Friday, May 11, 2012

DIY: Lego Superheroes

When you're raising little boys who love superheroes, anything and everything becomes a superhero or a bad guy.  So, to keep things fresh, I decided to help them build superheroes from Lego.   These won't last long because too much banging around will cause them to fall apart.   But the best thing about lego is that once you're sick of what you built, you can break it down and build something else.

This is Iggle Piggle's blankie which has now been turned into a superhero cape (Joshie's idea, not mine)



We ended up making a lot of them.  Unfortunately the legs kept falling off  (it's a structural flaw in my design) but it made us all laugh!

We made 6 superheroes.  Can you guess who these are?  (I'll let you know tomorrow...)


 Happy Lego Building!

Friday, May 04, 2012

My City: Artists Matter


Check out my new button!   The kids got this button from their loot bag courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Yesterday we painted up a storm but today was a day for looking (no touching!!!)

Artists and Art DO matter and I hope that the kids can learn to appreciate art when they are older.  Right now, they are young, but not too young to look and observe.

We took a more relaxed approach to viewing the art.  Today was contemporary art day with the exception of our viewing of the Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens on the way to the potty.  We also saw this Bernini and this Bernini before heading up to floor 4 and 5.  We ended up playing "I spy" with the art and the kids had fun sitting in one of the interactive displays.  They liked Iain Baxter&'s exhibit (particularly the one with the animals) so if I have a moment, I might enter the Ampersand Challenge...

We also stumbled upon the new Weston Family Learning Centre.  How cool is this?


or this?



Love glue...



Unfortunately, we found this place too late and had only 20 minutes of play time.

Kids left with a loot bag of goodies including some art cards, pipe cleaners, a puzzle and a pencil crayon.  Now that they have added a kid's play section, I'm sure my munchkins will be asking us to go more often.



Note:  One of my favourite exhibits from the AGO is Bruce Mau's Massive Change from 2005.  Click here to learn more about Massive Change. 

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

DIY Art on a Rainy Day

Today was a rainy day and with rainy day comes indoor art projects.  I usually don't let baby bunny use paints because it would end up in his mouth (yup), on his hair (yup), and on the walls (not this time!).  However, the kids have been sick for so long now that I was running out of things to do.

This was the end result:


What do you need to make your own art?
  • White paper
  • Paint brushes
  • Acrylic paint
  • 1 Foam poster board
  • Imagination!


Gather up some supplies


Stick the pictures on the board and admire their handiwork


Clean up the mess and throw both kids into the bathtub.



Brag to the neighbours


 Let's take a closer look


I used painter's tape to stick the pictures onto the foam board.   We are going to keep the foam board up in the kitchen so that we can change the art a little more often.  We now have this picture framed in our hallway and maybe one of these will make the "cut" and end up in a picture frame.   Who knows?  Maybe it'll be worth something one day :o)

We are going to the Art Gallery of Ontario tomorrow.   Joshie is now super excited about looking at the art.  I'm guessing we will be painting more when we return home.

Happy painting!