Scribble day

There's not been much to report of late, except that today is the start of the school break and I am over it already.  And it's hot. We have busted out the drawing things and a roll of paper and are partaking in a bit of art therapy.  I have been back to the brown paper table about two dozen times myself already today, trying to get my happy back.

However, I'm thinking Cameron might need a roll of his own.  He is a very quick and prolific doodler and is able to draw at one metre a minute, thereby muscling in on my patch of happy-making space, which is not on when I'm already snippy.

But I guess it doesn't really matter, because Sophie just scribbles all over my drawings anyway.  Her story is that she's making them 'look better'.



Hooray! - my own little editor.  What would I do without her?

Another visit to Mum's...

"There is always room for more." Crayola markers, crayon, collage.

...which ended in another collage.  Not that the conversation was boring or anything, but I just woke up with busy hands.  I have days like that.
 

We killed a couple of hours today painting big cardboard heads.  Sophie is always in the mood for painting, and although she didn't make a big cardboard head of her own, she did manage to paint a large picture which must incorporate every shade of brown that could possibly exist. 

I had some large cardboard boxes that I'd brought home from work, so we cut them down, painted them and then added some extra cardboard brackets to the bottoms so they could stand up.  Cameron was in a royal mood, apparently, and made his into a forlorn looking king with a white five o'clock shadow and a spiffy alfoil crown.

Oh, do cheer up.

Sophie had a nice chat with mine.  She told him that she liked his 'sausage nose'.  I'm not really sure whether that's a compliment or not. 

Sunday collage.

I pack up the kids and take them to my mother's house every Sunday morning, and we stay until after lunch.  Sophie and Cameron haul everything out of every cupboard they are allowed into, which is pretty much all of them.  My Mum has no concept of control when it comes to her grandchildren - Oh! how things have changed since I was a child and living under her roof.  Hmmmmm.

Inevitably, Sophie will drag out the arts and crafts box and slam it in front of me, announcing loudly "Let's draw!", hang around long enough to wildly scribble on a piece of scrap with texta, and then take off somewhere else.

By this point of the morning, my Mum is probably talking about politics or her financial affairs and I am beginning to glaze over.  I start to snip at bits of cardboard and doodle funny animals.  She is aware that I am turning off, I am aware that she will continue to talk regardless, so I continue doodling, she continues talking, and we are both happy in our little worlds.

By the end of the morning, she has probably relayed some extremely important information that I will need to know should 'anything happen to her', which I have completely missed and will no doubt regret, and I have made two silly collages of Noisy Bill and a bubble blowing elephant.  A productive morning all round, I'd say.

It's been nearly two weeks already...

...and I'm still getting used to life without my dear dog, Tiera.  I'm still getting use to not letting her out into the yard before we leave the house.  I'm still getting use to not hearing her huff and snuffle throughout her marathon naps.  And I'm still getting used to not having to check the back lawn for poos before I let the kids outside (which you'd think would be a good thing, but I'm finding I'm missing even those not-very-nice parts of pet ownership).  Thank you to everyone who left their lovely thoughts and messages, both here and via email, and to those real-life friends who offered me hugs and kind words and tissues when I found myself welling up.  Bless you. x

Yay, it's school holidays!

A three-eyed spot monster drawn by Cameron (aged 7) using his new pens

Cameron's dance-card has been full over this school break thus far; he's enjoyed a scientific sleep-over with his Joey Scouts mob, water-slides at the local aqua rec-centre, ten-pin bowling and today, he's off to the a local indoor playground with a vacation-care group.  And it continues over the week-end and next week, with visits to museums, the movies, dinner with relatives, a play-date with friends, a sleepover at Nanna's, and a birthday party.  Phew!

We had a free day yesterday, so we all went out for churros and coffee. Cameron spent some of his pocket money at Smiggle, settling on a huge pack of crystal gel pens that come in every colour and smell like fruit salad.  These are quite the in-thing in his class at the moment, and he was very pleased at saving up enough money to buy his very own set.  Well, he still owes me five dollars, but good effort.  And I love a kid who saves up to buy stationery! 

Usually, he prefers to draw with (one of my) pens, which means his sketches are blue and black and rather bland, so it's lovely to see him drawing with lots of colour for a change.  Even if it is slightly disconcerting that he sniffs at his paper every thirty seconds to see what his drawing smells like.

Happy Wednesday before Easter.

According to Cameron, the best part of Easter is nearly over, before it's even begun.  Confused?  I am, always.  Because this is what he does to me on a daily basis.  Bless him.