The Pendleton Family: Mother In Law birthday gift...

My mother in law, Ellie, is the sweetest person I know. Her birthday is the day after Ethan's. I began thinking about what to make/give her for her birthday. I decided to take Ethan to a local pottery place and have him paint something for her. I knew it would take a week to fire the peice so I was actually planning ahead for once. I took Ethan on July 27th to paint a gift. Her birthday is 8/29. See, planning ahead.... and I even allowed for mailing time. Amazing!

So I take Ethan to paint which I haven't done in about a year. He had recently seen an episode of "Jon and Kate plus 8" (one of his favorite shows) where Kate takes just the girls to paint pottery. I asked Ethan if he'd like to go do that. He said yes. Thus the idea was born about Ellie's gift.
(**Ethan in his apron**)

I took him to the pottery place and selected a table. As we
began to look at the peices I decided to take out my camera.

(I keep a horrible camera in my purse at all times but it works when I need it. It doesn't take the best of pictures but it's all I have with me. You have to say "cheese" and hold very still to the count of 100 before the picture is taken. The "good" camera is at home. It's not very practical to keep in my purse.) During each step of this process I took Ethan's picture. He had a blast! He loved choosing the star to paint for grandma. He loved picking the colors. He loved painting it. I let him do everything. He choose the star himself. He picked each color. He painted all by himself. I wanted this to be his gift to grandma for her birthday. The only thing I did
(**Ethan by the paint wall**)
was write the message on the back of the star. Ethan was a tad impatient waiting for the back to dry, with the message, so he could turn it over to paint the front side. Meanwhile I kept snapping pictures. He did a great job! I was super proud of him. We washed our hands and got ready to leave. I told him we'd come back in a week to pick it up when it was done. He wanted to pick another peice to paint but I told him not today.

When I got home I downloaded all the pictures... perhaps 25 total. I thought they were cute. They were definitely sequential. That's when I got an idea to upload them to Kodak Gallery and make a little book to go along with her gift. I put together this little blue book of about 20 pictures. It turned out so cute! I couldn't wait to get it the final product in the mail.

(**I want this one.**)
A week later we picked up our finished project. Ethan is a Picaso! He did a great job! The star has a metal wire with beads on it so you can hang it on the wall.

The picture book arrived shortly after and it turned out better than online. I was so excited to give the gift to Ellie. I wanted to keep it for myself. I packaged the star and the picture book together then wrapped them in one box. It was great to see the chronical pictures to go along with his painted gift. I was super impressed with this gift. I seriously wanted to keep it for myself. I had shown it to a few of my friends that loved it and loved the idea of the picture book with it.
(**Ready?**)

These are a few of the pictures. As I said, the book had about 20 pictures in it. Ellie loved the gift! I sent it early and made her open the gift when it arrived. It was nice to hear the happiness in her voice when she opened the gift!

(**first stroke of paint**)