Roth Sawatzky family

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Silas the artist 2009 take 1

It is time to update Silas's online portfolio (so that I can purge a BIT without feeling AS guilty.....). Of course, this is but a FRACTION of what he puts out. He is quite prolific- there is also art that comes home from school each day as well as the many, many pieces that are done quickly to get a burst of creative energy out (the walls of our office area are covered in pieces, as well as the doors in the boys room and all around their desk area.

Here Silas explains exactly what all is in this masterpiece.

a multi-media piece; watercolor, sticker and collage

a large dessert scene

ocean creatures in clay

Silas created clothes for this "animal parade."

Finally, here are the words to a song that Silas wrote:
And we love Jesus, loving
And we have him do our chores each day,
anytime

chorus:
Then we open up the present
And see the seasons change
We celebrate Jesus' birthday
And Santa gets to come

Spring has Sprung in A-town!

Spring means a return to the woods for our favorite family activity- hiking! (with frequent stops along the way for the continuing adventures of Silas and Asher the bear/cougar/opposum/lion/etc.- especially if there is a great rock or similarly inspiring "spot in nature"- "look mommy, a great spot in nature!" is how the phrase is generally used.)

But, in general, I LOVE spring in this city- until pollen littleraly coats all things indoors and out with a yellow dusty film...... For now, though, it is glorious. Everything is blooming and you get to remember what you have planted in years past and why. These pink blossoms are from two flowering pear trees that we planted in our front yard a few months after we moved in to this house.

Sweet Silas and his gift to Asher

One thing that I love about Silas is his interest in giving gifts. He has developed a tradition which he calls "Love Days." He will announce on any given morning that it is the designated person's "Love Day," and then all day long he will make cards and pieces of art for them, he brings the person bouquets of flowers, trays of refreshments, and does special errands or favors for the person. It is really very, very sweet. One morning I was at brunch with some friends and the boys were in the house, basically unsupervised, while David was doing some chores around the outside of the house. When he came in to get a drink in the kitchen he found this tray and note on the counter and Silas walked in to the room, casually saying, "Hi Dad. It's your Love Day today, so I made you a tray." On it was a piece of leftover French toast that Silas had buttered and put on a plate, a cup of cold tea he had found on the counter, a necklace "for decoration," a berry arrangement that he went and helped himself to from the yard, and a card which reads, "I love Dad."

Silas is also very free with expressions of appreciation and affection, of the ultimate kind;
-"You are the best mom in the whole universe! I love you as much as a rainbow, the stars, the planets, and a mountain!"
-"Asher you are the best brother in the whole wide world. I love you little buddy."
-"Dad you are the bestest dad. I love you as much as the ocean!"

Silas was not doing this at just shy of 2.5, but Asher has picked up on his brother's "kind words" (as Grandpa Ray Roth would say, "Oh thank you for those kind words..."). The other day we had just dropped Silas off at school and Asher was real quiet as we drove away and then piped up from the back seat in his (as he calls himself) "baby-big boy" voice, "mommy, you da best mommy-gurl in da wurld." It just about broke my heart it was so cute.

While I can tell that Asher loves his days at home with me, he also misses his brother a lot when he is at school and asks after him several times a day, "when I see Lilas again, mommy?" For the last week or so, whenever we pick Silas up at school, Asher will give him a few moments to tell me the latest and greatest from his day. Then he will hold out his hand to Silas and say, "Lilas, I missed you today." Silas will hold his hand quietly and respond that he missed Asher as well.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

MLK Day

Martin Luther King Day is my favorite holiday, and living in Atlanta has made it all that much more significant for me. Every year we get the boys books related to themes of inclusiveness or peace, we plant a tree, attend an MLK Day event, and have a party with a cake. The boys love it and it is an easy and fun way to make sure we are explicit about the values we want to espouse as a family. The past two years we have been able to celebrate with the Chappell-Lakins (bottom). This first picture is of the banner that the boys worked really hard on for the day. Asher went crazy with the coloring and when the banner was done he still wanted to work. His idea was to make a birthday card for Dr. King which we took with us to the National Monument and gave to one of the Park Rangers.

blowing out candles for Dr. King

Portfolio

One of the reasons that I have been slacking on our blog is that David and I have decided that the time is right for a move- we are talking across the country- somewhere near a family member. We are not sure exactly when this will happen, but likely for the fall of 2009. One dream/scheme that we've been cookin' up is for David to go back to school for an architecture degree, something David has wanted to do for a long time (some may remember the ill-fated attempt at this same plan the fall Asher was born- bad timing). We are excited about the possibility, but wary about moving the boys and leaving our home and friends here. We'll see, only time will tell at this point where we will be a year from now..... In the meantime, I wanted to post a few of the photos of David's work which made up his portfolio for sending to schools. There was a lot more than this, but these are some of my favorites. If you don't take the time to look at all of the pieces, at least scroll down to the bottom to see the last picture.....

our back porch roof

a drawing, and the real thing

a table commissioned for MCUSA's Atlanta 2003 conference

a banjo

our play house

our china cabinet

one of many Sawtazky neice/nephew toy boxes

a ceramic church

pencil drawing

papercut

tempura paint on MFD

one of David's two true masterpieces. Silas was so helpful as I was putting this portfolio together, holding drapes, positioning pieces, etc. It was cute to see him take pride in David's work and get excited about putting the book together.