our collective digital self
Posted by Michelle on May 27, 2009 in Hayley, Michelle
This is totally dorky of me but two kids from Hayley’s scrabble club ended up winning the national scholastic Scrabble tournament! They had on their club shirts that I designed for the tournament AND for their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live out in LA – it was that big a deal! (read more about them Cary Boys win national Scrabble tournament.
from TV screenshots:
Posted by Michelle on May 15, 2009 in Hayley, Michelle
Tons of photos with friends and family from Easter egg dyeing and hunting.
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Posted by Michelle on Jan 1, 2009 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, More Family
For the fourth year, we charged up the remote cars and carefully carried out the lovely gingerbread creations to the bottom of our steep driveway in the cul de sac.
We summoned our friends next door and then the GINGERBREAD DEMOLITION DERBY commenced.
Four-time competitor Purple car was joined by three-time participant Silver and a surprise entry of a jeep driving by a stuffed Elephant joined the attack force. The gingerbread houses put up a good fight but the cars again prevail and the kids finished the job by stomping on the remains.
Yes we are strange people but we love making gingerbread, we just don’t like eating it so why not have some fun with it!
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Posted by Michelle on Jan 1, 2009 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, More Family
We continued our family tradition of making gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve. Obviously you can’t destroy them if you don’t make them but of course that’s for Xmas day. We started about 10pm after being next door for the annual Christmas Eve celebration at the Renfroes. Good times was had by all and I love that we have these traditions with friends and family each year.
As usual we made a huge mess of it but that definitely is part of the fun. We didn’t try the 2nd floor like last year but did two side by side ones – of course one wouldn’t stay together until we made some super sticky paste royal icing.
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Hooray for messy hands!
Posted by Michelle on Dec 16, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle
I love Peppermint Bark and I had a good version of it not long ago so I tried to find a way to duplicate it. We started with a recipe for double chocolate peppermint bark that I found at the fabulous instructables.com.
The version I’d had not long ago had some small cookie pieces in it so we decided to mix in oreo crumbs (like you’d use to make a pie crust, not actually from cookies) into the dark chocolate part too.
Hayley and I had a blast destroying candy canes in the mini-cuisinart. We had some small snafus but it was fun and of course when you let a child bake, mistakes can happen.
Despite the small problems, it came out looking great and tasted even better! We can’t wait to share it with some friends (and make more!)
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If you try it – we learned white chocolate melts way quicker and that the time between dark layer on the bottom being dry enough to put the next layer down was 10-13 mins. Basically it shouldn’t be able to slide in the pan at all.
Posted by Michelle on Dec 9, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle
We had so much fun making the Halloween wreath we decided to make a Christmas wreath. Joann’s was having a huge sale so we hit them up and grabbed a light up wreath and supplies. Hayley picked all the items, I love wandering through stores with her.
We got out our hot glue gun and got busy. Hayley selected which ones to use and lined up things the way she wanted them and I made sure they didn’t hit the lights too much.
The result was lovely and all for $17!
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Posted by Michelle on Dec 4, 2008 in Hayley
Salem Students and Parents,
We were thrilled with this year’s Reflections Submissions. WOW, we received a record number of entries (more than 6 times what we got last year). It is so fun to see our Salem Students’ talent and
creativity. Thank you for entering. All of you will be invited to a special breakfast after the holidays (details TBA) where we’ll display and return the projects.
The school’s judges (teachers and staff) were allowed to choose 24 projects to send to the Wake County level. Below are the students who were school winners:
Hayley Hillison
(I removed the other names…)
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She didn’t win on the County level but that’s ok! We are so proud her for her hard work and winning at the school level!! We don’t know which photo it was but we’ll post when we do.
Related post: Hayley’s amazing photography entries for Reflections contest
Posted by Michelle on Nov 14, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle, More Family
I have always loved Halloween. When I was young, I read a Ray Bradbury book called the Halloween Tree. I read it once, twice and then again, repeating that every fall. I loved that book.
The book starts on Halloween and takes a group of children on a scary journey through cultural history and version of Halloween, as they attempt to catch up with and save a dying friend. One of the key elements is the Mexican celebration Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) which seemed fascinating to me.
Celebrated on on Nov. 1st and/or 2nd, The Day of the Dead is where gatherings of family and friends to pray and remember loved ones who have died. Some other cultures celebrate similar holidays as well and the Day of the Dead has its roots in Aztec culture. The idea is to honor the dead but also that people who have passed away are supposed to be able to hear your prayers better at this time than any other time. November 1st is traditionally to celebrate children who have died and November 2nd for adults.
Dia De Los Muertos isn’t as sad as it sounds, it is rather upbeat. Good candy, good food and good memories. The celebration can be at the graveyard or an altar/shrine in your home. You decorate with photos, food flowers, candles and items of those of who have passed away or things they’d like. You are supposed to tell funny and warm stories about those people and talk to them.
I was printing of some weekly reading assignments I thought would interest Hayley and found a great one of the Day of the Dead but it was written for 5th to 7th graders. Of course, she read it perfectly and loved it too. So we decided to make our own shrine at home to celebrate.
Interestingly last night Hayley was over at my folks and they went to the family graves this morning to tidy up. How perfect for our Day of the Dead event!
We set out to do it for my Grandpa Jim, Grandma Jeannette and Uncle Mike (my mom’s parents and her brother) but then Hayley decided we should add in our dog Sam who passed away, which was awesome. We made sugar skulls ourselves and decorated them in the style. Hayley talked to my mom and made lists of food and hobbies of our family members who passed. I got out photos, my grandmother’s engagement and wedding rings, my granddad’s prayer books and golf hat and ton of articles on my uncle’s golf championships plus Sam’s dog collar. My mom made a family recipe book that was a great addition. We added all sorts of food and snacks – doggie biscuits too. (I’m going to post a photo on flickr with all the items labeled.)
After some time talking to them, we ate the candy and food and blew out the candles. It was a great way to share about family history, learn about another culture’s history and traditions, not to mention be creative and silly! (It is so much fun it is to have a child with an inquisitive spirit.)
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Posted by Michelle on Nov 6, 2008 in Hayley
The National PTA Reflections Program is an arts recognition and achievement program for students. The Reflections Program provides opportunities for students to express themselves creatively and to receive positive recognition for original works of art inspired by a pre-selected theme, while increasing community awareness on the importance of the arts in education.
(she’s not smiling because this is her serious artist look, haha)
Hayley is entering two of her photographs from the beach for a school based art competition. Recognition is great but this was more about creating something. We had a great time doing it and you know when your ten year old thanks you repeatedly for doing it, you know you are on the right track.
Getting some good photos for the competition was something we worked on at the beach. The theme for this year’s competition is ‘WOW’ so we figured we’d have some good wow things down there. She’s got a great eye and is completely comfortable using my big Nikon.
This was a great process for her to go through – setting up shots, looking at light and perspective, picking the good shots (25 down to 12 down to 2), editing them (cropping and brightening/contrast) all her decisions on how to do it. The moment she picked them up at the print shop was really neat, she was beaming.
We mounted them on canvas, put them in protective sleeves. Then I had to fill out 4 pages of stuff and she had to work on her part – titles and she had to make an ‘artist statement’ for each on how the work connect to the theme. I put the photos and her ‘statements’ below.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
My photo called Cape Hatteras Lighthouse shows how tall the lighthouse is when you take a photo looking up at it. It has 268 steps up it and I climbed them. It is the tallest lighthouse in the United States. It is 208 feet high and weighs 4800 tons.
It was built right after the Civil War in 1870. In 1999, it was moved because the ocean was going to move up around it. It looks like it could crush you to move anything that tall and big.
The lighthouse says WOW to me because it is big, tall, historic and beautiful.
Wild Foal
My photo called Wild Foal is of a young horse eating grass in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
I went in an open top Jeep through the beach and sand dunes to see the wild horses that live near Corolla. This horse is one of the wild horses that are descendants from the Spanish mustangs brought by explorers almost 500 years ago. The herd roams free and there only about 100 wild horses in the herd.
I saw this one particular foal by itself eating in a beautiful open area and I thought it was WOW because it lives in the open and can roam anywhere it wants to. It has its all the dunes and beach for its home. By law you can’t get more than 50 feet close to them so my picture is as close as you can get to this amazing beautiful animal.
Posted by Michelle on Oct 9, 2008 in Hayley
To get in the Halloween spirit, Hayley and I made a Halloween wreath that we just adore. Then we set off for the pumpkin patch with our next-door neighbors where we bought many pumpkins (and pretended to eat them where I taught Ethan to fake throw up, lol).
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