Family Day at the Frist

Thanks to my friend Angela, Hailey and I spent this afternoon at the Frist Center in Nashville – for free!  (Thanks, Angela, for letting me know about this!).  Today was Family Day at the Frist.  In addition to the exhibits in the museum, there was juggling, music, story time, films, and art activities for the kids. 

The Frist Center has been open for several years, but I’m ashamed to admit that this was my first visit.  I am definitely going to have to go back!  We were there for three hours today, but we needed another three to see and do everything.  We just barely had time to buzz through the special exhibit Monet to Dali: Modern Masters for the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Most of our time was spent on the second floor of the museum seeing the Aaron Douglas exhibit and creating our own art in the ArtQuest children’s area. 

I was not familiar with Aaron Douglas, a Harlem Renaissance artist, but now I am contemplating facing the insane amount of paperwork and red tape it takes to go on a field trip.  I love reading Harlem Renaissance literature with my junior students, and seeing Douglas’ artwork in person woud be an amazing addition to our reading.  Many of the pieces of art I saw today were illustrations for or were paired with poems my students read. 

Hailey, of course, loved all the hands on art activities in the the ArtQuest room.  She painted, drew, printed, and created a hat.  The amount of staff and supplies that were available to all the visitors was incredible.  Everyone was so kind and helpful and informative and patient. 

Hailey at the Frist

 Hailey and Beth at the Frist

Goodbye Honda CR-V. Hello Honda Fit!

I am sad to report the demise of my faithful Honda CR-V.  She’s been with me since January 2000.  180,000 miles.  We were going to grow old together.  Unfortunately, two weeks ago, I was on my way to school when I noticed up ahead that a teeny-tiny sports car was pulling out of a driveway onto the highway.  I began a brief mantra of “don’t pull out, don’t pull out, don’t pull out.”  She pulled out.  And into me and my Honda CR-V.  I was fine, and the driver of the other vehicle was fine.  The CR-V, however, was not. 

 Sad Honda CR-V

 So…today I visited the same Honda dealership that sold me the CR-V eight years ago and purchased a cute little Honda Fit.  I must say I am growing quite fond of her already. 

 Happy Honda Fit

Snowy Day – no photos

I was just about to give up on this post.  Yesterday I took about twenty photographs of the kids playing in the snow.  I was just attempting to download them on the computer so I could include a few here.  I got confused, thought I had duplicated a folder, pressed delete and away the pictures went – gone from the computer, gone from the camera.  I shut down everything in frustration and decided there would be no snowy day post.  I went into the living room, picked up a book, and read a few pages before I realized that I didn’t have to have pictures to write a post about a snow day.  So that’s the story of the story.  Deep breath.  Blast, blast computers.  On we go. 

 The snow was not a surprise.  The forecasters assured us that there would be snow.  And after all these years of wrong predictions, what can I say?  I still believe them.  Usually I consider snow on a Saturday a waste.  What’s the point, right?  My two-week spring break begins tomorrow, though, so I wasn’t so disappointed about the loss of a day off work.  Hailey and I spent the night with mom and dad and periodically turned the front porch light on to see if it had started snowing yet.  There wasn’t much to get excited about before we went to bed.  She woke me up at 6:00 am, though, and sure enough a world of white outside.  Of course Hailey was ready to head out.  I held her off until 7:30 am, though.  We bundled up and walked next door to get Tyler. 

According to Hailey’s measurements in a drift of snow blown up against a fence post, we got nine inches of snow.  According to my measurements in the middle of the yard, we got 2 1/2.  Regardless, it was more snow than we’ve seen in a while.  If I was not so inept with computers, I would include a photo here of Hailey in the snow with the yard stick and a photo of the sad daffodils that have bloomed for the past two weeks.  Their poor little droopy heads looked so sad.  (Daffodil update.  After a day of sunshine, the daffodils have perked right back up again.)

Hailey, Tyler and I dug the plastic sleds out of the smokehouse.  (Yes, we have sleds.  What can I say?  We are an optimistic bunch.)  We drug each other around the yard for a while before deciding to walk down to the creek.  It was lovely.  Snow on all the tree branches.  Piled up on logs.  Blackie the dog even got to run and jump and play in the snow.  Tyler attempted to rig up a sled dog contraption.  We had just seen the movie Snow Buddies last week.  Blackie gave it a valient effort, but no luck with the sled dog attempts. 

By this time the cuffs of our jeans were frozen, our noses were running, and we were ready to head back inside for some hot chocolate.