Dorathea's Woodland-Fairytale Birthday Party

When I was little my favorite way to play with friends was to pretend to be a fantasy character.  My favorite toy was a pink My Little Pony castle and I imagined the unicorns and me living in it together up in the clouds.

When I was in high school I painted a picture that said, "Once upon a time" across the top in gold.  It was a misty view of a distant castle as seen from a forest.

Later in college I did a more serious illustration that said, "Once upon a time a princess was troubled by the world she would inherit",but by then it was serious "real art" you know (wink).

It is no shock then that my little girl choose (really on her own) a fairytale theme for her 7th birthday.  When I asked her to describe the party I said

"Once upon a time" and she picked up, "..lived a unicorn named Dorathea and a prince named Jonathan. The prince decided to throw a birthday party for his best friend."
And the stage was set for a fantastic party.

I debated as I spend hours and days preparing for the party.  I even prayed about whether this was a worthwhile use of my time. I felt like God was saying;

"You are delighting in your daughter, and that's your most important job as a mom.  She will only have a seventh birthday once, celebrate her/with her to the fullest!".  

I also debated a fairytale theme.  There are a lot of dark parts of those old stories.  But as I prayed about it God reminded me of those castles and "Once upon a times".  As a girl I was yearning for a supernatural place in a castle in the clouds, now I understand my heart was yearning for heaven.  In my girlhood

God was illustrating in my imagination the place he has prepared for me, a place we could hang out, a place more real than real life.  
He was setting my heart on an ever-after life that he alone could satisfy.

That's important because I want my little girl to know the way to that ever-after life too.  Because
I still "pretend" to visit that castle now.  And when I go there I am visiting my Heavenly Father.

So here is the fantastic scene I set for a little fairy princess, and like a fairy godmother, I orchestrated a wonderful party.  I completely spent myself setting it all up.  But it was soooo rewarding, the best use of my time.  Here I am playing pretend with my daughter;

The cake!  I used D's toys and let her put them on the cake herself. Perfect job for her.

 The princes are getting ready!

we found Mr Frog Prince in a garden bed and gave him a toilet paper-roll crown.  

The Toadstool was also excavated from the garden and D and J helped me give it a fresh coat of paint. 

 The fairies have prepared their own birthday feast for the birthday girl.

 Look closely.  This is a miniature tea set, gazebo, and banner, in a fairy garden.  (I iced a cupcake to look like a fairy sized cake)

 She planted most of the fairy garden herself. What a fun way for a child to garden!

 This was one four storybook clues in the Unicorn treasure quest.
I made the signs with scrap wood and silver puff paint.  They make a fun permanent addition to my garden.  The other treasure hunt signs read; Fairy Garden, Frog Prince's Toadstool, Tigerlilie's TeePee, and Dragon Rock (which was guarded by wonderful young James in a dragon costume).

  The food table.  Make your own trail mix in the baskets with toppings in the little chest of drawers.

 wooden castle turned into a cup and napkin service

Alice In Wonderland  inspired, "Drink Me" Lemonade

  tree stump chairs for a woodland feel.

 The Knight and Faerie princess are ready for guests!

 The guests are here!!!

 This is Kate, Dorathea's new friend

Jonathan and friends questing

King Daddy hugging his princess

Thank you Dorathea for letting me enjoy girlhood again as I celebrate you,

and Thank you God for caring enough to show me where you were in my own girlhood.

I hope this day, and this seventh year will be as beautiful a memory for Dorathea as it is for me.  - Allison

I taught a homeschool art class to 13 kids in my kitchen yesterday.  Ahhhh!

It was so energizing, and now I have a cave painting on my garage door that the kids don't want me to take down- ever.  That's how much fun they had.  

I compromised and told them we would cut their portion out. 

The class started today with the first art ever and will keep going once a month till we get to modern art (the good kind of modern art... You'll see ). Here is a summary;

The Very First Artists in the World  !

The very first cave paintings were discovered in 1896 in the Altamira Cave in Santander, Spain. Almost 50 years later an even older discovery was found.

  In September 1940, four boys and a dog set out on an adventure in Dordogne, France.  As they walked through the woods the little dog, Robot, ran ahead toward a deep depression in the ground covered with overgrowth and began sniffing the sunken hole. Then, each one of the four boys slid through the hole in turn. “The descent was terrifying,”recalled Jacques Marsal who was just fourteen years old at the time, the youngest of the four boys. 

Marsal described what they saw as a “cavalcade of animals larger than life painted on the walls and ceiling of the cave; each animal seemed to be moving.” The ceiling was pure white, the paintings were brilliantly multicolored in reds, blacks, browns and ochres.  Find the full story here.  It is a great adventure story!

This discovery became known as the Hall of Bulls Cave in Lascaux, France.  We took a virtual tour of the cave that you can find here.  Dorathea was excited after class to go to this website and do the tour "all by herself".

The cave of Hands

We also briefly talked about the "Cave of the Hands" in Argentina.  and I showed them the picture from below

These hand print paintings are found all over the world, in Australia, North America, Spain, and Africa, and that although they look easy to do, they are made by blowing paint through hollow bones (like a prehistoric airbrush).  I also asked them why the same paintings would be all over the world when no art today is as identical. We tried this technique outside with a spray bottle, but the bottle got clogged before we could finish.

Early Art Tools

We made our own art supplies just like the cave men had to!   We used feathers,  fake fur and, twigs to make brushes.  We mixed clay, mud, and water for paint, and used charcoal straight from my wood stove ash pile  to draw with. 

I thought it was funny that the kids didn't take home art this week, but homemade brushes instead.

The kids practiced drawing the shape of the bulls, horses, unicorns (yes unicorns!) with crayon inside then we went out to try out our new neolithic brushes and paints!

Here is what we created!  

Notice the stags, horses, unicorns and people figures.  Horses are hard to draw, and I really saw them get much better as they drew and painted.  It was a great class, and at least when I asked D she remembered most of the history too.

Here are some questions to help them remember what they learned;

1. Where were the first cave paintings found?  France and Spain

2. Who found them? some boys and a dog

3. What where the paintings of?  What animals?  bulls, cows, stags, horses, unicorns

4. Did they paint them to  look like animals in real life? No!  They were very fat 

5. What did they use to paint with?  Did they go to the art store and buy paint and brushes? 

Can't wait for the next class Tues May 6th!   We'll be learning about Greek pottery, and making some of our own.  If you want to follow along with this  series I will be teaching from the book Usborne's The History of Painting

 which was 5$ on Amazon (what a great thrift store find!). It is titled The history of Painting but it also covers sculpture, and printmaking, and every other Art period in a brief way that connects art to history.

So thank you art class Mommas for letting your kids take this tour of history and get messy in my messy home!  I was blessed.- Allison