"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action."

A few months back Mrs. M picked up 4 frames from the cheapo corner in Ikea and she knew exactly what she wanted to do with them. It wasn't until this week though that she explained her idea to Opeie. The big plan was for him to use his creative flair and draw a picture for each of us to go up in the hall. Opeie jumped at the chance to get his artwork up and got started straight away. I love seeing what the boys come up with when they are being creative, children's drawings are so innocent.

The concentration on his face was intense and when it came to the self portait he requested a mirror from Mrs. M as he was unsure what he looked like.

There was no surprise that both him and Seth would be riding on their Micro-scooters, thay may as well have them surgically attached at this point. The pictures turned out amazing (obviously we expected nothing less) and they have been lovingly mounted on the wall by the front door, to greet all of our lovely visitors. I think it is so important to make a huge deal of your childrens creations and having them on show add's to our already warm and welcoming family home.

 

"Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit."

Continuing our trip to London last week, me and my mini counterpart had another morning for adventure before jumping on the train and heading home. The Tate is always somewhere we love going, so we made that our next destination. I find the gallery so relaxing and we both love casually walking around taking in all the pieces displayed there.

Its always interesting to hear Opeie's views an what he is seeing, you cant beat the imagination of a child and he picks up on so many things that I don't notice right away. Some of the pieces were a great source of inspiration for him and he informed me of all of his fun arty ideas.

Opeie was drawn in by the colour and simplicity of Piet Mondrian's pieces and he had packed a sketch book and pencils so it gave us a chance to sit down and draw. The Tate is so peaceful even if it is busy and we could have sat there all morning drawing but there was more art to be looked at before we made our way back home.

There was a great exhibition by Simryn Gill, which was a series photos of people from the artists home town in Malaysia, with their faces hidden by tropical fruit. Opeie thought it was very entertaining.

Opeie was desperate to get in on the action, so I found an apple from out of my back pack so that Opeie could join in the fun....

We ended up staying in the gallery all morning and then headed to the train station to get home. It was a great end to another cultural trip to London. We adore London but only in short bursts as it is so busy. Tired but smiling we made our way home to a snowy Shropshire.

"Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended."

Motivating the boys to express themselves in a creative way is a big thing in our house. Both myself and Mrs M are creative people and we are always motivating each other when we've got things in our work life going on, so that is obviously going to rub off on the boys. I love it when an unexpected drawing session breaks out because i know I'm going to love the end product.

Ive written many posts about Seth's creative flair. I love his innocent and adorable sketches, they really put a smile on my face and it seems that his little brother is following suit. I wasn't in the room when this fortuitous art session got started, but when i came back in i was greeted by an adorable sketch by Opeie...

When i asked him what he was drawing he simply replied "it's all the things i dream about". I asked him who the people he had drawn were and he told me they were our friends Chris and Katie. I love how our friends mean that much to him that he included them in his sketch. They are family to us and they always make a huge effort with the boys so its really no surprise.

I can see many great sketches coming as Opeie is really starting to embrace his creative side. Its almost time to start our usual Christmas craft too and it'll be lovely to have Opeie more involved this year.

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

Opeie has started getting in to his drawing a lot more recently which is great, its one of the things i loved to do when i was a lot younger and is still something i enjoy today when i have the time. Embracing your creative side is so important and personally i think it is as important as the academic side of learning. With every new shape drawn and mark made Opeie is developing exactly the way we wanted him to and his excitement recreating the people he loves most is infectious, One of his most recent creations is a dedication to the beautiful one in our family, mommy. I think he's captured something here that perhaps we don't all pick up on.

So here she is, Mrs M in all her glory,  Excellent work Opeie...

sketchbook memories #3 - Opeie in the bath wearing daddy's fashion disaster glasses

After getting home a bit later than we expected too last night neither me and Mrs M were in the mood for a big tea so we had a snack. No tea meant no washing up which freed up the remainder of my evening nicely for a spot of drawing. Sketch number three is a picture I took of Opeie in the bath wearing my old glasses.

A few years back I had kind of a Timmy Mallet thing going on with a selection of oversized and colourful specs. Looking back now I don't know what I was thinking and from the picture I took its clear that they were a lot cuter on mini me.

Previous Sketchbook Memories:

• Sketchbook memories #1 - Daddy and Opeie at 6 weeks old

• Sketchbook memories #2 - Opeie at 9 months sitting on Eames chair with Fisher Price ball

Sketchbook memories #2 - Opeie at 9 months sitting on Eames chair with Fisher Price ball

I found myself with half an hour to kill last night, Mrs M was in the kitchen making chocolate, the house was tidy and Opeie was fast asleep so i quickly grabbed my sketch book and pencils. Since stating my doodling again I'm taking every spare minute i can to do a quick sketch. Most of my favourite photo's are on the iPad, i have them on there because i like to have Opeie's early pictures easy to access, us parents always have nostalgic moments and sometimes i just need to see his little face as a baby. 

Today's sketch was from when he was around 9 months old, I had brought Mrs M an Eames chair for Christmas and we had placed him on there with various toys for pictures. There was a lovely one of him with Spider-man but the shot with the vintage Fisher Price musical ball seemed to have more character.

It's been a while since sketching faces and i really need some practice so hopefully they will get better with time. When Opeie saw the picture he said 'Baby Opeie'  so it cant be all that bad.

Previous Sketchbook memories posts...

• Sketchbook memories #1 - Daddy and Opeie at 6 weeks old

"Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk."

Yesterday at the end of school Seth came out and asked me if I wanted to see his work, the classroom was open for parents to come in and have a look at all the great work the children had been doing. I love looking through Seth's work, it's always nice to see what he's been getting up to. His reading and writing is fantastic and he is in all the top groups, we couldn't be more proud as parents. The things that really interest me in Seth's work though are the way he expresses himself through drawing and his imagination when I read the short stories he has come out with.

I was in school for quite some time going through each of his subjects and reading his work, kicking myself with every page turn that I had left my phone at home as I wanted to take pictures of most of it. One piece of work was so cute and also really made me chuckle so when I dropped him in this morning I asked his teacher if I could take a quick photo of it.

In his science lesson Seth had been learning about how we change in our appearance throughout our life and had been asked to draw three pictures of himself, as a baby, how he is now and also how he thinks he will look when he is older. What made me chuckle is that firstly he's not expecting to have any hair but that he also feels that the bold head, beard/curly mustache combo is what its all about and is what he will be going for in his adult years, Never really pegged myself as a trend setter but clearly this is a strong look.

 When i asked Seth about it he laughed and simply said "I'm going to look cool like you when I'm older". Seth is too cute for words.

Sketchbook memories #1 - Daddy and Opeie at 6 weeks old

Just over a week ago i wrote a post about finding an old sketch book and how i used to doodle pictures relevant to the start of mine and Mrs M's relationship (click here to read the post), it was my way of dealing with the time we had to spend apart because of our living situations and being in different counties. I hadn't drawn in there or at all for quite some time but really wanted to get back in to my sketching. For my birthday last week Mrs M brought me a new sketch book, i thought it would be nice to sketch for Opeie, photos of him that i love and funny things that happen on this journey of being a dad.

It already seems that finding time to do this is not going to be easy as i always seem to have so much other stuff i need to be getting on with. Being a stay at home dad is a full time job after all. Last night though while Mrs M was busy in the kitchen baking cookies and the boys were in bed i found myself with a little time for a quick sketch. I'm thinking of making this a permanent fixture on the blog, hopefully meaning ill motivate myself to find time to draw and squeeze the quick doodles in where i can. My first sketch is from a photo of me and Opeie that was taken when he was around six weeks old, I thought it was fitting to start the sketch book where in many ways i feel like my life really began.

"Art must take reality by surprise."

Every now and again i get Seth's book from his book bag for his nightly reading and there's a nice surprise in there, some lovely work that he's brought home from school. Last night was one of those nights and it really put a smile on my face. Inside i found a great picture of me, strangely looking very clean shaven? maybe he's politely trying to tell me I'm a scruff bag?

There was also a very cute drawing of Opeie too. These drawings are great to keep and its lovely to see how his drawing is developing over the years.

 My brother is nice because he's kind and friendly.