Color Walk, 2.0 :: Orange

Two summers ago, we took color walks. Lots of them. At the time, it was an activity more suited for Big B, although little b happily came along for the ride. This afternoon's plans changed for a myriad of reasons, and instead of hustling and bustling from this engagement to that--we found ourselves at home, ready to explore a world freshly shined by a thunderstorm. With Papa taking a well deserved nap, Big B, little b and I embarked on our first of this summer's Color Walks--an activity little b is discovering anew. It is only fitting to begin with ORANGE, as this is little b's very favorite color. Many more to follow!

The Greatest Gifts

I have not posted here since December 1st. For me, that seems an eternity. It isn't for lack of material--goodness knows we've been a busy family. It just felt like the time to post and write about the things that bring us joy simply wasn't there. There has not been a moment's pause, a deep breath, a sit-and-relax hour in a very, very long time.

It is amazing how the universe works.

Today, just as things are spiraling a bit too chaotically for my comfort level, I receive the sweetest, most grounding gift imaginable. My twin sister, Aunt S, created a beautiful, 400+ page, hardcover book, comprised of all of the posts published here in this space over the last two years, as my Christmas present. Its slight belatedness added to its reception, as I was able to spend still moments looking through its gorgeous pages, remembering small details about my children, their papa, our creations, our adventures, our color walks, our love.

...and now, ironically, all I can think about is chronicling the wonderful things we did over the holiday, and rediscovering my pride in being the keeper of this family's story. I am so grateful to Aunt S for this gift, and can already feel my roots sinking deeper into the earth.

BONUS GIFT: as if that wasn't enough...a few hours later I received a surprise visit from The Voice of the Village, with the sole purpose of gifting me a bread machine--something I recently coveted at Aunt S's house. A full circle indeed. If there is anything that can help get one back to the basics, its breadmaking. And that's just what I intend to do. Live, laugh, love, create, write--and bake bread.

Color Walk :: Lavender

Our Easter trip to Georgia was washed in the loveliest shade of lavender, impossible to ignore and begging to be photographed!

Shape Walk :: Circles

We are soooo enjoying Spring Break over here. The slow and easy "what-do-you-want-to-do-today" pace of things is just what we needed. On Friday we decided to replace our routine library trip with an impromptu exploratory mission, complete with backpacks and special gear. Big B asked if we could take a color walk or letter walk. We wanted to include little b, so we decided to invent a new quest appropriate for his skill set: shape walks. Our first hunt was for circles. I love the way our collection looks!

2009 : Our Year in Review

january : ringing it in

february : strawberries









march : welcome, spring









april : treasure hunt









may : color walking









june : soaking in the sun









july : fiery fresh









august : the space between









september : finding beauty









october : serendipity









november : mudpies









december : sweetest gifts

Sneak Peek: The Color Walk Calendar!

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm now taking pre-orders for the 2010 Snip and Snail Color Walk Calendar!

Inspired by our year of color walking, these custom-printed beauties will have inspirational quotes and ideas for kid-made fun each month of the year. Pre-ordering for the holidays is available now! There is a PayPal button on the sidebar, or you may email me for more information. The total price is $25, including shipping and tax, and a portion of all proceeds will benefit The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. I hope you will enjoy these walks with your family as I have with mine!

Beautiful Walk: Downtown Saturday

While Papa was cheering on our alma mater on a brisk autumn football Saturday, Big B, little b and I went to our downtown arts festival and farmer's market to enjoy the fall that is finally here. There were so many sights and people and colors that I asked Big B if he'd like to take a color walk, or a letter walk. He thought long and hard, and said, "Let's take a BEAUTIFUL walk!" So I gave him full control of the camera, and the content, for the morning, and he took pictures of whatever he found beautiful. What a kid.

Color Walk (on location) :: Purple

We have been waiting patiently for the right time and place to explore the majestic world of PURPLE. We found these royal little surprises throughout Great-Grandma's Georgia homestead.

Color Walk (on location) :: Tan

Big B chose the perfect time to go hunting for TAN: our annual Labor Day vacation to Southeast Georgia, where the clay and pine straw seem to dust everything in the under-appreciated hue.

Camp B, Day Eight: Color Day

This morning was Big B and little b's morning out with Nee-nee. Little b was still under the weather when I retrieved him, so we shelved our plans once again and nestled in for the afternoon. Nee-nee noticed that Big B was wearing a yellow shirt, had seen a yellow butterfly, and was about to make banana bread with yellow bananas. Voila, Camp B, Day Eight: Color Day was born.

To celebrate Big B's transition into Kindergarten, we bought him a box of 64 Crayola crayons a week or two ago. He has taken very good care of them, and loves to hear the names of the colors as he's drawing. Color Day inspired a closer look, and Big B carefully pulled out every single crayon today.
I asked him, "If you were a Crayola crayon, which one would you be?" After much deliberation, his choice was solid: sepia. We looked at each other and almost simultaneously said: "Color Walk!" And so we did.After we returned from our walk, we grabbed the food coloring we had just bought for our ocean-in-a-bottle project, and created a little color mixing station. We filled three glass containers with water, and I asked Big B to start by putting a few drops of each primary color into each glass. After explaining that primary colors could mix to make any other colors in the rainbow, Big B was set free to play color scientist, and he kept busy for a very long time, mixing and even matching his creations.

To end our evening, we played in the boys' room while I finished organizing the books by color. I wanted to create a system that Big B would enjoy, as he sets out to explore the limitless world of independent reading, sometime in the very near future.

“The purest and most thoughtful minds

are those which love color the most.”
--John Ruskin

Color Walk :: Sepia

Camp B, Day Eight: Color Day took us on a walk matching Big B's favorite crayon color: SEPIA! What an beautifully rustic palette this creates!

Color Walk :: Aqua

We have been holding out for an on-location purple walk, but this morning's incredible summer heat inspired an unexpected choice from Big B: swimming pool AQUA!

Snip and Snail, The Interview? WOW!

Starr Weems de Graffenreid is a teacher, artist, educational activity designer, and the author of Teach Your Child Spanish Through Play and Brain Child. She is also a writer for the Huntsville Education Activites Examiner, and she found my blog when she was doing a story on color walks. When she contacted me asking for an interview to be included in a series of articles on 'inspirational children's activity bloggers,' I was floored!

This blog has proved a worthy outlet for not only creativity but accountability, to being grateful, to finding time to create and appreciate beauty, and to being the kind of attentive mother I know my boys deserve. And while I am so pleased that others in the blogosphere come to visit, I never would have thought I would be called 'inspirational.' So this feature is a real honor of the most unexpected kind.

Here is Starr's feature of Snip and Snail.

Color Walk :: Black

A morning color walk with cousins is the best. Big L and little l are in town for Big B's birthday, and we set off this morning for adventure. Each big kid chose a different color, so we diplomatically played a guessing game to determine the 'winner'--and Big L came out on top, choosing BLACK. A great start to the last day of Big B's fourth year!

Color Walk :: Silver and Gold

It was such a bright afternoon today, we decided to hunt for shiny treasures of SILVER and GOLD. Along the way we stopped and visited old neighbors, and met new ones--including one that invited us to a party, and one that might just be Big B's Kindergarten teacher. Have I mentioned that we live in a GREAT neighborhood?

"Make new friends, but keep the old,
One is silver and the other gold."
--from the traditional Girl Scout song

Color Walk :: Orange

After a hot summer morning at the beach, we took a hot summer afternoon walk to the duck pond, and the color choice was unanimous: ORANGE. This may be my personal favorite so far!

Color Walk :: Red

Mimi is in town! Big B, always the consummate host, offered her the selection for yesterday's color walk. Mimi told him that one of her favorite colors is, and has always been, RED. Very fitting for a hot June Florida afternoon!

Color Walk (on location) :: Rainbow

We spent the weekend in the North Florida woods with Aunt S, Uncle S, Big L and little l, celebrating Big L's eleventh birthday. This morning we decided to take a color walk, inspired by the realization that there are RAINBOWs scattered everywhere on their beautiful property.

Color Walk (on location) :: White

The day after the rains, the WHITE almost glows in the South Georgia summer.

Color Walk (on location) :: Green

We spent Memorial Day weekend in South Georgia for Papa's birthday, and the color of the season was most certainly GREEN. It seemed to create fresh air just by its everywhere-ness, washing the world in the color of life.