rain barrels

aftie's art club won first place and honorable mention

in a county wide contest for best designed rain barrels!

the barrels are being recycled/reused as rain water barrels.

there was a press conference held at the Albright knox art gallery

where the winners were announced.

the story is being highlighted on our school district's website right now!

so exciting!!

 aftie designed the winning barrel and she was soooo excited to see it win!

congratulations to a great group of talented artists!

from the district website:

The Heim Middle art class of teacher Denise Woods won first place in the Erie County Department of Environment & Planning/Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Buffalo, Inc. 2015 Rain Barrel Painting Contest, middle school category, earning a $500 prize. Art teacher Alison Bozek’s class entry earned an honorable mention in the contest. The barrels will be on display at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, where a press conference was held May 1 with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announcing the winners.

Erie County's #1 Rain Barrels!
Aftie's design is the one with the hands.

 

 

 

 

 

                                       

            

 

go huskers!

we decided to take a trip just to see this little guy!

 he lives in Nebraska with his dad, mom and two silly sisters

 this is one of the sillys I mentioned!

miss maddows

 lucky for us, mr davis was visiting too!

his dad was doing some important thesis business.

 here's the other silly with ella-bella

 uncle ryan had to snuggle this little sweetie for awhile

 uncle braddy arranged a tour of memorial stadium

it was very cool!

 we saw all of the important & top secret rooms

 here's where those giant football players run out into the stadium

it was a fun weekend for ry and his brothers and dad to be together,

since that doesn't happen very often.

 walking out to the field

 these doors open onto the field

 touchdown!

 it was really amazing to stand on that field and look up into the stands.

you feel sorta small down there.

 grandma was there too!

 aftie was a good baby holder

 we went to the spring game.

this is the game where the two teams are both Nebraska.

it's just for practice,

but the place was almost sold out.

I don't get it.

but we bought new shirts, so we might as well enjoy the game!

a short but sweet trip!

reflections

ptsa reflections is a program to celebrate the arts for students grades k-12.

i co-chaired this program with a friend this year.

we take all of the students entries and hide their names/personal info.

they are passed along to local experts in each field to be judged.

the categories are:

visual arts

photography

music composition

film

dance/choreography

literature

 ella's photography entry of glen falls is breathtaking!

afton's visual arts entry of hands in the form of the earth is spectacular!

as chairpeople we the prepare a program,

print certificates,

purchase Barnes & Noble gift cards

and prepare a reception. 

 mr. j our wonderful principal

calls the names of the kids and gives out the awards.

 afton and her dear friend, grace.

her mom is my co-chair and is wonderful just like her daughter!

 group picture!

all of the winners! 

great job aft & ella-belle!!!!

da bulls

since purchasing season tickets for ryan 2 Christmas's ago,

we have become quite attached to our little UB bulls basketball team.

we love going to watch them play at this arena,

which is mere minutes away from our home

last year

bobby hurley of duke university fame

was hired as head coach.

the girls LOVE watching him pout and get angry during the games!

our seats happen to be in the players family section, so we get a little extra intensity from

the moms and dads of the players.

mostly the moms!

 we've become SO excited this season

as they have played and won lots of games.

so we decided to pack up and drive to Cleveland

to watch them play in the MAC tournament

 we left afterschool and arrived at quicken loans arena literally with minutes to spare!

it was such a fun game to watch

and they came out on top!
they played the next night as well for the championship, but we had to get home.
we pulled into the driveway near the beginning of the first quarter and watched them win!

that win secured them a trip to March Madness!

we debated whether to head to Columbus Ohio for the game against West Virginia,

but decided against it.

instead we hung out with our fun neighbors

and watched it at their house.

those bulls made a good run and we thought they had it...

but sadly those stinky WV boys came back in the last few minutes to win.

we've had a fun winter attending the games and

can't wait for next season!!

artist in residence

our very own artist in residence

has been hard at work over the past month or two.

she was asked to produce some big projects and she delivered!!

 aftie's young women's advisor from church asked her to help create some

décor for the elementary school carnival that she was co-chairing.

 it was a jungle theme and

our basement became project central!

I knew that ping pong table we purchased for ryan's birthday would come in handy.

it was the perfect space to work on the 6x9 foot mural.

 Aftie happens to have an amazing art teacher at school

who went above and beyond to help her accomplish this huge project!

thank you Mrs. Woods!!!

 aftie also has wonderful friends who love to be together

and also love art and are super talented.

they helped many early mornings before school

and stayed after school to help as well!

hooray for Grace, Candi, & Mel!!

 we went to the elementary school to help hang the paintings

and every person who passed by

commented on how amazing

the animals looked!!

they couldn't believe that an 8th grader had created them.

 here's our favorite carnival co-chair, Ashley!

she is so sweet and wonderful!

we love her!

she was so supportive of afton and all of her efforts.

 here's the finished mural.

6 feet by 9 feet of pure awesome-ness.

 they even made these cute photo props for the kids to stick their heads through.

isn't that crocodile funny?

whew! 

huge, fun, wonderful experience for our aftie girl!

 she also had a piece entered in the district art show

 its the same piece that was entered into the regional art show at UB

not her favorite piece.

but she did LOVE that it was featured on the invitation.

(see above, 2nd photo down on far left)

and finally, here is the mural that she created for the New Beginnings program

for her young women's church group.

a couple of cute friends from church came over to help finish up the painting.

the theme for the program and her mural was

"o ye that embark in the service of God"

her mural depicts the view from the deck of a ship setting sail.

I love watching this girl tackle a project.  I love watching her vision unfold.  I love watching her determination to get it "just right".  I love watching her work hard.  I love watching her talents develop.  I love watching her confidence increase with each project completed, and each "WOW" we hear from those who see what she can do. 

What a delightful experience it is to be her mom!

not so bad...

this morning, I felt like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. 

it seemed like everything was going wrong.

the roof is leaking

the carpet is wet

ryan's out of town for the week

the city snowplow truck pushed a bunch of snow at the end of the driveway

the mailbox is buried in snow

ella's sad because ryan's gone

I'm overscheduled

the sun hasn't shone since December

the laundry is a mile high

the house is a mess

the garage door doesn't shut all the way

I forgot to pay the fuel bill

 

but then the phone rang

I pulled the covers off of my head

took a shower

and went to a meeting

with

friends!

which turned out to be 

a little bit of meeting

and

a lot of chatting & laughing.

my mind is in a much happier state now

so glad to have friends!