Self Portrait

She said she was very happy and she has a big smile.

It's My Eka.

She's your grandma. - said by LP as she handed me her newest drawing.

A Birthday Present

With a paintbrush, a canvas, and 4 colors of paint, Lilypad Princess put her artistic talent to work to create a birthday present for Lilypad Dad.




The finished piece, all set to be hung in his locker.

Painting Playdates

Alessandro and his mom had us over for a playdate today. We both had a wonderful time, although I think Alessandro and LP had even more fun than the moms for a change. Alessandro wanted to fingerpaint, and Dori, being the brave mom that she is, pulled out the paper and paints. The kids squirted, spread, and smushed the paint with their hands and with brushes, all across the long sheet of paper spread across the table.

Lilypad Princess tried to squirt more paint out of an almost empty bottle, causing the bottle to make noise. Alessandro thought that was hysterical so LP kept squeezing the bottle to keep him laughing. All it took was a little laugh out of one to get the other one going again.


They were both a mess by the time they were done, LP actually painted her arms until she looked like the Wicked Witch of the West. But the clean-up wasn't too painful (her dress is in the wash now) and any amount of clean-up was worth it for the amount of fun these two friends had together.

Cookies for Santa

Lilypad Dad and I took Lilypad Princess to a local ceramic painting studio yesterday. The reason for the trip - Santa's Cookies. I posted before about a cute, personalized plate and mug for Santa's cookies and milk that I saw in a catalog, but wanted Lilypad Princess to personalize her own. The studio had a really cute plate that says cookies for santa on it with a snowman and Christmas tree in the center. We decided to go with that.

LP started off by sponging down the plate with water to make sure it was ready to paint. We chose a nice deep red (called Hot Tamale) and a Christmasy green (Irish Luck) as her two colors. Starting with the red, she painted most of the middle of the plate. Switching to the green, she painted the stars and holly along the edges of the plate. Once she felt that she had decorated the plate the way she liked it, I tried to keep my hand steady while painting the letters in black.

Once the front of the plate was dry, LP put her handprint on the back and then we personalized it with her name and the date. We had to leave it behind to be fired in the kiln, but will pick it up in time to fill it for Santa for Christmas.

Here is the completed masterpiece. The colors will change when fired, it will be much darker reds and greens.

Art in action

To answer Blue House Mom's question in a previous post, yes the easel is a huge hit! It is used daily, either chalk, markers or both. It has also been used for painting already, and was great for that. When my mom was visiting and we were busy working on the pumpkin soup we moved the easel into the kitchen so Lilypad Princess could paint while we worked.

Create a tree

Yesterday Lilypad Princess and I went for a walk around the neighborhood collecting pretty leaves that have fallen off the trees. LP carried her little basket the whole way, filling it up with red, yellow, orange and green foliage.

Today we created our own tree with the leaves. I drew a tree (I'm definitely not an artist) onto a large sheet of paper and set LP to work with the glue bottle and leaves.

Art Time

We finally gave Lillian her birthday present from us yesterday, an art easel. She got so many great presents that we figured we'd let her enjoy everything for a while before giving her something else. But with the cold weather finally coming in, it seemed like the perfect time. She loved the leaves at school so much that Nana and Uncle Dave worked together to give Lillian her own tree and leaves to decorate on her easel. She had a great time putting the leaves on the tree, then rearranging them over and over an over.

Work on the walls

Yesterday Lillian's first homework assignment was actually hanging on the wall in classroom. Of course, Nana had to get a picture of it, Gavin's too!

Backyard Artwork

Taking advantage of another unusally warm October day, Lily and I hit the backyard after her nap. I had promised her some art time after nap, so I brought out one of her huge easel pads and new markers and crayons that she got for her birthday (thanks Courtney, Mike & Emma!). She had a great time coloring outside.

Homework

This is Lillian's first homework assignment. Her teacher sent a letter with information about the first day and the teddy bear picture to color and bring with her on the first day. She spent alot of time on this one, even drawing round, red eyes (although one got covered with the blue). School starts in 2 hours, I'll post later today with pictures of the first day and all her stories.

Picasso

Lillian made her first painting last week. I couldn't post the pictures any earlier because the painting was a gift for Pop Steve's birthday.


I bought a couple of small canvases from Michael's. I stripped Lillian down to her diaper and put her in the empty bathtub with a canvas and two paper plates with paint.




She really liked the blue paint, she'd paint blue with her whole hands. She wasn't so sure about the red, she was really careful to just lightly dip one finger in.



Once she decided the red wouldn't kill her, she really got into it. She painted with her feet just as much as with her hands.

She also figured out how to splatter paint - clapping her hands made interesting patterns on her as well as the bathtub and me.

The aftermath