Sunday, October 28, 2012

Halloween Art with Heather, Katie, Shannon, and Heather!

Here we are with the fun Halloween art projects created by our friends at Head Start. 
We drew spooky pictures with chalk on black paper.....



....made lovely wax paper and tissue pumpkins......


.....spooky flying bats....


.....and we had a blast with shaving cream and glue as we made our puffy ghosts!

We hope you will join us next week when we explore texture with water colors and salt!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Trick or Treat???

Those toads, they are at it again with all their foolishness and love of a good time.  On Halloween, with weather permitting, they will have a S'mores and Witches Brew treat from 5:30 to 6:30 on the front lawn of Toad House.

They will not only treat you, but have some fun with their own trickery. The toads, friendly with Mother Hubbard,  have grown some very big, warty squash. There are about 20 of these big fellows– too many for the toads to store and eat this winter.  (They hibernate in the winter and don't need as much food.) So they need you to help consume the bounty.

The trick is to cut these big bruisers open. To provide you with some ideas on how toads open up squash, please follow along from 1 to 10 or use your own ingenuity!

1. The Trick
2. Put squash on sidewalk.

3. Lift it as high as you can
.......and drop it.

4. Pick up any big piece 
and drop them again.

5. Take it inside your house 
and scoop out the seeds.

6. Salt it if you wish.

7. Repeat steps 6 and 7 
until there are no more squash
outside on your sidewalk.

8. Fill your oven. 
It won't take many pieces!

9. Put the rest in the fridge 
covered with plastic wrap.

10. The TREAT! 
Eat a chunk as is or add your choice of toppings: butter, brown sugar, pecans, grated  cheddar.
Find a good pumpkin pie recipe and substitute the baked and mashed squash. Make pumpkin cookies, make squash or pumpkin soup. 

But freeze the rest when you start to turn yellow.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Toadally Masked!



The toads are so very grateful to all the families and amazed by the creativity of the children who have attended the Toadally Artsy Kids' Events. Andrea has been photographing the work, and with the parent's permission placing the artwork on the Artsonia website (see link at the top of the blog) To date, there are 51 artworks by the children and they are all beautiful!

On October 20th approximately 20 children gathered at Toad House to create masks. We had help from the International Student Program at Ladysmith. Amanda Wilmont captured a few moments ....
















...and some of the extraordinary masks that were created!









Saturday, October 13, 2012

Our fall tree collage'

Andrea and friends created beautiful fall trees with tissue and glue.

Here are two photos from Saturday's Toadally Artsy Kids' Event.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Artsy Kids Create!

On Saturday our young friends created fall window hangings with crayon shavings and wax paper.
Here are a few of  photos from that event. To learn more about the current line up of classes for the  Toadally Artsy Kids' Events or other art activities in our community scroll to the end of the blog and click on any of the calendar events.





Many of the children's creations are beginning to appear on Artsonia. The following is taking from the Artsonia website.  To view artwork by the Toad House Artsonia site, please use the link at the top of the blog


Artsonia is the world’s largest online kids’ art museum. Come be inspired by more than 16 million pieces of artwork from students in over 120 countries!
Mission
To give every child and teen an art gallery to call their own. Artsonia provides students with a place to share and store their artistic creations. Helping to keep the arts in education.

Friday, October 5, 2012

The Enriched Toads OR Do toads help put out fires

It was a cold and windy day, but the 4th graders in Mrs. Schueller's class braved the cold to pull two toads in a little red coaster wagon for the 2013 Ladysmith Homecoming parade.

Sorry to say that Mme. Toads's camera did not catch a photo the photo of the children pulling the wagon. :(  But here is a cute one of the children holding the banner.




The individually designed and painted toads are part of the enrichment find project. After going into hibernation, the toads will be out on the spring, looking for new homes and gardens.  However, the toads always want to have the last word and the last ride. Since there was only one wagon, these extra toads, not to be outdone by their friends, hopped aboard the two fire trucks that signified the end of the parade.




However fun it was to ride in the wagon and in the fire trucks, these very cold toads were happy to return to their nice warm Toad House.


If you have never seen the toads in person, be sure to come to Winter Magic at Toad House. The names  and stories of all twenty-some toads will be revealed along with their artist creators.

The twelve people who came closest to naming all the toads at Leaf it to the Toads will receive a gift of a musical toad. These 12 people are Hollis Helmeci, Terry Fredricks, Sherri Friedel, Jenny Zacharias, Leann Bach, Mark Leary, Rachel Gondek, Kate Kopka, Phoenix Leary, Carol Michaelson, Alannah Johnson, and Mary Leary. The twelve finalists advance to the Final Round!!!  Who will win the grand prize? 

No one toadally knows.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Great times at Leaf it to the Toads!

The toads had a great time with old and new friends during the fall celebration. The watercolors, gourds, cards, and prints by Andrea Korpinen were available for viewing and purchase in all the galleries. If you had your eye on a piece and have now come to a decision to purchase, please contact Andrea.  You may continue to see her work in the next few months at Toad House.

Thanks to Karen Ek and Karen Wiltrout the treat table with coffee and lemonade was always well stocked. Many enjoyed the treats (they are a preview of what is to come when the bakery is open.
The music was highlight for Mme. Toad. Here is a picture taken by Amanda Wilmont of Kim Rogers who was the first on the venue. 
We were blessed to have other talented musicians following Kim. The Friedel Family sang and played together and individually. Maria's duet with her mom is a very moving and inspiring piece. Sherri wrote the music for this a few years ago and as I write this, the melody is running through my head. Vincent's solo was toadally awesome. He has a beautiful voice and an amazing range and stage presence.

Sage and Phoenix Leary played on the porch following the Friedels. The toads are toadally taken with the talent in this family also!

Mme. Toad had the opportunity to sit still and listen to the 'Notables', a quartet made up of members of the Ladysmith Community Singers.  The audience learned a little musical history while being  wonderful entertained by the harmonious voices of Rhonda, Micheal, Kurt, and Dana.

Toadally Artsy activities were held out of doors, thanks to the cooperative weather. Here is a cute photo by Julia Galina of her son with the Philanthropic Toads. Emily and Kristina, two of the Philanthropic Toad artists helped everyone understand the Toad Naming Game. Mme. Toad is still checking over the almost 100 entries!! Winners can come to Winter Magic at Toad House to claim their prizes! However, everyone who played the game also won a Toad House Bakery Dessert (now, you just have to hold onto that ticket while the Toads get their bakery up and running.


Here is a photo of Andrea's father, Brian, carving one of the beautiful pumpkins. The finished two pumpkin carvings are stationed at the main entrance to Toad House on Lake Avenue. Thank you Brian for sharing your talent! What fun it was to watch the faces emerge!


Ruth Meszaros kept the paints flowing for the Young@Art as they found a pumpkin in the woods and then came back to the tables to paint. Here you can get some sense of how engaging art is for all ages.




Thank-you to everyone!
We hope you had fun and will join us again!