art class at the library

after a long day of school and zoo, the boys and i now had to take madelyn to her first art class! our library has a small art gallery attached. we sometimes walk through and look at the exhibits. they exhibit local artists and school pieces from time to time too. well, they also offer art classes! i had looked into them before but hadn't gotten it together enough to sign up in time. when madelyn said that she didn't want to play soccer this season, i started looking again. i was able to get her signed up for this session of "i spy art". each week they will look at a well known artist and practice their technique. we just made it in time. both maddux and manning were asleep when we got there which always makes getting out of the car interesting. 

while madelyn was in class, the boys and i went upstairs to wait in the children's section of the library (we also had to return madelyn's american girl doll today which worked out perfectly). mason wanted to pick some more books to take home. we already have quite a few from last week so i told him that he could only pick three more. he is the most careful when selecting books. he looks at almost every page to see what the story is like and if it might be too scary (some of the super hero books are a little too violent). he sat in front of this superhero/lego section for almost 30 minutes to make sure that he had the best three books available. 

while mason was checking out his options, i selected a few books for manning and maddux. maddux picked one out himself and started 'reading'. then he was pleased with my selections and just sat and 'read' while we waited. manning mainly did puzzles and explored the other toys (doll house, train table, dress-up clothes). he is really pretty good at puzzles, he rarely needs help unless it is a jigsaw puzzle.

i was expecting the worst since the boys were tired and hungry, but this was one of our better library visits and the time just flew by. madelyn was disappointed that she missed out on the library time, but really loved her art class. this week they covered wayne thiebaud and either water colored cupcakes or lollipops inspired by his works. here is one of his cupcakes:

 and here is madelyn's piece it inspired:

i guess there was a stamp for the cupcake shape and then she used water color pencils to color them in and add the shadow. once she had the colors, she used water and a brush to 'paint'.

we can't wait to see who she learns about and makes next time! love.