The Ewert Art Center

The Ewert Art Center is what we have decided to call our new art area the we have built in our formal dinning room! We are all very excited about our new and better usage of space!!! This idea has evolved over the past year and thankfully. I have moved our arts and crafts supplies around to several areas in our house and not been happy with any. I personally like to paint and draw too, and I had no space to do so, so I haven't.

I am thankful for my mom's group for so many reasons, but one great part is just hearing what everyone says. I always listen closely because I always pick up tips and tricks! So, at a meeting last month, I threw out the question, "What is your morning routine with the kids?" I had so many great answers, but one stood out above the rest for me! She is a mom of 5 year old triplets and a 3 year old, so her advice always seems the most practical. I always get great tips from her! She said that her kids know that when they get up, they need to go to the bathroom, get dressed, then come to the kitchen for breakfast and then when everything is done they go to their art area and draw or practice writing until it is time for school. While her schedule sounded great, I got hung up on "art area". So I asked her about it and she told me that they decided to turn their formal dinning area into the kids art area. They bought a durable table and all sorts of organizational stuff. She said it is the perfect solution for them.

So I went home and dreamed of having our own art area...I knew converting our formal dinning would never happen....or could it? Our dinning room table and hutch is my Granny's I would be heart broken if anything happened to it. And I would never part with it. But the more I thought about it something kept pulling me back to the formal area...we NEVER use it, at least not in a practical or productive way. We eat at it maybe once a year. Why not try to use this area? So once Michael and I started talking about it and making plans, it all just started coming together!

We decided to get a protective padded table cloth and put that down over the custom pads that we already had. Since we now had 2 pads on the table, I knew we would need something hard to go over them now...So we went to Lowe's and found the most awesome thing - A dry erase board that was big enough to fit on the table!!!!!! We extended the table as big as it would go and then Michael cut the board to fit the table and TADA! - The Ewert Art Center was born!!!!

We have spent time at the table every day! We are enjoying it so much!!! I love having our designated space to do whatever we want! And we can leave our paintings to dry and not have to move them around the house to a safe place!

I am excited that the boys will now have a spot to do their homework! They will be right off the kitchen and next to the computer so it is a great central place for me to be around them too!!

And for the formal dinning part, we can just throw a pretty table cloth over it and we are back in business!!!

My little helper in the dinning room Before we transformed it!

Our first project before we completed the table! He painted his pumpkin red!

Michael just finished cutting the board and the boys are going to town coloring with dry erase markers! Ben LOVES drawing with the dry erase markers!

I gladly organized all our art supplies on a side table. We've got markers, crayons and colored pencils GALORE! It's so nice when it's all organized and right at your finger tips!

I loved this, one of J's drawings, can you guess? It's a school bus!

Jonathan drew this and said it was me and him having fun on the art table!

Michael and Jonathan just put together a map puzzle!! And now Jonathan is learning about the states!

Michael installed a TV across from the table (next to the computer) and Ben was more interested in that then the map!

Jonathan and I made stamps with styrofoam.

He loves playing with his lego's on in this area! We had just completed those little turkey's!

Can't wait to work on more fun projects!!

Soccer Trophy!!!

One of the teammates dad works at Chuckie Cheese! So we got to have our end of season party there, for free! Pretty neat! The kids loved it!!!! It was a really nice way to end the season!!!

Saying hi to Chuckie! Ben is waving too!

Daddy and Jonathan! Best buds!

The team!

Coach Brown giving Jonathan his trophy! Coach also made all the players a photo book of the them during the season!

He loves it!

Now it's game time!!!!

Ben liked it there too!!!

The last soccer game of the season!

I decided that this game needed a post of it's own! What a great game it was - The last game!!!! It was by far Jonathan's best performance! Plus, Amy, Scarlet and Will came to watch him play! We think that's why he did so good! He loved having the support of his cheering crowd! He talked about for days! 

Scarlet and Jonathan!

We all had a good laugh about how much life has changed for us, in a good way, of course. But here we are, pushing strollers on a soccer field early on a Saturday morning! :)

I think Will was a little thirsty! He snuck a sip of Amy's tea!

It was a little sunny, so uncle Mike let Scarlet wear his sunglasses!!

AND HERE IS THE BEST DRIVE OF THE SEASON:

He was very excited about this play, he said, "I've never done that before!"

There he goes again!!! Yay Jonathan!!!! (we moved to the shaded side so my angle is different)

Having fun on the side lines!!

At half time I had to go tell him "good job"!!!!!

Scarlet and Will playing with Amy's phone!

Uncle Mike letting Scarlet sit on his shoulders!

It even made it super fun that we played against Jonathan's best friend Brady, he is #3!

An hour game can start to get long for the little ones watching AND playing for that matter. Ben is reading a book and Will is sneaking more tea!

The end of the game!!! Jonathan is patting Will on the back!!

The Soccer Season Recap

We think that Jonathan did GREAT for his first ever team sports experience! He came a long way from August to November and he can't wait to play again!!
Michael and I enjoyed watching him play and learn! We are excited for next season too!!! Here are some of the pictures I took this season.

Silly face time at the team photo!!!

GO Jonathan!!!

Getting the game started!

Go get it!!!

I loved his little teammate Brody! Such a cutie!

He was really good at throwing the ball in!!!

A little pregame dance!

I guess he doesn't like what the ref is saying! :)

Feeding the ducks with his teammates a Chisholm Park after practice!

GOOD GAME JONATHAN!!!!

The Official Soccer Pictures



Last weekend concluded our first soccer season! I have taken so many pictures I don't even know where to start in sharing them! But I thought I would at least share this super cute photo of Jonathan's first individual and team sports pic!!!

 

Coach Brown, Piper, Emma, Ruby, Maya, Brooklyn and Jonathan. (the one missing is the only other boy on the team, Brody) 

The Dallas Zoo

Many, Many Thanks to my mother-in-law Pat, who bought the boys and I a membership to the Dallas Zoo! She actually gave it to us months ago, but busy schedules, hot weather and seasonal allergies have kept us away...

This past Monday morning as the boys and I were eating breakfast, I realized we didn't have a thing to do that day. The weather was beautiful, a high of 75!!! I asked Jonathan what he wanted to do. He replied - "Art Projects!!!" I said, "No, it's too pretty outside, lets go do something outside!!!" So he said, "I know, a soccer tournament!!!" And then it hit me, "THE ZOO!!!"

So off we went, Jonathan wasn't really excited, cause he really liked his idea of a soccer tournament...

I wish you could have seen Jonathan face as I exited the freeway and he saw the zoo's giraffe's statue!! He almost leaped out of his car seat, yelling "I wanna go there!!" I replied, "We are silly! This is the zoo." So he says, "OOOHHHHH, why didn't you say so???" UGH!

Penguins!

This Jeep is half out for us to sit in and half in the Cheetah exhibit! Last time the Cheetah came in the back of the Jeep, it was cool. This time he was no where to be seen! So the boys had fun just pretending to drive!  

A nice lady took our picture!

Jonathan really wanted to get on the elephants! Ben could take it or leave it! Jonathan is such a good big brother. I asked him to stand there and make sure Ben didn't fall! So he kept his hands on him and encouraged him to pretend it was a real elephant! Precious!  

Then it was J's turn! He wanted to ride on the big "Daddy" elephant! He was so excited!

We watched the elephants for a while and I told him to stand there so I could take a picture, and J kept turning around saying, "I need to tell you something..." So I said, "Okay, in a minute, just stay there..." But he kept persisting, then he ran to me and said, "But Momma, I don't want to look at that elephant anymore, he is pooping!" Oops! Sorry! I didn't realize I was capturing a private moment, and forcing my child to look at it! :)

And we finally arrived at our favorite exhibit! The Giraffes! Jonathan had just told me a few days ago that his favorite animal was giraffes! Which made me happy, it was also my mom's favorite animal! Plus, it's just a cool animal!

Ben is ready to feed the giraffes!

Jonathan is trying to entice him over to us!

There we go! Gross tongue close up! :)

Another very nice family who was enjoying watching my boys feed the giraffes offered to take some pictures of us! I was so thankful!!! I love how Jonathan is looking under to see the giraffe!

Ben didn't really like feeding him. He very quietly handed his leaf back to me and shook his head NO.

Sweet brothers, holding hands, looking at giraffes. Life couldn't be better!

I love this!

I love how close you can get to these beautiful beasts! We all stood there and stared at each other for a while. We were the only ones over there at the time so it was really nice and peaceful.

The zoo has built this amazing co-habitation behind the giraffe and elephants. They call it "The Giants of the Savanna"! I captured these 2 giraffes walking along and the elephant turned around and scared them and they began to turn and run away! It was awesome to witness! To the right they also have zebra and ostrich all living together with them!

We found the Cheetah! Ben said, "Woof, Woof!!!" 

We got on the Monorail! It was so fun! Both boys enjoyed it so much and paid attention to everything they saw! It was really neat!

The 3 of us on the monorail!

And to end our fun day at the zoo we took a ride on the carousel!