Bethel Park

 We took advantage of the good weather and took the kids out to Bethel park. James requested it by saying he wanted to go to the one with the tree they liked to climb.

This one didn't want to smile for a picture (but at least she would be in a picture!): 

Toddler fashion: 

Oh, there's James again: 

James and I walked all the way around the trail and saw a pair of swans, so we had to go back around so the rest of the family could see them & Sam could take pictures. You can see there's still a little ice on the water: 

They were fishing & we got to see one of them get fish (or maybe a frog). 

Artwork

It's been a while since I've documented some of the kids' art!

Amelie drew this self-portrait for art class. 

She drew this sketch of a cat at home with Sam: 

This snake of hers is quite a bit older, but I don't think it's on the blog elsewhere: 

And then I found these cut-out doodles when I was cleaning her room (surrounded by the scissors and scraps of paper). I asked and the elves have bows and arrows and the humans have guns: 

This is super cool - she drew them on both sides, so you can flip the character over and move them around to make different scenes. 

I asked Amelie if she had any art that she'd like for me to add and she pulled this out of her backpack. Very architectural:

James draws a lot (A LOT) of quirky doodles. He's so talented! He also goes through sheets and sheets of computer paper. This is his desk. (Aunt Holly painted the Giraffe when he was a baby.) 

I think this was at the direction of the art teacher as well, since the others are nearly all people or characters. 

This reminds me of the Hilo book. 

We printed several of these on little notecards to give as Christmas presents. (Genius idea!) And also a good prompt for me to scan some things in. 

Here is a series of cartoons - see the small guy with the big bottle? Maybe he took a drink out of it. 

And then he started to grow? 

It's reminiscent of Alice and Wonderland. 

This one reminds me of Han Solo: 

He went through a big kick where he'd draw characters/superheroes/Pokemon knockoff type things where the picture/card would give the name, height, weight, and other characteristics (frequently the "element" - earth, fire, metal, etc.) I believe the numbers are meant to signify Height 7 ft., 0 inches. 

The title on this one is fantastic - and the drawing took up the whole page. "The Hands" by James: 

This poor guy has a black eye, it looks like: 

He's also started doing art enrichment on Wednesdays via zoom with a Columbia College student. This was from their second lesson yesterday - she asked him to find a photo from the shoulders up of a celebrity and then they did portraits. 

This is Ryan from AJR (his favorite band).

Some of Leah's recent pieces. To me, this looks like a ship: 

And a squid: 

And a winged insect: 

And an amoeba - but when I ask her, they are all some version of "Orange Foot" - blue foot, cousin foot, small foot, super foot, etc. 

And a collaboration that she and I did yesterday:

Daredevil

 It's fitting that Leah gets a post with the "daredevil" title since apparently both Amelie and James have one each as well. 

As has been the case for a while, she takes matters into her own hands and scoots a chair around to reach things. 

Oh my. 

I think she noticed me looking at her and decided she'd better get down. 

Cosmo Park

Sam's taken the kids out to Cosmo Park a couple of times (I think when I've been at work) or as the kids call it, dinosaur park.

They have the place to themselves! 

I know this is from a different day because Leah has on different shoes & pants.