Image Jo Freitag
Sprite’s Site blog celebrates its birthday in June.
Although my personal blog was created and the Hello World post was entered in December 2008 it started to be used as Sprite’s Site on 13 June 2009.
It has been a good opportunity for the characters to come together for a picture.
To see how the blog birthday has been celebrated in previous years see https://spritessite.wordpress.com/tag/birthdays/
Sprite’s Site Blog celebrates its birthday in June and all the characters get together for a group picture.
The theme of the blog birthday party this year is The Flowers of Giftedness.
Click on the picture to see an enlargement of it. To see an enlargement of the Flower bowers for the Twitter Birds see https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/flower-bowers-for-twitter-birds/
The blog has now received 82,615 individual page viewings since it started.
For the stories of all the previous blog birthdays see https://spritessite.wordpress.com/tag/birthdays/
Here are the Flower Bowers for the Twitter Birds who are attending the Birthday Party for Sprite’s Site blog.
Click on the picture to see an enlargement.
I think there are 100 Twitter Birds in the picture but when I recounted the score was 101 – maybe I counted one twice!
See if you can count them all and see how many of them you can name. You probably recognise Tweet and Retweet, Tweetil, Tweetelle and Great Aunt Hashtag. But what is the name of the lone bagpipe player?
Preparations for the Sprite’s Site Blog Birthday Party are in full swing.
Sprite has made floral garlands for the Dabrowski Dogs and is bringing out her poster for the Flowers of Giftedness theme.
Imaginational is helping with suggestions for setting up the party area.
Intellectual noticed that Lisa Conrad of Gifted Parenting Support Blog http://giftedparentingsupport.blogspot.com had left a basket of morning glories in the Comments box and is bringing them to her.
And Psycho Motor is contributing a stick with the comment “Throw the stick! Throw the stick!”
Sprite has made floral garlands for the Black Dogs
The Taste Tester Dogs have been summoned and have posed for a group picture.
The Topiary Tessellation Flower Leaf Tree has been installed and the Topiary Tree Octopus, Octopus Topiarii, has very quietly taken up residence there.
Imaginational suggested that Flower Bowers would be the best way to accommodate the growing number of Twitter Birds who would be flocking to the celebrations.
While I have been busy writing posts for the New Zealand Gifted Awareness Week blog tour http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz/WebSpace/696/ Sprite has been planning the celebrations for her blog birthday.
She has chosen the theme The Flowers of Giftedness and created this poster to use for decoration and promoting the event.
It combines the stationery P’est Pour Parfait, the perfectionist poodle had produced belatedly when she was searching for invitation cards and the Flowers of Giftedness that Imaginational Dabrowski had suggested.
Intellectual Dabrowski insisted that I should include references to the reasons for including the various flowers.
So…
Sunflowers and irises were included because of the paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, one depicting a jug of sunflowers and the other a bed of irises with just one white iris in a large group of purple irises. The symbolism of the one white iris was explained in the film Little Man Tate.
Orchids were included because of an excellent blog post poem by Lesley Graves at http://innreach.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/giftedness-and-nurturing-blooms-66/
Poppies were chosen because of Miraca Gross’ article Small poppies: Highly gifted children in the early years at http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10124.aspx
NZAGC magazine Tall poppies http://www.giftedchildren.org.nz/national/tallpoppies.php
The logo for The Soul of Giftedness 20th World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children is a poppy http://www.worldgifted2013.com/
The tree in the centre of the poster in the Topiary Tessellation Bird Leaf Tree decorated as a Topiary Tessellation Flower Tree
Sprite has already received some greetings for the card shelf for her blog birthday. If you would like to send a greeeting please reply in the comments box.
I found Sprite sitting in the garden, reading an article about giftedness and poppies,
http://aea11gt.pbworks.com/f/Small%2Bpoppies_%2BHighly%2Bgifted%2Bchildren%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bearly%2Byears.pdf
She was absentmindedly blowing a wishing dandelion and still discussing the possible theme for her blog birthday with the Dabrowski Dogs.
Psycho Motor was occupied with chasing the dandelion seeds.
Sensual had unfortunately sat down in a patch of thistles which Sprite had refused to pull out during the Weed Wars in case the Scots declared war on her.
Emotional had brought Sprite a red rose because she said giving flowers was a beautiful way to express love and appreciation and concern. Also carrying the red rose in her teeth appealed to her flair for the dramatic.
Intellectual had gone to quite an amount of effort to set up a display of possible floral décor themes. He suggested decorating with posters of the work of William Morris.
At this point Intellectual embarked on a lengthy dissertation on William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, preservation of ancient buildings, socialism, the Kelmscott Press, traditional textile arts and crafts and medieval romance fiction and poetry.
He explained that the public domain prints he had chosen were beautiful intricate patterns but did not do justice to the vibrant colours of the original.
Intellectual could see that he was losing Sprite’s attention so he proceeded to his next set of prints.
These were by Vincent Van Gogh, one depicting a jug of sunflowers and the other a bed of irises with just one white iris in a large group of purple irises. He pointed out the symbolism of the one white iris and how it had been used in the film Little Man Tate.
At that moment Intellectual’s close friend, P’est Pour Parfait, the perfectionist poodle, arrived having returned from reading the transcripts of #gtchat at http://www.txgifted.org/gtchat-transcripts and noted that the transcript for the chat session about Perfectionism would be posted soon.
He declared “I have found the perfect invitation stationery for you. As you see, it encapsulates many of the floral themes you are considering.”
“That would have been really perfect but I have already sent out my invitations!” Sprite complained.
“I’m sorry,” said Parfait “but I could not bring you this one earlier, in case I found one that was more perfect!”
All this time Imaginational had been dreamily watching the dandelion seeds blowing and wondering where they went. He was still thinking about fractals in ferns and how sunflowers looked as if they were smiling and wondering whether snowdrops were individuals like snowflakes.
He was also thinking that if they used a suitable template the Topiary Tessellation Bird Leaf tree could be decorated as a Topiary Tessellation Flower Tree and wondering whether the Tree Octopus, Octopus Topiarii, would be happy to visit a Topiary Tessellation Flower Tree for the blog birthday party.
It seems that both Sprite and I are having problems with choosing themes this week.
I found a hive of activity at Sprite’s Site today.
The Twitter Birds were collecting invitations for Sprite’s blog birthday for distribution and Sprite was discussing possible themes for her party with the Dabrowski dogs.
“I don’t know what theme to choose” Sprite was saying “that’s why I chose flowery paper for the invitations. But flowers would be a bit boring for a theme”
Psycho Motor “I don’t care what the theme is – as long as you get a bouncing castle!”
Emotional: “Flowers would be a good theme. Flowers always make me feel happy! Everyone loves getting flowers!”
Sensual: “Some flowers make me sneeze and feel itchy.
Sprite: “Well now that you mention it…”
Intellectual: “If you did choose flowers as a theme, you could tell everyone to come wearing a tag with the full botanical name of a flower on it and everyone would have to guess who they were.”
Psycho Motor: “Bor-ing!!!”
Sprite: “I don’t know whether my guests would think that was boring.”
Imaginational “There are a lot of really great themes you could have using flowers! What about Sunflowers and Snowdrops or Tall Poppies and White Irises or Dandelion Wishes or Fractals in Ferns?”
Intellectual: “Would you like me to calculate the comparative probabilities of those topics being of interest to your guests?”
Sprite: “I suppose so.”
Then Sprite turned to me and started to rattle off a list of guests she wanted me to invite for her and supplies of food and decorations she wanted me to purchase.
“Wait a moment!” I said “Before I start party preparations I need to write a post about Language Garden, visit Derrin Cramer’s Thinking Ahead blog for some advice about advocacy and write a post for New Zealand Gifted Awareness Week Blog Tour.”
“What topic are you going to address for the blog tour?” asked Intellectual.
“I don’t really know yet – I put myself down for TBA.” I said.
“Ah yes, the ever popular TBA!” said Intellectual “Tell me when you have something definite in mind and I will help you with research.”
“You know” piped up Imaginational “If you turn a kiwi over onto his stomach he looks like an echidna (if you don’t count how many feet they have)!”
“Now you are just being ridiculous!” said Intellectual in a very pompous voice “Everyone knows that a kiwi is a bird and an echidna is a monotreme.”
“Just saying…” said Imaginational giggling to himself.
You are all invited to help us celebrate the Blog Birthday of Sprite’s Site during June this year.
Sprite is keen to ensure that I do not forget to celebrate her blog birthday this year and left me a sticky note reminder.
The blog has already celebrated two birthdays (See Happy Birthday, Sprite’s site https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/happy-birthday-sprites-site-2/ and following posts and Belated blog birthday celebrations 21 July 2011 https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/belated-blog-birthday-celebrations/and following posts)
As at today, 6 June 2012, there have been 81,377 page views since June 2009 and there were 3,780 individual visitors between May 2011 and May 2012.
So it is time to send out the invitations to come and celebrate with Sprite and to gather all the characters (now over 150 of them) for a group picture!
Encouraged by Lisa Conrad’s Comment promise of protection and their own tank area the Pro Lobster Lobby, the Lobster Quadrille Entertainers and the Lobster Lolly Lobbing competitors have arrived to join the Blog Birthday party.
And who was resposible for getting the message to them? None other than Beloved Snail who sent an email to them.
Sprite's Site 