seven

It's been almost two weeks since Eva's seventh birthday. And apparently, that's how long it takes for me to feel like blogging about it! I haven't felt much like blogging lately, but I have for the last few days, so I'm going with it.

Eva opened two presents before she went to school, but I had her wait on the others, as I knew the rest of the family would want to watch. She informed me that, in the future, I should hide all of the presents until it is time to open them! Lucas agreed that it is torture to see them all sitting there and have to wait.

For the first time, I had a child who went to school on his/her birthday (Max and Lucas have summer birthdays). So, obviously, I played the cool mom card and took her Wendy's for lunch. We shared our fries with all of her friends. I enjoy being the cool mom. (And heaven knows, there is a small window of opportunity there, so I say live it up while you can!)

After school, she invited her friend Lindsey to go to a jump/bounce place. I had purchased a 2-for-1 on Groupon earlier this year, and it seemed like the perfect day to use it. When we arrived, however, it was about the saddest place I'd ever seen. What you see in the picture takes up about 1/3 of a warehouse, and the rest is just concrete. We definitely won't be frequenting that establishment!

After about 40 minutes, the girls were finished with Jump Around Town, so we went to what we call The Wooden Park. Much better.

I had my book and it was a beautiful day, so it was a win/win situation.

Finally, it was night, and Eva could open the rest of her gifts! She requested chocolate angel food cake, and no one was sad about that.

Her party with friends was on Wednesday. She invited seven friends, and was delighted that they all could come — especially Whitney!

First, we did bubble painting outside. It was a hit.

Then, I gave each girl a canvas and a paint palette.

They chose the paint colors they wanted, and got right to work. I was so glad that Marc was there to help with the party, because it was busier than I expected, getting everyone the paints they wanted, wiping up spills, etc.

Some of the girls finished their canvases before the rest, so I took them into the family room and played that game where you draw a head of some sort and then fold your paper down and pass it to the next person, who draws a torso, then pass it to the last person to add the legs. My cousin Ashley and I used to do that when we were little. Eva and her friends thought it was hilarious.

colorful cupcakes — I really thought the frosting was thick enough to pipe on, but apparently not, so I just pretended like I was going for the dripping paint look all along...

I spread out a long piece of butcher paper and everyone worked on a mural together. Eva loved it so much, she was slightly heartbroken when we had to throw it away a couple of days later...

The best thing about art is seeing the way that everyone comes up with something unique!

The masterpieces:

Savannah

Whitney

Ava

Lindsey

Gates

Riley

Sammie

And, I only just realized that I forgot to take a picture of Eva with her painting! Oops.

When the party was over, I did a little bit of cleaning up, then decided I'd have to save the rest for the next day as I was utterly and completely exhausted! It was 7:30 and I was literally wishing I could go to bed. Am I too old for birthday parties??

I kissed Eva goodnight and asked her if she had had a good party, fervently hoping she would sigh with contentment (she did). Because, really, that's the only thing that makes all of this worth it.

Arts Gala

On the Thursday night of Women's Conference, Eva's school held their annual Arts Gala. The choirs and orchestra performed, and the children's artwork was displayed all around the school. (I had been dreading it because I didn't want to have to tear myself away from my girls' weekend, but it ended up being pretty cute.)

I worked with the junior choir all year as their accompanist. We met on Fridays before school. It was difficult getting Eva ready and out the door so we could be there at 8:00, but it was always fun once we got there.

Max and Lucas both had other engagements that night (Thursday nights are crazy for us), but Mim and Bob came with Marc and I to show their support.

This is Eva's poster. I also worked as an art volunteer this year, teaching art to Eva's class every Wednesday. It was really a lot of fun, and I enjoyed getting to know all of her classmates. The children selected their favorite art works from the year for their posters.

This was a collaborative effort by students in the upper grades. I love all of those colorful circles!

Each grade had a "masterwork" — a project inspired by a famous artist. For the first grade, our inspiration was the collage work of Lois Ehlert. One week, the children painted papers using layers of color and texture, and the next week they cut those papers to make a bird collage. The masterworks were collected and displayed as a group. (Eva's is the red bird on the lower left.)

Despite her slightly bored expression, she had a great time. I think she was exhausted because it was a long night!

12 on the 12th | October

1. Eva playing games on nickjr.com before getting ready for school.
2. I got to pull off the tape from the first section of cupboards. Such a satisfying moment. (So very much more to go on that project.)
3. I decided to cook myself something good for breakfast (scrambled eggs with mushrooms, green onions, and fresh parmesan).
4. A picture at Eva's school that is made of the students' school pictures.
5. Eva's "All About Me" report hanging in the school hallway.
6. It was my first day of teaching art to Eva's class and this is the darling book I read to the kids. I highly recommend it.
7. Some of the kids working on their project (making a picture with only dots).
8. Eva sitting at her desk. She was positively preening to have me there (these are the days that end all too soon).
9. I love these fall sunsets where the mountains are pink.
10. I snapped this picture while Max was driving us to mutual.
11. I tried a new recipe to take to mutual (peanut butter pretzel bars). It didn't work out very well—way too crumbly—but it still tasted good.
12. One of our Laurels showed us a slide show of her trip to Europe.

Friday flânerie, part I

*Jill left early Monday morning. Already it almost doesn't seem real. Good thing I still have some catch-up blogging to do!!*

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Friday was a perfect day.

First, we decided to go to the Musée d'Orsay.

Two accordion players on the metro! Usually I am annoyed by musicians on the metro (particularly the karaoke singers, they're the very worst). Everyone either has a book or headphones or is carrying on a conversation and is obviously not wanting to hear the "music" of someone else's choice (and quite often the music is questionable). But I make an exception for accordion players. That just seems authentic.

We passed this shop window for dandies. I don't know any American men who could wear this ensemble without feeling that their masculinity was in question. That doesn't seem to be an issue for French men! (I can't get over the layering of a shirt, tie, sweater, blazer, scarf, and coat. I'd have to be in Siberia to wear all that!)

Someone thought it was a good idea to name a boutique Smuggler. Do you think something was lost in translation?

I don't think I could love the museum's logo more. Of course, it helps that it's also my initials!

Musée d'Orsay self-portrait

Hooray! We saw an artist at work. That always feels like a special museum treat to me. While I know that only a select few artists are granted permission to make reproductions in the museums, the question remains: what happens to those paintings? Are they sold as reproductions or kept in the artist's personal collection? As Jill said, we have so many more questions than answers.

The super-ornate M'O clock.

I enjoy the architecture of the museum as much as the works of art, and love that someone had the vision to make something so great out of this train station.

We went through the new art nouveau exhibit and were heartily disappointed. I wasn't a big fan of art nouveau before, and that clinched it. (I wasn't even sad that photos were not allowed, if that tells you anything.)

We kept running into this field trip of children who looked to be about kindergarten age. They were so cute and so well-behaved, I was smitten.

We weren't clear on what this room was, it seemed to be a ballroom of sorts.

Marc recently bought a photography book all about people reading. I looooved the idea. Of course I started seeing people reading in the paintings, such a happy sight.

and writing!

This Degas sculpture is one of my all-time favorite things. It is so beautiful, and I think the way he combined fabric with the bronze is pure genius. It's very hard to photograph as it is always surrounded by admirers.

Still, I found this shot with the girl in the background kind of cool. Maybe she'll be dancer someday.

This Caillebotte is another one of my favorites.

Every time I see this painting, I am impressed anew. It has so much movement.

Is it wrong that I'm drawn to food even in painting?

The windows provide good views here as well (note the Louvre across the river).

Jill and I had several discussions about artists. How do they do it? How do they paint those (sometimes) giant canvases without losing the perspective of the whole? How do they come up with so many new techniques? How do they use so many colors to express what they see? This Van Gogh self-portrait is a perfect example -- I just know I would not use those colors if I were painting a face -- but yet it works. Jill said she is convinced that they just see things differently, and I am inclined to agree.

The low point of the day was lunch. We had spent so much time in the museum that we were famished, and decided to sit at one of the museum cafés. The food was definitely sub-par. But the setting was sublime, so we didn't mind all that much. (Okay, so better food would have improved the day somewhat, but only a little.)

We thought these waffles with ice cream and chocolate sauce would redeem the bad lunch, but sadly, they weren't that good either. Looks can be deceiving! A recommendation: if you ever go to the Musée d'Orsay, eat before or after. Stick with hot chocolate if you want to sit down within the museum. Trust me on this.

These just make me happy.

We had to agree that walking on the glass bridge was a bit disconcerting, but I love looking up at others walking by.

Although we didn't see all of the museum, we finally decided to move on. You can only do museums for so long before you start to burn out.