I am lucky enough to have met some fun people out here with some great skills. I am learning so much (just like always) about parenting, living, and the journey of life from each of them. As an added bonus, one of our new friends also has a degree in teaching art.

She was kind enough to invite us over to her studio (formerly a potting shed) so the boys could really dive in and paint. What a wonderful experience! She was so wonderful at encouraging them and appreciating what they were doing, yet had no reservations about throwing away the finished product. Neils hasn’t traditionally enjoyed painting (or any other form of 2 dimensional art) before now, but he enjoyed painting as a group experience, and seemed to enjoy having me sketch an outline for him to fill in, or paint side by side. I learned to let go and just enjoy that experience, rather than wonder why he doesn’t like to just paint something on his own. Burke has always enjoyed art of all kinds and of course had a wonderful time, and Keane surprised me with his willingness to sit and just paint and paint and paint. We definitely need to do that more often.

Here is my friend Emily with my three boys on the left and her oldest son Alex on the right.

My boys were definitely a little more, um… hands on than I think she was expecting. Well, certainly more than her 3 year old thought was necessary! Messy, messy is the best kind of fun, yeah?