Carson and I have been pretty into arts and crafts lately. (All these pictures are before the baby came, by the way.) Carson likes coloring with crayons.

But not as much as he likes painting. I bought some washable Crayola paints that have been fantastic, and we’ve had a lot of fun.

We turned those paintings into some eggs to celebrate Easter. I think the activity and seeing the eggs on the wall prompted Carson to learn his latest favorite word: “Egg!” (especially since Easter and finding so many candy-filled ones)

Another time we painted toilet paper rolls (an excellent free art supply item when you’re on a tight budget) with Q-tips. Carson especially liked using the Q-tips. I love how focused he gets when he’s really into something like this:

Of course things always get messier as they go on. :)

We (okay, I) turned the above paintings into these little peacock crafts:

I totally tried to get Carson to help me, but he wasn’t into the gluing as much. He did, however, like watching the videos of peacocks on Youtube – which I had to consult after my first try (far left) resulted in what Josh called an “Indian penguin” more than a peacock. The second two were much better. :) (Okay, so I’m kind of a dork in that I had way too much fun doing this, but how cool is it that when you’re a mom you get to do fun projects like this? I loved arts and crafts as a kid! Now I get to enjoy them all over again.)

Then Josh helped me put up this clothesline above our kitchen table where I display all of our artwork.

(The wrinkled one is a picture of a bear that Carson loved so much – he loves bears – he wanted to carry it around. I’m surprised he didn’t tear it!)

I got the idea from my mom, who, when we were growing up, had a whole room that was our art room, with a big long table that could get messy, and all around the walls had clotheslines like this – lots of them – to display all our artwork. My mom was so amazing about encouraging our talents and creativity. I think she and that art room are a big part of why I like to draw so much today. I’ve wanted to have an art room like that since I became a mom, and maybe one day I will, but for now this clothesline will have to do. :)