Take a Peep!

Every Easter the Washington Post sponsors a Peep diorama contest, and every year we look at the pictures in the paper on Easter Sunday and say, "Hey, we could do that!  Next year we should make a Peep diorama!"  So this year we did.  Heidi, Holly, and Amy each made one and submitted them to the contest.  After weeks of checking the emails, we determined sadly, that we had not won this year, but everyone is determined to try again next time! Here are the amazing creations the Thelin girls came up with!  I think these beat any school project we have ever had to do (although weaving twigs to make the Powhatan longhouse a few years back was pretty instense)!

We want the girls to know that they are definitely winners in our circle!

Title: “The Peepettes”, from the movie

“Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Peepquel”  by Holly

About my Peeps Diorama (by Holly):

My diorama is a concert put on by the “Peepettes.” They are supposed to be like the “Chipettes” from the new movie Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakuel. Get it? So my Peepettes are from the Peepquel. I did the whole diorama by myself 100 percent. I made the stage out of a Valentine’s candy heart shaped box. I made a fog machine and fog with cotton candy. I used little book lights for the stage lights. The Peepettes are made of peeps and so are the audience. I put a little beauty mark on one of the Peepettes, and one of them has glasses (that’s the one that likes Simon in the movie, he has glasses too.) Everyone was complaining in my family while they were making their peep projects that they couldn’t get the peeps to stand up. They were trying to look up suggestions people had from past years. I had a great idea. I just ate off the bottom and stuck it down! Simple. It worked great.

Title: “Terra Cotta Peep Warriors:

Guardians of China’s First Empeepor” by Amy

Here are the pictures of my Peeps. My name is Amy Thelin. Last week my Mom and I went with my 2nd grade class at Emerald Hill Elementary in Culpeper, VA on a field trip to Washington DC to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the National Geographic Museum. They were made to guard the tomb of the first Emperor of China over 2000 years ago. I thought they were very cool. I liked the picture of the tomb where they dug up all the terra cotta warriors. They were standing in rows and there were lots of underground hallways with more rows of warriors. When we got home, I decided I wanted to make the Terra Cotta Peeps! I tried to make the peeps look Chinese. In real life, the warriors were all different, so I used peeps of all different colors. I did all the painting on the box by myself, and set up all the peeps, but the peeps kept falling over in the lines! My mom helped me with some hot glue and that did the trick. I hope you like my Terra Cotta Peeps!


P.S.  There is also a secret: I put a peep inside the casket too. He is the dead Empeepor! Haha!

Title: “ 2010 Olympeeps: Men’s Snowboard Cross” by Heidi

About my diorama:
I love the Olympics and one of my favorite moments was when Seth Wescott won the Men’s Snowboard Cross for the United States. I made my peeps diorama of this race. I watched the video of it like a thousand times before I made my diorama. I tried to make all of the details exactly right. First I took a shoebox and kind of opened it up on the ends and made ramps and jumps. Then I painted it all with fake snow and put the racing lines on. At the real Olympics the course was lined with blue netting. I took some old screen my dad let me use and painted it blue for the sides of my diorama. I also made little flags to line my course. At the Olympics the flags had little snowboarder silhouettes, so I made mine with bunny snowboarder silhouettes. My favorite part was working on the snowboard peeps. I made little jerseys to match the colors the actual racers wore in the Olympics. Then I made tiny helmets with the flags for each country and visors. I made the snowboards out of popsicle sticks. I tried to paint the patterns on the snowboards exactly like the real ones. Then I made the crowd with flags and signs for their favorite snowboarder. The hardest part was getting the snowboards to look like they were jumping. I used some wire and covered it with snow to make it blend in. Of course, Seth Wescott is in the lead! I wish I could have sent more than 2 photos, because some of my pictures taken at an angle really look like the snowboards are flying! But I chose to send you the pictures that I thought showed the best detail and how it looked overall. I had a lot of fun doing this and can’t wait until next year! This was way more fun than homework!!!!!

Aren't they just peeptacular?  One of the suggestions we made to the contest personnel was that they need to have a separate judging category just for kids.  It is pretty tough to compete with grown-ups who are professional graphic designers and stuff, like the people who won this year's contest.  You should take a look at some of the winning entries though.  We had to admit they were pretty awesome (our favorite is the "Goodnight Moon" one--sent in by a mom with little kids, not professional designers like some of the others.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/03/29/GA2010032903934.html

(On this site, you can scroll down a bit and select "Peeps Show IV:  Post your own Photos" and the girls' entries are among the first few there.  They are excited to have their peeps on the official Washington Post website!  You can leave comments there too.  Or you can go straight there by clicking the link below.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/03/31/GA2010033101876.html

The girls are already planning for next year!