Backyard Art Exhibit

We decided that preschool is much too expensive, and we thought Taelee needed more than what a preschool would teach her; so I have been teaching Taelee from home. After reading Fancy Nancy Aspiring Artist I was inspired to make art our theme for school this last week. We learned about different artists and worked on many different art projects. At the end of the week we hosted an Art Exhibit for a few of her friends. Again, inspired by Fancy Nancy it was held in the backyard where we had these little "local artists" work hung along the fence. It was fun to see how creative and talented all of them are while enjoying some tasty treats! The kids had a great time running around and checking out each others artwork! Taelee was so happy to share her creations with everyone!

She thought it was fitting to dress up like Fancy Nancy for the exhibit with fairy wings, a ruffled dress, and of course a surplus of bows atop her head!

 I put together a little I spy game for the kids to do with the art.

 Taelee is really so artistic and so creative! She loved creating all of her artwork. It was really fun teaching her a little about famous artists and then creating our own twist on their techniques.  

This was her pointillism creation inspired by Seurat. She made sure to tell everyone that it took her a really long time. She described it as taking as long as it takes to get to Grandma's house!

 Her mosaic tile inspired piece.

 This was her clown inspired by the Bob Book she read for school. The books are mainly black and white and this book described all the colors the clown was wearing. After she was finished I had her draw and color what she read. I thought she did an amazing job!

 Her winter trees inspired by Hendrick Avercamp. 

She painted the background by blowing glops of paint with a straw. 

 Her sculpture inspired by Alberto Giacometti. Taelee's friend Isabella did the same piece and when I was setting everything up she had to be sure that they were holding hands!

 Her peacock, an art project made up after reading Polar Bear Polar Bear What do you Hear?

 The kids had free reign over the snack table, and boy did they love that!

 We made up an impromptu game where they had to hide one piece of art, then figure out which one was missing, and then find it. Silly, but I think they enjoyed it!

 All in all...it was a great success! I think all the kids left feeling proud of their beautiful creations!

Craftaholic!

Some reading the title might think that I am posting about myself, but on the contrary. Taelee is my little craftaholic!!! She is constantly wanting to make make make! I have no idea where she got it from... ;) She has definitely followed in my footsteps. I must admit it is pretty exhausting! Every day she is wanting to make something! She wants to create from just about everything! She saves any "treasure" aka junk or garbage for one of her creations! I am actually pretty impressed with what she has been coming up with though. We brought home a box from Costco the other day, and she turned it upside down and thought it would be the perfect house for her princesses! She came up with every little detail starting with the windows down to the very last jewel. To start she told me where she wanted the windows and I cut them out. Then we went outside and the kids painted it. They had such a fun time not having to worry about a mess, and they just went to town! I was impressed with their outcome!

Kingston's contribution

Covered from head to toe with paint?! No problem! Painting outside was perfect because once they were done they got to play in the water! They had a blast!

YUM!

Once the paint dried she was ready to accessorize! I am not joking when I say that she came up with EVERY detail: the curtains, the door nob, the hammock, the wooden beads to hide the hammock sticks, the framed pictures for the princess rooms, the jewels that went with each princess, the magical swing, and even the bead placed right above the inside of the door. Her creative juices were definitely flowing with this project!

The swing

Jasmine's room with a gem

Belle's room with roses

Ariel's room with a pearl and dolphin

The hammock

She was very proud of her creation!

 

Little Miss Taelee Coe...

...or should I say Cinderella, Tiana, Snow White, Jasmin, Belle, Pochahontas, Mulan, Ariel, or Aurora?! This little girl has quite the imagination, and absolutely LOVES princesses! Every day she is a new princess, depending on the color of dress or shirt she is wearing. Then, whatever princess she is that day everything else she uses (cups, plates...ect.) has to be the same color as that princess. She used to get really upset when we would call her Taelee. She would say, "No I'm not Taelee, I'm (whatever princess she was that day)." We wanted to encourage her to play pretend, but wanted her to be happy with being Taelee too. We finally got her to accept that she is Taelee pretending to be a princess. My very favorite thing that she does is "princess twals"! She will do them and then with the sweetest expression on her face say "Oh, look at me Mom! I'm turning into Ariel!" all while doing "princess twals" on her little tippy toes!

I absolutely adore this little girl! She is the light and joy of my life! I am so grateful for her sweet personality! I look forward to her sweet silly phrases every day! I wrote down a couple that I don't want to forget! I love the way she talks. She changes her tone on the last word of her questions, and makes it go higher. It makes me smile every time! She uses such polite sweet words (most of the time, I don't want to give the impression that she is an angel every second, because that would just not be true!), but for the most part she uses the best phrases...

"Thank you Mommy for getting me a blue plate like Cinderella!"

"I love being at Walmart with you Mommy!"

"I would looove to play a game!"

"Can I have some gum please?! Because I've been sooo...good?!...ok sure!"

I said lets go get dressed. She responded, "Oh, that would be beautiful!"

I tried on a dress that my sister sent to me, she looked at me and said, "Oh! That looks pretty mom!"

The other day I was in a hurry trying to get her to eat dinner before I had to feed Kingston. I totally forgot to say a prayer in all the chaos and rush. I tired to give her a carrot, and she stopped me, "No Mom, not before the prayer!" Boy did I feel sheepish!

She came to me the other day, "Mom, will you open my closet please?" I responded sure, "Oh, that would be wonderful!" (I really don't think I have ever used the word wonderful with her before)

The other day she drew a picture of our family...

I thought it was the sweetest thing! She has started drawing really big eyes and adding noses. I LOVE Stephen's hair! After she finished drawing the picture she showed it to Kingston and asked "Do you like my picture?!" He began to cry so she responded, "No, not very much?!"

and my personal favorite, when I ask her to do something or get me something, "I will do that, sure Mommy I will!" If only this one will last throughout her life!

I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be the mother of this sweet little girl! 

Little Artist

Taelee is quite the little artist. She loves to draw and has been doing very good job at drawing people. She drew these a couple weeks ago while my mom was here. She drew some really cute ones of my parents and my grandma, but we sent those home with Nana. The picture of my grandma and was so cute! She was sure to include her little bee beep (a mole on my grandmas chin that we all call her bee beep). It's funny that she remembered it because it's been a while since she's seen her. Taelee sure is entertaining! She told me in the back seat today "Our home is that way, silly Mama!" pointing in the right direction.

I LOVE this picture she drew of Grandma's cat Nala!

This is me...she was sure to include the baby and gave him arms too!

Sick Day

Taelee has been sick for a couple of days. She has had a cough and stuffy nose, poor little thing she sounds awful. Today she was definitely NOT hiding that she wasn't feeling very well...she was quite the little grumpus! I have been wanting her to rest so she can get better, but she is 2, how much sitting still can I expect her to do?! I've tried a movie or two, but they only last a few minutes (which I am actually grateful for). I was at my breaking point today. It's tough work staying home all day with a grumpy sick child. It doesn't help that I am not much of a homebody for too long. I had to come up with something that would make the time move a little faster, and keep her busy and HAPPY. Since it's February I thought we would do a little Valentine banner. I cut out a bunch of hearts and had Taelee paint them. After they were painted and dried (which took a while with the beautiful globs of paint she kept piling on) we strung them on some string and added a few buttons.
I thought it turned out pretty cute, and Taelee had a lot of fun doing it!