Art Explosion

I think it's safe to say, we've hit an art EXPLOSION over in our house! It started about a few weeks before Nana arrived, and hasn't let up. Elizabeth has gone from scribbles, to ACTUAL pictures, almost overnight! Before this, we'd get realistic figures every now and then, kinda out of the blue. But now, just about every day I'm bombarded with pictures she's drawn. I LOVE IT! I should add, I have no idea when children are "supposed" to start drawing realistic figures, so this might not be big news... but to us, it's HUGE! And while I adore the scribbles, at the same time I'm SO excited about the realistic pics that I just had to share :) Enjoy!

 So, this one Elizabeth did in church today. It's one of my favorites so far. We were studying the 6th day of creation in her Sunday School class, and how God formed Adam out of the clay of the earth. We let the kids make people out of playdough, and then on their paper they colored pictures of people in our lives. It reads: "God Gives us People to Love."

For the assignment, Elizabeth drew a picture of her and Liam holding hands. Suffice it to say, my heart is a puddle!

I think the hair is my favorite detail. But I also love that she's learning how to make hearts. She showed the other kids in Sunday School: "Look, the top is like an M, then you bring it together like a point" Love her!

 

Above: I love this one! I love the sunshine and the flowers and the blue sky and the bug stickers!

Above: Here's another one from church. I LOVE the frogs. The little frog is even sticking out his tongue to catch a fly. LOVE!

Above: She spontaneously made this rainbow one day... in proper rainbow-color order! Seriously... do you KNOW how happy this makes me?! If you only knew how many MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of rainbows I drew as a child, you would understand why this one makes me GIDDY!

 

Above: This one is a bunny. When I asked her where his other eye and ear were, she explained it was from the side (i.e. profile). Impressed yet?

Above: A pretty adorable butterfly, no doubt!

Above: I LOVED the colors in this one. Another Sunday School activity. So pretty!

 

Above: Gotta love this one. 

 

Above: This one didn't scan right because it's supposed to show green crayon. Despite the 6 (or 7?) legs, this is a turtle :) 

 

Above: This one was for our swim teachers. I don't think the teachers had ANY clue how big this was when we gave it to them. I had to scan it before we gave it away. 

 

Above: Elizabeth drew this one the week of VBS for one of her favorite teachers, Mrs. Candace. It's amazing, because I actually see Candace in this picture... her hair is often short, with a bit of a cute spike in it. Not to mention flawless make up (from the eyelashes to the pink lipstick!) LOVE!

Above: This is of our whole family. Daddy is hugging mommy. The two little smilies are Elizabeth and Liam, and if you look really closely, you'll see a few other faces, those are Bella and Nana's dog Abbey.

Above: So one day when Nana and Maddie were here, I ran to a dental appointment and (obviously) left the children with Nana. Elizabeth was VERY upset when I first left. I was worried she was going to cry the whole time. Apparently, she stopped crying not long after I left, but was upset that I was gone. Her solution: she drew this picture and went and found where I keep the tape all by herself and then proceeded to tape the picture to the inside of the garage door so I would see it when I came home. We usually do this when daddy has been away for a long time... like a "Welcome Home" sign. I love Love LOVE that I got one, too! And making it even more special, it's a picture of me and her together.

I guess Elizabeth did this one with daddy one day, because he's labeled it. I think buddy Delanie would like this one... It's the Magic Tree House (lines at the bottom=ladder; circles=windows) with Annie's little mouse friend. This one makes me smile because A) it shows SO much detail. and B) it shows she's understanding small details of the chapter books we've started getting into. Love HER to pieces I tell ya!

 

This one wouldn't scan well. But it's Elmo. A blue Elmo, but it's him. I was pretty impressed!

We did this one near the 4th of July. I just think it's pretty. I need to pull out the cookie cutters more often!

 Okay, so along with an explosion in art, has come an explosion in notes, lists, checklists, and stories. I guess she's done this for awhile, but lately, she's doing it ALL the time... basically pretending to write a letter, pretending to write a note, pretending to make a grocery list, pretending to take my order, pretending to write a ticket, etc. I find dozens and dozens and DOZENS of these sorts of "lists" all over the house each and every day. In fact, this morning when Liam woke up, I walked passed Elizabeth's room, and noticed she was already awake, and hunched over furiously writing a list! So funny! And I "think" if memory serves me correct... isn't this one of the signs of writing/reading readiness? Exciting!

 Okay... so I definitely want to post some of Liam's latest creations as well. He, too, is quite the budding artist! He LOVES to paint or stamp, especially with our dot stampers. He doesn't really like crayons or drawing as much as he likes to stamp or paint. Check out the richness in color in this one above. I LOVE IT!

 I love the blues in this one. 

 And here are the dots. They are his favorite. And of course, they just so happen to be the messiest things on earth!

Anyway... as you can see, our house is quickly becoming quite the little gallery! And I LOVE IT! Although, it won't be long before we are out of fridge/wall/window space, so I'm going to need to come up with a good way to store/organize our art projects soon! Ideas?! Anyway, until next time...