I decided to take the summer off from teaching any classes or workshops. This is the first summer in about 9 years that I haven’t worked or taught any workshops at all. Daria will only be little once! We’ve been having a blast with many activities.
Swim Lessons
Daria has really loved taking swim lessons. While she is at her lesson, I’m not really supposed to “hover”, so I’ve been either working out in exercise center (there’s a window so I can see her) or swimming in the other side of the pool. I took my first water aerobics class today. That was a good workout! Either that, or I’m really out of shape! Probably a combo of both. To practice, we’ve been going to the pool on another day of the week too. Love the YMCA.
Building the Addition on our School!
They started construction on the addition to our building. I am so excited! I’ve stopped by the school a few times to organize or drop things off and I can see the progress right from my window. They are building a performing arts center, more classrooms and ANOTHER ART ROOM! Squee!
Wedding
My husband’s cousin got married in June and we stayed overnight in Illinois for the festivities. Daria was a flower girl, along with 3 other cousins. Beautiful dress, beautiful kids. The dresses were bought off Etsy. The wedding was fabulous, gorgeous farm setting. Scary moment when the best man passed out from the heat, remember to always drink lots of water!
We managed to get one nice family photo of us. Daria, Andrew and Me.
Making the Most of Our City
Madison, WI has a lot to offer.. lots of fun events for families. We went to the Sassy Cow Creamery for their open house to see the cows, go on a hay ride and eat ice cream. Can you believe that Daria does not like ice cream? She won’t eat it. Here’s a picture of us on the bus going to the area where they have the cows.
Movie Time
One of my teacher friends was pregnant at the same time as me and our daughters have grown up together. We went to see the movie Monsters University, which was cute. It wasn’t amazing, so you can wait until it comes out on video unless you are dying to see it.
Playing with Friends
I’ve been trying to plan times for Daria to play with other kids during the week. She’s usually around kids all day at daycare, so if we are alone she always asks to play with a friend. Daria and her friend worked on either side of a large sketchpad together. It’s amazing how they already have their own styles. Her friend Lily is so advanced with drawing and coloring. It is amazing to see how neatly she colors at age 3 1/2. I can’t wait to see how she progresses.
4th of July was pretty fun… BBQs, playing, watching fireworks from our front window. Daria was way too tired and crabby to go out in public for the fireworks, but we could kind of see them from our window, so we did that instead. I got to see my family this past weekend.. farmer’s market, more eating and enjoying the outdoors.
Oh! and I almost forgot… we had a reception for our students’ artwork at the Madison Children’s Museum. The students were visited by a brain researcher this past school year and the students created a visual representation of their brains. I will share more about that project later. It was a great experience for them.
So, yeah, summer has been going well. Daria is finally potty trained! That was a huge accomplishment after trying for so long.
I love to read about how other art teachers are spending their summer vacations. What are you doing? Write a blog post about it or leave a comment to share. I think a lot of people stop posting or reading art ed blogs in the summer, but that’s when we have more free time!
My kids are teenagers now so I remember all the things you were talking about…swim lessons, play dates, etc…great memories! Enjoy your time with your daughter! I am off on a 10 day family vacation and then I am spending the rest of my vacation with a combination of organizing lessons and assessments for next year and my own personal creative endevers. I want to try some natural fabric dying with plants and leaf prints on fabric through natural processes. Oh yeah, and playing chauffeur to my 14 yr old and her friends! Luckily the 19 year old has his own transportation! 🙂
Yeah, it’s amazing how much time and energy having little kids takes! I don’t know what I did before I had a kid, I should have written a novel or something. Summer is the best time to try out new art projects. Such a nice benefit of having the time off!
Love to see the fun you’re having with your daughter. I’m a grandmother of 4 little boys, so when they visit, there is plenty of fun. We’ll all be going to a cabin in a couple of weeks, so the boys will fish with dad and gramps.
I am noodling around with mosaics for the first time ever, at least beyond collage or paper mosaic type stuff. I’ve become obsessed for the moment. Seems like another way to fill totes with art supplies, but I must press on and not question why I am suddenly taken up with this!
Sounds like fun! Hopefully your grandkids can come visit often. Mosaics are fun to make! The cool part is you can use random pieces of anything.. broken dishes or little charms you find. Have a good summer!