school art projects

I'll get to the recording and keeping track of incisors, but it's dark outside.

Now isn't that the lamest of excuses.

It will be worth the wait. You won't believe what I saved!

Fast forward a blink or two to the saving of school projects.

These pages are all 8.5x11, so you can sort of imagine how small I cut some of these projects down to. If you've ever had a child in school, you also know that the size of a school project sometimes takes up the entire dining room table. Precious treasures. Beyond precious. Just a wee bit overwhelming when you multiply those things by 5 or 10.

Out came the camera ... projects that size just don't fit on my scanner bed. 

Projects were photographed and then printed on, what looks to be (I am getting forgetful!), photo paper. Some parts of the original projects were saved, such as the name Bock in the bright in bright primary colors.

The piece of art on the bottom right hand corner of this page just begs to be made into large wall art.

Huge wall art.

In hindsight, some of these stories could have taken up entire pages and would probably have been more easily read. But they are readable and if someday I need a magnifying glass or 250+ reading glasses, I'm sure the kids can fill my Christmas stocking with whatever I need.

Isn't she just the cutest ever?! Isn't it amazing that at 5 years old she wanted to be the woman she is today on her 21st birthday?

Happy Birthday Anna!

Imagine making a book out of these pages with a story to go along. Imagine making it for the child of the one who wrote the story.

And that, folks, is how I preserved the artwork of the young 'uns in this family. The kids still have envelopes of school work and artwork that I didn't toss. But these big pieces got squashed down to little ones ... and I seriously love them!

You're thinking, "that's a lot of work!" Yes, it is. So is feeding and doing dishes for a family. So is keeping up on their laundry. The homework. The school conferences. On and on. All of that is worth every moment of energy you expend. So was this.

I really am thankful that I saved pieces of their childhoods and thankful that the orange box folks are going to help me preserve it.