Lionden Landing

We get family portraits done every year.  We try to do them around Froggy's birthday but are a bit late this year.  Here are a few of our favorites from the most recent session.

Last Friday at our home school park day, I sought advice from the other moms regarding Froggy. She is almost four and still had not ever drawn any representational art at all. All her pictures were lines, random squiggles which even Froggy said had no other description than "a picture". Well if I had been just a bit more patient I would not have needed to worry. Yesterday with out any prompting or cajoling Froggy drew me a person. We were coloring together as we often do. She drew a circle and then gave it features and the circle quickly became a "funny grandpa with earrings and silly hair" He even has fingers and toes. Patience is important. We started homeschooling so that she could go at her own pace without pressure. Moments like this help me find the patience again to allow her to do just that.

I hope you had as enjoyable a holiday whatever that may be as we did. Here are few of the highlights from our celebration. I

Supposedly we were getting another big snow storm today. That did not materialize but I was dreaming of snow so I will share snow picture from before. These are from our trip to the Frozen North. They are small because that is the best my phone will do and the camera is currently on the fritz. More pictures later.

I still have trouble not calling Froggy a toddler. She is now a preschooler. So how does one paint with a preschooler when you want them to enjoy the process, have some creative license and still want the finished project to be recognizable? Stamps!!! That is how our sukkah and our apples and honey plate came out as nice as they did. Here are some pictures to show that it can actually work If you look closely you will see the streaks and different intensities that show she really did it "all by myself" And the hand prints for posterity. The mommy and me one is last years followed underneath by her own independent one this year.

We went and got Froggy's three year pictures taken on Saturday. I almost canceled because she had a major goose-egg on her forehead from a fall on Friday. I am glad I didn't. It was so different than the last time. She is her own little person now not a baby to be moved around at your will. It was still a "studio" style shoot so very posed but I think we managed to capture at least a bit of her personality Here are a couple of my favorites of her. And then here is one I call show me the love.