June 15 - Mystery Elves

Today was the kids' least favorite morning activity, Mystery Elves, in which I try to get them to clean up around the house by turning it into a game.  

I was VERY unsuccessful in getting them to clean this morning. In fact, the kids kind of made things messier... Lyric has been somewhat obsessed making his own Pokèmon cards (which he calls "Pokè L" cards), and he made a dozen more while not eating breakfast. 

Lyric's Pokè L output this morning.  

But that's okay! It's all part of the plan... A plan which should become more evident tomorrow. Cliffhanger!

SELFGRADE: incomplete. See tomorrow! 

June 2 - Superhero Drawing Studio

Today for Superhero Drawing Studio, Zephyr wanted to make his own Pokémon cards... well, his own brand of Pokémon called Z-Me. Sounded good! I sized out the frames for him (so that when we cut them out they would fit in his new binder) and let him go to town. 

Lyric wanted me to make a picture of Batman, Robin, and Stripe man for him to color. And he wanted a giant Stripe robot behind Stripe Man. 

Work in progress.

While I was doing it, Lyric saw what Zephyr was doing and started to make up his own cards. Hey, why not?

I'm going to give myself an incomplete on this one. I got to show them how I draw a stick figure out of circles and lines and let them work on their own cards, but I feel like I started too late. We had to stop just when we were really starting to roll. 

April 27 - Filmmaking Day 3

So last night I sung my heart out for Prince for my Requiem Karaoke Club (which meets to celebrate the lives of great pop stars who passed too soon), and I was exhausted this morning. The kids were also pretty occupied making Pokémon drawings, so I just let that happen and took it easy.

I drew Pikachu for Lyric to color in, and he did a pretty awesome job staying inside the lines. And then he drew his own Luxio next to that. Not too shabby! I see what he's trying to do there.

Meanwhile, Zephyr drew his own Pikachu, and is making "Pokémon Station" signs for something he's working on...

Also, since it's Spring Break and the kids can watch TV and use the iPad in the morning, Zephyr took the opportunity to teach Lyric how to play the INCREDIBLY GORGEOUS game Monument Valley, and it was pretty fantastic to watch.

I know it's for a video game, but I support pretty much anything that gives one kid a chance to teach something to the other one.

I plan to get back on the filmmaking tip tomorrow.

April 21 - Action Figure Epic (cancelled)

Today was supposed to be Action Figure Epic, where I play toys with the kids and plot out an adventure for them, but once again (like last month) it didn't come together. Playing with toys as an adult is actually very hard, and coming up with a compelling story for action figures is a lot of pressure. I've done it well before and I intend to do it again, but today it wasn't coming to me.

It might have been more pressing if the kids weren't acting so darn cute and creative this morning on their own. I found Zephyr reading "If you give a pig a pancake" to his younger brother this morning, and I mean, that's the sort of precious moments you want in a Hummel figurine or something.

For real, this is the sort of reason to have more than one kid. It's like a ridiculous amount of work to get to this place, but then one day you find yourself there and you're like "yeah".

And then they wanted to continue work on yesterday's Cardboard Toy Shop Pokèmon display case/battle arena/castle, so we did more there, using duct tape to give it a quick and easy paint job.

Yes there is a fruit bowl-type Pokémon. Shut up. Still to come: Sharpie detailing.

So kind of a bust on today's activity but a sweet continuation of yesterday's. Works for me.

April 12 - Mystery Elves Obstacle Course (pre-empted)

Today was supposed to be Mystery Elves Obstacle Course, where I attempt to trick the kids into cleaning up the house by running an obstacle course where they clean, but Zephyr was busy this morning making his own homemade Pokémon cards and I thought that was so cool that I just let him do that for the entire morning. Sometimes you don't want to interfere with self-motivated creativity, you know? Check out some of these:

They're technically not Pokémon cards, of course... they're for a Pokémon-style game Zephyr is designing at school with his new friend Mason. But Zephyr was really into cutting out cards and doing drawings and making up attack moves for the cards, and I just thought it was all pretty sweet.

Lyric wanted to get in on it as well, and made up his own game called "Dinosaur stomp". He drew a few (very abstact) dinosaurs on some scraps of paper and then had me draw him some others for him to color. Okay, sure, why not?

The rules for "Dinosaur stomp" were either too simple to be an actual game or too complex for me to understand, but Lyric got some good coloring practice in while Zephyr made up his own stuff. Pretty good for a morning activity, I say.

Because I had a freelance gig today, I ended up moving tomorrow's treasure hunt to Thursday. But trust me, it's gonna be a goody. Tomorrow we'll do the Karaoke performances! Zephyr's been looking forward to that.