6.10.2010

field trips & fairy tales



on tuesday, mars & i joined lexa's kindergarten class on a walking field trip to crystal springs rhododendron garden.  the garden is close to our house (we live one long block from lexa's school) & i can't believe the girls & i hadn't explored it before.  what a gorgeous place--beautiful plants & waterfalls for our viewing pleasure, rocks to hop over water on, ducks to feed, canadian geese to ogle (if one ogles such a thing) & many fabulous nature items to explore & find. 





luckily, i came packing my camera with every intention of documenting one of lexa's last days as a kindergarten. however, i soon found myself distracted by the beauty of the place and, instead of taking pictures of my older daughter & her school friends, i started snapping away at everything else--ducks, geese, waterfalls, bridges, trees, flowers, mushrooms, water, etc.  as i surveyed & clicked, i decide this would be a fabulous place to base a children's fairy tale book with photos taken at crystal springs overlaid by either other photgraphs or hand drawn pictures ala knuffle bunny (mo willems is big in our house--especially his elephant & piggie series for my budding reader) or
in my mind's eye, my fairy tale book would visually go something like this:



involve a quest, of course, and will be filled with fairies & elves & trolls & dragons
& griffins (i've always l o v e d griffins) & such.  i'd need to take more pictures
& really think this through but there it is.
mars & i have had the good fortune to accompany lexa & her classmates on all of their field trips this school year as well as volunteering in the classroom 3-4 hours (or more) each week. luckily for me, lexa's teacher has allowed mars to tag along all year which has allowed me to volunteer frequently.  it's been a great experience for us & has hopefully helped build a solid base for both lexa's & mara's future schooling (mars will start preschool at the same place in the fall.  again, luck for me ;).
since lex informed me after tuesday's trip that she doesn't want me to accompany her on any more field trips, that will give me more time to write this fairy book that's humming about in my head. 
plus, make more crowns & things.  check out my new ones if you haven't already
(shamefully shameless plug inserted here) at felted kitten

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