is just too disturbing to look at. (Not to mention that she was too frightened to be an active participant in his birth. The woman scheduled an elective c-section months before she was even due. She's never even been in labor people! Little Sean Preston didn't take that exit!)

And what's this part about Britney Spears being the "ideal" model for Pro-Life? HELLO!? She is not some woman who got pregnant accidentally and carried the baby to term. She's a married woman who decided that she wanted to have a baby and she did it. Her baby was wanted before it was ever conceived and there was never any question about that.

(There's a picture of the sculpture at the above link if you really want to see it.)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Spring Break?


Keithen is on spring break right now. Today is the first full day of spring. Well, welcome to Indiana where anything is possible weather-wise. As my Easter Bunny flag waves in the breeze out front, the snow has been falling all morning. (Can anyone say, "Out like a lion!?")

Fireworks of Glass - Hands on!



Getting a peek inside the ceiling.







Kaylee and Ruby looking up at the ceiling of glass.





The kids in front of the tower on the first floor of the Museum.









Making their own sculptures.





Blowing virtual glass.


Fireworks of Glass - the ceiling

F is for Fireworks and G is for Glass!



Fireworks of Glass is finally open at The Children's Museum. We avoided the weekend crowds and went to see it on Monday. The Museum wasn't overly crowded and we really got a chance to enjoy the exhibit and take lots of pictures.




Fireworks of Glass is a huge glass sculpture by artist Dale Chihuly. It's been installed in the middle of the ramps at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. It is Chihuly's largest permanent installation ever. The sculpture is huge, consisiting of a 43-foot-tall tower which is comprised of more than 3,200 individually blown two to four-foot-long pieces of vividly colored, smooth and twisted glass called Horns and Goosenecks. It took three semis to bring all the glass pieces to the Museum and two weeks to install the sculpture.



Underneath the tower is the Fireworks of Glass ceiling. It is filled with 1,600 pieces of glass from Chihuly’s spectacular series, including Sea Tubes, Hornballs, Persians, and Putti in a variety of shapes and colors. You can lay back on a slowly rotating platform and lose yourself in the colors and shapes above you.



Keithen says it looks like Fourth of July fireworks or a new kind of rainbow fireworks. Kaylee says it looks like balloons or twisted flowers. Ruby says it looks like flowers. Kaylee enjoyed laying on the rotating platform underneath the ceiling and drawing several pictures in her sketchbook. Keithen spent some time blowing virtual glass on the computer. They all enjoyed the hands-on sculpture making in the lower gallery with the plastic shapes. The short movie about Chihuly that is running in the SpaceQuest Planetarium is also very interesting.



At the end of our day we got to watch two artists from the Hot Glass Roadshow, a traveling hot shop from the Corning Museum of Glass. They have a hot shop set up outside the Museum and we actually got to watch them blow glass and make a beautiful dolphin. The hot shop will be set up in front of the Musuem until June 4th and is definately worth a visit, even if you don't make it inside the Museum!