Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Birthdays for my wife are tough. Diamond rings and expensive handbags don't work on Jenny like they do with most women (which is one of the many reasons that I love her so much). Anyway, every year for her birthday I try and find something unique that she will love. This means that I need to put a lot of thought into it, and I've been struggling the last few years to come up with good stuff.

This was the case last night as I rolled around in bed worrying about what the heck I was going to get for her birthday today. It's been killing me for weeks, but I just kept coming up with crappy ideas. So, today is her birthday, and I still have nothing. I kept telling myself that she has to work all day and I'd have some time to think about it in the morning, but that wasn't helping. It was late, I was tired, and I needed to think of something, and then it hit me. Let's just say it involved my children, making a mess & bright colors:)

What could possibly be a better gift than custom painted canvases? So, this morning I headed to Michael's to purchase some 16 x 20 canvases for the kids to paint on. I told myself I wasn't going to help them at all and they could paint whatever they wanted. It took Max a few minutes to get going, but he's already asked me when he can paint again, and Ava needed some help from my mom to make sure more paint made it on the canvas than in her mouth:)

Oh, and, of course, I took pictures! Max's painting was done completely by himself. No one else touched that canvas. Ava needed some help getting the paint on her brushes, but she painted it all herself. Enjoy!

Such concentration


It didn't take long for Ava to use two brushes instead of one







Here's Max proudly holding up his first painting


And, I couldn't get Ava to hold hers, so here it is anyway:)


Oh, and Jenny loved the paintings, and we're still trying to decide where to hang them up:) Happy birthday, baby!