The New Restaurant In Town

At 4 1/2 years of age, Dylan's play is very creative.  Very, very seldom is something played with in the way it was intended to be played with.  This can be a good thing, but I have to admit, it can also drive a poor mom crazy!  You see, you just never know what crazy game you might be playing, and the rules seem to change by the minute.  It's hard to keep up.  Sometimes I just really want to sit down and play a board game or a game of cards, but that idea never seems to excite him.  I think I've also mentioned before that creative play tends to spread out and take over your home.  Sigh.

But, his newest obsession is one I'm pretty excited about - Dylan's "A Lot of Food Restaurant".  (He named it himself).  It is great practice for his spelling and math.  The ambiance isn't the best, but they do serve a lot of food.

The tables and chairs are a bit small for a 5'11" customer, but oh well.  Also, the floor isn't always the cleanest.  I'll have to complain to management.

Jim and I were long overdue for a date night, so we decided to try this new restaurant in town.  Jim had two pieces of pizza, a banana, and milk.  I had green grapes, black meatball pasta, and ice cream.  Our bill came to $32!  Man, eating out is so expensive these days.  Plus, they were out of "strong lemonade", and I really wanted some of that!

I think the owner is pretty darn cute, and I love his smile.

Stuck Inside

So, according to my calendar, it is Spring.  According to the weather in Pittsburgh... not so much.  This is what it looked like in my back yard, one day last week...

Notice the pine cone bird feeder, that Dylan made at school?  Yea, um, we haven't seen too many birds.  I think they turned back around and went south.  I'm thinking of joining them.  Today, the sun is shining brightly... but it is 36 degrees.

Since we have been stuck inside, I have come to the sudden realization that I need to take a day and go through Dylan's toys.  As his play gets more and more creative, it gets harder and harder to avoid having my home look like a toy store delivery truck explosion.

(These are "volcanoes").

(3 Points if you can guess the theme.  And, no, the theme wasn't "big mess", as I previously thought).

Dylan's favorite thing to do lately seems to be to take small pieces from EVERY single game, box, bin, etc, and load them into other bags, bins, etc.  Clean up is fun, let me tell you.

I was talking to a friend while her son, and Dylan played, and I asked her how she controls the toy clutter with 3 boys.  She keeps toys in a locked shelving unit, and they have to clean up one thing before asking permission to take out something else.  I get the logic, but I just couldn't do it.  I WILL put some of the toys in the spare room for a while, and cycle through them periodically, but I will also keep reminding myself daily that CREATIVITY IS MESSY.

This is unrelated, but I just had to share, since it is my buddy Jenn's birthday today!

(His birthday card for "Pop-Pop")

Just Create

Yesterday, I read this post on Simply Feather. As usual, I commented that her posts make me want to be creative. Darned if that girl didn't email me and challenge me to just do it! Challenge ME? Oh, she doesn't know who she is dealing with. (Okay, she might not have meant it as a challenge exactly, but that's how I took it). She said I should just sit down and draw with Dylan. That really got me thinking. Why don't I ever do that?

Suddenly, I had a flashback to years (none of your beeswax how many) ago, when I sat in on a kindergarten class at the school I was interviewing at. It was free-play time, and some kids had the markers out. I sat down next to a few of them, and started talking to them, and drawing something. A few minutes later, the teacher walked over, leaned down and said, "We don't draw with the children. If we draw, it makes them feel inferior, since they can't draw as well as we can. It also hinders their creativity, because they are trying to imitate what we have done, instead of using their own ideas".

All these years and that has stuck with me! It has influenced me and my actions, even though I was never really convinced I agreed with that philosophy!

I suddenly had another flashback to even further back, sitting at my parent's dining room table, drawing with my mom. My mom had minored in Art in college, and I have to admit, I probably did imitate her, and wish I could draw like her. But, here's the thing. I LOVED drawing with her. I loved spending that time with her. I loved her sharing something she was good at with me. I loved doing something together. What have I been thinking?!

When Dylan saw ME drawing and painting, he said, "What are YOU doing?!" When I answered, "Drawing and painting with you! It's fun to do things together", he just smiled, but I just know he agrees. We were having so much fun being creative, we decided to "create" some cookie magic after that. When making cookies makes your kid this happy,

that's a no brainer.

What I created in the 15 minutes I had, in between cooking dinner, and emptying the dishwasher.

With all the snow around here, it seemed an appropriate theme! I forgot to paint the sun, and had to fill it in later! (Must have forgotten what it looked like).