Arts, Crafts and Fifth Disease

The picture above is one taken on the last day of this six-week session at the Fountain City Art Center. The girls did a two-week series this time on self portraiture and then followed up with some architecture the last four weeks. You can see my pal, Sandi Van Winkle, with the pretty red hair in the back.

On the table in front of them is the *town* they created. They all sat down together and decided what should be in their town and then took various cereal boxes, granola bar boxes and peanut cans to create their community. There was a park complete with swing set and slide, a church, a cinema, a penguin zoo, even a cotton candy vendor on the street. There was not a courthouse, a jail or even an AA meeting going on anywhere in sight! As Sandi said to me earlier today, kids should design our towns. So true...

You might notice in the picture Kelsey's bright red cheeks. She has Fifth Disease. It sounds exotic and looks like it came deep from the jungles in Africa, but really it's just a bright red blotchy rash that comes after a little bit of a cold. Not real exciting, huh? Well, if she stripped down to her skivvies, you might think otherwise. She is one hivey (is that a word?) kid!

Not much else is going on around here. Lots of schoolwork, laundry and ball practice, but that's just the usual. Most of you will be happy to know that Kelsey has decided, after much uncertainty and deep consideration, that she will be able to play softball again after the *incident*. She starts back this weekend with her new protective face mask.

Finally, a shout out to my cousin and best bud, Tracy Lee, on completing a marathon in Jacksonville this week. I hear she's walking funny (insert joke here) and has a couple of scary looking toenails, but she's home and has a big pink ribbon for her efforts. None of us were there to actually witness it firsthand, but I have a feeling she had at least one family member right beside her, cheering her every step of the way. So for Tracy, congratulations on crossing that finish line, gal!

~Peace