Little Hands Art Class

I've posted about Little Hands off and on since Sebastian started going, but I've never really shared any photos of the space and action. Little Hands is pretty much the greatest thing to happen to our kid drop-in days. Drop-ins can be really cheesy or full of stand-offish people or just kind of crazy and chaotic. Sebastian and I have met a lot of awesome people through the program, and it's as much a social time for him as it is for me. After the class is over, the kids can often be seen fleeing through the grassy hills surrounding the buildings, sitting on the rocks in the middle of the duck pond (where no grown up can go) or climbing trees. They're kind of like a wild art gang. Today was a good day.

Art Building: somehow, this used to be our town library

 These motorbikes on the sidewalk are getting out of hand

Uma&Seb

Before, obviously... 

Beach glass collections

Fish on a wire

"Pretend I'm the dad and we're making pinecone soup!!"

Box monster aka drier lint mache 

"Baby" Alva

This is Sebastian's "yogicopter." Yup, a yoga mat helicopter. 

Dude looks like a lady

Our garden salads are not for the faint of heart. In attempt to year-round from the garden, our nightly salads looks something like this: mixed lettuce, arugula, chard, kale, wild fennel, and leafy dandelions. We almost weedwacked our luscious patch of dandelions, but kept them to feed the rabbit. Then, we decided to try them ourselves. They're super nutritious, hardy, abundant, and of course an acquired taste. Sebastian ate a heaping plate of this salad tonight with no complaints. The consensus is in: dandelion greens taste like.... dandelions. 

Redneckin' in the driveway aka Simon's new boat

Sebi's "Motorcycle"

At the pace of a tumbleweed, Sebastian braved his first jaunt on the pushbike. We took it into town, because our neighbourhood seems to be comprised of ninety degree angles. He's pretty cautious, but also a potential delinquent on this thing. He calls it his motorcycle. We'll just have to wait and see how comfortable he gets. 

Violin

Someone offered me a violin this winter, and I finally got my hands on it last week. They came over and set me up, showed me a few things. This woman also brought her three year old granddaughter and her one sixteenth violin and once Sebastian laid eyes on that thing, well. Let's just say this woman came back the other day with one for him. She has a closest full of violins, apparently, and luckily we're on the receiving end. I've wanted to learn the violin for a while now. It's not the sexiest instrument. It sounds pretty excruciating most of the time, and it's tricky. I've already formed all sorts of bad habits. But I also taught myself some scales, and one of my only redeeming musical qualities is that I can read music, so I also taught myself an old folk song. Don't think it doesn't sound awful, because it does! But it's really fun, and I think it's gotten me through some of the stress of these last few weeks of grad school. You can't take anything seriously when you sound like a cat being shaved. And there's no room in your head for anything but where to place your fingers when you're playing the violin. If you're off by a millimetre or less, you're often playing a completely wrong note. So the challenge has been productive, if also annoying for all my loved ones. 

But enough about me, the real treat is Sebastian's interpretation of the old folk song "Shady Grove." His companion piece seems to be called "Shady Grove, Going Down THAT Hill!" Unfortunately for everyone, I can't figure our how to rotate this video with my limited skills.