Packets of Sunlight

I am a lackadaisical blogger.

I really do have MOUNDS of wonderful things to blog about. I just never sit down to post them! My goal for the month of December is to post DAILY (wow...that's quite a commitment. I might be setting myself up for a very public embarrassment!) so I can quickly highlight some of the great Packets of Sunlight that passed by without proper recognition. Which to start with? How about...

REFLECTIONS NIGHT!

Olivia & Noah both wanted to enter this year's Reflections Contest. I guess artsy genes run in the family! The theme this year was "Beauty is...". After much thought they both decided what Beauty meant to them.

All of Noah's ideas focused around the ocean. He thought through many potential ways to tell his story and decided that a poem would be the best way to express his love of the ocean. It turned out really great! He said he didn't know how to write a poem, so Alyx, Kaytee and I just started to ask him questions about the ocean and how it makes him feel. I wrote down what he said and ...walla! His poem was born. He tweeked it a little to make his thoughts flow better and typed it up. The title of his work is: The Ocean. His Artist's Statement reads: The ocean is my favorite place. I like to watch and listen to the beauty all around me.

Olivia put a lot of thought into her idea. She made lists of the things that "Beauty is..." the top two contenders were LOVE and IMAGINATION. She went with Imagination. (Which, I thought was brilliant, by the way!) She had the idea to make a fairy garden. She had been wanting to make one all summer and this was the perfect opportunity! She planned and designed the whole garden, complete with a soft path made with the buds from our sagebrush plants out back and a tiny stone table and chairs. She even made dishes for the table from Sculpy clay. All I did was control the Hot Glue gun. The title of her work is: Silvermist's Garden. (Silvermist is her little fairy companion that has been flitting about in our gardens for the past few years.) Her Artist's Statement reads: I think beauty is imagination. I like to imagine a beautiful garden where fairies play and eat.

Awards Night quickly arrived (Oct. 23, 2009). There were three trophy winners in each category (these advanced to the District Level) and 3-5 Honorable Mention Medals given in each category. Olivia won an Honorable Mention Medal in 3-D Art! She was so excited! Noah was at scout camp...but he also won an Honorable Mention Medal in Literature! This was quite an accomplishment as it was the largest category with well over 50 entries! It was a good night. One full of much celebrating and ice-cream!