Saturday, June 14, 2008
Summer is heating up!
Well, summer is really here. This is probably going to be a bad one weather wise. I'll bet we haven't had an inch of rain since March. However, the good thing about summer is the weekly trip to the library with Joelle. I really had fun with her last year and an looking forward to this years weekly trips.
Thursday was the first library trip. I picked up Joelle and took off for the Spring Branch Library. However, I notice that this year, the journey to the library was different. Joelle read the entire way. We had such interesting talks last year and I am really going to miss that part of our outing. That had been one of the few times that we were together without anyone else involved. Oh well, there is always the library itself.
We got to the library, and Joelle grabbed two books from the shelf and we sat down. Last year, Joelle wanted me to read the books to her, even though she really knew every word. She just wasn't sure that she would know every word and she was afraid she would be embarrassed if she came across a word she didn't know. She read two books while we waited for the shirt painting class to open. The class was limited to twenty people, so we got our ticket before Joelle read her books. The lady in front of us got 7 tickets even though she only had one child with her. She told the ticket person the others were coming.
The shirt painting class finally opened and we went into the room. We brought a plain tee shirt with us as instructed. At least two thirds of the children didn't bring a blank tee shirt but were given one by the library. There were 3 children who had not arrived soon enough to get one of the 20 tickets, and were wait listed to see if all of the lady's group would arrive. They did not and all of the wait listed children we given a place in the class.
The class started and Joelle and I were seated at a table with a cup of water and about 6 different kinds of brushes. The class leader had jars of paint and each child stood in line to get colors of paint on a paper plate. Joelle got white, yellow, green, brown, blue and her favorite color, purple. There were stencils on a table so I picked up a frog, a horse, stars, and trees. Most of the children were using stencils. Joelle did not want to use them, instead she wanted to paint her own design on the tee shirt. She started out painting a house with white walls and a yellow roof. She then drew a chimney and put in a door. After adding a sidewalk, she painted grass. Then she really started getting creative. She added a variety of modern art designs around the house. When she finished, she had created, in my biased opinion, the best looking tee shirt in the room. Several of the other mothers also told her so. I was intrigued by what the boy across from Joelle drew on his shirt. He drew a tank with smoke coming out of the barrel, a man with a gun and another man, between the tank and the gunman, laying on his back face up. The face was colored brownish red. Looks like Blackwater has a future recruit.
I told Joelle we had time for her to read a couple of books before we had to head home. She selected three books. we sat down and she read all three books. She wanted to read another but I told her we had to leave. It was already 4:15 and I knew traffic would be getting bad soon. The trip home was mostly silent. Joelle was reading. I really miss the conversational part of our outing, but really enjoyed watching my Little Princess growth in her creative side.
We got back to Petie's house and went in. Lil' Lisie Bear was puttering about, she had been asleep when we left. You could tell Lisie made a mental note that Joelle had come in with me, which means that Joelle had been out with me and Lisie had not. Lisie immediately began bring me toys so I could play. Later, as she pass by, I picked her up to give her a big hug. To my surprise, she hugged me back and lingered for at least 30 seconds. She just put her little head on me and snuggled. That was so special.
I am so glad summer break is here.
Thursday was the first library trip. I picked up Joelle and took off for the Spring Branch Library. However, I notice that this year, the journey to the library was different. Joelle read the entire way. We had such interesting talks last year and I am really going to miss that part of our outing. That had been one of the few times that we were together without anyone else involved. Oh well, there is always the library itself.
We got to the library, and Joelle grabbed two books from the shelf and we sat down. Last year, Joelle wanted me to read the books to her, even though she really knew every word. She just wasn't sure that she would know every word and she was afraid she would be embarrassed if she came across a word she didn't know. She read two books while we waited for the shirt painting class to open. The class was limited to twenty people, so we got our ticket before Joelle read her books. The lady in front of us got 7 tickets even though she only had one child with her. She told the ticket person the others were coming.
The shirt painting class finally opened and we went into the room. We brought a plain tee shirt with us as instructed. At least two thirds of the children didn't bring a blank tee shirt but were given one by the library. There were 3 children who had not arrived soon enough to get one of the 20 tickets, and were wait listed to see if all of the lady's group would arrive. They did not and all of the wait listed children we given a place in the class.
The class started and Joelle and I were seated at a table with a cup of water and about 6 different kinds of brushes. The class leader had jars of paint and each child stood in line to get colors of paint on a paper plate. Joelle got white, yellow, green, brown, blue and her favorite color, purple. There were stencils on a table so I picked up a frog, a horse, stars, and trees. Most of the children were using stencils. Joelle did not want to use them, instead she wanted to paint her own design on the tee shirt. She started out painting a house with white walls and a yellow roof. She then drew a chimney and put in a door. After adding a sidewalk, she painted grass. Then she really started getting creative. She added a variety of modern art designs around the house. When she finished, she had created, in my biased opinion, the best looking tee shirt in the room. Several of the other mothers also told her so. I was intrigued by what the boy across from Joelle drew on his shirt. He drew a tank with smoke coming out of the barrel, a man with a gun and another man, between the tank and the gunman, laying on his back face up. The face was colored brownish red. Looks like Blackwater has a future recruit.
I told Joelle we had time for her to read a couple of books before we had to head home. She selected three books. we sat down and she read all three books. She wanted to read another but I told her we had to leave. It was already 4:15 and I knew traffic would be getting bad soon. The trip home was mostly silent. Joelle was reading. I really miss the conversational part of our outing, but really enjoyed watching my Little Princess growth in her creative side.
We got back to Petie's house and went in. Lil' Lisie Bear was puttering about, she had been asleep when we left. You could tell Lisie made a mental note that Joelle had come in with me, which means that Joelle had been out with me and Lisie had not. Lisie immediately began bring me toys so I could play. Later, as she pass by, I picked her up to give her a big hug. To my surprise, she hugged me back and lingered for at least 30 seconds. She just put her little head on me and snuggled. That was so special.
I am so glad summer break is here.
