Butterflies

The boys and I had a playdate at a friend's house the other day who has 3 girls. Eli disappeared with the two oldest ones for a minute, and came back sporting pink fairy wings. He proudly announced, "Look, I'm a beautiful butterfly!" It was time for us to go home, and the only way I could get him to cooperate was to promise we could make some of our own butterfly wings at home.

The next day I asked Eli if he would like to do something special with me while Owen was napping, and he reminded me of my earlier promise about the butterfly wings. So, we scrounged around in the garage for some cardboard. I'll admit that I considered making the wings for some other more "manly" insect, but then I figured that there are male butterflies in nature, so what's the big deal!

Since Owen was asleep, Eli painted both sets of wings and I don't think he minded at all! I painted two smaller butterflies and attached some yarn to them so the boys could run around the yard with them like a kite. When the breeze picked up, the butterflies would lift off even without running around, and the kids were thrilled that their butterflies were flying! For the larger wings, I just taped some yarn on them and tied them on the boys' backs. I might actually punch holes in the wings and use some sturdy ribbon for a more permanent attachment if I get around to it.

After the paint dried and Owen was up, the boys were occupied for at least an hour out in the yard pretending to be butterflies! Eli even "flew" from flower to flower "helping them grow" (I had talked to him about pollination and what a butterfly does to help plants grow). The best part was when they held hands and flew around. I still crack up every time I see Eli wiggle his torso to get his wings flapping and tell me over and over "I'm a beautiful butterfly!" Yes, indeed you are Son!

All Painted Up

The Mini Kites

Beautiful Butterflies!

Art Studio

There is this really neat Art Studio out here that is just for kids - Creative Days Art Studio. One day last week they opened up to the community for free, so I took the boys. It was a BLAST! My camera is still broken, but they took some pictures for me and emailed them.

They were able to do shaving cream painting - a cake pan is filled with shaving cream, then they squirt paint into it, stir it around, press a paper into it, pull the paper out and scrape the shaving cream off, and it leaves a marbled looking painting.

They did marble painting - a piece of paper is put into a large tin can, some marbles are rolled in a tray of paint then placed in the can, put the can's lid on and shake it up! Out comes a really cool picture!

And their favorite - bean bag sock painting! Old socks filled with beans and tied off so they are like a round bean bag with a "tail" are dipped in trays of paint, then the kids throw them at a paper pinned to the wall! They got really messy doing this, and had a blast! Owen had paint in his hair even, and when he finally looked down and saw that there was paint all over his hands, the surprised and puzzled look on his face was priceless. When my camera gets fixed I'll have to post pics of their actual art work.