Spencer's Spring Art Show

On June 5th, it was once again time for Spencer's Art Show. This is one of our favorite nights of the year. I know I have talked about it before, but this art class is such a huge blessing for Spencer and has been so good for him. His art teacher, Miss Mueller is incredible. She is extremely encouraging with the students, loves them for who they are and sees good in every person and their artwork. Twice a year she holds an art show at a local library to show off her students work from the previous months, she also has a little awards ceremony where she brings each student up and praises them up and down! Spencer is always glowing when he leaves art class, and the art show. Here is a little sample of his work this year.
An experiment with watercolors and watercolor paper...

Here is a still life he did with some funky kind of pencil that I have never heard of before (she lets them try out all kinds of mediums)...
She taught them a unit on Georgia O'Keefe, so this is Spencer's "interpretation" (isn't that such a good art word) of a Georgia O'Keefe, he didn't want it to look like a flower, so he opted more for a "design". This is done with chalk pastels...
And they even got to try their hands at some weaving, apparently this assignment took a lot of time to complete...
As always, I am so grateful for good teachers and people who influence my kids! There is so much my kids would miss out on if it was left up to just me!

Jackhammers!!

The minor league baseball team in Joliet, The Jackhammers, has a reading program for the surrounding schools. For every four books a child reads they can turn in a certificate and get a free lawn seat to one of the Jackhammers summer games. Tyler got very excited about this and began reading book after book just so he could fill out his certificate and get a free ticket. He had turned in about four certificates before anyone else in his class had done any, his goal was to get a free ticket for every member of the family, and he succeeded. So, last night we headed to Silver Cross Field to watch the Joliet Jackhammers!!!

Tyler wanted to get a ball so bad, he even brought a sharpie marker along just in case he got a ball and could manage to get a signature (he learned this lesson from experience when he was handed a baseball at a White Sox game by Andy Sonnanstine and didn't have a marker for a signature). Unfortunately he never got a ball, but he did get to use that sharpie as you will see...

Spencer and Sydney enjoying a relaxing game of baseball...

While Sydney may not have understood all the in's and out's of baseball, she did enjoy the music, even when it wasn't playing...



And then there was a whisper in the crowd! A celebrity was in our midst! Could it really be true? Jammer was right at the top of the hill!!! If you are wondering who Jammer is, just look for the blue and orange fuzzy thing and you have found him.
And then the moment of truth, the actual meeting of Jammer! If you look very carefully you may be able to find that sharpie! My favorite is the boys' expressions, each is a treat in itself!
All in all we had a really fun night, and hey, the Jackhammers even won!