That Pottery Place

We went to That Pottery Place with the kids while Kim was visiting. I say kids, but we left the "toddlers" at home. I want to say babies, but technically they aren't babies anymore. Visiting the pottery place had been on my list of things to do and I am glad we finally did it. It was so much fun, we might have to do it again. The kids picked out cups to paint and slathered up with paint inside and out. I decided that I wanted to paint and be artistic as well, so I made a plate. Mason's hands are the crab and Ellery's made one fish. I guess I will have to pick a platter if I want to put all three kids on something some day! Kim blogged the experience as well. She actually took her camera and took pictures of the kids being artists.

http://alittlebitofthisthat.blogspot.com/2011/08/artists-at-work.html

Love to Color

It isn't that uncommon to find our kids coloring in a coloring book or coloring/drawing pictures. While we were visiting family and they were having a family get together my kids were being quiet in the basement. I went to check on them to find them coloring. They were being sweet and drawing pictures. Mason informed me that he was drawing a picture of "God's rainbow." I can't help but smile and think, wow Rob and I must be doing something right until 10 min later. Mason came upstairs and joined back in the party scene. I can't help but ask to see his drawing of God's Rainbow only to find out "Mom, it isn't God's Rainbow anymore, I changed it to a fart machine."

Happy St. Pats Day

Oh what a lucky day! The kids wanted to draw rainbows, because Mason learned that one could find a pot of gold at the end of it. I served up some green milk in the am and no one spilled it this year! We took Mason to school and a leprechaun had visited the room. He left green foot prints all over the room, turned over chairs, played in the toys, and left chocolate gold coins all over. Ellery was even into looking at all the things the leprechaun did. The kids had also made leprechaun traps at school in hopes of catching him. His teacher this year is wonderful.
When our kids got home we thought we could play off what happened at school and colored the toilet water green in their bathrooms and left a few quarters around their rooms. I thought we were being creative and fun. I had no idea I was scarring the kids and mass chaos broke out. We flushed the green away before Ellery saw it in her bathroom because she was screaming and crying hysterically because a leprechaun had been in the house. Mason refused to flush down the green leprechaun pee, but was happy he left some silver coins for him. After a long long process Ellery finally calmed down, and we learned she isn't a fan of people being in her room or our house for that matter. Thank goodness I didn't pull over toys or do anything else!

Decorating Eggs and Ourselves

We have really enjoyed decorating and coloring Easter Eggs this year. It has crossed over into us decorating our bikes outside with chalk and into decorating ourselves.
I was working on catching up the blog and emails and the kids were coloring on the easel. We have colored and played with markers without incident and all of the sudden I look up to find Ellery painting her toe nails with already applied lipstick while Mason states "Mom, we are "decorating" ourselves, and check out my mustache". Thank goodness for washable markers and I am beyond happy I didn't have the cheap RoseArt markers out. Even if RoseArt says washable it should say washable in a few days not instantly like Crayola.

Drawings and Self Portraits

Mason really likes to draw and color. We were drawing self portraits and playing the game we made up called what is my picture missing. So we will say hair, ears, eyelashes, eyebrows, etc and he adds the missing features. I left him to finish his picture with a nose and mouth and when I cam back I was impressed with his work only to be informed the small dot that is where a nose belongs is not a nose, but a belly button, yet the circle below it with circles inside it is his mouth and all of his teeth. Thinking I misunderstood him I stated but you gave yourself such a small nose and he tells me I am silly because that isn't a nose it is a belly button.

Spring Art

We headed to a plant sale at the botanical gardens and they were also having a spring fair for the kids. We made kites out of plastic bags, hats from paper plates, planted some seeds, and colored some pictures. They also had a person dressed up in vines they called "The Vine". I over heard people talking about "The Vine" but was confused and since I wasn't in the conversation I didn't ask them to clarify for me. We headed down the trail to peek at the miniature trains and we ran into "The Vine" and no other clarification was needed. She didn't speak just put on a performance on her stilts. She made a bridge for the kids to walk under and Mason refused but he did take the opportunity to touch her. It was remarkable to watch her and a very artistic performance.

Ever Changing Art

While Rob was in Boston I painted the front sitting room/toy room and kitchen. I wanted to add some color to some rooms and I accomplished my goal. It is a bit more difficult to paint with children around, but it made even more rewarding to complete it. I painted the kitchen a color called green tea leaves and the front sitting room/toy room paprika. I bought some open back frames and hung them up and then added a button clip so I can clip in Mason's art work and change it without having to take the frame down. Mason is very proud of the wall and I am very pleased with it as well. He came home from school the other day with an owl art project and we took down the blue painting and replaced it with our owl. I realize nothing is in the middle frame, silly me only bought four button clips rather than five. I also was going to buy exotic frames and paint them from GoodWill until I looked at the prices. They were very proud of their frames and were asking $14.99 for an 9x14. Needless to say it gave me the excuse I needed to hit Hobby Lobby.

Wall Art

I was feeding Ellery the other day and reading a magazine while sitting on the couch. I thought Mason was being good and sitting at his table and coloring on his books and paper (the couch pillows were a bit in my way). Little did I notice that he did a bit of wall art.Hard to punish and discipline for it, but I let him know that it was wrong. I haven't had a chance to clean it up and I took a video of him in front of it. He was answering no to my questions of "do we color on the walls" before I turned the camera on and clammed up once it came on.