Painting by the Fireplace

Today has been a lazier day for us. The kids did school work and hung out with each other watching a couple of movies, while I worked on some research I was doing.

We've been so busy with stuff lately that I realized no one has been having that much fun as a family lately so I've decided that I want to change that and try and make sure we do at least 1 fun thing together every day. Today, I chose painting. The kids and I love to paint. I pulled out watercolors and construction paper for the boys and canvas and acrylics for the girls and I. It was their first time working with canvas. I gave them a theme to choose from, either winter or Christmas. We don't have as many decorations as I thought we did so I figured this could be a way to add to what we do have. Yesterday's fun activity was supposed to be decorating.

The youngest painted a little but my other boy decided he wasn't going to paint, because I didn't give him a canvas of his own. I suppose I should let him give it a try next time, if I can get to the store to pick up smaller ones. At first, my younger daughter didn't listen to me and chose to continue watching her movie. It wasn't until her older sister finished her painting that the younger one came in and realized we weren't just painting on paper. She is still working on her masterpiece right now.

My older daughter had hoped to paint a picture of a cardinal in the sunset. She can be very particular and quite the perfectionist, though. When her bird wasn't coming out right she decided to turn it into a plane. I tried to complement her creativity and said it must be cardinal airlines. That seemed to cheer her up a little. Then she tried to make mountains, but didn't like the look so she turned them into volcanoes and said it was Hawaii at Christmas time. I convinced her to make people. She chose to make them running away screaming. It is kind of funny.

My younger daughter just finished. Hers is a Christmas tree. She was planning to add people but decided her tree was too big and she didn't want to paint people over it at all. She is happy with it, though.

Mine is just a winter scape. A log home, in a pine tree forest, under the moon, stars, and falling snow. Honestly, I wonder if the home is too cartoon like for the feel of the picture, but I'm not a trained artist, just someone who enjoys painting, so I can't expect it to be fabulous! I do like it and think it does add a little something to the wall. Certainly better than a bare spot.

What made the painting even better was doing it together on the floor by our fireplace. The warmth and ambiance really spoke to the theme. If only there had been snow outside too.