art gallery.

betcha didn't know i live in an art gallery, didya?  strange, but true.  the thing about the art gallery i live in is that all the art hangs at under five feet on the walls.  so you kinda have to bend down to really appreciate each piece.  this is because five feet is about as high as any of the three pint-sized artists i reside with can reach while standing on a stool to tape up their masterpieces.  and while all three artists regularly contribute to the growing collection that can be found on every single wall and door and window in my house, one of them has a particular passion for all things to do with drawing.

as soon as i pick her up from school, she'll have a drawing in hand and announce that she wants to draw some more.  sometimes she can't even wait til we get home, so i have to give her a pen and a post-it to draw what she's thinking of while we drive home.  last time it was a picture of her grandma.

if she's the first one to wake up in the morning, she can usually be found in the playroom, sitting at the little table on a little white chair, marker in hand, quietly doing her thing.

i have to keep a supply of crayons and pens and paper in my diaper bag because she'll want to draw anytime we're anywhere- in a restaurant, waiting in the doctor's office, getting groceries at the market.

there's never a time she doesn't want to draw.  except maybe when she's asleep.  and even then, i'll often go in to check on the kids after they're asleep and find her clutching a little drawing tightly in her hand.

i have no idea where she gets this as neither of her parents were ever big on drawing all that much.  especially her mother.

but, i love that about her.  and i mean LOVE.

and this is the artist herself!  (please excuse her hair, her mother just didn't get to it yet that morning.  er, late morning.  ok, it was more like afternoon, but who's counting, right?).

so, shall i take you on a tour of her more recent offerings?  (i hope you say yes, cuz here we go!)

this is elmo, zoey, and cookie monster with the sun shining down on them.  you can tell cookie monster by the large cookie in his hand.

this is an older one, but still worthy of mention.  it's a ballerina with a red tutu.  oh yeah, and if she runs out of room writing her name, she'll just move to the other side to finish it up.  complete with a backwards 'e'.  artist's prerogative. 

these are fingerprint people with black dot embellishments.  not sure what the little red dude at the bottom is so sad about though.  (she signs a 'T' after her name just so we don't confuse her with any other allies in this house.  juuust kidding!  there happens to be three allies in her sunday school class so i think that's where she picked it up.)

this is a shout-out to ruby and max after she had just watched an episode.

and this is a village of people.  you can tell they're all girls by the two sprouts coming out of their heads.  those are pigtails.  she draws boys with three lumps on their heads.  which she says is their hair.

here is her tribute to "pinkalicious" just after we had finished reading it.  (i've resorted to having her draw on the backs of papers because we learned the hard way that she can go through an entire ream of paper in less than a week.  so if you happen to have extra plain-backed paper, please send them our way!  allie will thank you.  we ALL will.)

and this one here is ME!  complete with pink eyes, because as she explained, "pink eyes are prettier than dark eyes."

she came to the kitchen to show me this one a couple months ago.  she said it was her mommy and daddy (see daddy's three lumps of hair?).  and in the mommy's tummy is a baby!  this was before we ever said anything to the kids about having another baby.  the thing is that mikey and allie have been praying for months for another baby (cuz whenever they'd ask me, i would answer that they better pray and ask God about that.  sooo word to the wise, don't flippantly answer your kids with this cuz God and his sense of humor will say YES!).  oh and daddy's thought bubble coming out of his head is being happy about the new baby.  so her picture came true- we are having another baby and we ARE happy about it too!

closer up so you can see the happy baby in the happy mommy's tummy.

this is where all the magic happens.

and oftentimes, the little sister will come join her.

shh!  artist at work!