There's An Artist In The House...

This weekend we journeyed to LaGrange in search of the most recent graduate of the Community Center Art Class...Miss Bailey Marx. This little chickie has worked very hard for the past several Saturday's learning to do artwork. She has totally enjoyed her class and was fairly bursting with excitement at the opportunity for us to come to her class and see their art show on the final day of class.

Bailey made a full size drawing of herself. She made a diorama with a lot of bling on the outside of the box and inside was a beautiful horse and some eggs for it to take care of. She also made a large painting of a purple pony out in a multi-colored snow storm. And finally she completed a butterfly made out of her hand prints. The butterfly must have been made Saturday because one of her hands was very pink.

Right after the art show was the Spring Fling at Hayden's school.  Andie volunteered to help and we would take the Mini's with us. We enjoyed a hot dog dinner and the movie "Rio" at the Spring Fling before heading out. Andie would call us to pick her up when she finished.

The irony of the Spring Fling is that the date was chosen and publicized so as not to interfere with all the festivities associated with Derby Day in Louisville. There is a month long celebration prior to Derby Day. Then...the NCAA tournament ended up with University of Kentucky pitted against University of Louisville on Saturday evening. The Spring Fling moved its time a little earlier in the day so that people could get home to watch this momentous game. It is a really big rivalry and you could feel the electricity in the air up to the UK / UofL game. Churchill Downs had one of their spires blue and one red in honor of this event. T-shirts with the school logos were selling like hot cakes (where did that expression come from?).

I suggested to Claude and the kids as we left the school that we might go for ice cream. The kids were definitely on board for Dairy Queen. So Pa (Claude) headed to downtown LaGrange. Hayden and Bailey have both gotten old enough they are pretty neat with their ice cream eating. But Bailey gave us a laugh when she bit the top off her chocolate coating and then nibbled a hole in the side. This allowed her to get her thumb and a finger inside the chocolate shell and pull it completely off.

Bailey still doesn't always say the 'l' sound. She still substitutes it with a 'y' sound. Claude and I cracked up when she was licking away on her ice cream cone and said, "I yuv lickin'!!"

The Marx family were invited to the Soderquist's to watch the big Final Four game. Andie and Michael took Miss Bailey with them and Hayden, Claude and me stayed to watch the second movie for book 7 in the Harry Potter series.

We spent Saturday night and Sunday morning with the Marx family. Hayden woke me up and 7:20am with a little knocking on the wall. My signal to get up and come snuggle. We enjoyed our snuggle time as the rain poured down outside. Bailey eventually joined us. We decided to give Andie a present by the kids getting dressed and being downstairs so the rest of the adults could sleep a bit longer.

The kids watched a show while I did my physical therapy exercises. Andie joined us and she made banana nut pancakes for the breakfast.

It was decidedly cooler that we anticipated on Sunday with the rain pouring outside. We found Hayden snuggled down in the basket that holds the HUGE afghan I made. Bailey then had to have a turn. Then Andie assured them they didn't need to do that again, even though it was fun for one time, because it would destroy the integrity of the basket. So these are one time only pictures.

Hayden left with Andie to purchase a birthday gift for their little friend whose party they were attending in the afternoon. Bailey and I played kitty. She was the kitty and I was the owner. Basically I just followed her imagination as she laid out the things we should do. Lovin' life through the eyes of a five year old.

We managed to get Bailey and Andie's hair cut during the weekend. As Andie and Michael finished getting ready to take the kids to their birthday party, I realized Hayden had signed the card but Bailey had not. I gave the card to her and asked her to please sign it. She carefully drew two solid lines across the card with a dotted line in between, just like the paper they use to write on in school. Then she proceeded to write her name and add little curls and flourishes to some of the letters. Guess that art class is kickin' in now!!

Thanks Marx Family for inviting us to the Art Show, the Spring Fling and to enjoy a little time with the family.