kid art

N., age 10,drew this on the front of a homemade thank you note for one of his birthday gifts.

I love it!

owl

Darn it all. Why does N. grab lined notebook paper to make spur of the moment creations of art like this owl? Doesn't he know his Mother wants to frame everything because they are true masterpieces?? He has a sketch book with plain pages that he also draws in, but he usually grabs whatever is handy at the time. Maybe I should strap his sketch book to him.
Please send all letters/complaints of child abuse to:

Me

The most terrible,

shallow mother of the year.

I should get over it and love the lines on the paper too, right??

sketch

A. (age 13, 8th grade) sits at the computer for awhile almost every day to instant message with friends. Sometimes the group is 5 or 6 or 7 people at once. Most of the group is in GATE (gifted and talented education) with her at school. They like to quiz each other on facts and trivia, you know- nerd stuff. A. prides herself on being a nerd. She is also quite the social butterfly! The talk last night was focused on one of the boys who will be bussed from the junior high to the high school for part of the day to take honors geometry classes!! YIKES!! That boy is going places, figuratively and literally!!
Today is the second day back to school for A. I have to take pause when I see her bop out the door, as wasn't it only just yesterday I was in 8th grade in that same school??? Sometimes I look in the mirror and think, "Who is this middle 40's person looking back at me? I feel so young in my mind." I never was part of a group in school like A. I was never a nerd or a social or any other titled group for that matter. I was a swimmer and a dancer and there was no group name for that.
Well anyway, one day while she was instant messaging and typing at lightning speed (oops, I mean "keyboarding" as I am told they do not call it typing anymore! That's my middle 40's language coming out.) she was also sketching at the same time. Doing her own self portrait from a photo she snapped of herself.
Don't your own kids amaze you all the time?? Mine do.

Kid art and the play of the day

I love kid art...this is N's latest, done yesterday.

He has been having fun with his friends at school making up plays at recess...about pirates!

He is spending the night at a friend's house tonight (for the first time). He packed his pirate gear so they can make up plays and dress the part this time!

When N. is not dreaming about pirates he is out catching toads. We seem to have a plethora of them with all the rain this spring...along with the overpopulation of mosquitoes to go along.

"Don't keep them in the screened cage too long N....they need to roam free to eat all those mosquitoes before they all eat me alive!!"

set in stone

I'll say it a million times over....

"I LOVE kid art!"

More Kid Art

Two more works of art by my N., age 8!!!!!!

His sister A. has always been crazy about anything space related

and he knows that I love to draw birds!

I think he drew these to make us smile!!

I love Kid Art

N. was sitting one night and doodling when he came up with this!! I love how the solitary leaf is blowing in the wind! Kids have the best sense of art. No rules and no disappointments.

I put this one in a frame, with pride.

I asked if N. would draw something to send to Grandpa for his 82 birthday. He went to his drawing notebook and said, "Can we use this one? I think Grandpa would like it." He was right, I am sure Grandpa would love it!! We made it into a card for my Dad and sent it off in the mail today. My Dad still drives his motorcycle. He just bought another new one last summer. Don't try to tell my Dad that he is really going to be 82 and most 82 year olds don't drive motorcycles!!!
My Dad ~photo taken in Oct. 2008

birds of a feather and the box trick

( N's bird art early in 2008 age 7)

N. loves to copy me when I sit down to doodle,
and I almost always doodle birds
(or little insects who dress or act like people and live in mushroom houses or discarded boots or flower pots).
These are some of his colored pencil birds. He cut the top one the size of an ATC card! I love the simplicity of the top one but he sure is getting really great at putting in

more detail as just a few months worth
of doodle practice has gone by.
I love all kid art. They just do what they like and don't get hung up
on rules or worry if it is good enough.
We should all do art like that!!

(N's bird art December 2008 age 8)

N. is bowling again in an after school youth league after a few weeks' break. They have switched to a different bowling alley, one where he has never before bowled. This time around he has a boy and a GIRL on his team!! When I picked him up today I asked him how it went. He replied, "They have a lot of rules there." I said, "Oh? Like what?" He said, "Like no running." I said that I thought that was a sensible rule for any indoor place. When he did not agree, I was left to assume that he was running today!!

Such a hard life he leads, such drama!!

He continues to be on the chess club team for a second year also. A's chess team with her fellow junior high gifted students begins next week.

With all the after school activities and 3 kids, I feel like I am running here and there constantly. Is it a surprise that my car ~the mom mobile~ is a mess inside? I think a dozen or so miscellaneous things go into the car and only 2 or 3 get taken back out each day!! Time to do the box trick. Unload all the stuff and when someone goes looking for something I'll just silently point towards the direction of the box over in the corner of the garage!!

take time to color

I have a million things to do before tomorrow night's dinner.

I am ready for as few as 8 and as many as 13. No one seems to be able to pin down an RSVP to me this year. That's ok. I will still cook the same amount of food- a lot- because that's the only way I know to cook. I love to cook. Hate to bake. Know what? That's alright too. There are always plenty of bakers among our gang of friends and neighbors. Everyone has their own interests and talents to share.

The million things on the to-do list I have yet to do includes striving to create the magic of the Christmases I remember fondly from my youth. Oh yeah!...and cleaning the house. My favorite saying is "Trying to keep a house clean while the kids are still living at home is like trying to staple Jell-O to a tree!" I wholeheartedly agree. As I often say...my house is clean but rarely tidy. This week it looks like a winter tornado has gone through, what with the boots dripping melting snow and ice in big puddles, the wet mittens hats and scarves strewn along the hearth drying before the fire (FYI N., for the umpteenth time, gloves do not dry when you pull them off inside out with the fingers all bunched up!! Ugh!), coats that no one seems to know how to hang up...and do not even get me started on the toys everywhere. Wanna know a secret? I am actually giving N. a box of toys he hasn't seen for months since I packed them away and put them in "Time OUT" for not picking them up. I have wrapped the box up in Christmas paper. He keeps asking what is in that big box. "Must be something really cool" , he keeps saying!

{ my art}

Then there is all the stuff that came out of A's room months ago so we could repaint and redo her bedroom. The goal was to have it done and back together before Thanksgiving. I told her I would help her if she helped me. Well, when you are a few breaths away from 13 and active in EVERYTHING at school you just do not have time for silly things like doing something you promised your Mother!! So, here it is, past Thanksgiving and a breath away from Christmas and the things are still sitting (all over) in the family room, and on the glassed porch...

Honestly I am tempted to just leave the mess and let the guests (family and friends) see how we really live every day and not just how the house looks when Mom shoves everything in her bedroom at the last minute and declares that room off limits to guests! I told the kids my idea today and they just looked blankly at me and their brain gears were thinking, "Mom wouldn't really do THAT!"- I know because I am good at reading their minds, it's one of those instinctive Mom skills you acquire when they are each born.

{N's art -which I think is much better than mine!}

So what does all this have to do with my title to this post?

Well, in the midst of all my mental preparing to stage the house and make it look right for impending guests, N. asked me if I would color with colored pencils with him. I can not resist the call of my colored pencils

no matter how untidy the house may be.

So what did I do? What could I do?

I colored!

{The inside of N's card. Don't you love his "font"?}

We scanned N's art and made it into a card for my Uncle. This was what he did inside the card. I am Uncle's weekly and year 'round personal shopper. N. tagged along this time since he was off school for winter break. So, added to everything else, which was tugging at my time and hovering deadline, was doing Uncle's regular household shopping. Driving in the holiday traffic on icy roads in single digit temperatures and waiting in check out lines so long you wonder if you've aged while standing still for so long.

Hey wait!, that reminds me. I still have my own shopping to finish for tomorrow night's dinner!

Well, the coloring was fun, anyway!!

We have to seize these opportunities to make magical Christmas memories when ever we can.

scarecrow

My daughter A. did this a few years back. I hang it up each year at this time. I save a lot of my kids' art because I think kid art is a true masterpiece art category. This kid art is mixed media= crayon, Sharpie marker and water color paint. Kids do not worry before they do their art or worry during the process or judge themselves to harshly after it is completed. They are (almost) always proud of themselves and their accomplishment. Adult artists are lucky if they can retain that freedom and philosophy.

To see some more kid art from last year at Halloween time click here to be taken back to Autumn 2007. When the decorating is done for this year I will show you a peek.

Doodle Bugs

Tonight N. and I have been coloring with the big tub of colored pencils. This is what happened.

At left: My neighborhood of mushroom townhouses being inspected by a visiting butterfly.

Below: N. (age 7) made a tree that grows both apples and cherries under which the buggy friends play .

Copy-Cat again...

Or should that be "copy-bird" N.?

He has been in a bird mood lately

when doing art with Mom.

This is N's "Robin In Nest" artwork in colored pencil.

Now he is even doing his own copy-cat {copy-bird}
Artistic Trading Cards.
You will all be able to say "you knew him when"!

decorate...

In the hallway

The 2 paper cut out decorations (haunted house and witch)are my favorites from when I was little; they are old Hallmark. The dressed bear was my Mom's. The felt pumpkin purses were made for my girls when they were little by my neighbor/friend.

Top of my Little Golden Book shelf.

My collection of Little Golden Books

One of my favorite books/movies.
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil.

My art work.
It is crayon (press really hard so it's waxy)
with water color paint over it.

Kid art on the bathroom door (I LOVE kid art!!).
The sign hanging above is made of Styrofoam.

A. made this witch with crayon and markers a few years ago. She made each piece [ hat, hair, face, etc.] separate and then pieced it together.
Did I mention I LOVE kid art??!

Let's Color Together

Sometimes it's the little - plain - no special day -moments that stick with you.

My boy N. and I were doing art together. This is what materialized.

My picture is crayon (press really, really hard to make it waxy) colored in a design drawn with a Sharpie marker, then water color paint over it. I drew my signature mushroom house {so N. drew one too} and little bugs {no bugs for N's art today. The exterminator must have paid a visit}, along with a teapot house {N. drew one too} and a Dr. Seuss-like tree house, {N. drew one too}.

N. is a flattering copycat don't you think?