Le Artiste - Age 6 edition

Blythe LOVES art and loves to draw or paint or color or glue things.  Her talents cover a wide range as illustrated below:

1. Our very first "No Boys Allowed" sign in our house.  In case you couldn't get it from 'No BOY', she drew it out (only couldn't remember how to spell 'yes' and I believe those are intended to be shorts on the boy).

So that one is pretty rudimentary compared to the next.  Blythe's frog and lily pad picture she made at school was on display at the mall for 2 weeks.  Go Blythe!  

We had just left a clinic at her ballet studio about how-to hair and makeup for recitals, thus the dolled up face.  

Brynn's newly decorated room

Ok, so I'm pretty terrible at remembering to take "before" pictures.  The only one I have of Brynn's room is from before we bought the house.  But basically, we only had added furniture: her crib-turned-toddler bed, red toy box, dresser with pig knobs (left over from farm-themed nursery in last house) and a glider chair and ottoman.

I didn't really have plans to decorate it yet, but when Braden went on a trip to Louisiana with just he and Brynn around Easter, I figured it was an ideal time to paint it.  So I got to work.  Her room took quite a bit of effort and materials:
1. Paint whole room
2. Make stencils for butterflies, emblem over bed, and growth chart
3. Paint butterflies, emblem, and growth chart
4. Get new knobs for dresser and night stand (night stand was in closet, so we switched it with red toy box).
5. Pick out new bedding
6. Get new mattress and boxspring
7. Take apart crib/toddler bed to use just the back as the headboard
8. Order new curtains and and curtain rod and install (note: panels were on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond for $5.00!  Nice!)
9. Buy white lamp, lamp shade, and ribbon.  Hot glue ribbon onto lamp shade.

And here we have Brynn's newly decorated room:

Last photo taken by Blythe Holloway Photography.

Brynn loves her new room!  She slept great last night and when I got up this morning, Ethan and Brynn were in her bed looking at books.  It's a popular spot since it's the biggest bed of the kids' beds.

Needless to say, now that Ethan and Brynn's rooms are painted, Blythe is very anxious for us to paint her room!  I think I should be able to do it in the next couple of weeks.  Stay tuned.

Anyone for a game of golf?

We had only semi-decorated Ethan's room after moving in.  The pennants were put up and that was it.  Combined with his comforter and pillows, it was a sports themed room, but there was room for improvement.  Braden had been bouncing around a lot of ideas...Wolfpack room, baseball room, a wall of all pennants, but finally decided upon a golf course.  He wanted to paint a golf course on Ethan's walls.  I have to admit I was skeptical.  That seems a little over ambitious for a non-artist.  But he formed an image in his mind, bought all the paint colors, drew out the golf scene, and then painted it.  And I have to admit I think it looks pretty darn good!  And Ethan is digging his golf room too!

Chart Toppers

Brynn's been singing quite a few songs for us recently.   ABC's has been a hit for a while now.  As has "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Wheels on the Bus".  Other songs in her repertoire include: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and "Set Fire to the Rain".  Okay, that last one isn't true (it's a hit song by Adele...I have to clarify that for my dad because I don't think he probably knows that one).

Anyway, she also loves Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee.  The first verse goes:
I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
Ouch!  It stung me!

Here it is Brynnified:

These days with Blythe

Haven't posted much about Blythe recently.  She's still doing ballet once a week, but has told me she doesn't like ballet.  That might change a little today when she gets her costume for her recital in June.  After she puts that on and some makeup for the recital, she might like ballet a little more, but I'm thinking she won't do it again next year.

She did start swimming yesterday though and she couldn't have been more excited.  She's swimming 55 minutes 2 times a week for the next 5 or 6 weeks until summer league starts.  She hadn't swam AT ALL since Labor Day, so I was a little concerned about how she would do.  It was pretty clear it had been a while as she attempted freestyle and had to stop on the wall several times on the first lap.  But after a little while she improved and was so happy the whole time.  She'd smile and wave to me at the end of every lap.  She even seemed excited that her teeth were chattering, so she pointed that out to me.  When they were done after 55 minutes, she was disappointed that it was time to get out.  So, very cool that she's so excited.  I know it has a lot to do with the fact she hasn't swam in 7 months, so we'll see how she likes swimming after this session, then summer league start, then swim camp, then a full summer of swimming.

As she was getting ready for swim practice, she asked me if the clothes she was wearing were from Justice.  For those not in the know, Justice used to be Limited Too and it is very bright and sparkly in that store.  She has one thing from Justice, a long dress we just bought not too long ago.  So anyway, I said no, only the dress was from Justice.  So she said she wanted to wear the dress the next day to school.  I'm a little unprepared for this.  We are only in kindergarten and we are concerned about brand names?  Good grief!  She's also been telling me recently that she's embarrassed by things.  The water bottle I packed in her lunch, or the jacket I made her wear.

So, she's like 6 going on 14.

She also loves art and has had a few new pieces put on her Art link on the right side of the blog.  Check them out!

One of these days maybe she'll learn to ride her bike.  She finally started trying again and blew a tire.  I took it in and they were going to fix that and a few other things and get it back to me in a few days.  That was 8 days ago, so I guess I should call and check.

Lastly, she appears to judge how much fun something is by the number of friends she makes while doing it.  I've sent her to a few camps during school breaks.  The first one she went to was at Marbles.  She said it was "ok" because she only made 1 friend.  On the first day of Spring Break, she went to another camp at Marbles.  She appeared to like that one better because she made 2 friends.  Last week she went to a Cheerleading camp (because my friend won a free week of camp, but her kids are too young to use it).  She liked that one quite a bit, not really because of the cheerleading or the gymnastics, but because she made 3 friends.

Overall, she is a very vivacious, beautiful, smart, loving young girl and I'm so lucky to have her!

Cheetos!

Brynn.  That girl loves her some Cheetos!  I mean LOVES Cheetos.  She would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I would let her.  I probably should not ever buy them.  Though in my defense these Cheetos were from a bag my mom brought, so I'm not the guilty party.  This time.

OUTDOOR soccer

Ethan started up outdoor soccer a few weeks ago.  Have to be specific about that...OUTDOOR soccer.  He did indoor soccer a little over the winter, but always wanted to know when he'd be able to do OUTDOOR soccer.  The question stemmed from this day care activity where someone comes once a week to work with the kids on sports skills.  It, of course, costs more money and since we already spend an arm and a leg on day care, we weren't doing that.  But his best bud at school does.

So anyway, he plays soccer on Sundays.  A 1 hour practice (yes, that's too long) followed by a 40 minute game.  So it's a stretch getting him to focus for that long.  But he's been doing great!  I haven't been at practice the last couple of times (I've been home with a napping Brynn), but Braden is coaching Ethan's team and he says Ethan has been trying really hard in practice, listening, and really getting better each week.  Yesterday he even scored 2 goals!  He couldn't have been any more excited.  It's so great to see him work on something really hard and then get the results he wants.

One day I would love to get up at the game with my camera and get some good action shots.  For now though, I have to deal with Brynn on my lap wanting snacks every 13 seconds and Blythe who wants to be the photographer.  So, here's a video clip.  Tried to get him scoring a goal, but never worked out getting that shot.

And here's a couple of photos (these may even have been taken by Blythe).