Kid Art

I have a confession: I have a teensy problem with hoarding.  Old socks make great puppets, empty paper towel rolls are fantastic pirate telescopes, and don't even get me started on the many uses of old baby food jars.  

But, where I really run into problems is with the kids' artwork.  I can't throw any of it away.  Every piece has a story, told with wide eyes and big gestures.  Every piece marks a milestone (the first attempt at faces or coloring a rainbow).  For now, the artwork is either displayed around the house or stored in a giant Rubbermaid box in our basement, but I know we'll outgrow it before too long.  

Anyway, I thought I'd try out taking a picture of the original and saving it instead of the actual art.  Here are some of the latest productions and the stories behind them.

Self-portraits:

I got this idea from TipJunkie to send hugs to family members far away.  They were supposed to be Mother's Day cards for my mother-in-law, Karin, but they still haven't made it to the post office yet. (Sorry, Nana!)

I traced the kids and then let them fill in their features and, in Sarah's case, accessories.  

I think the rainbow hair and necklaces really make the outfit, don't you?

Will gave himself "big hair" (his words, not mine) and an orange handlebar mustache.  I drew his eyes and nose, while he moved on to stuffing two cheese sticks in his mouth.  

The last picture is a map Sarah drew for me.  It shows the route for the half-marathon I ran a couple of weeks back.  Evidently, there were a total of four Big Bad Wolves on the race course.  But, she told me it could also be a sunflower, you know, if you didn't want to think about being chased by hungry carnivores or running til you chafe.

Water Play

 I love Nashville.  There's a certain kind of energy that you find in a growing city like ours, and it's contagious.  But, I don't think I would love Nashville as much if I didn't have little kids.  Their curiosity and penchant for destroying the house has forced me to get creative and get out of the house and DO SOMETHING. Every. Single. Day.  And now they're at ages and stages that allow us to really have fun and explore the city.  

The newest reason I love Nashville: Cumberland Park.  They had me at "Free".  We've been there three times, and only one of those times was disastrous.  This past Sunday we played hooky from church and our sole objective was to finally get in the water fountain play area.  Here are a few visuals: 

These pictures are just a smidge of false advertising.  While Sarah and Will did do a fair amount of running around, pretending to be mermaids, and stomping, the majority of their time was spent sitting on the sprayers and laughing hysterically when I got soaked.

Now, if they could just get the glass elevator working, we'd be good to go for summer.

Revenge of the Nerds

This might give you a chuckle.  Watch closely for Darkhorse Will to come out of nowhere.

Lightning Girl and Boy Thunder

Does your superhero get tired of that big satin cape dragging the ground, getting in the way of the carseat straps, and getting tangled during nap time?  Well, I know my caped avengers do.

So, we decided to solve the problem by sewing t-shirt scraps to the backs of a couple of t-shirts, and, voila! Lightning Girl and Boy Thunder were born.

Not content with just the capes, my method actors needed power cuffs.  So, we cut off the toes of some outgrown socks, and the heroes were shooting lasers around the neighborhood to their hearts' content! And I couldn't get those old socks off their wrists for 3 days straight.  

Laser, laser, laser, laser.

Now, the question is what are they going to do when they find out what REAL dress-up clothes are...