Anansi play at Leslie's house :)

Kathrynn and her dear friend Leslie :)


One thing that has been a constant over the past 4 years is Kathrynn's love for our friend Leslie. Leslie has been a waldorf inspired teacher for over 25 years, and Kathrynn's connection with her has been magical.
Each week Kathrynn goes to Leslie's house for 4 hours of play and exploration. It's always been such a wonderful part of our life- bringing much joy to Kathrynn, and some "me" time for me!

Last week the girls in Leslie's class performed an Anansi play that one of Leslie's older students had written. The girls helped shape their lines, create their own outfits, as well as plan other components of the play.

Here are a few wonderful pictures of the girls, and a few videos. :)





Before the play, they did a song to help introduce the location of the play, which was taking place in Africa....







Kathrynn, the Sun Goddess, in her "spot"

Her friend Hannah played the role Anansi, and her friend Virgina was the narrator in the back corner.




Giving her lines....








In this video you can see a shot of her friend Zoe, who played one of the animals that Anansi tricks. :)

Kathrynn was so proud of herself, she is just beaming in this picture!
All the girls had so much fun, it was lovely to watch. :)


Leslie, we love you!!!! :)

A brief slice of our Joyful lives.....

For me, this one picture conveys a thousand words.....

While you can't fully view the lack of walkable floor space in the room, the room is pretty much covered with remnants of Kathrynn's activities from the day: markers spilled out all over the room, her little piano for impromptu performances, the tape for various projects, pieces of paper here and there, and a barrage of coloring books, blank pieces of paper, and coloring calenders.

The majority of said day was spent working on 2 coloring calenders that she and I have been working on - together (but mostly Kathrynn) we had colored the boarders on the various months, and now it was time for the central pictures to be drawn. Kathrynn went to town and drew pictures for all 12 months. She took intermitant breaks to play tunes on her piano and do other various activities.

There are plenty of thing *not* conveyed by this picture, but the main and pretty much all encompassing reality that is not explicitly stated is the freedom Kathrynn has in her life. Because she has the freedom to pretty much spend her days as she wishes, her creativity pours out of her in a way that is both passionate and joyful. Kathrynn has both the time and space to follow her passions, and there is no value placed on what she chooses to do with her day, whether it be watching a show, coloring or drawing pictures, writing letters to friends and family, playing with her littlest pet shops, star war, or super hero characters, doing math worksheets, playing with friends, reading, or whatever else interests her that day.

While occasionally the "mess" does annoy me, I also love how it fuels her creative passions. Is having a room clean throughout the day really all that important, in the large scheme of things? When the end of the day comes, sometimes we pick up everything, and other times the room stays pretty the same, ready for the next day of creative surges, however they manifest. :)

I am fully appreciating the spaciousness Kathrynn has these days, to be who she wants to be, to do the things she wants to do.... I am honored and blessed to be a witness to it all.

Kathrynn's "Everyone's Birthday Party"

Although I've taken a long hiatus from posting lately, our lives have continued to be filled with amazing wonderment, and i continue to be filled with such deep appreciation for the amazing life that we have!

One of things that I continue to love and appreciate about Kathrynn is her immense creativity. A few weeks ago she came up with the idea to have an "Everyone's birthday party"- where we would celebrate each person as if it were their birthday! Kathrynn spent a lot of time planning for this party- in fact, it was more planning and effort then any of her "real" birthday parties!!!

The afternoon was filled with fun activities that the girls moved through at their own pace.

First up, decorating cupcakes. Oh my! The girls had so much fun with this!!!!!



Eating was equally as fun. :D



After this they decorated hand puppets using some lunch size brown paper bags, beads, markers, buttons and yarn.


I think we had sequins on the floor for over a week-- I had so much resistance to vacuuming up all the sparkly remnants. :)

Next, pin the tail on the monster! Kathrynn drew the monster. :P



Next up was a fun version of cooperative musical chairs--- instead of taking a chair out and then a person sitting out when they didn't find a seat, the girls would sit on each others laps.







Last was the home made version of a pinata that Kathrynn and I came up with. :)
The idea of this pinata was not to destroy it, but just get it to tip over so the candy and goodies could come out. :)




Lastly, the girls opened up their "goodie bags", which kathrynn had decorated the front of with each girl's favorite animal, and we filled with various goodies we'd found around the house. :)




One of the best parts of this party was watching all the fun that all the girls seemed to be having throughout the party. They were all so creative and in their joy as they moved through the various activities! It was a great afternoon, and a great idea for a party! :)