A New Art Medium

By now, you all know how much Emily loves to draw pictures. Well, we have moved on to a new medium - chalk. I recently purchased two individual sized slate boards. Emily was so excited to be able to do a chalk drawing on both her board and the one I bought for Matthew (two boards to keep the peace and have no fighting over who gets to draw when). These are the pictures she made. Emily's is an under the sea "underwater scape" (well I can't say landscape, they aren't on land). She was most proud of her jellyfish. For Matthew, she drew a train. Matthew is but of course the engineer. I love how much she enjoys creating and drawing some pretty simple and sometimes complicated but equally amazing pictures.

Just Wait and See

On and off, we will ask Matthew and Emily what they want to be when they grow up. At first, Matt was telling us a fireman but there has been a recent twist to his response. Matthew now tells us he wants to be a fireman and an army man. I think the army man comes from our receiving from a friend a bag of army men for Matt to play with. Recently, I have found these men out of their bag and all over his room - sometimes positioned on his toy cars, trucks and fire apparatus. We've been telling him that he can be both if he wants to be. I love asking them this question because you can see what their exposure has been by either hearing and/or seeing of what people do each day as a career. Emily still is in the Power Ranger stage for her career although I did ask her what she would be if she couldn't be a Power Ranger and she said "a decorator". I asked her what kind of decorator and she said "a cake decorator". Can you tell she just recently watched an episode of "Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network? Thanks Duff for a whole new career path for Emily.

Revisiting the Past

This picture was taken in December 2007. After Christmas, we went on a short family trip before Dave's busy season at work started. We took Matt to see some of his first "real" trains (yes, he's seen daddy's work train but these are different) - I guess this trip is what started his immense love/addiction of trains. What I love most about this picture is the way Matt is looking at the train and how the steam, that is being emitted, surrounds the front of the engine - you have to love the Christmas wreath too. It looks like a scene out of a movie. I'm sure this year will consist of more train visits whether it be to see the big engines or the models trains. Either way I know Matthew will be happy.

Art 101

Let Emily's animal exhibition continue. Here are her giraffes. You have to love their long necks and smiling faces. She even included a tree that they can feast on if they get hungry. The only thing Emily omitted from her drawing were their brown spots. Maybe next time.

Revisiting the Past

These pictures were taken in February 2007. We had a lot of snow that had turned to ice. Emily and I made it our job to go out and move the ice pile that formed on the one side of our driveway. The ice was so thick we had to use a garden shovel to break off chunks and carry them away. Here Emily is imitating mommy's removal method the only difference is that mommy never fell.