Winter Chalk Art

  

Oh, the limitations of wintry weather! Although my daughters love playing in the rainy weather all geared up in their raincoats and gumboots (Ava would sit in muddy puddles all day if we let her) the parks aren't too much fun with rain-covered slides and swings, and going to playcentres becomes pricey. So, desperate Mumma that I am, I decided to break out the sidewalk chalk and invite my girls to go nuts redecorating our garage door with it. 

For Eden = BIG hit. For Ava = not so much.

Both of them enjoyed drawing on the door and the driveway. Eden practised writing the alphabet, and the number 3 (how old she is). Ava was just happy to be drawing... well, ... 50% drawing and 50% trying to eat the chalk.

However, after about five minutes Ava lost interest and tried to toddle off. Onto the road. *Sigh*

From that point onwards, my time was largely spent chasing her; keeping her off the road, stopping her from eating mud and squishing worms in her little fingers. Meanwhile, Eden kept drawing and writing and "doing her shopping list" with great contentment. 

When Eden was finished drawing, I popped Ava in a highchair with us (to keep her from taking off!) and gave Eden a bucket of water and one of her kid-sized brooms. She dipped the broom in the water and used it to wash the chalk off the driveway and the garage door. No chalk-graffiti induced heart attacks for Daddy!

For a bit of fun, once the garage door was brushed clean, Eden and I rubbed the chalk on its side to 'colour in' sections of the door, and used fingers dipped in water to draw pictures in the chalk. You know, so the picture was drawn with water, and the background was coloured chalk streaks? I wish I'd gotten a photo of that, but chalky hands aren't exactly camera friendly.

Eden has asked to do this again a few times already, but first I think I'll need to come up with an ingenious solution to the Ava-acting-as-if-she-was-a-human-pinball-machine problem. Hmm...

Thanks for reading! ~ L.