Easter Island Mug

Since Frederick and I started taking ceramics classes at the FIA together, we started working on additional projects at home.  We started working on this mug a while ago, and only just got to the stage of glazing it.  Frederick insisted on the eyes being yellow, with no pupils.  I asked, "Do you want to add black pupils?"  He said, "No."  I wondered if he didn't know what I meant, so added, "Do you want black dots in the eyes?"  "NO!!" he shouted.  Fine!  No pupils!  Simon insists that Frederick made the right choice.

Pretzel wants to know where his mug is.

Frederick is famous!

Right in the middle of the last clay class, a woman from Grand Blanc Times (or whatever it is called) showed up to interview parents.  She asked Frederick to pick his favorite art piece and model it--a task he clearly enjoyed doing.  Here is the full write up of Frederick's clay class.  (If you click on the photo of Frederick you will get a larger version.  He is holding the blue and yellow spotted frog he made in a previous class.)

The writer took liberties when quoting me but she got the gist right.  (I remember saying that it is important for him to see the teacher work through the process with him so that he can fully understand the purpose of each step but I don't remember mentioning any of that existential angst she described.)  Emma, his class mate, is about as opposite of Frederick as a child can be: she is miniature and talks (though completely unintelligibly as her enunciation is very muddy) whereas Frederick rarely says ANYTHING, but when he does, it is enunciated with great care.  He can also get onto a stool by himself and manage to not fall off whereas she goes flying every single class.  (One day she regaled us with the story of how she fell into the toilet the night before and couldn't get out by herself--at least that is what her mom said she said.  I did make out the phrase "potty seat" but not much else.)  And, as mentioned in the article, Frederick is beside himself with excitement about the musical instruments course that is set to happen in June.

Thomas's penultimate Showcase

I can't remember when Thomas started being included in FIM's Showcase Concert. I do remember that his first chance to participate was when he was asked by his then percussion teacher Alyssa Smith to help fill out the percussion section for the Pirates of the Caribbean tune and he excitedly reported that he "got to drop the chain!" at the start. Now he is rather blase about it all---despite finding out minutes (!) before the start that he would not be playing bassoon as planned for the wind ensemble piece (the first tune here) but instead was moved to the marimba. He claims he was sight reading while performing and while I am sure that is a slight exaggeration he is noticeable more nervous for this (rather easy) number than he is for the later pieces, which he had the opportunity to practice (and perform) MANY times this past year.

This is the same toe-tapper that we uploaded last month though now Thomas is positioned at the side of the stage so you have the benefit of seeing his fancy hand movements.

According to Thomas he begged to play the cymbals as a welcome break from the stress of drumming.

Thomas is done with wind ensemble for the year. He has one more FYSO concert (in 2 days at Davison HS) and then next weekend (5/7-5/9) he will be on tour in Toronto. THEN he is done with the groups (though a parade of end of year recitals will follow....).

Frederick's Claycraft

For the past 11 months or so Frederick and I have been taking a ceramics class together. We did a wheel throwing class (translation: throwing pots on a pottery wheel; no wheels are thrown) last summer (which Frederick LOVED), then in Fall we worked on hand building animals and then Christmas stuff (ornaments featured a few months ago, the miniature Christmas tree has been packed away so I'll have to get a photo of that next year).  Here is a little "log cabin" that was part of our January "winter" theme.

Here is a butterfly (decorated with fused glass bits on the wings) that was part of the Spring time theme a few weeks ago.

This was supposed to be a Christmas bell (apparently in Spain people ring bells on Christmas Eve) but this ended up looking more like a Buddhist temple bell. Still, Frederick loves it and had it right next to him to ring while sitting at the dining room table and drawing.

This was made in January as part of an "ice fishing" theme.  Not sure why one would fish for bones, but it is a great wind chime--which Frederick won't allow us to hang outside as it is too precious.

Here is a bird and nest of eggs (spring time class).

Here is a rather sinister looking caterpillar.

Here is a turtle.  This was part of the "reptiles" class, early Fall.

A Gila Monster (also part of reptiles).

Horny Toad.  This guy was supposed to look fierce, but all of Frederick's creations end up looking rather cheerful.

Another reptile, this time an alligator.  (Frederick REALLY loved the reptile class.)

Here is a black bear (from the woodland creatures course).

Here are just a very small number of the bowls, pots and saucers that he has made (not the big blue one--that one is an old one of mine).  He has three more still at the FIM that I have to pick up.  On the last day of class he made a plate, soup bowl and another coffee mug.

Here is a frog, which was part of the spring time class.

The FIM closes up for May, but then there will be more kids classes in June and July: one course will feature making (wait for it)---musical instruments!

Farm frolics

As mentioned above, Frederick's ceramics class ended last week and his ceramics teacher, Karyn, invited the kids out to her neighbor's sheep farm. Lambs were born two weeks ago.

The name of the farm is Ugly Dog's Farm (don't know why).  I also don't know why they have 15 peacocks which, apparently, spent all winter outdoors in a tree.

Frederick wants to know when the fun will begin.  (Actually, he is having fun.  He's just very sniffly from the sudden explosion of pollen that is everywhere.)

Three donkeys that were appropriately shy of small children.

HERE they are!  Millions and millions of lambs!

I have no idea who that woman is, but the guy is the owner of the farm, and he is holding one of a triplet of black and white which are, according to him, the friendliest of all the lambs.

A blur of little hands all reaching out to pet the lamb.

Aside from the lambs, this little shed was Frederick's favorite part of the trip. I think he'd like a little house of his very own in our backyard.

I can't believe these little guys are only two weeks old.

Here is a 360 degree view of the farm, though this is just the entrance.  The property is 10 acres and goes back quite some ways--we couldn't see the horses or the barn where he has his wool processing space.  Since many of the sheep are merinos, I very much want to go back and see how his wool spins up.

McOdyssey

So: every so often Thomas demands to be driven to as many McDonalds as humanly possible.  This is not because he has a love of the smell of grease (although he did remark that he loved the smell of these places, which is a bit worrying for a lifelong vegetarian - although he also loved the smell of Family Video, so maybe he's just perverse) or a hankerin' for those inimitable chemical-drenched fries, but because Nintendo occasionally runs some kind of thing where if you go to a McDonalds and connect to their WiFi (I know - what an age we live in) you connect with somebody somewhere in the world (usually Austria, according to Thomas) who will let you access their Pokemon.  I know, I don't understand it either, but it's the only thing that gets Thomas out of his room these days.  Here I depict our odyssey.  We went to 4 on Friday night but only three of them got repeat business on Saturday, because the one with the creepy Ronald McDonald sitting on the bench outside (not pictured for your peace of mind) didn't seem to be in on the deal.  Yes, Thomas is almost 17.  I'm sure I shall cherish these memories when he moves out in a couple of years...

Thomas saw that I was taking pictures to document our adventures and insisted on taking the camera to get footage of the place he hides to log on.  Believe it or not he feels guilty about not buying anything.  I'm sure if I offered my money he would, but I draw the line at ferrying him around.

Spring in Flint

And then there was one

It's been a dangerous year for small animals in this household: first, Pumpkin, then too many fish to count and most recently one of Thomas's turtles died. I don't remember her name (though I remember Thomas giving all three of them names), but she always was a bit of a drag: scaredy and boring. Here is the last remaining turtle (the only male Thomas got), the littlest one:

He sure is happy to have the entire aquarium to himself.

I love the smell of burning rubber in the morning...

I can't take credit for this picture - it's from this news story.  Frederick and I saw the huge plume of smoke when we were out driving around 6:30 last night and I tried to find its source, but it's tucked away in an industrial estate (just a few blocks from us, unfortunately).  I thought nothing of it, until I woke up with a sore throat and the house reeking of burnt rubber (we slept with the windows open, it being Spring and all).  Flint is now officially Springfield.

[P.S.: Everyone connected with UM-Flint was sent an email this morning announcing that all air intakes would be shut off as, breathing stale, recirculated air was deemed more healthy than breathing in the smoke from the still aflame garbage.  The location of the fire is the recyling facility about a mile from our house and, since there are no roads that go to it, firetrucks are working with train cars to take water to the site to douse the flames.  As of 11 am this morning, when I was running my errands, the flames were still visible from the nearest road.]

Frogs frolicking

This Sunday at Seven Lakes: it was deafening.

Jimmy visits

It's almost the end of Spring Break and, as mentioned in the previous blog, Jimmy has been here for the week (and is set to ride the train home tomorrow).

 Thomas and Jimmy then and now...

When not sleeping and playing computer games with Thomas, Jimmy enjoys eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks--lots and lots of snacks. According to Grandma, he consumed 2 dozen eggs during the past 7 days, and that isn't even counting the omelets eaten at various restaurants. While at our house, he favored chips (potato and corn) and more chips.

Belle Isle

The original plan was to take Thomas and Jimmy (who is visiting from WI) to the various features of Belle Island (a small-very small-blip of land in the middle of the Detroit River, which cuts between the U.S. and Canada. (And we saw no border patrol units anywhere.) However, teenagers being what they are, Jimmy decided he'd rather go to the Farmer's Market (where he was heard to squeal, "Look at all this FOOD!") and Thomas decided he would rather sleep in (since he was up until 5 am doing some computer bullshit last night). So, rather than sit and stare at each other all day, I proposed I take Frederick and then suddenly, there was Simon horning his way into Mommy/Frederick time.[Good thing too - otherwise there'd be no pictures.  The one below, for example, is taken on the bridge between Detroit and Belle Isle.  Belle Isle has a park and used to have a zoo, both of which were closed entirely for a while recently, because of Detroit's bankruptcy, but then after a lot of local wrangling, the state took over Belle Isle and opened the park and some attractions.  But not the zoo - it's long dilapidated.]

The drive is long--just short of being TOO LONG. Since it was a very, very nice day, it didn't seem too bad. In winter, if this was my drive to work every day, I'd get resentful.

Simon took a helluva a lot of pictures. This is the outside of a greenhouse, which will be featured in detail below.

This is the entrance to the aquarium.

It IS old.  The public bathrooms have only one toilet each.

This is inside.  Not sure what the point of the photo is, but you can see the nice ceiling tile.

More ceiling tile.

This looked better live--a greasy eel.

This was a giant python snake (the fat part below is the bulge from his meal).

Now you can see Detroit River and Canada across the way.

Here is the entrance to the green house.

Simon was inordinately interested in all the trees.

Perhaps because it was a long winter and the trees are still bare, and the grass is still brown.

A banana tree!  We tried to grow one in our apartment in L.A.  It didn't work too well.

Palm.

The cactus house which was, not surprisingly, very, very hot.

I don't know what this is as Frederick reached his limit for being roasted pretty quickly.  [It's the Fernery.]

Much better to be outside.

I have no idea what this is.  [I do: it's the abandoned zoo.  A splendid ruin.]

There were only two kinds of swings here: ones for babies and ones that had been taken apart and were no longer usable.  [Unfortunately the three-or-four-story high slide in the background was fenced off.  Maybe it opens later in the year.  Maybe it's closed for good, owing to too many child fatalities.]

So this is the source of it all.

Why this picture?  [To give an impression of the faded colonial atmosphere of the place.  It's very Victorian - statuary and such.]