Painting a picture

Everest imagination into arts and crafts has sparked this year. Since he started Montessori, he wants to paint and draw more often. It might also be because I finally organized all our craft stuff. It is conveniently and easily (for a 4 year old) located in the dining room.

When I suggested painting the other day, he and Leaf were all for it.
This was Leaf's paper and paint tray. He has as much fun painting the paint tray and paintbrush as he does his picture. (We use lids of plastic containers for our paint trays, they work great and clean up easily.)

Everest enjoyed mixing all the colors. He painted the entire paper and it turned out beautiful. He was talking the whole time about what he was painting and how each part worked together, and what its purpose was. I think this was his rocket ship painting.(I know, shame on me, it was just a few days ago and I can't remember...how am I going to remember anything with 3????!!!!)

Leaf was so funny, Everest and I could not stop laughing at him. I had to shake the paint before we opened them. Leaf thought this was a great idea. He would pick up the paints and shake them, but he would make the funniest sound while he was shaking them. The more Everest and I laughed, the more he did it.

In between shaking (one gets tired from all that shaking and needs a break), he would stack and re-stack the paints. It was a lot cleaner than him painting!
Thank you again Aunt Teresa for the apron from Etsy. Leaf loves it, he carries it around and gives it to me to put on him. I need to make him another one. I put all of our aprons in the wash after painting. Leaf cried for 30 minutes. He kept pulling his out of the basket and trying to put it on.

This is Everest's train painting. Again, he told me about all the parts of the train he was painting. His love for learning and imagination are so fun to experience.

Nathan's birthday gift

Every year I try to have Everest (and now Leaf too) make something for Nathan's birthday. This way he is directly involved in the gift and not just picking something out. We usually paint some type of picture. This year, I decided to make it a little more than just a picture. We sanded and painted a frame too. We have had so much fun making it. Everest loves to go to daddy's office and see his paintings on the wall.

Ready to work. My parents got the leaf apron for Leaf for Christmas and Teresa got the little apron for Leaf from Etsy. Isn't it adorable on him?
Nathan had found an old picture frame in his mom's attic over Christmas. He brought them home for us to use, so we did. The frame was shiny, gold with black specs. I wanted the boys to paint it and I wasn't sure if the paint would stick to the smooth surface. We decided to sand it first.

Leaf even got into the sanding.....as long as he can keep his fingers in his mouth, he is up for anything.

Starting to paint.
Leaf painted 90% of the time with his fingers in his mouth. At least this hand stayed clean of paint.

Everest wanted to make flowers for Nathan's birthday. We started with some tissue paper, scissors and pipe cleaners.
Assembling the flowers. He was very focused on this task. (He has been into wearing his Purdue hats lately.)
Proud of the flowers we made.Leaf drew while we were working on other things. I traced his hand print on the paper and then cut them out. I glued down the middle and ring finger (the sign for "I love you") and put a heart on the palm with "Leaf 2010". I also punched 2 holes in the palm and put a pipe cleaner through it.
Here are our flowers and painting for Nathan.