Sweet lil' Punkin

You might not know it, but underneath her 3-year-old heinous-ness, there's a sweet little girl who, every now and again, can pull it together and remind me how absolutely cute and fantastic she is.  Thank goodness for these moments - without them, I'd be sobbing in the corner in the fetal position.

But I digress. 

On Wednesday, before Mimi's departure to the Yellow Brick Road, Tanner and Mimi did a SPECIAL, big-girl project while Ellery was napping (I am usually only nice enough to let her play with Polly Pockets, Mimi definitely out-did me on this one!) - Pumpkin Painting!  If you don't know, Mimi is QUITE the artiste, and you might not guess that she is ALSO a phenomenal toddler-teacher (my mom got her trade honest, I suppose).  Pumpkin painting was her last "lesson" in a long line of teachings this week (another big one was teaching Tanner how to hold her pinky down to make "three" with her fingers - I've been working on that on and off since August.  Mimi is here fifteen minutes and Tanner has it down.  *eyeroll*....again, I digress).

*Note:  The pumpkin is actually from our garden, an accidental perk of putting last year's Jack-o'-Lanterns in the compost pile.

Anywho, Pumpkin Painting was a HUGE hit!  Mimi made the template, then Tanner did the rest!

First, the eye color:


"Hazel like me and Mommy!  Not blue like Daddy and Ellery."  (her words, I swear).



Painting takes patience.  I'm surprised her tongue wasn't out (just like Mimi!)

Eye color, DONE!

Next, ya gotta have pupils:

Mimi watches over her protege

 

What a happy little pumpkin!


 Next, LIPS!  Big red lips (just like Tanner, right?): 



Mimi tries to steer her in the right direction, but....



....OOPS!  Tanner had other ideas about lips.

Back on track, lips are done!

Lastly, hair.  Mimi wanted to teach Tanner to make "curls" for the pumpkins hair, but Tanner kept saying, "Mimi, you are silly!  My hair is NOT curly!" 

Mimi tries to teach TK to paint a curl

The dedication pumpkin painting takes!  She worked hard on her project!

I just love this picture for some reason.

If she could talk, I think the pumpkin would be pleased with her appearance.  Doesn't she look plum tickled?

Mimi thought the project was complete, then Tanner piped in, "Mimi, she needs to have a bow to be pretty!"  Obviously.  

 I have a really cute picture of Mimi & Tanner at the conclusion of their activity, but I can't get it to load right, dag nabbit.  Check back next time and maybe I'll have figured it out (or, more than likely, John will come to my rescue with a few simple keystrokes and make me feel like a computer moron.  :)  All in all, it was a fun, relatively un-messy time.  The pumpkin is SUPER cute, and I would love to try this activity with her again sometime....somehow I lack the patience of a great-grandma! :)