homemade wrapping

our dear friends sent us these amazing gifts. the amazing part was not so much the gifts themselves although they were very cool, but the wrapping. my talented friend designed the paper and had written our names in the most beautiful calligraphy. i don't know how she found the time to do this when i feel like i barely have time to wrap gifts at all. i love it so much i am keeping the wrapping with all our christmas treasures.

painting outside

such a nice day to play outside and paint.

ummm. what happened here?

me - "of course you guys can paint outside. just keep your paper on the cardboard and don't make a mess."

them - "ok mommy."

thank goodness it was washable paint.

pirate ship

mason's drawing of a pirate ship that he did on the paper wall at bodhi's party.

abstract friday

today was a perfect day for painting outside. miles set up the kid's easels and let them enjoy painting in the sun. it seems that mason is inspired by jackson pollock. he was having so much fun with his splatter technique. i actually thought his paintings were turning out quite interesting. dahlia was taking a much softer approach to her painting and kept to the traditional brush strokes. i was really enjoying watching our budding artists paint until i got a little too close to mason's splatter. let's just say that i am so glad the paint they use is washable.

chalk art

i took mason and dahlia to orange county today. we picked up their cousin zena and went swimming at aunt susan's house again. we had a great time. jen and bodhi came too. after a full day of swimming and eating frozen yogurt mason did not want to go home. we decided to stay at my mom's house for a bit and let the kids draw with chalk in the backyard. they had a blast. dahlia had chalk all over herself. she was laying on the ground drawing. mason loved it also. he was getting into drawing his robot. we have some sidewalk chalk at our house but i never think to take it out. i am going to pull it out of the closet tomorrow. a new medium. yay!

mason's art

mason's artwork has really improved lately. he has just started drawing things that represent actual objects and animals. before they were mostly just abstract shapes. he is having so much fun drawing and painting. i love that he is so excited to create. the only down side is that we are going through art supplies like crazy. he could use up a whole pad of drawing paper in one sitting. i am going to go broke buying supplies.

he is also doing very well with learning to draw his letters and numbers. i am so happy to see him learn this. we don't have him in preschool and i am always worried he that he is behind. he is only three so i try not to obsess about it. i have no idea what kids his age are supposed to be doing. i did buy a kindergarten prep. book and have decided to dedicate some time alone with him every day to teach him. i will just add that to my daily list of things to do. yikes.

painting day

today was painting day. i helped mason and dahlia paint some wooden toys outside while miles painted our bedroom inside. i think we got the better deal. the kids were so excited to paint. we have only used watercolors before so this was a big deal. mason has been learning how to mix colors to create new colors so i thought it was time for some real paint. we didn't really get around to mixing many colors today. mason painted his wooden tank and then helped dahlia finish painting her wooden train. by then they had paint all over their clothes and i decided it was time to swim.

i think next week we will paint again. on paper. i need to get a mixing tray so we can combine colors. i can't wait. it sounds so fun. oh and the bedroom looks great. miles did a wonderful job. our old paint was starting to peel off in some places so it was badly in need of a touch up.

yellow submarine

the kids and i have been doing lots of drawing and making pictures today. i did most of the cutting of shapes and helped them glue the shapes to the paper. a one year old and a three year old with a tube of glue is a messy combination.

mason's favorite picture was the one we made of a yellow submarine. this required playing the beatles song "yellow submarine" six times in a row and dancing around the kitchen.



now it is time to make cupcakes.

spin art

it is raining today so we are staying indoors. we decided to do some spin painting. i got this little machine at michaels that spins the paper and you just squirt paint on it. i remember doing this as a kid. i loved it. mason and dahlia thought this was the best project ever. it was surprisingly mess free. of course like all projects with kids the fun was over far too quickly and then we had the rest of the day to think of indoor activities. i think they hate to stay inside as much as i do.

an artist

dahlia decided to express her artistic freedom this morning. who needs paper when you can just paint your face and legs?

artwork from church

we have been going to church. we started going in january. i was worried at first that mason would not like to go to the kid classes. i have never put him in pre-school so i didn't know how he would react. he loves it. i am so relieved, and shocked. he gets really excited to go. we go on saturday nights because it is casual and we don't have to wake up super early on sunday. this seems to work out nicely for us. the church we go to is in orange county so it is an hour drive to get there. christina and zena go with us. i was bringing dahlia with mason and me, but she screamed too much when i would put her in the nursery. they had to page me three times. i finally gave up, and either i leave her at my mom's house, or at home with miles.

mason is so cute about going to church. he tells me all about his class when we are driving there. he said he loves to see his friends and then it's story time and time to clean up. so funny. they usually do some sort of art work. i love his art, and proudly display it on our fridge.