Diorama, Cha Cha Cha

Somehow I survived the Great Diorama Event of 2005. There will be more dioramas to come, but this was the first diorama, and as such caused a great wave of anxiety to come crashing over my head which lasted from the moment it was casually mentioned (in August, at the open house), until last Thursday night when all the dioramas were revealed to the parents at PTA Night, and I could heave a great sigh of relief that Jack’s diorama was neither a) so obviously and completely created by an adult that all the other people in the room were snickering in disapproval nor b) so totally and utterly crappy that everyone passed it by sadly, shaking their heads, hoping the poor kid didn’t feel too bad about his lousy diorama which his parents obviously didn’t help him with at all. Whew! We were plumb in the middle, which was what I was going for. Plumb in the middle, mind you, involved a $40 shopping trip to the craft store and a five-hour session last weekend of gluing, taping, and other fine motor skills which do not come so easily to yours truly. It also involved a lot of tongue-biting in the face of Jack’s hasty and poorly thought out coloring job. Between the two of us we did a downright mediocre job, and I’m mighty proud.