Coffee Table Happenings

In the last entry, I shared about the kids and I doing baking and crafts at our dining table, today I am going to share about what we do at our coffee table. We have not a very big house, and so the kids' play area is basically anywhere and everywhere in the house. We like to be in the living room area during the day because it's more open and it gets in the best sun light. The kiddos are still relatively young (3 and almost 2), and so I don't try to do too much with paints and brushes yet, feeling that it'll just get so messy for me to clean afterward. As a result, we used colorful construction papers recently to make a poster. 

This whole poster took us 2 days to complete, and I was in charge of the cutting, while Sophie was in charge of the glue stick, and Brandon was in charge of telling us what should be on the poster. 

I used the drawing paper roll from Ikea, and I cut a strip to the length of our coffee table and taped it down so it would be secure in its place and would not get bended or torn during the whole gluing process. 

First, we started with some clouds. It must have been a sunny day! 

Then we cut and glued some trees and grass.

Oh, don't forget Mr. Sun himself.

Next, Brandon wanted birds, and Sophie wanted a face for Mr. Sun. Then ideas started to sprout from there: we added apples to one tree and oranges for another. After that we threw Sophie and Brandon in there too. All the while I was busy cutting out the shapes, Sophie was diligently gluing everything in place without me telling her where to put everything. She decided that she and Brandon has to be separated by the orange tree, and so be it!

Or course we couldn't let the children be without clothes, so we added them in. Sophie decided that her orange pocket had to be horizontal, on the side of her green jumper. I was thinking of more of a traditional approach where the pocket is vertical, in the middle of the chest area. Maybe she's got a better set of eyes for design than me. I am hoping. ^_^

We picked up where we left off 2 days later and started adding more to the poster.

First of all, we added animals. I personally wanted a pig in here because I was born in the year of the pig in the Chinese zodiac. ^^

Sophie didn't seem to mind the idea of a pig joining the poster.

Then we added in some balloons, with strings. Yes, Sophie had to make sure of the strings by using a black marker.

Then she decided that five balloons are simply too few, so she added in 2 more.

Brandon requested that we also have Baa Baa Black Sheep, too.

Here are a few details that I added in after all the gluing was done.

This was the final result!

The coffee table edges are rounded so that I don't have to child-prove it with spongy wraps and sticky tapes. It also has side drawers that I could fit remote controls and diapers in, which is a great feature to me. I found it on Overstock.com last year with 25% off when we first got the house. Great deal!

Anyways, now the kids are napping, I am going to think about a way to put this artwork up on the wall somehow, maybe for a short while, so Daddy could enjoy it too, and also have his coffee table back. ^^