Chalk Art Competition

Sawyer always starts with his square of the basketball court ...



And then Xander has to move to his square ...





Two twins ... with very different styles ...

Art by Connor

History. Battles. Star Wars. These are the things that interest Connor the most. And these are the things that he's taken to drawing and building with Legos. Now ... if only they would come out with a World Wars Lego set with tanks and planes and guns ...

Art by Sawyer

One of my favorite pieces that's come home this year!

The Artist

Xander LOVES art of all kinds. One of our more recent discoveries is his love of painting. Sometimes he needs a picture prompt, something to give him an idea, but he always takes off with it and make it his own. We go through a lot of arts and crafts supplies in our house, so Michael's is our friend. We're on the email list, which offers some pretty good savings on regular priced items and even sale items, depending on what you're looking for. Every little bit helps, because, like I've said before, this kid LOVES art. And if he doesn't have a screen, it's a pretty safe bet that he's doing something with art.

Mosaic Man

Sawyer doesn't love art quite as much as Xander. Fine motor deficits have always made his pencil grip a little light, but certain art projects make him happy. He loves to color solid colors of crayons on white paper. He also LOVES these mosaic projects from Melissa and Doug. We've gone through all of them at some point. The good news is he has three windows in his bedroom. The bad news is we're out of new designs to buy for him!

Trains!

Xander LOVES art. He goes through more paper and markers than anyone I know. I used to think I loved art as a child. But Xander's love / obsession goes much further. If you tell him to "play with toys," his idea of toys is white paper and markers. Sometimes we see road signs, an early and often love of his, and sometimes we see video games. Today, we saw something a little different. This one is his Norfolk Southern train. And I love it. It has two engines, a tanker car, and a caboose!

After the Rain

Sawyer's chalk art is always interesting, but I loved the way it looked after the rain today.

Chalk Art by Sawyer

It's always this particular section of our back patio / basketball court. And it's usually a similar design, though the colors sometimes change. And yes, that would be a full box of 48 pieces of chalk. We need to by stock in Crayola at our house, apparently.

One Last Look

It's the end of an era for the art wall in our old house (don't worry, he will have a new art wall in the new house). This art has been up for months, as he hasn't wanted to erase anything ...



And he also wanted to share one of his recent coloring pages ... still on a Mr. Peabody and Sherman kick at the moment ...

Painting Pumpkins

Mommy doesn't like to carve pumpkins. More specifically, Mommy hates to hollow out the pumpkins in order to carve them. So several years ago, I introduced the boys to my love of art. We paint the pumpkins instead. All the boys enjoy this, but Xander is perhaps my most willing and creative artist. He LOVES it just the way I always have. And he's enthusiastic about it every single year, painting more pumpkins than anyone!







Did I mention that we end up painting a lot more than three pumpkins each year?

The Artist

If you don't have young children and are not familiar with PBS Kids, let me introduce you to one of Xander's favorite things ... Word World.

It's something we know A LOT about in our house. Some might say a little too much.

Xander can recite entire episodes verbatim (and with perfect inflection). He anticipates moments in each show, laughing just before something funny is about to happen or saying a line just before a character has the chance to do so. He knows how to spell all of the words featured in the "Let's Build a Word" segments. He knows the entire series inside and out.

This summer Word World is also showing up in other ways.

Xander is our artist. He LOVES to sit down with markers or crayons or paint. He will go through an entire ream of paper in one sitting if you will let him. The desk in his room is filled with his "papers" from letters to numbers to drawings to signs to whatever his current obsession happens to be.

Here are a few recent examples ...

"Pig's Perfect Pizza" is a favorite episode.

 As is "The Lost Letter L" episode.

And, as anyone who's ever watched PBS knows, every show ends with a thank you to the sponsors as well as "Viewers Like You" and then ...

"Thank You."

Welcome to our "Word World."

Hint, Hint

Hmm ... Wonder What He's Thinking About, originally uploaded by cheryl.

For the last week or so, Connor has been a little bit obsessed. You see, other people have started putting up their Christmas trees. He's seen them at stores, in other people's windows, on top of people's cars. He sees them everywhere. And he never hesitates to point them out.

"There's one. Another one. Aw, man! Why do they have their tree already? When are we going to go get our tree? How much longer do I have to wait? Can we go today? How about tomorrow? Please, come on, please."

It's a running commentary in our house.

And now it's a reoccurring theme in Connor's artwork. He brought this one home from school today. Clearly he's trying to give us a hint.

I'm one of those people who doesn't like to rush the season. I like Christmas, but if it starts too early, then I get tired of it. I also happen to really like Thanksgiving, and want to enjoy it for what it is all about, rather than skipping from Halloween to Christmas as most of the stores did this year. But that's just me.

Not to worry, Connor won't have to suffer too much longer. We're planning to go either this weekend or one day next week to get the tree. After Josh and I built our first house together (many, many years ago), we discovered a small, locally owned and operated tree farm just down the road from that first house. We've gone there every year since 2003.

Connor has been taken every year of his life, though he only started to be interested last year (and of course, is even more interested this year). If you happen to visit the same farm, you will see pictures of him and Josh up on the photo wall (they take a photo with everyone if they're willing).

Soon ... one day soon ... Connor will get his first Christmas wish!

The Gallery

It's been a busy school year so far, at least as far as art work goes! The boys are always bringing something new home to hang up in the gallery. Here are the most recent ones ...



The two painted ones are by Connor. The one that looks like an angel is by Xander. The small one is a construction paper bean shaker that was made by Sawyer. And the blue one with multi-colored cut-outs is a cutting and glue exercise by Xander.

The sailboat is a color by number project by Connor. The tan with black cut-outs is a cutting and glue exercise by Sawyer. The big color scribbles is from Xander. And the other one is coloring by Connor, with the before and after version showing through.

Another new week, and there will probably be more to come!

The New Gallery

In the old house, I had a clear view of the gallery (meaning enough space to take a full-length photograph). In this house, we decided to use the exposed side of the refrigerator as the gallery, and the hallway is too narrow to get a full-length shot. This is as good as it will get ...



The top two are from Xander's class. His new teachers are capitalizing on his love of letters, and helping him make them during art time. The other one is practice with scissors and glue. The bottom two are Connor's, one free expression and one practicing his colors. He's not big on lines, not yet anyway.



The top two are Xander's again - more letters. The bottom three are Connor's in-school worksheets. Note how neat that bottom left one is. It doesn't even look like my son. I won't tell you there's an identical page underneath of it that doesn't even distinguish shapes (that whole not wanting to stay inside the lines thing) and a note from the teacher telling him to follow directions. Clearly he can do it when he wants to (or when the teacher wants him to)!

The Gallery

The Gallery, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Looks like it's time to start over with the gallery. We're running out of room for display with all three boys well represented this time around.

Connor did the big painted piece, and it's a waterfall with green shrubs on the side (according to his own words). He also did the American flag at our last book club meeting (winter olympics theme) and the big red lips (apparently this week is dental health week, all the boys have brought something relating to teeth home).

Sawyer did the two yellow pieces of construction paper - mostly doodles, but those are definitely an improvement for the little boy who used to organize rather than actually color or draw. He also did the little booklet (bottom right) and the half-moon paper plate (it's a noise-maker, which he LOVES).

The rest are Xander's pieces. The animal menagerie (still up by popular demand, he throws a fit when I try to take it down), the flower on the popsicle stick, the heart card (for Valentine's day) and the notebook paper doodles.