Crafty

The artist gene skipped a sibling when it came to my family.  John & Lizzitante can make jaw-dropping art, I can't draw a proportional stick figure to save my life.  So I've always worried that Jack would miss out on doing super creative fun things simply because I am not super creative fun.  (And Mom, this is not a plea for sympathy and reassurance - like I tell my students, play to your strengths.  If you are 5' 3" then don't set your sights on the NBA - duh.  Accept your limitations and focus on what you do best...like lecturing students on history perhaps?)  Anyway, I feel this artist limitation bleeds over into crafts.  From what I've seen with Jack's daycare, he LOVES crafts.  (See below for his fall portfolio :)  

 Here is a scarecrow they made.  Jack got to put the eyes and nose on himself.  I would like to point out that I saw the scarecrows from the other kids in class.  Eyes and noses were everywhere - my child of course nailed it.  Of course.

 I'm assuming this was some experimenting with the color white.  :)  Very Van Gogh don't you think?

Another scarecrow expertly painted.

Shout out to UT!

Well, it dawned on me that I needed to take a page out of their book and try more "artsy" stuff at home.  So in an attempt to help him "get creative" Andy & I took Jack to Michael's so we could get some fun Christmas crafts to get into the season.  I decided on two - a wooden Christmas tree that he could color and a paper Santa that involved gluing.  One was pretty good, the other a slight disaster.  But in the end it was pretty darn fun - and that is what counts :)

 Sometimes we colored the table more than the tree.  Luckily most of the marker washed right out...

Such focus.  With the missing shirt he certainly doesn't fit into the category of starving artist.

 Finishing touches...

Ta-da!  This will be worth millions some day.

The Santa did not turn out as well.  I need to find a better way to glue things other than using real glue.  It's way too tempting as a snack.

I got a little crafty myself.  My friend Nicole makes adorable personalized frames for her Etsy shop and I found out today that she makes it look waaaay easier than it is.  I never been so stressed writing my child's name before - but it turned out ok I think :)   Hopefully there will be more crafts in our future!  Hanging with the Jackman turned out to be the best part of course :)