summer painting

This blog has been a little neglected due to the busyness that naturally comes about with a 3 year old and eight month old.  The sad part is I have a ton of pictures and projects, but no time to post them!  I haven't knitted a row in a month.  Oh well, enough about that.  Onto some fun/messy (I'm sure you expect nothing less from me at this point) outdoor painting.  

I gathered some different "brushes" from the dollar section of Target.  BTW, the Target I can see from my bedroom window opens in four days - eep!  When thinking of using something other than a brush, the possibilities are endless.  Here is our fly swatter (splat) painting Abby loved so much.  

Mesh and metal scrubbers

Pink Spiky Ball (My personal favorite).  Another side note, children at the pool cut a small opening in the top and were filling them with water.  So much fun.  

Cookie Cutters

I can't get enough of paint in rainbow order.  The container is from the Dollar Store and is good for so many uses.  

 Painting with cookie cutters

Finger Painting

Whenever Abby paints outside, she always wants to paint her body.  If I have the wear with all, I go with it.

I bought a piece of plexiglass from Home Depot to use as our outdoor easel (clipped to our super fabulous lattice on the back deck - ensures babes do not fall through).  Here is what I love about painting on plexiglass - nothing is permanent... and to a three year old who expects perfection from her emerging fine motor skills that creates a lot of freedom to keep trying without ripping up paper.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?  

A daddy

With lots of teeth

Not happy with the teeth.  Smear it and try again.

And when she's all done painting on plexiglass, she can spray it with a spray bottle and wipe it clean.

 Painting with the pink spiky ball

 Painting with the mesh scrubbers

More daddy with great teeth and ears

Clean up time

When using a bigger/vertical surface for painting/drawing, children get to use more (or maybe just different - anyone want to weigh in on that discussion?) large motor muscles and core which is so very important for developing their fine motor muscles. 

  

And not to leave Eleanor out of the painting experiences:  Bells had her first experience with paint at seven months.  She seemed to enjoy the feeling of paint on her feet.  My mom held her while she kicked around on the cardboard.  

beautiful bells (eleanor)

before abby was born, josh wrote her a beautiful song.  it touches on her knowing truth, beauty, and love... and stopping to smell the flowers along the way.  it is a sweet song.  abby asks us to sing her song before she goes to bed almost every night.  

and the second one comes along and it is just different.  eleanor (beautiful bells) does not (yet) have her song from daddy.  (this is not to be a guilt inducing post, just stating facts.)

after growing weary of nagging the mister to come up with a thought-provoking, heartfelt masterpiece, here is a little something that abby and i wrote when we were feeling bad eleanor did not have a song to call her own.  it is... lacking... in many areas... especially lyrically, but our beautiful bells loves it all the same and grins ear to ear whenever she hears it.  

bells, bells, beautiful bells.  we need a song about beautiful bells.

bells, bells, beautiful bells.  we love our beautiful, beautiful bells.

she's so fancy, just like a tansy.  she's our beautiful, beautiful bells.  

la, la, la, laaaa, la.  la, la, laaa, la, laaaaaa.  she's our beautiful, beautiful bells.

i'm considering my first vlog so that abby and i could make our singing debut.  and that is a joke.  

move over c the c. 

this moment

joining soulemama in - 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

this happened.

this was our view when we pulled into our parking spot on the fourth of july.  not good.  we have a huge ash tree that is dangerously close to our house.  but thankfully, it fell into our yard.  and not on the house.  first reason to be thankful.   

second reason to be thankful.  the branch missed my car by a foot or two.

just some little branches hit.  they didn't even scratch the paint.  

the rot that started it all.  

a nest that landed on my car.  that was sad.  the mama robin was frantically circling overhead.

third reason to be thankful.  a big brother with a chainsaw.  

fourth reason to be thankful.  lots and lots of play with the branches and and the stumps and the sawdust.

is it wrong that all i can think about is what to do with the tree remains?!?

there was only one "i told you so" moment on my part and it was done in jest and lightheartedly... once we knew everything was okay.  the tree comes out next week and will drastically change the backyard.  i'm already dreaming up the flowers i can now plant with a full sun backyard.  stay tuned for some unextreme home makeovers.

mommy and daddy

one of abby's first representations of mommy and daddy.  

please take note of the lines coming down from my face - lots and lots of teeth.  pretty awesome.  

and daddy.  still lots and lots of teeth.