I love art. I also love crafts. Neither of these statements should come as any surprise to anyone who knows me. I have a degree in Art History, which would be a clue, and I have been crafting and creating for as long as I can remember. Since I was a little girl, I've loved to draw, color, paint, cut, paste, mold, string, sew, stitch, knit, and on and on. You get the picture. It's in my bones. It's what I do. If I couldn't create with my hands, I honestly don't know what I would do. Crafting has been a thread throughout my life. Simply put- being creative just makes me happy!
As it turns out, watching my little girl being creative also makes me happy. My heart glows with the warmest of warm fuzzies when I get to watch her scribble with her crayons, paint, and play with art supplies.
A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to visit a most incredible place called the
Art Zone Children's Studio, as one of our Mommy & Me class fieldtrips. It's the coolest place! There are little tables with different art projects for the kids to make with clay, pens, crayons, and stamps, a playroom with a play house, dress-up clothes, and stuffed animals, a water/mud room, and Lucy's favorite- paint! This place is all about the kids and letting them create and have fun- we had so much fun. It was awesome!
Man, I love that place so much! I would love to have an art/play room. But since I can't, I'll just have to just make it a point to do more art projects with her at home as much as I can, and visit the Art Zone again.
Lucky for us, we have friends who do have more room to spread out and do art. Our friend Lori graciously opens her home (and awesome backyard) to a small group of us on Monday afternoons so that the kids can play and do art. We've been going to Lori's house for "Art Mondays" for about a month now. Lucy and I both have a great time!
We had an extra special art afternoon on Memorial Day. Since (most) Daddies had the day off, we made it a family affair and decided to have a potluck barbeque in addition to art. Art that day lasted about all of *maybe* five minutes, since there were so many more people and so much more excitement with the Dads being there. The kids were much more interested in eating and playing.
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| Nicole, Eric, and Luke |
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| Aiden |
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| Ivette and Ethan |
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| Jim and Aiden |
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| Alicia and Bregan |
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| Bregan and Lucy 'not' gardening |
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| Lucy and Aiden investigating a bag of ice |
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| Luke and Bregan playing with the sandbox |
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| party people |
At some point, one of the kids discovered that it was super duper fun to make a loud noise by pounding on the big metal gate. Then it was all over. All the kids took turns running up to the gate, pounding on it, laughing hysterically, then they would run away...then run back to the gate for more pounding, more hysterical laughter, more running away, and repeat, and repeat. The kids were laughing and having a ball, as were the parents watching them.
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| Lori & Aiden, me & Lucy, Alicia & Bregan, Ivette & Ethan (missing: Nicole & Luke) |
I feel so fortunate to have this group of amazing moms to hang out with and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to do this with Lucy and share the experience with our friends. I'm so thankful to Lori for having us over every week! Lucy gets the opportunity to interact and play with other kids her age and develop friendships, which is just such a joy to watch. And I also get the opportunity to hang out with some fun and inspiring women. It's great to have a standing weekly playdate, and the fact that art is involved makes it all the more special.
Aah...art. It's happy-making. :)
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