Winding Down

Only 10 school days left and the kids keep reminding me how close they are to vacation. (Eli just read that sentence to me after I wrote it. He's become a READER!)

The projects have started coming home, clearing out their artwork stashes at school and filling up their folders. Here's a little view of the latest from JLS. Sorry Shelly, I only have 1 of yours, the rest belongs to E.

Enjoy!

Refrigerator Art

Family Crest

Shelly and her class were studying traditions, cultures, and exploring their own families' histories. She made a family crest which shows our tradition (soup for Christmas with the Fortiers), we come from European descent (flag of Germany), and we have our own culture (reading the Bible and other books together).

Hugs?

Shelly's monster or monkey or whatever it is looks like it wants a hug, no?

To: family Form: Shelly

A Little Ray of Sunshine

I found this in between some work papers on my desk today.
A nice little ray of sunshine on a cool fall day.

My Favorite Animals

by Amy Fortier
illustrated by Shelly Fortier

Shelly and I wrote this book, I wrote with some direction from Shelly, and then she illustrated, in great detail, every page.

Enjoy!

Birthday Card

Designed by Shelly for "The best brother I ever had!"

To Archer
From Shelly Dad Mom last but not least is Elijah

Happy Birthday to you yes you Archer
You're the best brother I ever had!

Girl With Watering Can

Shelly was honored by having one of her pieces of art be selected for a very exclusive exhibit at one of the museums here. Only nine students from her school had this honor, and their art was combined with pieces from students throughout the entire school district and now all of this amazing creativity is on display. It really is incredible, from the 4K classes through the highschoolers, the talent, the original ideas, all on display for us to see today.

The Open House for the exhibit opening was this afternoon and we got dressed up and went over to browse around. Of course Shelly was anxious to find her painting, but David and I wandered through slowly, marvelling at the talent we saw in each piece. There were paintings, drawings, weavings, clay sculptures, jewelry and metal sculptures, etchings, on and on. Along the way we saw teachers we know (the kids' art teacher, David's 5th grade teacher), classmates and old friends. And finally, we reached the second floor, Shelly turned a corner and saw it. Girl With Watering Can.

There, on the wall of an art gallery, and suddenly she was bashful and covering her face and laughing in near disbelief. There it was. As luck would have it, the girl in the picture is one of Shelly's classmates. And that sweet kindergartner was there! She was looking at the picture with us and we marveled at how well Shelly had captured her friend in the painting.

We followed up the art tour with cookies and lemonade, while listening to a string quartet. And then, the running around outside in the gardens. And more pictures (you can bet the kids were sick of pictures by the time we left!).

 

 

What a beautiful family I have, and what better way to spend it than together on a beautiful Sunday afternoon?

When She Grows Up

I know she loves art. And music. Baking? News to me, but its great!

Art on the Fridge

A Day in the Life - Spring Break

Breakfast

Helping with laundry

Cowboy lunch

"Hud! Hud!" (Translation, Hug! Hug!)

Playing with Archer's Pez dispenser, after snatching it from Archer's hand and running away, declaring "Mine!"

Arts and craft time while E took his nap - Shelly colored and Archer built a plane.

Studying the paper airplane book after supper.

Elijah doing dishes (AKA playing in the water and making a huge mess everywhere, but he was occupied and happy so it's worth water all over).

Testing out the paper airplanes.

Bed time means run and hide from Mom, E tried really hard to hide under the dining room table but couldn't keep himself from giggling so I was able to track him down and drag him out.

All in all it was an uneventful but fun-filled day. No major arguments/whining/complaints. The kids spent the entire day in their jammies. We got the bedrooms cleaned up a little bit. That's a successful day, as far as I'm concerned! 

For more of what we did today (yes, there's more!) visit the kids' blogs (yes they have blogs now!).

Shelly's Famous Art

Dancing and singing with Shelly

Testing the airplane with Archer

Passing Time

We recently had a "delayed start" day at school due to bad weather. The kids decided to draw some of their favorite cartoon characters to pass the time.

Shelly opted for tracing what I had printed out for them.

Archer carefully eyed up the drawings and then struck out on his own to draw beloved Phineas, Ferb, and Perry the platypus.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Home Sweet Home

For a whole week (almost) my wonderful husband has been away. Lucky Los Angeles. Its warmer there, warmer than the frigid below zero temps here in Wisconsin Winter. Except that earlier this week we had a high of 59 and in LA it was only 57 (WHAT?). Anyway, today its back to 20 below, but everything is warmer because my husband is home.

Today was an early release day for the kids, they would be done at 1:05. David's plane was landing at 1:15 so he'd just have to wait an extra few minutes before we could get there. Except, I didn't want him to wait. Or actually, I didn't want to wait. So we skipped out early, got lunch at a drive through and went to the airport to surprise him. And we waited. Endlessly. For 45 minutes.

Archer kept a close eye on the arrival time of Dad's flight. Updating me every two minutes about the fact that nothing had changed yet. Still... waiting... Shelly carefully put the finishing touches on her "Welcome Home" banner and asked us to sign our names to it. 

Finally the arrivals board showed "Arrived" on his flight number and we stood at the end of the hallway waiting. Endlessly, for another 5 or 10 minutes. And then. There he was, not expecting us, not realizing what was happening as E ran, arms outstretched, and finally reached him, grabbed his daddy's legs and hung on in the biggest bear hug a two year old can manage.

And we were SO glad he was home, and glad for the little adventure to get out of school early and watch the planes and the people at the airport. We navigated the escalators (E's first time?), shared Dad's soft pretzel and soda that he'd gotten (his only food since 5:00 this morning), and everyone talked over everyone else to share their stories one on top of the other. And finally Dad was home, and life with the Fortier Five was back to normal, and all was right with the world.

Turkeys

True to her character, Shelly made a love note for Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

Last night we had a spur of the moment craft inspiration and made little turkeys for our families.

Archer was a bit embarrassed that his turkey lost its beak right before our photo shoot, but the beak was restored afterwards.

 

E had a little help from Mom with his, he was so proud of his finished bird!

 

And last but not least...

Thanksgiving just would not be the same without the Pilgrim Bonnet from kindergarten!

 

 

I am so thankful for God's grace in our lives, for blessings beyond measure, too many to count or name. I'm thankful for these three beautiful children He's given to our family, and to our families that constantly support David and I in our mission to raise up these kids to be responsible, caring people that love the Lord. I'm so infinitely grateful for a husband who loves us so very much.

 

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Picture Perfect

I used to have this vague picture in my mind of what my home would look like when I grew up. Clean floors, for one. Walls without scrapes and dents and broken corners. Those things weren't in my picture. My picture looked something like the inside of a magazine.

White everything? Not in MY house, not now with kiddies around!

It's taken me awhile, but I've come around. I've grown up. Opened my eyes a little more to the pictures around me, in real life. Not in a magazine.

Before kids, we NEVER had anything on our fridge. Pictures belong in frames. Mail put away somewhere. Nothing stuck to the fridge with magnets.

Before kids, we didn't have gouges in our walls.

We didn't have love notes everywhere we turned.

We didn't have new drawings of hearts and stick people families every single day.

And now, we're daily presented with little love notes from our kids to us. I find them from one kid to another. Stuffed in corners of the furniture, stuck to any wall that will accept masking tape, attached to any surface within reach. Drawings big and small placed in front of me on my desk as I try to get a little more office work accomplished but am derailed by red-crayon-drawings of balloons and hearts.

My idea of a picture-perfect home has changed a bit. The fine art on the walls is no longer something I'd find in a store or a magazine. Its already here, in every room of our home, carefully and lovingly created. And without ever planning the design, our home has ended up picture perfect after all.