One Dad's Life

Wordless Wednesday - My Biggest Treasure

Eight years ago, approximately, when my second daughter was born, we invented a new "holiday" for our family - "Sister's Day."   We figured since Mother's Day was in May, Father's Day in June, that July was the perfect time for "Sister's Day."  So, the third Sunday in July, our daughters exchanged gifts for "Sister's Day." 

Our youngest daughter attached this note to her older sister's gift this year.

 

BTW, there was some confusion over the exact weekend Sister's Day falls on.  I always thought it was the third Sunday, my beautiful and talented wife Dianne thought it was the second Sunday.  So, if anyone has extra time and wants to go back in my archives to find out when exactly "Sister's Day" is supposed to be, please let me know, OK?

Our Windows Will Never Be the Same!

A week ago, my youngest daughter, Rachel, spent the night at a friends house.  They apparently had a great time messing up someone else's house!  One of the things they did was draw all over this large bathroom mirror with Crayola Glass Crayons.   Admittedly, it actually looked pretty good.  In fact, it LOOKS like marker, the lines and colors are so bright.

I had a feeling that Crayola Glass Crayons were in our future, and THIS weekend, it came true when I bought a set for Rachel.   We limited her to drawing on our storm door and HER mirror in her room.  I'm not certain that the storm door will ever be the same, again!

Last night, though, the artwork SIGNIFICANTLY spread out.  Dianne was helping Rebecca with a project for school and I was helping a neighbor with some physics studying.  Rachel was loose with the crayons.  She decided that she wanted to "write nice things" on our car windows.  We agreed...but were nervous about it.

It was late evening and I didn't get pictures of the artwork right away.  This was a mistake as we had a heavy dew last night, and most of the writing is one big smear, now.  I've tried to enhance it a bit in the photos below.  The first couple of pictures look good, as that side of the car was protected a bit from the dew.

I fared pretty good, actually, on my car:

And even with:

But where I really hit the jackpot was in my back window, where I got poetry!  (This one was pretty demolished by the dew, so I will translate after the photo)

The poem is title "I Love Dad"

I love Dad, yes I do

I love Dad, don't you?

He is nice

He is best

I love Dad, don't you?

Oh yes, Oh yes I do!

Pretty awesome, right?

Unfortunately, my wife didn't get EXACTLY the same treatment.

It was her birthday last week, so there was naturally a birthday theme on the artwork.  Some quotes are:

"Happy Birthday Mom!" (with 44th squeezed in there, even).  Then:

"You are pretty"   Also quite nice.  Then comes the somewhat questionable part:

"You are young looking for your age!"  (Emphasis added by me)

Of course, Rachel was seeing this as a compliment, but it does have kind of a zinger in there, doesn't it?

The Art of Rebecca - The Holocaust Museum Entry

A couple of years ago, I titled a post "The Art of Rebecca - Part 1 (Just a hunch)."  Rebecca is my oldest daughter, and at 14 she is already a talented artist.  In fact, she has already illustrated two children's books (unpublished) that she made in conjunction with my wife.  Additionally, she illustrated "Sarah's Garden", a book local author Deb Wolf published.  It's available here.

I haven't been consistent with the titles on additional posts that showcase her artwork, and I've missed a lot of my favorite examples.  Rebecca primarily likes to draw characters, and developed her own style of drawing and characters way back in third grade or so.

For her latest creation, she made a diorama as an extra credit project for Social Studies class. The assignment was to make some type of artwork depicting some aspect of the Holocaust.  Rebecca has not done too much work in 3-D, and I don't think she has made any clay figures.  If she has, there hasn't been too many! 

For the diorama shown here, she made the figures out of Sculpey  modeling clay and wire. That alone is amazing to me as I'm more of an one-dimensional artist.  However, she actually made her clay figures look EXACTLY like her drawing style!  Wow!

After getting her credit for the project at school, she has also decided to submit the artwork to the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center for an art contest they are having.  The prizes are fairly significant, so I hope she does well!

What a talented kid.

You can click on most of the pictures for larger views and get a better look at the details.

Wordless Wednesday - Bendaroos!

Everyone in my family has some kind of artistic ability.  My youngest daughter, Rachel (8), actually likes to work in 3-D, which is something that baffles me.  One day last week, she combined her love of music and of art to produce the following piece, that appeared without warning on our living room wall.

It's made from "Bendaroos."

Vocab Sure Ain't What It Used To Be!

Ran across this vocab homework from my daughter.  That's right, this is part of her homework.  Good grief, I'm sure glad I didn't need to draw stuff on my homework when I was in eighth grade.  On the plus side, you have to admit, Rebecca can sure draw! (click on the drawing for a better view)

By the way, if anyone knows how the title of this post really SHOULD be capitilized and have documented proof, please let me know! I'M TALKING TO YOU, ENGLISH MAJORS!!!!

And Some Posts Just Write Themselves!

One of the truly great things for a parent, if you have more than one kid and they are separated by a few years, occurs when the first child hits the teen years, believe it or not.  What is this great thing?  Why it's built-in baby-sitting, of course!

Our daughters are approximately six years apart, so we have the perfect baby-sitting situation.  This is very useful, due to all the rehearsals, performances and other similar events that my wife and I have.  It's nice that the youngest can get in bed on time (if it is a night-time event) and they would BOTH rather not be tagging along for these things, in general.

A couple of years ago, we made a deal with Rebecca that if she could be a baby-sitter on demand, we'd let her have unlimited texting on her phone.  Good deal, right?  Answer: yes it is!  No driving to get a baby-sitter, no pestering relatives to watch the kids, and no kids missing bedtimes! 

This ideal situation we have is not perfect, however.  The two are BOTH incredibly dramatic, which, while useful in musicals and plays and such, is not such a great help at home.  Additionally, they both revel in getting on each other's nerves and generally making things difficult on each other. 

One of the neat things that Rachel, the younger, does EVERY SINGLE TIME WE ARE GONE PAST HER BEDTIME, is manufacture a crying fit at bedtime, because she "misses her Mommy."   

Since she has begun to learn that whole reading and writing thing, she often leaves notes for Dianne, outlining the entire situation.  While I'm certain that Rebecca is not the model of niceness to her while we are gone (as she certainly is not while we are home!), the notes crack me up.  Today, for your viewing and reading pleasure, I publish the latest such note! (click on the note for a better view)

 

In case you are having trouble with the creative spelling, I will now translate for you (text in parenthesis is added by me):

Dear Mom,

Rebecca won't let me call you. (good!) I've been crying for a long time and since I am crying so much, my face is turning very red! (notice: she had enough time in the little show to check out her own face) Next time, I want you to take me.

Love,

Rachel.

P.S. Come down soon (her room is in the basement and she always wants us to come and see her as soon as we get home) and Rebecca is making fun of me because I am sad. (BAD REBECCA! Can't you be nice to your sister?)

Isn't that just precious?  I think my favorite part is the drawing of a sad face, with the note attached saying "This is my face now."

Oh, the drama!

Influenced by Her Big Sister

My oldest daughter, Rebecca, is a talented artist (click here for a published example) and is always drawing.  She throws away drawings that I think should be framed!

Well naturally, Rachel, the 2nd grader has followed suite and now ALSO draws all the time.  We go through a ton of drawing paper pads, colored pencils, and all other art supplies.  It's funny, I used to think that I drew a lot, but I still have some of my original packs of pencils and pads!  Clearly, my daughters are working on a whole different level.

Last night, my wife brought me the following drawing which when quizzed, Rebecca told us RACHEL had done all by herself.  There is obvious portions of Rebecca's style in the drawing, but not too bad for someone entering 2nd grade!  I can't wait to see what kind of style Rachel develops as she continues to draw.

Art Showcase - Pop Art

My daughter, Rebecca, is a talented artist.  She developed her own drawing style between first and second grade and has stuck with that style (with refinements) for many years, now. 

Every now and then, she experiments with a totally different style.  This week, for art class, they had to do a type of "pop art."   Rebecca made a self-portrait of herself which was really cool.  I'd like to scan and post it when she gets it back from school.

Yesterday, she took a photo portrait she had made of her and a friend, and turned IT into pop-art...for fun!

Making Glitter

So, I happened upon my second-born, Rachel (currently 7).  She was totally absorbed in something, hunched over an array of small containers, with a good-sized stack of what I'd call metallic gold pipe-cleaners on the floor next to her. I think there is a new artsy-fartsy term for pipe-cleaners as pipes are largely a thing of the past, but let's just stick with that term for our purposes.

The kid is ALWAYS making crafts of her own design.  For an example, see the flag made out of notebook paper and used straws (on the left). She can "see" a finished product out of the most obscure things. (click the link for more, plus you can click on the flag picture for a better view!)

I watched her for a while, but she never came up for air.  She was very focused on her task! It seemed like she was cutting something.  She's good with scissors, I think, for her age.  Finally, still unable to see what she was making this time around, I asked:

Gregg: (curiously) Rachel?

Rachel: yeah?

Gregg: What are you making?

Rachel: (matter-of-factly) Glitter.

She looked up at me, briefly.  Long enough that I could see on the floor in front of her a small container with a small but significant pile of gold glitter in the bottom of it...and a pile of pipe-cleaners completely stripped bare of the colorful portion.  She looked back down and hunched over her work, again.

Gregg: Rachel?

Rachel: yeah?

Gregg: You know that you can buy glitter already made, right?

Rachel: Uh huh.

Gregg: Then why are you going through all this work to make glitter?

Rachel: Because I like to make glitter, that's why. Besides, Mom said I could!

She's been working on the little container full of "home-made" glitter for a couple of days now.  I'm sure that someday soon, we'll see some incredible new craft from her and it will all make more sense to us.  

Rachel: Look! There must be hundreds of pieces of glitter in here!

Dianne (the wife/mom): Thousands, I think.

Rachel: Yeah!

Amazed at her own success in creating thousands of pieces of glitter, she returned to work - her larger goal still a secret from us.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she will make.  She can see things that we can't!

Rebecca's Big News - "Sarah's Garden"

Hold on to something because I'm about to brag a little. If you don't like it, tough luck, mister!

From time to time, this website has featured artwork from my oldest daughter, Rebecca.  Usually, it was in the context of an "I'm worried about the Kids" post, and many people commented, or emailed that I shouldn't be worried about her artwork.  I assured most that I certainly was NOT worried about her artwork, and in fact there was something cooking in relation to this.

Well, now I am proud, VERY proud to be able to tell you that the first published book featuring illustrations by my daughter has now been released.

The pictures below show the cover (left), and also author Deb Wolf (of "Counting My Blessings" fame) with my daughter Rebecca holding one of the first books printed.

Deb is the wife of one of Pastors, and we have known her since Rebecca was an infant. In fact, she used to hold the infant Rebecca in church if my parents weren't at our service while my wife and I played the music for our contemporary service.  When Rebecca suddenly developed the ability to draw, she drew COUNTLESS pictures for Deb...and thus the relationship was born!

This book, and story, has been a dream of Deb's for some time and my wife and I are very happy that Rebecca has been able to help her realize a portion of this dream.  Plus, we are overflowing with pride! Have I mentioned that, yet?

Here are a couple of the pen and pencil illustrations that were made for this book.

 

 

 

To order your very own copy of the book, you have a couple of options:

1) Click the Amazon link on the right side of this page!

2) Contact the author directly at "Counting My Blessings" thus saving her the Amazon commission...plus you can get an autographed copy!

To learn more about the book, click here.

Congratulations Deb and Rebecca!  I'm very proud of you!