{last day of summer art project}

{celery art}

This summer we're trying to keep busy. The girls are used to having something to do every day besides play with the sixty-ninety-hundred toys we have, so, besides setting up playdates & MOPS field trips, I've been pulling out teaching ideas & perusing Pinterest for things to keep their little hands busy.

The girls just love to do odjects, as Cassidy calls them, and crafts. She, especially, will sit & draw/paint/color for hours. The everyday art supplies are stamps, markers & crayons but a few times a week we'll pull out finger paint or watercolors & let loose.

The other day I remembered to save the end of our celery stalk & while Kalea napped, Cassidy got to create some vegetable art. While wearing a Tinkerbell costume, of course!

Her art is getting more & more mature. Gone are the day of scribbling. She is meticulous in creating each piece. Most are labeled telling who the picture is for & is always signed so we know who drew it. She's learning to rhyme, sound out words & spell the names of the people in our family. So far she's pretty accurate on Mom, Dad & can get most of the letters in Kalea & Cade. It's totally cute to have her "read" the words she writes to describe what's going on.

She's started a Summerbridge workbook with her Daddy as well & is super excited to do "homework" a couple times a week. Let's hope the trend continues through middle & high school!

{budding artist}

Cassidy must have inherited some artistic tendencies from her Grandma Betty & Great-Grandpa because she's becoming quite the little artist. The other week she drew this picture...

by looking at the decoration on Kalea's dress. 

Pretty darn accurate, right?

project 365 photo: 07.07.2011 {art}

I've been trying to keep up with the ever expanding collection of artwork created by Cassidy by photographing each most pieces & then keeping a couple in a binder for posterity and amusement when she gets older. It's daunting since there seems to be at least one masterpiece created daily & the ones that she really gets attached to tend to be covered in glitter, glue, goopy things or are the size of a small country. 

We've been talking about art & artists lately too - a conversation spurred on by a random video we came across on Netflix. (If I had any recollection of what it was, I'd tell you, but the details are slipping these days.) A book I shared with her on the topic, which happens to be one of my absolute favorite children's books, is Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka.

An online review says, "While trying to find his friend in Manhattan, a boy asks a passerby, "Have you seen Art?" and sets off a chain of events that propels him through the museum on an unexpected journey of artistic discovery. Once inside, every variation of his "where is Art?" request compels helpful museum-goers to respond in a more esoteric fashion as each visitor briefly introduces the works of his or her favorite contemporary artist to the narrator. After a thorough, eye-opening tour, the boy finds himself back where he started. But now when he is asked, "Did you find art?" he resoundingly replies, "YES!" And, on the final page, he does; Art is waiting for him outside the museum doors." 

It's such a fun way to introduce "art" to little ones. I'm really looking forward to taking Cassidy to the High in Atlanta sometime next year to see some in person!

project 365 photo: 05.04.2011 {preschool art}

project 365 photo: 02.07.2011

pre-school project. there is now glitter from here to timbuktu.

project 365 photo: 02.04.2011

masterpiece by Cassidy, age 3.

extreme lump makeover: home edition

Even though you've gotten your fill of the lumpsonablog lately with the fun 365 photo project I admit that I haven't given much thought or time to posts with more than few words. It's been a busy few weeks after getting back from PA. My Christmas gift this year was to replace shelving in the living room & playroom/office that was bursting at the seams.

playroom: before

living room: before

I'd been eying some cute shelves at Ikea since our last visit & so we took another field trip to pick them up. We spent the next weekend putting them together (ummm, well, kudos to Michael actually!) & the weekend after that starting to organize. It set off a New Year's cleaning spree & purge. It's a work in progress, but the house feels more put together & a bit more organized. 

playroom: after

living room: after

I'm still trying to figure out how else to decorate in the playroom. I'm considering chalkboard paint for that small wall on the left side of the playroom photo. Cassidy's been able to help clean up a little more effectively with the addition of label on the bins. If you notice little tags on the top of the pink bins. I took a picture of what is supposed to go inside, printed it & attached the label. Now the girls can find their toys without dumping everything & know where it gets put away. We'll see how long the novelty lasts! Have any other decorating or organization tips?

the labels for the toy bins

And, how do you get...& stay organized?

mama, can we do a project?

I think that's become one of Cassidy's favorite phrases. She loves all things glue, construction paper, markers, crayons, scissors & especially glitter related. Her wonderful pre-school & Sunday school teachers do a great job filling this need three days each week, but the other four days are all up to me. Her birthday easel does a great job of letting her create on her own, but some days that just doesn't cut it. Recently she hit an art milestone: making people that actually resemble people all.by.herself. I'm so proud of my big girl.

 The days that self direction doesn't do it for her, I put my first grade teacher hat back on, go digging in the storage closet & come up with something exciting...to a three year old. Today's project was a hand-print wreath that just may be a keeper to remember the little hands that helped make it.