AFY ArtsFest '13

Yesterday we enjoyed a day at ArtsFest, celebrating the wonderful talents of the AFY children. Shara performed a couple of times in the big review - one singing another drama, and we got to go into all of her classes. In her music class we took a number of videos available at:

https://plus.google.com/photos/116319541735911965313/albums/5902666477249747137?authkey=CIPb59H-1I65Bg

Cleaned off the pool table

In preparing for Thanksgiving, which is what it took to do this, we finally put away Shara's art projects from her summer at Arts for Youth. We still need to frame some, but for now, here are some of the photos I took.

ArtsFest!

Still waiting to post the videos from the first session of Arts for Youth. Shara had a wonderful time and concentrated on fine arts because she wants to get better. Nothing wrong with that! Here is some of her work - sorry I didn't get everything formatted properly.

Arts for Youth

We've been pretty busy this summer so far. Shara's party came and went and then on to summer camp. She's been having a wonderful time at Arts for Youth. She's taking video production, fine arts, puppetry, and dance. She wasn't sure how she'd like these subjects because she had her heart set on doing just what she did last year - music, dance, drama, and art. We registered too late for her to get just what she wanted but I don't think she'd want to change what she's doing. In video, they're making a movie - a mashup of Jaws, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Star Wars. Her role is the empress in Star Wars. Puppetry is like art - they make puppets and then act with them. Dance sounds like creative movement, and she really likes it, and art is art. She's been doing art for one of her workshops too, because she wants to get good at art and wants to put in the extra time. When I drop her off, she is so excited she can't wait to get over with her morning group and when I pick her up she's can be a chatterbox, telling me all about her day. I can tell she likes having the teens and college age helpers around too because she goes on and on about their funny jokes and fun things they say and do.

We've also been able to spend quite a bit of time in the pool. Shara's determined to learn how to swim this summer and she's certainly on her way! Without the swimmies she can get around a bit and is finally starting to get her butt out of the water and kick.

Farewell AFY - until next year

We had a nice treat today and got to see what Shara's been doing for the past few weeks at Arts for Youth camp. A lot! She learned 3 dances, 4 songs, 3 "plays", and produced at least 10 pieces of artwork. We got to see all of it today! She also did yoga in the open review.  It was very cute and amazing to me that she loves performing so much with people she hardly knows.

During the opening review we saw some of the play/pretend fighting they had learned. Shara showed us this earlier in the week and we took our turns "punching" and "kicking" each other. She was pretty good at it too. Well, today we find out that she didn't actually learn how to do this but saw them doing it on stage and figured it out. So we were letting a seven year old take swings at us and she wasn't even professionally trained! Tonight she wanted to play fight again and all of a sudden I was nervous! But she is careful, I have to admit.

We left before the 2nd review. Shara was dead tired and it was pretty hot in the art studio we were in just before going down to the review and when we left the studio she said she wanted to leave. I made her go with me and tell someone so they wouldn't be expecting her to be there. It didn't sound like anyone would have been - I guess the whole camp was going to go across the stage like a finale, but no performances. On the way home she really lost it and just started crying. She was so tired! When she finally calmed down and got herself together we all decided we needed ice cream and a swim. And that's what we did.

Artful Day

Today we went to the MFA to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was breathtaking, but to Shara, it wasn't that great and she was, to but it in her words, bored. But all wasn't lost. We went through the maze of a museum and found the cafeteria to get some quick food in her and low and behold, with the bribe of Doritos and a dessert to come later, her attitude started to change. Then it went bad again, and with the threat of not going out to dinner and no dessert, she turned it around for good and we had a very nice time. We basically wandered around and got to see one floor of the Americas wing. 

I'm amazed at how observant she is. Most of the time it didn't look like she was really interested in anything, but then I'd say, "Shara, can you find the rainbow?" and she pointed to it and said she already did before. One part that she wanted to see was the ancient art, the Egyptian, Greek and Roman exhibits. She really enjoyed looking at the sculptures and artifacts.

For dinner we went closer to home, since we hadn't thought of where to go, it was cold and rainy, and still a bit early. We ended up going to Fiesta in East Bridgewater. It was good, about as good as any other Mexican in this area, and we all enjoyed our meal and the company. Ended with ice cream across the street at Skinner's Candy Store.