Crayola Oil Pastels

S drawing a "ghost" with yellow hands.

I have my own pastels that I play with, but "adult" pastels have certain health hazards, so this is one art supply I didn't want to share with the kids. I bought them their own, nontoxic, Crayola oil pastels. Instant hit!
Oil pastels look like crayons to the kids, so their first impulse was to use them like crayons. But they glide on nice and slippery, and have a nicely saturated color, so there's novelty as well.

Designs with Wooden Shapes

We've been a little bit into drawing mandalas lately, especially interactive mandalas thanks to the artful parent. When we got out these wooden shapes, I wanted to make a mandala with this medium. S liked what I was doing and began making his own. He told me it was a "shooting star mandala."

My mandala is on the left.
On the right is S with his "shooting star mandala."

Sunday Art

The kids were especially put out, a few Sundays ago that they couldn't play with their friends. They were bored. I gave M. the sidewalk chalk, pointed to the little "patio slab" we have just out back, and encouraged her to draw.

She drew a temple.

Saturday Outing: Ring-tailed Lemurs

The kids were so excited to see ring-tailed lemurs and other animals from Madagascar. It was opening day. K got chosen from the audience to be dressed as a lemur, so the lecturer had a visual aid while teaching about the uniqueness of lemurs.

You may think this looks a bit goofy . . .

but one of the lemurs was quite taken
with the disguise!

Spring Break

We had a wonderful, adventurous spring break. 
Among other things, we:

investigated a very old filled-in well, 

Temple Trip

We live two hours from the nearest temple. That's a long time to pay a babysitter for. Sometimes the only way we can go is to take the children with us, and take turns. While Cory was serving inside, I got a photo shoot of the kids outside before taking them to the park.

I told the kids that sometimes, when a boy wants to marry a girl inside the temple, he'll take her to the temple and propose there. K was happy to act this out, but it looks like M needs to think this over.

10 Year Anniversary

Some people say that the most important thing you can do for your children is love your spouse. I think that makes us super parents for going to Disney World . . . without the kids.
It was wonderful.

Stephanie in Epcot's Morocco pavilion at sunset.

It was cheaper to visit Epcot than to visit to Morocco, France, Japan and Mexico. We ate dinner at the expensive Bistro de Paris near the Eiffel Tower--turns out escargot tastes great with ravioli. As a souvenir, we found a matted painting of the France pavilion.

Coloring Page Cake Tutorial

For M's birthday, she really wanted a Hello Kitty cake. I used a simple coloring page as a template. This is the finished product:

Here's how it works: