NEVER Leave Paper Lying Around My House

This is why I can never leave paper lying around the house. The kids will find it and doodle on it. More cat pictures to come, once I can track them all down.

The Room Cleaning

Each Christmas, I tackle a home improvement project, because I've got the forced time off work. This year, we decided on painting our youngest's bedroom because he was the one who got stuck with the pink and green room when we moved into our new house in February. He's now got an orange and yellow room. And because we organized his stuff when we moved it all back in, I got a crop of drawings with which I can make a final blitz on this blog for 2012. Enjoy.

Grumpiest. Caroler. Ever.

Our youngest says this is me, singing a Christmas carol. Neither one of us know why I appear so grumpy.

Of course, seeing the original drawing, which he traced - then added legs to - helps explain why.

Birdie Girl

Who can resist a drawing of a girl with birds on her arms -- and she's not even peg-legged!

Scout Camp

Remember, if you have an artist in the house and you ask him to make a list, this is what you're going to get. Alas, the "continued" part has been lost . . .

Autumn Backyard

I know nine-tenths of the things we put into what we create is wishful thinking. Thus from our youngest, a vision of a treehouse, even though we don't technically have a tree big enough to house one, and even though at the last house they had a playhouse they wouldn't play in because once, many moons ago, they saw a spider inside it.

We bought a trampoline instead.

Bookish Art

Our daughter has a good friend who's into art, and over the summer got her interested in doing some art lessons she found in a book. So her art is changing. Here I worry about her going from doing art that's hers to art that belong to someone else because this is how someone else told her to do it. I'd rather see her continue experimenting on her own. But I know comes a time when you want to emulate what's been done before, and that's okay, too.

Here's a close-up on the girl. I'm hoping to see her art evolve from what she read in a book to what's in her heart -- which I think will come fast.

Santa Suck-Up

Here's a letter I wrote to Santa when I was a kid. Yeah, I was sucking up to the big guy big time.

Smug Cop

Once in a while, I find one of our oldest's comics just lying around and I have to snag it quick and scan it before he puts it away. This is one of those times. I was momentarily confused as to why the burglar -- complete with mask, stripey shirt and bag with the dollar sign on it -- was holding up two people, but I think the Elvis impersonator/vampire is on-the-wall graffiti. The cop's pussy-footing around the corner is just too awesome.

Mystery Art

With the new school year started, you'd think I'd have some stuff to hit you with. Well, I do, but not until I continue the purge of last year's school stuff. Of course, this art is from an open house thing at the school at the tail-end of the year, so I'm close to being done. I believe the object was to dabble with watercolors or something. I wasn't present at the time. Behold:

Autumn Pressure

Considering that when I camped with the scouts this weekend we woke up to frost on the punkin, I know autumn isn't all that far away. I don't need reminders like this coming home from school, though.

And it appears our youngest wants a treehouse. Even more pressure. HELLLLP!

Cartoon Explosion

I'm in a bit of a panic here at My Kids' Refrigerator. School has started up again and the new art is pouring in like so much late summer rain. I've still got lots of old art, many of it aged quite a bit. So the next few posts are going to be an explosion of artwork unparalleled on this blog before. Today, I present a Cartoon Explosion.

Who among us has not heard the evil chuckle of the Division Gremlin? I heard that evil little laugh the first day I learned that when you divide, sometimes there's stuff left over.

I'm not sure I understand this one.

This one, however, is all too clear. It's also a Foxtrot ripoff. Relax, Mr. Amend. He's 12 years old and learning the trade.

This one's like a Terry Pratchett novel. It's the little details -- like the magazine titles -- that make the difference.

Noxious socks. Even worse than the Division Gremlin.

Unfortunately, the back to this one is lost to the great paper recycling bin of time.

Then the snake letters. Pee-Wee Herman feels his pain.

Friends

Coming from a kid who on occasion has a hard time making friends, this is pretty powerful stuff.

Idioms

Chalk this up to Aspergers, I guess, but sometimes when our oldest draws a drawing, he knows it's supposed to be funny (because he's seen similar jokes) but he just doesn't quite get it. So he asks: Why is this funny?

I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas

Actually, this is about as close as I ever want to get to a hippo. From what I hear, they're more dangerous than lions and hyenas.

I do think they'd make the "oop" sound, too.

Galileo

I like to think that as Galileo Galilei was staring up at Venus, observing the planet go through its phases, that he was indeed shouting "Amazing!" as he gazed. That would make science all the more appealing. Here are two blowups of our son's poster, which is cut off in the first image.

School Stuff

It'll be that time of year again before we know it: School. We'll be on the receiving end of art project after art project, and we'll get to see lots of doodles from our oldest as he moves on to middle school -- and his first full-fledged art class. He's looking forward to that.

How to Eat Applesauce

Here's a little photo collage by our daughter, in which she stars -- as a much younger applesauce-eater than she is now.

All Right

Thanks to attention to detail and the anal retentiveness he inherited from his father, our oldest is going to go far in the world of English.

Dear Mom

Letters from the kids are so much fun.

It's A Horsie

What self-respecting girl wouldn't draw a baby horse getting milk from her mommy? The horse mommy, not the girl's mommy, that is.

Idaho: A Great State

I don't know if Idaho is in the market for a new promotional poster, but if it is, here you go. Yeah, Old Faithful is a little out of place. But the heart is there. And what state wouldn't want to be represented by a weenie dog fishing from horseback, while harvesting potatoes?

Noxious Laundry

Guess what we did this weekend . . .

Now from the Star Wars Phase

Emperor Palpatine here, showin' the rest of you Jedi weenies what to do with your light saber. And how to age gracefully and end up with lizard eyes as well. Proceed.

And in case you'd rather not get deep into George Lucas' character development, here's some technical specs for you to peruse instead.

Palpatine by the youngest. Specs by the oldest. Which kind of gets you into their heads. With the youngest, it's all about power and who has it. With the oldest, it's the little, niggling details that matter.

Big Boat

Don't quite know what the story is of this boat. But I do like the firing cannon on the flag.

Mustache Contest

Dad's been doodling again. And I aspire to have a bears and mustache like that third guy one of these days, when I'm old and pruny.