August, Art, and Animals

August, August, August.  It seems so long ago.  

Here were some of the highlights.

The boys being kids and making a train out of chairs.  Is this a universal phenomenon?  I remember doing this as a kid, but I can't remember teaching them this.

Game night with some new friends in the neighborhood, the Shaffers, and Clarks. 

Lucky for us, they brought their snowcone machine. :)

Josette and Chaz

Anthony gave me a gift card for mother's day to get a pedicure.  The whole idea of pedicures kind of makes me uncomfortable so I invited Josette to come with me.  So much more fun with a friend.  And besides she can't reach her toes any more. :) 

Rain.

The boys have been getting together with other kids in the neighborhood to use our wood scraps to build "bike ramps."  No broken limbs yet!

Josette's baby shower.  She's about a week and a half overdue today!  I finally bought round cake pans of varying sizes so I could make this.  I think it's time for me to take another cake decorating class.  It took a really long time with less than superb results  But it was fun!

The boys did a great job at the dentist, 

had more than one tea party (yes that's a wig,)

and enjoyed watching our garden grow.

We wanted to go to the Toledo zoo, but didn't realize water contamination in the area meant almost everything was closed.  Fortunately, the Toledo Museum of Art was open, and free!

I call it "Face Off with Sandwich." 

Has anyone seen this little ghost guy around?  I'm pretty sure we've seen him in D.C., New York, maybe Pittsburgh and now Toledo.  He seems to hang out around museums or touristy sites if I remember right.

 The boys and I checked out a 4-H show.  It seemed to be a little therapeutic for Ira who has a general fear of animals.  At first he didn't want to check out the horse obstical course, and by the end, he was asking to watch "just five more please!"

One of the boys' favorites.

Random me, looking flapper-esque. 

Life is good.  Most of what I'm thinking about pertains more to September, so I'll save that for next post. 

However, August did include Ant's and my unofficial 1/2 Marathon.  Since the legit Half we signed up for was cancelled, Anthony came up with a course for us and we invited friends to join. One friend, Brian did.  But it was small potatoes for him.  He's training for a 50 mile run.  Anyway, the week before, I ran 12 miles and was pretty confident in my abilities.  But the route Anthony came up with was much much more hilly than we realized, and felt like mostly hills to me, from miles 3-11.  Sigh.  I was trying not to yell at him during the ordeal but didn't quite succeed.  Anyway, life is good and we're grateful for all of you amazing people in our lives.

Family Painting Photos

Alright everyone, we need your input.  We're having trouble choosing which painting photos to print out for our family room wall.  We may keep playing with cropping, and Ant may tinker with the color, but let us know what you like thus far.

For those of you interested in the process, I've got all the details at the bottom.  I put it there, so I could trick you into giving your opinion first.  Thanks everyone!

Sharon

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Anthony

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Ira

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Eliot

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 Failed but Fun

The boys painted this panel all by themselves to look like a lightning storm.

The Scream

The Thinker

Potty training during the project.  hehe.

Background

Rather than buying art, which is expensive, or painting our own art on canvas, we decided to paint ourselves and photograph it.  And no, we aren't cool enough to think of this on our own.  Alexa Meade is an artist who has been doing this for years.  You can learn more about how she does what she does, here: http://www.ted.com/talks/alexa_meade

Also, making it a family project was Anthony's brother's wife's family's idea.  Thanks Winters Family!

Materials

* For the background, we painted on giant painter's paper from Lowe's with left-over paint samples we bought for our walls.

*For our bodies, we used Americana Acrylic paint from Joann's.  Yes, it comes of pretty easily, unless you cake it onto the hair as in Eliot's case.

Tips

*Paint your people in the lighting you'll be photographing them in.

* Paint, then photograph immediately!  It starts pealing fast.  We wanted to do family shots, but we started looking like zombies after a few minutes, especially since the boys were chasing neighborhood kids around with their "dragon" paint on.  Don't plan on painting everyone, then starting the photography.  Paint one person, then photograph one person.

* Plan on doing this over 2-3 days.  It's more fun if you don't feel rushed with burning daylight.