Painting Pumpkins for Halloween

     Last Wednesday was pumpkin-painting day for Play Group.  Also run-around-like-crazy in the church gym day, make a deliciously-messy-mess in the bathrooms day, and eat-lots-of-sugar-cookies day.
     We had 12-14 kids show up for pumpkin painting.  I had envisioned the kids painting lots of pumpkin faces, complete with "hair," the yarn I'd brought.  However, I'd forgotten that toddlers, apart from not really seeing faces like adults, also have little hand dexterity, no idea about complimentary colors, and little interest in confining their paint to one surface.
     The result was a lot of impressionist, abstract-expressionist pumpkins.  And interesting combinations of paint smeared on table, chairs and many, many articles of clothing.
     Prize for most creative painting went to Shar, who not only painted a pumpkin, she also painted Dylan's cheek.

     Dylan was a little taken aback.  We can safely assume his astonishment kept him from retaliating.    
     The prize for being most experimental went to Flora.  Shortly after the picture below was taken, Flora crammed a fistful of white paint into her mouth (delicious).  They say Vincent Van Gogh also ate his paint.  Of course, Vincent was crazy.  Flora is the most sane person I know.  In her defense, the white paint did look a little like vanilla pudding.

     Here she is again, enjoying something truly delicious: one of Kamilla's iced sugar cookies.

     Here is our most pragmatic artist.  He was fully prepared for whatever paint hurricanes might come his way in a stylish smock.

   
     Other notes:  In spite of feeling a little out-of-sorts when he arrived, Liam (below) did a great job on his pumpkin.  When I asked him to smile for his picture, he did me one better.  He simultaneously smiled, took a bite of cookie, and posed like a ballroom dancer.

     Dylan ate approximately 1/3 of his cookie before taking off to play in the gym.  Shortly after, the rest of Dylan's cookie disappeared. Rowan (below), who was sitting next to him, loves cookies.  He ate all of his cookie.  He may or may not have any information regarding the missing cookie.  He's not saying.

     You'd think it would be hard to smile with cookie in your mouth, but these kids did it with aplomb.  They are truly photogenic.  Watch out, Baby Gap models.

     A quiet pall came over the gym while the kids ate their cookies.  Ray (sitting with Dylan, below) decided all those phone calls she needed to make could wait while she enjoyed her treat.  

     Meanwhile, these two were completely lost in sugarland.