Our sweet little four....

Ashley and Emma came into town this week for the Art Show. Before the show started, I snapped a few pictures of the four grands all together. There really isn't anything I love more than getting us all together. They kids are enjoying each other more and more. These 3 boys are the only cousins Emma has right now. So to say the least, she LOVES whenever they get to be together. From the time she got to town, she kept going to the front window and saying "Boys, where are you?!?!" So sweet. The boys are so good with her also. They are gentle and sweet with her. I want to see these little cousins grow up to be close. I know I really don't have a lot of control over that matter...but I pray we can always have lots of occasions to see one another and plan family times...I believe if we strive to make that a family priority...then the grands will build a solid relationship with each other. Family closeness is something I want and desire so much for my crew!!! I think the older I get, the more I realize how important family is!

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Owen (Blue) Will (Orange) Clay (Green) and Emma

Always helps to throw a funny face in to the mix as right now that is really what the boys are wanting to do on every picture! 

I hope every child can have an aunt who loves their nephews and nieces as much as this woman does. Ashley cannot get enough of her nephews. She had so much fun loving on them before she had her own family, but still she can hardly wait to get to town to see them! A week does not pass that she doesn't ask me about them and what they are up to. She loves them dearly. I LOVE this picture. Wish Will had been in it of course but this was while Owen and Clay were at the house setting up for the Art Show and she was getting some snuggles. A fun conversation happened at this point also. We were telling them boys how no matter how OLD they were, they were always to give Grandmothers, Moms and Aunts hugs! That it might not be cool to hug some "girls" but it was ALWAYS cool to these ladies! ALWAYS!!! Ashley told Owen, when you are as old as Honey, it will still be cool for you to come see me and hug me! She asked him if he knew how old she would be if he was my age. He looked at both of us and then thought about it. Ashley said again, "How old will I be" and he replied, "Dead". We all laughed so hard. Ashley told him it might be so, but if she was alive, she still wanted hugs! The boys promised us they would always have hugs for us...right now they give the SWEETEST hugs every time they see us...I never want that to change!!!

Emma patiently waiting for her cousins to arrive! She was so excited!!!!

Honey's Art Institute Art Show

I am so blessed. I was given the great honor of teaching my two oldest grandsons, Owen and Clay Art this year. Zach and Meg home school their kids and last August they asked me if I would consider teaching Art to them the 2011/2012 school year. Okay, I have to admit when I first heard "Art" I thought..."Crafts"and if you know me at all...you know how much I love to do crafts. Then very quickly it was explained how much the boys had enjoyed the subject of Art last year at Co-Op and I realized we were talking a little more than doing crafts. :) So my brain was forced into high gear. If I was going to be responsible for a "real" subject, I wanted to make sure that the boys learned a lot about art elements and artists. I quickly learned that the Internet and Pinterest would become my best friends. What a wealth of information. My library card also has gotten lots of use this year. We started at the very beginning learning all about the color wheel and then about all the different elements of art. After Christmas break, we begin our study of famous artists. Wow, so many to pick from and we barely touched the list but we moved slowly through a few and tried to not only learn about the artist as a person but also their "style" of art.  It has been so fun and has really stretched me to try to stay one step ahead of them...which I realized very quickly can be challenging! They are smart little guys! We met each Tuesday morning for several hours and I was amazed at much these little guys learned. They are quite the little artist. Their sweet Aunt Ashley (Or Aunt Ally to them) came on to different occasions and served as our guest art teacher, a big treat for them. Another unexpected gift has been how much Larry has enjoyed learning along beside me about the artists I would be teaching about that week. It has been so wonderful to see Owen and Clay's ability grow and mature throughout this year. We decided early on to celebrate our year of hard work we would end the year with their very own "Art Show". It has been a fun year filled with many precious memories for this Honey! So, welcome to "Honey's Art Institute First Art Show"!

Here is the adorable invitation that Aunt Ashley designed for me. If you need any type of invitation, please consider Ashley! She has a little business where she will be happy to design adorable custom "whatever you need" creations! Here is a link to her site: http://snowbirddesign.blogspot.com

Our Two VERY excited artist---Clay and Owen

 These isn't the best photography, sorry, but I just wanted you to see them!

On the very first day of class, I had each boy draw themselves. Then on the last day of classes we repeated the process. I do believe they both learned a little bit about proportion, detailing, etc!

Above is Clay's first and last self portrait

 Owen's self portrait on the first day of class

Owen's self portrait on the last day of class!

Here is a "sampling" of some of their pieces during the time we were learning about the use of colors and using different types of mediums of art.

Then comes my very favorites! Once we started studying art, we would pick several of our favorite pieces the artist had done and try our hand at it! All I have to say, is these artists just might have some competition! 

 Picasso

 Their version of a "funny face" Picasso

A study of Jim Dine's many heart paintings

Van Gogh-Ashley taught this lesson...I think they are amazing!!! My favorite of the year!

Next artist study...Monet

Then we spent several weeks on Andy Warhol

Another favorite of mine...Kandinsky. They boys got to pick they type of medium they wanted to use so Clay's is done with pastels and Owen picked watercolor. I love how different they look!

I also love these...we studied how to do a reflection...I think their first attempts were great!!!!

(It is a cheaters way of doing it but it gave them the idea of how to mirror a painting!)

Finally, what would any art show,

especially if the Knights are involved would be complete without some refreshments! 

Meg, being our very special "room mother" was put in charge of the refreshment table.

She really outdid herself!!! Plus, I cannot describe how excited the boys were about all the special things she did. I think it made them feel very "important". 

I loved the rice krispies "paint brushes" she made...dipped in "icing paint". Really cute and yummy!

Thank you Meg. It was such an awesome treat for our show.

 Side note: Art teacher Honey thinks these might be the best paints she has ever seen or tasted! 

 Owen and Clay:

Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to teach you Art this year.

You have been amazing students who have inspired me to learn and have proven to me that you both have some very strong artistic talents! God has filled you with so many wonderful traits!

I have loved our weekly time together.

Zach and Meg:

Thank you for entrusting me with your boys Art Education! What a joy they have been. The first few weeks I really stressed with them the importance of complimented each other works, never laughing at what each other did and for being able to always come up with something positive to say about what they did and what each other did. They amazed me each week with all the kind words and compliments they would give each other.

We also learned to never say "I can't" but to always say "I will try my best"!

I think they proved their best is quite good!

Love you boys!

Hopefully the first of many...

Tea Parties that is. I have so much fun playing Lego's, cars, flying kites, digging in the sandbox, etc. with three precious grandsons but last weekend I got to do the first of what I hope are MANY. I got to have my first official TEA PARTY with Miss Emma Grace and Ashley. It was fun to plan the finger foods and gather up girly dishes from mine and my mom's "pretties" but of course the real fun came when my "guests" arrived. Ashley and Emma came in last weekend to spend a girls weekend while Larry went to Mansfield to their house so that he and David could tile their bathrooms with new tile! I am pretty sure the boys worked much harder than us girls...but then playing can be hard work too! :)

I had sent them a little invitation to attend the tea party so Ashley said all the way from Mansfield to Abilene...every few miles...Emma would say "Nunny's house...Tea Party!!!!"...so it thrilled my heart to hear she was so excited! By the way, the boys call me Honey but Emma has called me Nunny....not sure if she will every change over. She can say Honey now, but when she calls me or talks about me, it is still Nunny. But it is so cute and I will pretty much answer to anything when it comes to these kids! :)

Here is a picture of the table before my guests arrived.

The tablecloth is the cloth I used in Zach and Ashley's nursery. My mom made it. We had Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches in the shape of bunnies, Cucumber and Cream Cheese sandwiches-Egg shaped, Strawberry Cream Cheese on crackers, all sorts of fruit and frozen yogurt drops (fun little food idea I found on Pinterest). Our tea was really Cherry Limeade. As you can see, Emma quite liked it and the fact that the cups were so tiny made for lots of refills...which after all, pouring out of a tea pot is half the fun! Love those chubby little hands holding on to her little tea cup!

My sweet girls-

After our lunch, then of course it was time for a tea party cupcake! Each time we would talk about having a tea party, Emma would always say "Yeah...cupcakes!" so of course I made cupcakes!!

This girl loves sweets...like her Honey!

Since the Snows won't be here this weekend for Easter, the Easter Bunny made an early visit to our house, so after our Tea Party, Emma got to hunt eggs, which she loved! She is so sweet and she would look around and announce " I see it, I see a blue one!" or "I see it, I see a pink one!"...and on and on it went...she had such fun gathering them up and even more fun once she realized they had surprises inside!

So the HIT of the day was a magnifying glass I picked up for Emma's Easter Basket. She pretty much held on to it the rest of the weekend. She looked at everything through it. Even at church on Sunday, she held it through the whole service, once looking through it and turned to me and said " BIG PEOPLE"!!! Love that girl!!

She even checked out the bunnies on her new panties! Doesn't everyone get panties in their Easter Eggs?

Oh my, this one melts my heart!! Aren't those little pigtails to cute!

It was a fun weekend! We had lots of time to play, read lots of books-I love that she will crawl up in my lap and wants book after book read to her. It is always fun to see how she takes in every little detail on every page!

On Saturday afternoon we decided to let Emma paint a picture so we stripped her down and gave her free reign of the paints and brush. Here is how it went! Painting on the paper only lasted for a few minutes, when she decided to do a little body painting! My favorite part was just taking pictures and watching her! Its fun every once in awhile to have no boundaries when it comes to your creativity!

A girl has to keep her nails painted!

She got to take an extra long bubble bath which included lots of scrubbing! :)
Sunday morning it was fun to have the girls with me for church and a few pictures afterwards even though we had one tired little girl!
(Notice the magnifying glass...still holding it!)

It was a very fun weekend and of course we are looking forward to our next tea party!