Update on Austin's creative endeavors

It's been awhile since I posted any artwork so here's an update. The first couple are random drawings I found in his notebooks. His cats are getting pretty good!

 He's also been playing around with his iPad camera and filters/photo editing apps. He appears to have designed an album cover for himself. The serious face and the leather jacket just amuses me so much. What a cool kid.

 This was a school project where they were studying Greek artwork and mythology.

Austin had a bit of a rock March/April due to just how messed up our routine got with Jason and I traveling, spring break, influenza hitting our house pretty hard, etc. It started to take a toll on his mood at school. One day, his teacher texted me the image below. Every morning they do a sort of emotional/mood check in and clearly he was barely holding it in. It is amazing how expressive he can be with just letters. Mondays. Sheesh!

The big "event" over spring break was Austin buying himself an electric guitar, and yes, he paid for it entirely himself with money he earned. Cat sitting is decently lucrative here in Seattle. I took Christian and him to the guitar store to try out some guitars, and he decided which one he liked best. After very carefully trying several, he decided on a very classic black Fender Strat. He is SO in love with it, and it sounds pretty good! Christian had a blast being along for the ride.

Mother's Day 2019

Mother's Day was just nice and chill this year. We went to church and then all the men spent most of the afternoon making really good Chicken Masala from scratch (it seriously took them four hours - the recipe was a little intense). I even got to take a nap. After dinner, the kids presented me with school-made gifts and they were incredibly cute. And the cat owners found the cat. Whew. So it was a good day. 

 (That's Christian wrist-deep in raw chicken and yogurt marinade. He was a trooper.)

 I was really sad that Kindergarten cancelled the little Mother's Day tea they used to do on Friday afternoon. It was such a sweet little thing. (I get it though - so hard for kids who don't have a reliable adult to show up or have working parents who can't come.) This mama/baby giraffe will have to do. It's pretty sweet, though, because I have so many sweet memories of going to the zoo to see the giraffes with Christian. The zoo was our hangout for so long.

I love the line about letting him make his own financial choices. Haha! Believe me, since he has such expensive taste, I'm more than happy to let him make his own money to buy his own stuff.

Artwork update

I love getting a glimpse of what the kids are up to at school.
Christian has been working hard in Kindergarten. He is a whole year younger than our other two boys when they started Kindergarten, so he's having to learn a few more skills up front that they already knew. One of them is writing his name, which is rather long. His teacher and I were both agreeing that it has been highly entertaining to see the progression of him writing his name. At the beginning of school, it was just CHR, then about once a week he would add another letter. Once he got past CHRIS, he was able to all in one fell swoop, get all the way to CHRISTIAN. This felt like a huge accomplishment for all of us.
Along with learning to write his name, he has also begun to really enjoy drawing. I love how his simple drawings so successfully convey what he is trying to say. Here are a couple of my favorites from fairly soon after the school year began, most likely talking about things he did over the summer.

 Swimming (I love those swimming arms!).

Making duck videos with his daddy.
He's progressing pretty quickly. He is working on learning to write sentences in literacy stations and this one cracked me up:

(I love that he drew a little brain up there.)
More recently, he drew a giraffe, which I was fairly impressed by:

On to Austin. He is developing his writer's voice a whole lot right now. He is also now saying that he loves school - for the first time ever. He is very cognizant of feeling like he has overcome his school-related anxiety and conquering that feels really good to him. He now says he loves school, and that just means everything to me. Huge thanks to all the wonderful staff who have nurtured him over these last few years.

And one of his recent works of art:

Nathan is also doing great this year. He's not so into the visual arts, but also continues to develop his writer's voice. Not quite a work of art, but here is a fortune teller I found in his binder. Those are some pretty intense questions for an 11yo. I'm pretty sure at the same age, I was asking people what their favorite color was.

Random cuteness

Austin likes to practice his lightsaber skills in front of the window at night where he can watch himself. It's one of my favorite things ever.

Austin has taught himself how to do a forward roll into the foam pit at gymnastics which I am beyond impressed with. I love all the progress he has made in gymnastics.

Christian's drawing is slowly improving. Admittedly, he has pretty much zero interest in academics right now, and I haven't pushed it. As such, he is just barely getting interested in drawing. This was such a cute picture, though, that I couldn't resist snapping a photo of it. He drew the Christmas party at my grandparents' house complete with the overhead light, the tree, and presents.

Photographic evidence of the boys getting along and having fun. The first was a fort they made on a lazy Sunday, and the second is of the boys being so cute with a bedtime story - they love The Stinky Cheese Man. I love it when they all get along. They seem to be arguing more than they used to (I think this is a form of growing pains), so I really relish these moments.

Austin's amazing drawing skills again. He's going through a particularly intense bald eagle thing right now. It's amusing. And very America.

And a cute craft from Christian's preschool.

Random Drawings

Since the kids are always drawing, there is always a random collection of things around here (apparently the sound of a door-stopper bugs Austin). My favorite are the things that end up taped to places, or the drawings that are furiously done in a moment of great passion (like Austin's Mili-Turkey).

It's SO Austin to want to be an "honorable man."
I also love it when Christian asks Jason to draw him a picture. This is a meditating squid.

Christian is actually making huge progress drawing himself, which is really fun to see. Here is his hedgehog with big teeth and an open mouth. (This was drawn on brown craft paper, so it was really hard to photograph.)

Hamilton-Mania

Since our kids love history, particularly American history, and more particularly wars such as the Revolutionary War, we decided to introduce them to the Hamilton musical. I suppose in hindsight, I probably should have listened to it first once through, but that didn't happen. We all discovered it at the same time. As such, I have had to answer some interesting questions, but I don't really regret it. It's pretty fantastic music, SO inspiring, and so full of personality. We have all fallen in love with it. The kids prefer the first act. Nathan isn't a fan of scandal and sadness (even if we skip most of it), although he finds the forming of the government and banking system moderately interesting. Austin is trying really hard to memorize as much of it all as he can. He spends quiet times writing down as much as he can remember. He sings it randomly throughout the day. He LOVES George Washington. When Nathan listens to it, he likes to critique the history. Lots of "it didn't quite happen that way," or "that's not right, it actually happened like this..." and he seems to know all about people like General Charles Lee, George Washington's history before the Revolutionary War, etc. He very much wants to go to New York and New Jersey to see the Hamilton-related sites.

Austin decided to create his own playbill.

(s, d, j are all backwards)

I wanted to upload video of Austin rapping, but what I've got is too big for blogger here, so you'll just have to imagine its awesomeness.

Needless to say, I have a feeling that our summer road trip will include frequently listening to Hamilton. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, because though it is amazing, it is also very intense, and the second act is pretty tragic. Maybe I can peak there interest in something else before then. I do love all this history-talk around our house, though, and I love that all of a sudden they are interested in the stage!

Mother's Day

My only wish for today was to stay in bed as long as possible. I really like my bed. And sleep. I'm not a naturally early riser. The one bonus of 1pm church is that we can have a lazy Sunday morning.
Jason asked me if I wanted him to make dinner for me. I told him we had a lovely leftover lasagna in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so I'd much prefer if he made breakfast (aren't I incredibly practical???). This was a huge sacrifice for him since he is not a breakfast fan.
I didn't wake up until 9:30!!! I heard a flurry of activity in the kitchen, but was actually *not* allowed out of bed. So I took the opportunity of laying in bed to relax and catch up on the news, watch a few SNL clips, etc.
Then a little boy of almost-four came walking in with a huge smile on his face and a plate of breakfast. A lovely veggie omelet, some fresh homefries, and fruit. I've never eaten breakfast in bed aside from post-baby in the hospital. Nathan and Jason looked up how to make all these things on youtube. Nathan watched the videos, took hilarious, excellent notes (see photos), and then directed Jason.

After breakfast, I was treated to homemade gifts, chocolate, and a new necklace from the husband who long ago said he'd never buy me jewelry. I love how unique my boys are, and I love how much they love me. They are so sweet and loyal. They really wanted to make today wonderful for me.

 (Note: he writes s and d backwards - and is currently obsessed with Garfield cartoons.)

During Sacrament meeting today, Nathan leaned over to me (before the talks began) and whispered that he was concerned nobody had mentioned mothers yet. He gave his own talk on mothers in Primary today, and since we were there for the talk, we got to witness our sweet little 3yo volunteer to say the opening prayer in Primary too. He was the only sunbeam today, and he totally did what a lot of big kids are too nervous to do.
Anyway, it was a good day!

I don't know what I'm going to do when this kid stops letting me kiss him all the time.
Oh, and awesome quote by Nathan tonight. We're trying to give him a little bit more freedom and responsibility. We're probably a little late to the game in some of these aspects, but between urban living and his coordination issues, he's a bit of a late bloomer. Anyway, tonight for dinner he didn't want lasagna, so I told him he could have some fried ham instead. He then wanted a second piece, so I told him he could make it himself and then showed him how to turn on the stove, put the ham in the pan, and then flip it. He was so impressed with his newfound skill that he said, "Man! Yesterday I took out the recycle and today I'm frying my own ham! I'm SO OLD!" (Keep in mind that taking out the recycle means going down four floors into the parking garage and dumping it into a tall dumpster - it's a big deal for him.) I told him that my job as his mom is to make myself obsolete. Slowly but surely we'll get there. Someone in sacrament meeting today who was speaking was telling a story about how when he was a senior in high school his mom started making him do his own laundry. Talking about that story later, Nathan and I both agreed that that was way too old to *start* doing his own laundry. I'm glad for now at least, he's on the same page. For now as long as he doesn't complain about wrinkled clothes that have sat unfolded on the couch for a week, we're all good. Happy Mother's Day!

Nathan and Austin's World

The boys are interested in history, and government, and to some extent geography these days. One day, they decided to draw a map of their imaginary world. It was pretty funny because I was super impressed, and then Jason came home, took one look at it and said, "wow, that reminds me SO MUCH of my own childhood." Apparently he used to do the same thing. (I, on the other hand, was laying out neighborhoods and shopping malls at that age. Sigh.)
The thing about this map was that 1) They collaborated and drew it together, and 2) Unlike most of their drawings which they forget about almost instantly after they are done, they have been *using* this map for days. They have created international conflicts, Nathan has designed pretty detailed plans for governments, and Austin sat down one day to try to create a language for one of his countries.
I guess having that map hanging up in the dining room is a useful thing!

STEAM Fair

At the kids' school, it isn't STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math), it's STEAM (Science Technology Engineering ART Math). And as an aside, I'm not sure why we don't value social studies or history anymore, but I digress. Tonight was the STEAM Fair, which is basically just another curriculum night, that is in the Spring, for kids to show parents what they have been working on in these subjects all year long, or in Nathan's class, to highlight one project they have been working on that incorporates a lot of these elements.
Austin was seriously confused. He came bounding out of school today excited for the STEAM Fair. I thought that was a little over-the-top, until I realized he heard "fair" and thought it was the school carnival. He was a little disappointed.
I appreciate these evenings where the kids can show us what they are doing at school, but honestly, these classrooms are so small with all the parents and so crowded that after about 10 minutes I just want to get out of there.
While in Austin's classroom, we spent most of our time looking through every single page of his drawing journal. He has filled up every single page now and it was fun for him to proudly show each and every page, not letting us skip even one. Here are a few of my favorites:

 This is a vampire-zombie.

 This is Jedi-Austee.

 Hedgehog

"This is Super-Austee. He got so giant by drinking too many power smoothies. See how big he is compared to Superman? [guy in red]"

And this is his goldfish diagram from the science unit where they studied fish:

In Nathan's class, they are studying planets. Nathan did a report on Neptune. Why did he choose Neptune? Because it looks green and because it starts with an N. Nathan now knows a lot about Neptune. They had to create these cute little travel brochures to convince people to want to travel to their planet. Nathan's teacher is very focused on teaching the kids to present their information confidently to adults, and it was pretty cute to have Nathan give us his sales-pitch for Neptune. I also find it so funny that he is nervous to present these things to us. The kids had to create their own pneumonic device to remember the planets in order. His was: My Very Earthy Mall Just Serves Useful Noodles. I think all of us adults can admit that we miss Pluto. Poor Pluto. Here is his picture of the solar system:

I searched Nathan's desks but found no drawing journal. This kind of makes me sad. His teacher is supposed to be the art-czar for the school. Maybe he keeps them somewhere else, not sure.
Nathan also did a report recently on Barack Obama. He read about three different books about him and like Neptune, he knows a lot about Barack Obama. Here is his portrait:

Not an easy thing for a kid of 8 to be assigned to do.
Last week, we got to go into Nathan's class for a student-led parent/teacher conference. Nathan presented us with a big summary of all that he has been working on this year in school. It's funny to hear him say his favorite subject is chess. At our school, starting in second grade, they teach all the kids to play chess. This makes Jason very happy. Nathan was also incredibly nervous leading his conference. This year has been full of anxiety for him as he learns to deal with a very demanding, and not always patient, teacher. He has his ups and downs, and I think he will just plain be glad for this school year to be over. It is a good life skill to learn how to deal with people who are a little difficult, as hard as it is, and I think Nathan has learned a lot about that this year. Maybe he will remember this teacher more fondly as the years pass, I don't know. We are hoping for more peace and understanding in third grade.