an artists interpretation + a day remembered

We are having a garden tea party on Friday, for the kids. Just for fun. And I'm so excited about it - the setting up of the garden, the food, the decorations... even the too too sweet invitation that we made. Don't you just love Ari's drawing of the tea pot, with tea cups and cupcakes - all up on little pedestals. (If any of you have ideas, photos, links or inspiration - or just some fun thoughts - on how to make our Garden Tea Party even more fun and magical and special, please be sure to let me know).
He got a whole tea set out of the cupboard, and set it up to draw it. I'm really loving his drawings at the moment. Every day they seem to have changed and evolved, only this week he has started putting little swirls on everything; wine glasses for elves, and his writing, and the machines he makes.
A plate machine, or a bubble machine, or a robot machine. Quite technical, with buttons and particular bits here and there that all have a purpose and do something. I often wonder if he'll be an inventor; I know he'll be an artist (oh, he is an artist - he tells us that!).Today we went into town so the kids could go on the Christmas train. (They set it up each Christmas in "Santa Land" in Myer; the kids ride for free). We went in the other day, but Ari was too scared to go (not a good experience from last year, where he was the only one on the train) and Mishi too little for me to let her go on her own. So we came back today, with big cousin Ashey. Mishi spent all weekend saying "Ashey, Mishi train. Ari" (and shaking her head). So today the three of them sat in a row, Ari in front, Mishi in the middle and Ashey behind - with his hands resting and holding on to Mishi - being the wonderful big cousin, protecting her incase she got scared in the tunnel. So lovely to see them like this.
And then this afternoon both the boys drew a drawing of the train, and them on it. Ashey's is very techical - the part that the driver pushed to ring the bell, and thesmoke coming streaming out, and other children in front of them, and the section where the big Santa head was - the part where you go in to see the photos they take of you. And the train track - oh, I love that train track!Ari's was so different. He still has the wheels and the carriages, but the main parts of the picture are him (in front), Mishi in the middle (with long hair), and tallest at the back is Ashey. Both boys now recently had their hair cut (shaved), as you can tell in Ari's drawing.I so so so love this visual memory of their train ride - the things they remember about it, and the way they interpret it. And the difference between and six year old and a four year olds drawings.
(When I find one of the Special Gold Santa Express tickets I'll scan it and put it here, so we can all remember - the boys carried their's around all day with pride).

PS - petrol today was down to 85.9cents per litre. Has not been so so low for many years. It seems that now it has dropped below $1.00 it just keeps going. (No brain energy to do link-searching for you overseas readers, but we have not had petrol below $1.00 for many years, the past year it had been almost at $1.60 a litre. Even though we complain, Australians have cheaper petrol than most countries. Also, our interest rates have dropped over the past 6 months - our mortgage is finally starting to ease a bit. And, we just got a lovely little Christmas bonus from Kevin). Despite all this, Brisbane city didn't seem too busy today, only 9 days out from Christmas, though we did our part to help the economy. Especially at this lovely store (which fits into our handmade Christmas pledge). Okay, okay - I'm not so silly as to not know that we are having an economic depression worldwide.

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Okay, having photo loading issues - so this is all I can get for now. It's after mid-night, I really should go to bed, and not sit here fussing. Check again in a few days, hopefully Sam can sort it out for me (me, who doesn't know a lot about computers, tries to work it out myself, and doesn't listen too well when someone tries to help me....). ::fixed it::

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Good night.

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