An Open Letter

An open letter to all of our Moms, who we miss even more than usual today.

Dear Mamas,

Happy Mother's Day!

We're sorry we can't be there to bring you breakfast in bed or help out in the garden, take a walk through the neighborhood or share a glass of wine on the porch together. Thank you for letting us venture out on our great Ecuadorian adventure and for making home such a sweet place to which to return.

Below you will find a few things we miss most about you, today and every day!

Love,
Us

(Walks through the neighborhood, movies on Saturday, Chicken & Rice and Thanksgiving)

(Talking on the phone at least three times a day)

(Good ole' home cooking - king ranch chicken, spinach enchiladas, chicken barf bombs, etc. )

(Afternoons spent wandering the stacks together at The Tattered Cover Bookstore)

(The healthy desserts and assisting in turtle surgeries)

(Looking at you looking at me, and your smile)

(Roaming around the house yelling "MOOOOMMM" then realizing she's probably in the backyard again with a glass of sweet tea, tending the garden. Yep, right again.)

(Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Rocky Road brownies, and walks in the park at dusk!)

Self Portraits

So here's the thing with my children's art class. While I try to incorporate some kind of artistic technique or artist study into each class, when 75% of your students are under 5 years old, it gets a little tricky. Take Jori, for example. He would rather sit under the table scraping off crayon shavings with his scissors than learn about Georgia O'Keefe's desert inspirations. Or Carlitos. He'd rather be kicking Jori, who's under the table, than trying to understand Kandinsky color palettes.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when, after discussing the composition and symmetry of the face and explaining the 'self-portrait' project for the day, each and every one of our tiny students were hunched over their papers, painstakingly drawing their "football-americano" shaped eyes half way down their oval-faces, making little heart lips, and trying to remember where their ears go (Kerley was absolutely positive that her ears are in fact above her eyebrows). Yes, Serena and I had to walk them through every step of the way, coaxing them to erase all pencil marks after going over their faces with pen (ALL of them, Jonathan), and help them cut out the difficult parts involving their drawn hair, but overall, I was incredibly proud of the finished products. They even kind of look like them :)

We're excited for Eliah's brother, Aravon, to arrive tomorrow night! We LOVE visitors!
Happy Friday,
Holly

The Sky in May

This is Ecuador's way of saying "Holly, stop cursing the afternoon rainstorms". I'm almost convinced.

Questions for Serena!

Please don't forget to send me any and all questions you may have for Serena Zhou, the interview-ee for the week! Leave them as comments or email them to me at holland.c.ward@gmail.com.

Suggested question topics include:
~anything about food
~her theories about vampires
~a synopsis of the movie The Godfather
~appropriate substitutes in the kitchen
~pronunciation of almost any spice in the kitchen, particularly Oregano
~how she spent the Chinese new year in Ecuador
~how she got to be the best price haggler of all of us
~why she'd be great at Jeopardy

Laying Down the Law

At the library, Marco is in charge.

The kiddos have come to realize that even though they can get away with most anything in children's art by shooting me their precious little "I'm innocent as a baby sea turtle" look, the same does not apply with Profe Marco. The combination of height (I think he may be the tallest person tiny Jori has ever seen in real life), Spanish fluency (ie. ability to effectively get his point across), and no-nonsense attitude towards running in the library or leaving books strewn around the kid's corner make him the perfect guy to sit behind the front desk. That and the fact that no matter the finished product, if a little library patron draws him something he will post it on the wall behind his desk. They love him :)