Gemma and I got some just-us time wholly unexpectedly this fine Saturday morning. It was so fun to have her all to myself – that hasn’t happened much since we used to have pre-school together weekly. We chatted about life (she is 6 now and heading in to full-day first grade!), played with Play-Doh, read a 1940s collection of Nursery Rhymes and tried to figure out what on earth some of them meant???, made pita-toast egg and cheese sandwiches, more Play-Doh time, then we watched 1 1/2 episodes of “My Little Pony” while she explained all the characters to me and how they interact (she does so love Pinkie-Pie, the party-loving pony) then we decided, before heading to the pool, that we’d do a major art project. She chose water-color painting.
We used some vinyl stick on letters to spell out her name on a big white sheet of kid’s art paper. Gemma used a black permanent marker to draw a design right over the letters and everything. She was a fan of the zig-zags and threw in some circles for good measure. We chose just 5 watercolors in an egg carton to paint in the areas she had created (though she did a little mixing right on the paper for more hues). Her Nonni made quite a mess with those and they are highly-stain-making {*ahem}. Nonna now has colorful hands – at least until time in the pool.
When Gemma was finished filling in all of the spaces she had created (and there were LOTS), she got to carefully-carefully-carefully peel off the vinyl lettering.
And VOILÀ!
Gemma and her watercolor-name art. So pretty – both Gemma and her art!!!
Song on video: Late 1977, “Hey, Deanie,” by Shaun Cassidy, which would have been a much better song if it had been “Hey, Jeanie!”
Hey Deanie
Won’t you come out tonight
The summer’s waitin’
The moon is shinin’ so bright
Hey Deanie you’re the one
I’m dreamin’ of…