Adventure Time, come on grab your friends...

Adventure Time is probably my biggest guilty pleasure as a parent. On the one hand its totally a kids show, but on the other hand it is so far over their head that I can't help but feel like it was written for me to enjoy it too. It has innuendos and other subtleties that are completely lost on our almost 7 year old, but that hasn't slowed down her interest in the show. And the best part is that we can all sit down and laugh together as family.

If you haven't seen the show, here are a couple of pictures for reference:

Prince Gumball

 Jake the dog, Princess Bubblegum, and Finn the human 

Lumpy Space Princess

Pumpkin Pie made this picture of her favorite characters:

And then she made some fan-fiction with Prince Gumball and Princess Bubblegum hooking up, and having a baby! And get this, she named her princess Jelly Bean.

It kills me how creative she is. She can just sit down and bang out a drawing like this without having any pictures or reference points besides her mind's eye. 

Summer Time and the Living's Easy

Sometimes I swear there's a mid-twenties person stuck in that 6 year-old body. Pumpkin's idea of a perfect summer day is hitting the beach with a platter of fruit while knocking back a  few tropical drinks in the sun. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

The spread also includes heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. My favorite :)

Are You Ready to Rock, Gramps?

        So we went for a visit to Gramps' house this weekend (my dad.) Gramps is a bit of a music nut. He has a room with 1,000+ CDs all neatly organized alphabetically along a huge wall of CD shelves. In addition to this, his bookcase is covered in knickknacks of anything and everything music related. For example, he has a handful of pebbles and stones that are hot glued onto a flat rock. Each pebble has a pair of googly eyes on it, and behind all rock people there is a sign that says "ROCK Concert." Gramps has all of the California Raisins figurines and The Muppet Band too. He also has a full orchestra of insects playing classical instruments, each sitting on their own custom made set of wooden risers. And even a frog band consisting of frogs figurines playing every instrument you can think of.

          There's also artwork from me, my brother, my mother,and Pumpkin Pie that cover the walls from top to bottom. It's a great place to hang out, especially now since Gramps is smoke free. I think hanging out in his music room on Sunday is still fresh in Pumpkin's memory, because I found this picture on my desk when I got home from work today:

I like how there's a DJ, but there's also a tambourine player. I'm still hoping she will color it in for us, but for now I'll take it the way it is :)

More Frozen - Unfinished Business

So I realize this isn't done, but there are so many pictures that Pumpkin makes that she doesn't finish, and I really think this one captures just how much understanding she has of the expressions people make:

This is a picture of Anna crying because Elsa hurt her with her powers, and Elsa crying because it was her fault. Now let me show you a different picture she didn't finish where she approached the same relationship further in the movie:

She was attempting to make it so they are sitting on both sides of the door, but she ran out of space for Anna so she stopped.

The other thing that kills me, is that she will throw away pictures if she makes what she perceives as a mistake. In this one, she didn't like the way she drew the top of Anna's dress, so she stopped:

So she started over, and made this one with uni-brow and a chicken neck instead:

Oh well, I guess we are all our own harshest critic.

Who's Hungry?

I remember when I was a kid, my dad would always toast up some frozen waffles, or microwave some frozen pancakes before school. I think Pumpkin Pie was channeling that for me when she drew this one.

So I'm guessing that's a heart shaped waffle. Here it is with some MSPaint skills:

and now I'm hungry, 'til next time.

Frozen Birthday Card

Pumpkin Pie was invited to a birthday party for a pair of fraternal twins. It was a Frozen / Minecraft themed party, so Pumpkin wanted to make sure she made a Frozen card for her friend. The wife and I figured if we gave her an hour she could make a pretty nice card, but she was barely half way done when she had to leave to go to the party. She spent an additional hour and half working on it today, This is the card now that it is done:

Front Cover: 

This is the inside (she still needs to write happy birthday):

The tree in the background is a recreation of the trees in this scene:

and this is the back cover: 

     The thing that strikes me every time about her illustrations is the patience. Shes six years old, and she can sit for two and half hours working on the same card. Pumpkin loves doing it, and she's perfectly content while she's working.

underwater fun time super adventure

One of the best parts of my day now that I have started this blog is coming home. Pumpkin Pie is always waiting for me, usually with a picture in had. Before I can get my shoes off, she is asking me if I will scan it and put it on the computer. Believe me I am more than happy to oblige.

Today's picture is an underwater scene:

I was given the go ahead to add color on the computer so here is my best attempt at using a paint program to color it in:

The dots under mouth are "talking holes" so she can talk under water. She is wearing a glass helmet to be able to see underwater as well.  What will she think of next?

A beautiful long weekend

Pumpkin had a nice long weekend of cookouts and parties. She also made a few drawings. 

This first one is a colored pencil piece of Pumpkin Pie's best friend.

I think its how funny how everyone has the same length hair, even though her friend has very long hair :)

This one is a girl dancing, and accidentally kicking a mannequin.

 I always wonder to myself when I see things that are this specific, did this actually happen?

And this last one is a selfie within a selfie.

 In the drawing she has also drawn a picture of herself giving her teacher, Mrs. S, a big kiss. I can just imagine her sitting at her little desk at school drawing this.

A trip to the hospital?

     Pumpkin has never been to the emergency room. Things like that make me realize just how much she picks up from watching TV. When I woke up this morning and found this picture of a trip to Emergency Room, I just hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come.

Luckily, after a long weekend of cookouts and fun, no one was hurt. I hope you all had a happy and safe Memorial day weekend.

Bonus: After I scanned this in, she helped me add some color with Photoshop:

It's Friday, I'm in love...

How about a little love for Friday, Pumpkin style.

In this watercolor picture, the heart on the left is Mommy, and the right is Pumpkin Pie. The big purple heart is because they love eachother

Here we have a young boy serenading his sweetheart after giving her a rose.

This one I wasn't really sure what I was looking at. At first I thought this was a person with a line down the middle. But then she explained to me that the left was a girl and the right was a boy and they were in love.

And finally, this is a picture she made of our good friends on their wedding day.

 Pumpkin and her sister were the flower girls, and Mommy and I were in the wedding party too!

I want to wish all my friends, family and followers, a happy long weekend, see you next time :)

I've been waiting all week...

This picture has been half done since last week. I have been gently nudging Pumpkin to finish coloring it, and she finally did. This is my favorite pony by far. She used a picture on the iPad as a reference for it.

This is Sunset Shimmer:

Sunset is using the magic in her horn to read a book of spells. She had everything but the background done, and she put it aside to work on some other pictures. I'm so glad she went back to it. :)

Happy Birthday to Uncle Aaron

Today's is my brother's birthday, so Pumpkin Pie made this birthday picture for him. That's her wearing a party hat and blowing a noise-maker.

Happy 26th birthday to my younger (not little) bro. Enjoy that birthday cake!

Paging Dr. Seuss

We found this picture Pumpkin made. When I asked her about it, she said its a bike that people use that keeps them cool:

The person on top is fanning the girl in the back with a feather, and the air vent up front is keeping the girl in the recliner nice and cool. I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but its awesome that I get to see it on a daily basis. 

New Markers - New Drawings

Pumpkin got a new pack of markers this morning. I was still sleeping, but when I got up, these Power Puff Girl drawings were waiting for me on my desk.

Blossom

Bubbles

and Buttercup

It makes me sad that Netflix no longer carries the Power Puff Girls, but I'm glad she remembers what they look like :)

Who are you?

Pumpkin Pie's Mommy was out for the evening, so she wanted to make her Mommy a picture

its supposed to say whooooooo are yooooou? . but I kinda like Hoooooow are yooooooou better:

Last week Pumpkin went to Frozen night at Once Upon a Kiln ( you can see our Frozen post here.) Well we got back her Olaf plate and I wanted to post it: (it has been edited to remove her name at the top.)

Backpack Surprise

These two pictures came home from school this week. Both are things she drew during her choice time. I'm really happy that the teachers have embraced her desire to draw, it seems they let her do it every day.

This first one is a girl saying good night to the fairy that sits on top of her music box:

The size of the actual drawing is quite small, she really had to do some fine lines in there to get the fairy the way she wanted it.

The second picture has a lot going on:

I had to ask about most of the picture, and I figured I would just post a visual aid so you can see some of the finer points. I find it especially funny that it has a boombox and a phone with a cord, as these are things that we don't own. I think she sees them on her cartoons though, so that helps explain them.

Cat fights

Our new Kitties have been getting a long pretty well, but every once in a while there's a brawl that goes down. Pumpkin doesn't like that they fight, so she made this sign for them. The last time they fought, she yelled at them "Didn't you see my sign!?!"

Oh if only life worked like that, I would leave signs everywhere...

Experimenting with watercolors

Pumpkin Pie is always up for trying new things. Whether that means using an entire roll of scotch tape to make a rainbow paper strip whip, or busting out her water colors when we're not looking, the results are always interesting, if not messy.

Here's Pumpkin's first attempt at painting with watercolors. When she was painting this picture I think she realized that she needed to have some sort of outline for the girl:

On her next attempt she first drew the picture in pencil first. I think it makes a really cool effect:

And finally, on this picture she used pencil first, and then watercolors on everything except for the eyes. For the eyes she used a blue marker because she didn't want them to go outside the lines.

And then there's the mess that accompanied all this... but that's another post entirely.

Sunday Clean Up

Some days when I dig through the piles of paper in her play room, I find a hidden gem like this flashcard she made for her little sister:

Other times, I come across the exact opposite like this Forever Alone girl:

But the best part is, there's always a new pile of artwork to look through. :)

A Mother's Day Book

            Mother's day is a great way to show appreciation for the women in our lives that helped shape us into who we are. I would like say thank you for all you do to all the special women out there raising our youth. Whether you are a mother, grandmother, teacher, step-mother, or any other positive female role model, we love you.

           Pumpkin Pie would also like to say...

And now for a special Mother's Day treat, here is one of Pumpkin Pie's very own Lisa books. Lisa is a character that she made up, but that also seems to be loosely based on our family. This book is very appropriate for Mother's Day as it is actually about giving birth! I hope you all enjoy "Lisa and the Crying Baby New Sister."

Happy Mother's Day Everyone! We'll see you tomorrow!