Backyard Picasso

Last Friday, a friend of mine from work whose daughter is about 15 months older than Cate, invited us over for a play date. She had set up their art easel in the driveway and both girls spent some time painting. In fact, Cate was focused on painting different pictures for an hour! So this week we headed to Ikea, home of the $14.99 art easel.
An additional $4.99 got us a roll of paper that fits onto the easel. And for $2.99 we got a set of brushes. Everything our budding artist needed for under $25.00!
After setting it up in the backyard (so it would be easier to clean up later), Cate got to work creating some fabulous pieces. When she was done painting, we got to try out the chalkboard side of the easel. This is by far my favorite purchase of the summer so far. And it definitely reinforces my idea of taking Cate to art classes once a week next spring when I'm on an (hopefully) extended maternity leave. If you remember, Cate enjoyed the art class we took back in the spring, so I think a 12 week session would be a great way to get us both out of the house and give Daddy time to bond with the new baby.

~Melody :-)