The first Wednesday of every month is a day that Caleb's school starts two hours later than normal so that teachers can have professional development time. Chris likes to try to do Daddy/Caleb dates during this time (last month, he took Caleb bowling!), but he is working on a special project right now and couldn't miss work today.
I still wanted to do something fun, so I asked Caleb what he would like to do with his two extra hours. His first response? "Build space shuttles out of wood, and maybe metal, but we'd have to be really careful."
Sadly, two hours is just not enough time for wood and metal space shuttles. Also, they aren't a very practical project with two little sisters running around. I asked him for a few more ideas.
His school is currently having a Medieval/Renaissance-themed book fair, and someone drew an amazing chalk mural of a dragon outside the school's entrance. Caleb loves it, and decided that he wanted us to draw something similar on our driveway.
We brainstormed, and Caleb came up with these components:
a dragon
fire
a castle
a princess
a knight
Well, now. We can do that. So we all headed outside and Caleb and I planned the layout of our design. As I drew, Caleb added details, instructed me to draw things in specific ways, and finished some of my design elements. We were a pretty good team!
Our finished product:
This is the castle. Caleb insisted that it be pink, and that the princess be in it. The princess is wearing a crown - not a cone hat!!! - and has long hair because she is Rapunzel. Caleb turned the middle level of the castle into a prison, and asked me to draw a witch in the prison. On the lower level of the castle, he drew the doorknob in. After our whole design was completed, he decided we needed a prince, too.
Ever the lazy mom, I told him the knight was the prince. He didn't buy it. Then I asked if the prince could be fighting alongside the knight, but he didn't like it. He wanted the prince in the castle with the princess, because they are married and it is his job to take care of his princess. (Bless his little heart!) So I added a tower with a prince in it. Caleb then added a fishbowl with a goldfish, because every prince needs one of those?
Our dragon is breathing fire in front of the castle. Caleb colored in the flames (including some blue flames, because it is a very hot fire), drew the dragon's eyes, and drew all of the spikes going down the dragon's back.
Here's our knight. Caleb didn't like it at first, but once I finished drawing, he was pleased. He told me that the knight's armor needed some curls on it, so I began drawing those. But then he realized that the knight needed a shield, so we changed things up a bit.
Sorry for the terrible lighting, but there's the rest of the dragon. His tail runs down the sidewalk.
And we have three very happy children! Sadly, it's supposed to rain tonight. But Caleb and I discussed that before we even began drawing. He doesn't want the rain to come and wash away our art, but he's prepared if it happens. I'm pretty sure he'll still be devastated, though.
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