I Don't What To Call This Post Except That This Is Fun At Work

The little girls are keeping me doubly busy lately.  Busy includes but is not limited to:

1. Unrolling the toilet paper in all 3 bathrooms

2. Cutting a hole in a pair tights

3.  Drawing on the kitchen table

4.  Helping Mommy in her recent endeavors to create more art or mess, whatever you want to call it

I read a review of this art book on Vincent Van Vogh that said that it sparked their toddler's interest in art...After I got it I was skeptical b/c it was quite wordy and I was afraid that Libby would get bored with it.  Quite the contrary happened though, Libby loved it.  We spent last week doing projects that reminded us of good ole Vinnie.

 We focused mostly on Starry Night.  After we read the book, we talked about what colors he used in Starry Night and how he painted with mostly swirly lines. Then we practiced making swirls with pipe cleaners...Maggie played with these too.

 Then we made a Starry Night Jar.   Just a jar filled with water, glitter glue, and some extra glitter.  We used blue and green to remind us of Vinnie's painting.  This past week when she needed a few minutes of quiet time, to "find her self control," I sent her to the step with the jar and her book and it works out pretty good.  Sort of.

 The next day we practiced making Starry Night swirls with shaving cream mixed with washable blue glitter paint.  Shaving cream is a great thing to have with little people.  They love to play in it, it cleans up easily, and it makes your house smell good.  You just have to stay close by so no one tries to eat it or put in their eyes.

The really great part about doing these activities with both girls, is that while we are working Libs and I have constant dialogue, but I think Little Mags hangs on every word b/c she follows along with us so well!  I am surprised by her every time!

The last day was my favorite Vincent Van Gogh day.  I had been working on some art projects last week that required me to filter through some of my old art supplies.  In doing so I found my old water color palette and a piece of expensive water color paper that I had been saving since college I guess.  Not really sure what I was saving it for?

Anyhow, Libs and I cut out some star shapes and then traced around them with some curly lines.  Then I let her and Maggie have it!  They had so much fun dipping their brushed in the water and experimenting with different color combinations.

I have done water colors with Libby before, just the Crayola buy at Walmart type variety, basically they always end up in a brown puddle on her page.

This was so different though.  I think b/c they knew that they were using Mommy's good stuff, and I made a really big deal about it, both girls took it seriously and work diligently on their pictures.

I know, it sounds crazy that I'm saying this about my 1 year old, but look at her go!  I promise that these pictures we not staged.

There was one incident when Mags climb on the table and knocked our water over, but this was easily fixed with some paper towels and  by switching to a shallow bowl of water instead of tall cup.  I probably should have thought of that first.

I loved this activity. While Maggie is showing some real promise at having a bit of artistic capability, I have never been able to interest Libby much, from the first time I handed her a crayon, her reaction has generally been "Ehhhh." Something about learning about the artist and seeing the art that he made, plus using Mommy's super cool art supplies got her creative juices flowing and she was totally into this:)  This last picture was taken after I cleaned up Maggie and told Libby we were done.  She told me that she wasn't finished and needed more time!

This made me happy. 

More time granted.

Here's to creativity.