The truth comes out

Apparently I took too many photos while on our trip to Paris.  In Addie's words, "My mom kept taking pictures.  I think she took too much.  I'll give you a clue - She took some on the bridge of the castle next to our hotel.  We called it Blue Door."

In my defense, some photos are simply worth the extra effort.

Addie-isms

"Does this picture look scientistc? I think it does."

"Gramma, I got a new bear in Paris. His name is Coconut. Do you want to see him in human?  I will go get him now."

"In one mile, turn right... in 100 feet, turn left... your destiny will be on your right."

About Addie

One of the first school assignments that Addie had in Kindergarten was to decorate a piece of paper.

On one side, photos of the things that mean the most to you.  She chose a photo of the family, one of Ellie, one of her two favorite bears (Bussi & Patches) and one of the Eiffel Tower.

On the other side, anything you want your new friends to know about you.  The words say "I am a sunflower girl.  I have a bear heart and a dragon soul."

You're still the one

We recently had a bunch of lice decide that our girls' hair would make the perfect place to establish a home for themselves and generations to come. We scrubbed our heads with the fancy schmancy shampoo, did a ton of laundry, tossed a bunch of stuffies into the garage and spent the following week nit-picking (literally). Towards the end of the week both girls were desperately missing their favorite stuffies, Bun Bun and Bussi Bear. Even after all this time, they are still so very loved.

Family Portraits

I love seeing the differences in the styles of the drawings my girls made.

This is Ellie's portrait of our family in Paris, including her imaginary pet unicorn (apparently she doesn't really exist, but Ellie wishes she did). I love the absolute perfection of everyone in the image. We are all in our places. We look happy, don't you think?

This is Addie's portrait of our family. Notice the life that she has given us! Can't you just feel our personalities? Daddy is dancing and singing to the music and the girls even have their arms around each other. If you ask me, it looks like the mommy in this picture couldn't be any happier.

What do you think of the differences in styles? Are they as apparent to you as they are to me?

Addie's Drawings

I have to say that I'm always so impressed with Addie's drawings.  She always seems to choose to include a level of detail, character and life that far exceeds anything that even Ellie draws at age 8.  Below is a sample of artwork Addie has blessed us with in the recent couple of months.

Aspen tree in the fall, with a heart.  This was presented to me because she knew how much the autumn leaves make me think of her.

Our recent camping trip.  Notice how she included lots of stars and even shooting stars.  At the bottom, you can see our car, tents and happy camper people.

Kindergarten self portrait.  I love the details in her dress and shoes.  It matches her outfit nearly perfectly!

Sunflowers, only notice how one is even drawn from the side.  Seriously?  Is this girl really just in Kindergarten?

Night time lights.  Remember my recent post about her connection with Vincent Van Gogh and his love for the colors that the night brings with it?  Well, here is her version of Starry Night.  I love the building to the left, the stars in the sky and the city lights to the bottom right.  I know a good parent isn't supposed to compare her children, but Ellie has never drawn anything close to this level of abstraction.

The Cheese Importers.  This is one of our happy places to go to.  Look closely and you see the building's front door, windows and cafe bistro tables.  It makes me happy just looking at it.

101 dalmatians, including some sitting on the couch, and on the bed.  She did make it a point to tell me that there aren't really 101 dalmatians in the photo but she ran out of space and time to draw all the others.  She said we can just pretend that they're there, only they're off to the side of the paper.

Letter from Addie

Chalk

Another oldie from my now-dead phone... but this is a good one. We found a new restaurant on Main Street in Longmont and the girls kept themselves busy with the chalk boards. I love that their messages are automatically filled with love for each other.

Addie Draws

I am loving how Addie draws things that I never would have thought a child would draw. With Ellie, it was always cute pictures of family or animals with an occasional monster or dragon tossed in for fun. Addie? She draws everyday life, though I'm sad to say I haven't been able to capture very many of them because she loves to give her drawings away as gifts. This one was a gift for Daddy. It's a football game.

And when she does draw something in the fantasy realm, her details are incredible. I would consider bringing my dragon to life (via felting) if I understood what was going on around his feet area. Hahaha.

This Valentine's Day monster is a strong contender for the next creature I create out of felt. Isn't he fantastic? Addie says if you're feeling sad, you just have to pick a heart off of the monster and it will cheer you up again.

Addie's Rainbow Unicorn

Addie's Bronco Caterpillar Dragon*

* When watching the Thanksgiving parade, and the Chinese dragons came out to play, Addie said "Look Daddy! It's a caterpillar dragon!"

Cheering up

MOMMY: Addie, you seem to be having a sad morning.
ADDIE: Yeah. I just don't think I'm going to be happy.
MOMMY: I have an idea! One thing I know always makes you happier is if you do something very nice to make someone else happy. I happen to know for a fact that it makes you happy when you make others happy.
ELLIE: Mommy, don't worry. I can help her!

... and at the end of the day, I had this gem to cheer me up. When I expressed how happy I was to receive such a beautiful gift, Addie smiled her big beautiful smile and said "It worked! I had the best day EVER!!!"

A note from Addie

Addie Draws

Some random lovelies from the last few months...

Addie & Ellie with a rainbow & sunset

Lavender and sunflowers for Mommy - two of my favorites.  Honestly, I think this girl excels at flowers.  She wasn't yet 4 years old when she drew these and she wasn't looking at anything for inspiration at the time.  If you happen to have a collection of flower drawings from other 4-year-olds, you know what I'm talking about.

Mommy's perfect house, surrounded by flowers and with my two girls inside.

A rainbow unicorn.  This one has potential to bring to live through needle felting.  Stay tuned...

Pumpkins for the family.  The biggest is for Mommy.

Smile.

Stained glass window for Mommy.

Can you tell this girl loves her Mommy?

For me?

I am blessed

Happy Grandpa's Day

This year for Father's Day we went a bit out of this world...

(sadly I don't have a photo of the monsters Addie drew for Pappy. I'll update the post if I can get a copy)

Happy Mommies

The girls designed jewelry for Mother's Day...

Gramma's

Nana's

But mine is the best!

The Bears and the Dragon Race

"The Bears and the Dragon Race" illustrated & written by Addie for Grammie on Mother's Day.

Once there was a race in a deep dark forest and the dragon meeted the bear.  "Hey do you want to go by me when the race is done?" asked the dragon.  

The bear answered "Why yes!"

"But how does the race go?" asked the bear.

"Oh there are yellow boards you follow.  If you fall off then you can get back up because there are crocodiles in the water!"

The bear said "UH!"

"Don't worry," said the dragon, "I will hold your hand so you won't be scared."  

And so the race began!

And then they raced and raced and raced.  They raced as long as they could!  They just kept racing!

Then at the end, the one who got the trophy was the one who made it to the end.  The bear and the dragon won but the dragon raced faster.

And the bear said "Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you for letting me go slower.  I didn't know that the slowest one would win!"

And so they both walked away with trophies.  The bears and dragons were friends forever!

THE END!

The Happy Bear and the Bunny Family

"The Happy Bear and the Bunny Family" by Addie, written for Grandmommy Jeanne for Mother's Day

Once upon a time there was a big big family of bunnies and rabbits.  You could call them bunnies or fools because they always got into trouble with the bears.

But the bears were the real fools because they tried to kill the pegasus.  The pegasus said "Hey you fool!  You can't kill us!" and they flew away.

The bears started crying because the pegasus did not let them eat them.  "You don't really know how good they are unless you are nice to them," said the bunny.

"How about a spot of tea with them?  And you have to be very nice to them," said the baby bunny.

The bear said, "I will be nice to all of you if you could just let me eat one of you.  Do you know a stranger of your kind that I can eat?"

"Yes," said the baby pegasus, "but then you have to be nice to us!"

"OK," said the bears.  

THE END!!!