November Arts and Crafts

One windy fall day, a bee hive blew out of a tree in our backyard.  We took it inside to study it. The bees were long gone. The structure was like a parking garage with multiple floors.

Here is Zaeda at her first visit to the dentist. Because we'd taken her to Oliver's cleaning not long before, she knew what to expect and did a great job.  Now she wants to brush her own teeth as often as possible, often leading to a pink Little Mermaid toothbrush overloaded with toothpaste, a sticky face, and blobs on the counter.

Leaving daycare and starting kindergarten was a big change for Oliver. While he's made many new friends at his new school, he was really excited to get a birthday party invite from his best friend from the YMCA, Nolan. We went to a bowling alley and he Nolan and Mitchell all bowled and played in the arcade. What fun they had!

Oliver has become a confident reader. Books are always stacked under his bed. He reads to his sister. I snapped this picture one day when I went to pick him up from school.  

It seems as though the kids are always cutting, gluing, drawing, folding...  It's wonderful to see all their creations. We take what they proudly hand us and marvel. The way they express themselves. And their school programs involve so many arts and crafts that by the end of the week, we clear their school cubbies,  stuff their backpacks, and them unpack them at the kitchen table. As parents, we're the archivists, saving the best of what they do so that we can show them 20 years from now, putting stuff up on the fridge, recycling.

Here is Zaeda learning to use scissors by endlessly chopping up big pieces of paper into little pieces of paper. To be extra silly, one night she did this with panties on her head.

On another night, she decided to cut her own hair.

Here is Oliver's thanksgiving pilgrim hat.

Some day she'll wear make-up. Until then, we try to make sure our little artists can only reach water-soluble markers.