Will's Art Show

One of the best things about our DOD elementary school here is the art program.  William's teacher, Mr. Swigert, is phenomenal.  He teaches the kids tons of different mediums and really makes art a wonderful experience for the.  And, for us, each year he puts on a huge Art Show!  They hang every piece of artwork from the school year and families are invited to come and walk around.  We knew Will loved his art classes, but a surprise to us was that he won 1st place for his age group for his painting of the The Princess and the Pea!  His was prize was that his piece is printed in the Sun 42 book of art (I think it contains prints of all the winners from the Asia North region), and his painting will be framed and remain hung on the walls of the school here forever!  Pretty awesome.  I am so proud of my little artist!

He had several other projects displayed, but these two below were my favorites!

You Don't Have to be a Great Artist to Make Your Kid Happy

This post is definitely not about me excelling in the art of face painting. It's just to say that sometimes, your kid just wants to do fun stuff and he doesn't care if you're a good artist (or a good singer, dancer, basketball player, or whatever else it may be).

The other day, William REALLY wanted to "paint face" (as he calls it). Like he really really really wanted to. He'd been asking me for days. And it's not that I didn't really want to . . . but it's that I just didn't really want to. You know what I mean? It seems messy, time consuming, and I have no drawing/painting abilities whatsoever. But, I had bought (on a whim because they were on sale for like $2) some face painting crayons at Target a couple of months ago and he knew it. So finally I gave in. And it turned out to be a lot of fun. And it only took a few minutes. And Will was really carefully not to smudge his face on things (like our couch), and we really didn't make a mess. I'm glad we did it. And Will LOVED it. He kept checking himself out in the mirror and talking about it. So, my lesson was learned. It's fun to make your kid happy. Now, take a look at my BEAUTIFUL "paint face" creations:

First, he requested a green shark with red teeth. So, I delivered:

Then, a brontosaurus:

And then, he requested I draw a man down the middle of his face. Uh . . . okay, Will. Whatever your strange and adorable little heart desires!

Then came the question that I knew was inevitable. "Mom, can I paint face you now?" I wanted to say no, but I couldn't help it--he had that cute little face with those silly-man-legs-mustache looking at me and so I let him go at it. He drew a man on one side and a stegosaurus on the other, then he said he just wanted to do lines down the middle. He's a funny dude.