Watercolor Wednesday: Rainbow Parrot

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Last week for watercolor Wednesday, I let Rami choose a project.  He chose the Rainbow Parrot project by Let’s Make Art.  Let’s Make Art is an ah-mazing company that offers subscription boxes of art supplies and projects.  They have a YouTube channel with tons of FREE tutorials for watercolor, art journaling, lettering, and kids’ art!  They have all different levels of ability, and I highly recommend them.

Anyway.  More about them next week though.  

So the best thing about these rainbow parrots is that we get to use the straw blowing technique- I’m pretty sure that’s the technical name, ha ha.  I have used this on a few projects with the kids, and it is something they always really enjoy.  I mean, who doesn’t?  Word of warning- if you have a very concrete thinking child, they might not enjoy the unpredictability of the paint blowing.  Just frontload for them, telling them about the process and that it is very loose and it is fun to see where the colors may blow and how they may mix!  Keep it positive, and they will really enjoy it.

We were unable to trace the outline, so we free handed it.  I actually think the kids really enjoyed this aspect of it.  You will notice that Nick doesn’t always participate.  He was really excited about this project for some reason and got super into it.  That was fun!  Lucy, who is usually very amped about Watercolor Wednesday chose not to participate in this project, but she did hang out with us.  She wanted to learn how to draw a ferret.  She had a very, very hard time with it and got really frustrated.  I was so proud of her because she was able to say her feelings, and even though she said she was going to quit multiple times, she never actually did.  She ended up with a ferret she was very proud of!  

Jimmy painted along with us too, though he didn’t quite grasp the straw part despite many attempts at helping him.  🙂

Fun project!  Thanks, Let’s Make Art!

Find the Rainbow Parrot Tutorial on Let’s Make Art’s YouTube channel!

Grand Ole Opry

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We were supposed to go to a music festival on our recent Carolinas trip.  It ended up not happening (dang it, COVID), so I found a different musical experience for the kids.  On the way home, we spent a night in Nashville.  In the morning, we toured the Grand Ole Opry!  

You are familiar with hearing this from me at this point, but I wasn’t sure if the kids would be interested in this or like it.  I wasn’t sure how engaging a tour of a theater would be, especially to young people who don’t have a historical context for it.  However, Nick is the self-proclaimed biggest Dolly Parton fan ever and Lucy dreams of being a singer, and I know a guy who could help us out, so on a wish and a prayer, we went to the Grand Ole Opry for our early tour.

It was incredible. I cried multiple times.  All the kids freaking loved it.  My girl realized her dream of being on stage at the Grand Ole Opry!  

We stood outside the theater for a little while because we were early and on the first tour of the day.  The tour guide greeted us.  She was very enthusiastic and friendly, very knowledgeable, and I was very impressed with her.  Our children were the only children on the tour lol.  

The tour began with a video which Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood “host.”  It was an immersive experience, and the set up of the room made it feel very intimate.  This is when the tears began for the day- hah!  This was a great orientation video and helped the kids understand more about the history and significance of the Grand Ole Opry.  

We got to tour the stage where they filmed Hee Haw, all the beautiful dressing rooms and the “living room,” and backstage… everywhere we went, the tour guide shared really great stories.  At one point she asked if anybody had any questions, and Nick raised his hand.  She goes, you have a question?  He said, no I have a statement.  I was thinking, oh man… Then he says, I just want to say that Dolly Parton is the most magnificent singer of all time.  And of course, everybody in the place started clapping and cheering in agreement!  Hah!  So after that, everybody loved Nick of course.  

The last place we went was backstage which ultimately led to the stage.  They really set this up nicely, so you felt deep reverence for the stage itself.  Each person had a chance to stand on stage and visit the “circle.”  They have a circle of wood from the original stage of the original theater where the Grand Ole Opry was live on air that is laid into the floor of the current theater where they have performed since 1974.  This was the best part of the tour for sure.

Lucy was very excited to visit- she had been talking about it for a while.  She went first, all by herself.  She held the microphone, but she did not sing.  🙂  They took a wonderful photo of her.  Then we all went out.  Nick took a chance and did it by himself as well.  It was a beautiful moment!

We then walked up to the back of the theater for another lovely view of the stage, then exited through the gift shop of course where I snuck a couple of gift purchases for the kids.  

All in all, once again, another experience I wasn’t sure about, but that the kids (and we) loved!!

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