A Friend (or a Dozen) For Life

Big Brother, Little Sister (Nov. 1996)

This is a "sibling day" chapter. They will each have one, and this is Lucas and Hanna doing a Fall art project.

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Saturday, November 16th, 1996

*Marin Residence*

Today, Ashley is going to let Hanna and Lucas do an activity together as siblings.

"All right, you two. Are your hands nice and clean?" She asks her kids.

"Yes!"

"Yeah, Mom. Can you tell us what we're going to do now?"

Ashley smiles. "As soon as you two come sit at the table and close your eyes."

Hanna runs over to the table with Luke following. Ashley knows he'll perk up once he sees what the activity is, especially because it involves melting crayons.

"What are we gonna make, Mamma?" Hanna asks. They are learning about fall in class; the colors that people might see, talking about temperature change, what holidays might be celebrated, etc.

"Well, you and bubba are going to trace your hands on some construction paper. Then you will tape the hand in the middle of this paper.

After that, we will take the hairdryer and melt the crayons. The melted part will run around the hand.

Then, we'll take off the hand and you'll have the outline of your hands with melted crayon around it."

"Awesome!"

"Yeah, cool, Mom!"

"All right, well, let's get started. Hanna, can you tell me two colors that you might see in the Fall?"

"Um...." Hanna thinks long and hard. "Purple...?" Ashley nods encouragingly. "And..."

Hanna gets lost for a moment and has to think harder. She side-eyes Luke who sneakily puts his finger on an orange and acts like that is the color he wants as he drags it towards himself slowly.

Ashley pretends not to notice.

"Orange!"

"Yes, very good. Now, Lucas, can you tell me two colors you might see in the fall?"

"Uh... well, there's orange and purple, like Hanna said. Then there's red, green...can I say more than two?" Ashley nods.

"Well, there's also red-orange, brown, blue-green, yellow ...and that's it I think."

Ashley nods and drags a box of old and broken crayons closer.

"Very good, you two. Now, here are some crayons. We have tons of other colors, but for this activity we are going to use only Fall colors.

We have red, orange, yellows, some blues and greens. We also have a few mixed colors which are the blue-greens, green-yellow, and red-orange."

"Have fun picking them out; I'm going to get the hot-glue gun and hair dryer."

When Ashley leaves the kitchen, Luke and Hanna dig through the bucket.

"What color do you want to use, Hanna?" Luke asks his baby sister.

"Umm...I want purple and blue and pink!"

"Okay, here are some purple crayons. Now, you can't use light pink, but how this color pink?"

He holds up a crayon that's had part of its wrapper torn off and looks to be very worn-out.

"It's a dark pink. You might see this color pink more than a light one."

"Okay! Yeah, I like that one. Thank you, Luke!"

Lucas and Hanna spend the next few minutes picking out their colors. Hanna chooses purple, pink, blue-green, and red. And Lucas chooses green, green-blue, blue, red, and red-orange.

Ashley checks on them every few minutes between getting the hot-glue gun warmed up, the poster boards ready, and finding the old hair dry for them to use.

"Okay, guys, do you have all your colors picked out?"

"Yes, Mommy! Don't you think I have some pretty colors?"

"Yes, baby. They are very pretty. Now, I need you tow to pick out a marker and I am going to trace your hands here on this sheet of paper."

"Okay, Mamma. I wanna use pink, okay?"

"All right. And Luke, what color would you like?"

"I dunno. Green I guess. But I can trace my own hand, right, Mom? I don't need you to do it."

"Yes, you can do it on your own. Hanna, come here, sweetie. Let's get your hand traced and then you can help me glue your crayons onto the poster board."

After getting their hands traced, cut out, and taped onto their poster boards, Ashley helps them carefully glue their crayons on.

They had to wait about 10 to 15 minutes for the glue to get nice and dry; afterwards they eagerly bounce back over to the table.

"Now, to make it fair on who gets to go first, I am going to think of a number between 1 and 20. You each pick a number and whoever gets the closer will go first. Ready?"

"Yeah!"

"All right. Let me think of one...okay, Luke you choose a number."

"Umm...I choose the number 12!"

"Okay, now Hanna, you choose a number."

"I choose the number 7, 'cause I'm gonna be seven next month!"

"Okay. And the number I was thinking of was...." She pauses for dramatic affect. "15! Luke was the closest." She says as Lucas cheers and Hanna pouts a little.

"Yes!" Ashley sets Lucas up with his poster board and the hair dryer, giving instructions on how to melt the crayons.

"Be careful now, sweetie, and don't touch the crayons. The wax will be very hot, and may burn your fingers."

"Okay, mom."

"All right. And Hanna, would you like to watch Lukie melt the crayons?"

Hanna nods and hops up on to Ashley's lap.

They watch as the hairdryer melts the crayons, sending lined-patterns of blue, green, blue-green, red, and red-orange down the board.

"Wow! Mamma, it looks so cool!" Hanna says in awe. "Look! It's all melted and its goin' 'round bubba's hand! Oh, can we do mine now, Mommy? Can we, please?"

"Well, yes. But we have to wait until Bubba is done." Hanna and Ashley continue watching until Luke can't melt them any longer.

Then, Ashley helps Hanna melt her crayons. Hanna watches in awe as a rainbow of purple, pink, red, and blue-green make their way down the poster.

Later in the afternoon, when their crayons have cooled, Ashley has them un-tape their hands.

"Oh, wow!" Luke says in awe. "It looks so cool!"

The two hand their posters up in the hallway both eager to show Tom once he gets home. All in all, Lucas and Hanna had a wonderful big brother, little sister day today.

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So here is the Hanna/Lucas sibling day. Review and let me know what you think. :)

Next Up: Thanksgiving