How Come Nobody Told Me My Butt Is This Big?

Part of me hopes that when I sit on a bucket like that, my butt really doesn't poke out that far. But I'm sure it does. This drawing is by our middle child, the realist at least when it comes to drawing pictures of Mom and Dad. I was weeding the front flower beds. She was bored. I told her to draw a picture. Of what, she asked. Well, me, I said. So the did. I guess I deserve what I ask for.

Jones Trifecta is Complete

Tonight, a special treat for visitors to My Kids' Refrigerator: A complete Indiana Jones story, as told and illustrated by our middle and youngest children. No adults were involved in the making of this story. And, I might add, no experience with the actual films; just a lot of time playing the two Indiana Jones Lego computer games we've got. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.

Wo Ist Jones!? Part II

If you think you've seen the last of our family Indiana Jones pictures, then you're as wrong as Satipo was when he thought he could get out of the temple with that little idol without getting skewered.

Today, however, rather than show you the whole picture, I'll focus in on a few of the scarier and funnier caricatures our oldest drew.

First, the scary: Major Toht and a Thuggee:

Here, it's all in Major Toht's smirk and in the Thuggee's scowl.

Now, for the fun. Here's Belloq, in the "butthat" I mentioned in an earlier post:

And finally, you of course remember the big thug who beats the crap out of Indy before he meets his end in the propeller of that flying wing. Our oldest calls him the "enemy boxer." And as an enemy boxer, he of course needs his own pair of enemy boxer shorts, complete with the Nazi kitsch you'd expect:

Before anyone gets their shorts in a knot that we're raising a nascent neo-Nazi, just remember: Context is key.

Wo Ist Jones?!

If it weren't for the two Lego Indiana Jones computer games our kids have, they wouln't know the man from the next fedoraed person to walk down the street.

They haven't seen the movies. They can't get through "For the Love of Benji" without flooding the room with tears of anxiety for the pup, nor can they handle seeing Sloth from "The Goonies," so I know they're not ready for a bunch of melting Nazis.

Nevertheless, they know the characters well. Our oldest made two character charts to prove the point. Here's the second:

They know the music, too, of course, thanks to a John Williams CD they keep sneaking out of the family room. Not that I mind. I like the music too:

Now I know it's normal for parents to brag about their childrens' talents -- why else would I put this blog up -- but I think our oldest might enjoy cartooning when he's older. We'll encourage him in that direction.

Bug

Sometimes your kids draw really complicated things. And sometimes, they just draw a bug.

Halloween 2010

I know I'm taking a risk posting this photo so early on in the month of October, but here it goes.

What's the risk, you ask? Come on. Ask a parent and they'll tell you that no matter how much time you might have spent helping them get their Halloween costumes done early, there will come that moment on the 28th or so when they decide they don't want to be Han Solo or a cat but something else, and you'll have to re-make their costume entirely. Here's to hoping that doesn't happen to us. This year.

I, myself, plan on going with my kids to any Halloween events as Kent Mansley because I do, after all, work for the government.

COLOR!

This blog, you may have noted, has been sparse on the color the past few entries. No worries. Our daughter is making up for it with this:

This is a dangerous kind of drawing, you know. I hate it when I get handed a drawing like that, look at it lovingly, say "It's wonderful" and then have my daughter tell me I'm holding it upside down. So I've probably put it here upside down, but what the heck.

Thing is I remember doing drawings like this as a kid, with the nice little rainbow/mandelbrot effect radiating from some central object. My central objects were most often words (I don't know why), but I can dig the shapes here.