My sweet Siena’s birthday is at a time of year that makes for uncertain weather. She always want to invite everyone but our home will not contain that many people. We had the party a couple weeks early and lucked out, perfect weather! We had a great bounce house with two big dolphins over the entrance and that went really well with our under the sea theme.
I had all of these wonderful jellyfish that I could hang along with the seaweed garland that I had made 12 years ago for another under the sea party. I was ecstatic to have an opportunity to use these decorations again.
The party favor was a variety of floral and shell Hawaiian Leis and these teeny tiny little containers of sand and “mermaid scales” also known as glitter and eency weency shells that each kid could make for themselves. I was worried because these were so small, I loved little things I could secret away in my pockets when I was a kid but you never know. They were a big hit!
I have loved the idea of Kangaroos for as long as I can remember. Kanga and Roo are some of my favorite children’s book characters. One of my lovely little rescues is named Nina Roo Ballew. As a mother the idea of a pocket that I could keep my little ones in to safeguard them from the outside world sounds simply delightful. What but a Kangaroo would I feature for K? My love of maps of course required my inclusion of an Australia as a background including the Sydney Opera House and a tiny coat of arms of Australia, officially called the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. The coat of arms has a red kangaroo and an emu.
Remember when we were young enough to dance like no one was looking? Maybe you can still dance the way kids dance, as if ego or perception doesn’t matter… I hope so.
This year Siena starts middle school where she will take dance instead of P.E. and I hope she can enjoy learning different dance styles without the self consciousness that plagues us as we grow older.
I wanted to create a letter D that conveyed the exuberance of a child’s dance. This is one of the letters that I have repainted as I prepare to publish my alphabet. The original letter D was almost exactly the same, only a little less colorful. The background seemed dull so I repainted and am so glad I did because I am very happy with these two girls. I think they are beautiful. The little girl on the left seems to be very focused and concentrating on her kick while the one on the right is spinning. I enjoyed all the little details too, like the teddy bear hanging from a loop on the jeans and the cute little patches of color on their clothes. I love colorful patches.
