the birthday festival begins

our littlest turned 2 today! the festival actually started on tuesday, this is the second cake {which started yesterday!} and there will be a party and a 3/4 day visit from my dad and his wife starting saturday. our big one turns 5 on tuesday.
the top photo makes me laugh as there is a piece of sticky tape on ari's back, lovingly put there by his brother {who likes to wear all his shirts back to front and sometimes inside out}.
a fun morning :)

work in progress . friday

i had some time to paint today, and these are 2 of 3 that i'm working on. i have to say i'm really enjoying my new paints! these are on heavy cotton paper. and they have titles!
1. we think outloud 2. just what i think {not always black and white}. they are about communication and how we can know each other so well that we can almost read thoughts.

am pleased that 2 of the prints i donated sold through the OzBushfireAppeal shop. small steps i know but i'm anxious to contribute something. my husband has raised a bit more than $1500 at work which is great.

a kid/mum moment that was priceless to me happened last week when we were sheltering from the intense heat in a cafe in the city {not realising what was happening in country areas}. we bought our 4 year old a green lego car and were putting it together – it was more of a dad/son task, i was moving pieces around making some kind of image with the pieces that were not so ugly {tricky as it was a kelly green racing car with black and red highlights}. my son looked over and said 'ooh, i like what you're doing there with those pieces. it looks just like some of your work'. u can picture how happy that made me!

hope you are having/about to have a great friday :)

project: decorations

i haven't been an overly christmassy person for most of my adult life probably due to living away from family and not having mum around. but now that i have kids things are different. it has become more exciting, especially as our oldest knows exactly what to expect!
we made this decoration together on monday, pics a little blurry due to melbourne's winter/summer light!
i am always inspired by what my son paints/draws/makes – he seems to have a style already and no inhibitions as to what to do next. eg the yellow and white one in the middle pic.

art imitates life

i've had fun recreating some of the characters my son and i have been building with simple wooden blocks. the pink/red one is for his room – he insisted they weren't real if they didn't have a mouth! the others will be in the shop gradually . . .
my favourite came out with a flaw that will need re-working, more on that soon.