Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Joy of Painting

Sophie


You know the PBS show, The Joy of Painting, the one with the afro guy... it is still on the air. We catch it sometimes while flipping through with the remote and just have to pause for a moment, because it just has a calming effect. I think painting has the same effect on the girls as well. I've always wondered though, how many people do you think are out there watching that show with a canvas and a palette in their hand, following instructions as they paint along? Probably not many, but when I was a kid, I thought there must be a lot of people doing that.

Sophie has been "painting" for a while now, and would tell me that she is painting a girl or a boat among other things, but up until yesterday she has "painted" with Nutella or ketchup. So while shopping at Target yesterday, I thought picking up a couple 92 cent packs of watercolor would be a good idea. A few coloring pages printed later, and I had a couple of artists on my hands.


Sophie started with Spongebob


Mary painting Wubbzy


Mary displays her painting of Swiper the Fox


I think this hair looks much better than the guy from the painting show


another silly morning picture


and a lazy morning picture


just one of the random places where you might find Mary (note the tutu)



If I Could Turn Back Time...

I realized this on my own and have also had others point out to me that it's been a while since I've updated our blog. Skipped right past Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year. So, now I am trying to catch up a bit, hence the title of this post. I thought it could refer to how much the girls have grown, but I haven't gotten to the point where I am teary-eyed, saying, "oh, they are growing too fast, if they could just be babies again." Maybe that will happen one day, but right now I just don't think it will. It is fun to look back at baby pictures, but each day they are growing and able to do so many more things. They even help me with shopping at the grocery store, putting the list together, picking out things we need and putting them in the cart, and reminding me that we should get bones for the dogs, or "boys."

Mary's fish stick face


We traveled down to Georgia for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both trips went pretty well (thanks in large part to our dual screen DVD players), except for some traffic delays coming back in November. Our Christmas trip was delayed leaving here by a day due to two feet of snow, and as I'm typing this now I hope we don't have a replay of that. There is probably six inches outside right now and it's been steady falling all morning.

This was the first year that the girls really understood the concept of Christmas and learned about the birth of Jesus, and Santa, of course. We have a nativity scene, and I figured why not let the girls play with it, it will help them remember the Christmas story. But there were a few times they were chasing each other, yelling, "My Joseph, my Joseph!" Baby Jesus visited a few different places in the house, and sometimes you would find a little fireman or other toy visiting the barn. I think it was mostly educational, though.

Sophie tells me about her candy cane


Sophie really enjoyed talking about all the stuff going on around Christmas time. On the way down to Georgia, while Mary was sleeping, we asked her what she wanted from Santa Claus. Without hesitation, she said, "A candy cane!" Mary said the same thing when I asked her later. So I called Grandma to make sure Santa would have some candy canes. Christmas morning, the girls looked past all the toys and went straight for the candy canes. Sophie had to have it open immediately and was so proud that Santa brought her what she wanted!

I'm not the best at capturing Kodak moments, so I don't have that many Christmas pictures to share. We had a few relatives and friends share some good pictures on Facebook, and there are still a few that I have not seen yet. But here are a few more random shots since the last post.

Mary and Sophie at Pen Park after the first December snow


Mary playing in her room at Grandma and Papa's house


Sophie takes her stickers very seriously


2nd December snow (12/19/09)