painting the roses red.

today elenora was carrying around a piece of a puzzle that has dandelions painted on it saying "do you love this piece very much?" she is so enamored of flowers that she wanted to carry that one piece everywhere. so i suggested that maybe we should paint some dandelions, thinking she could hang a picture of them up in her room.

so this afternoon ella and i spent 3 trips up and down the stairs getting the easel, the finger paints, the pad of paper, etc. out into the yard. i set her up to paint, and we spent a lovely 1/2 hour making a beautiful orange, red, and yellow picture. then she said "do you want to paint the dandelions now?" i said "sure, i'll put a new paper up." i switched the papers on the easel and then looked over to see elenora over by the dandelions with her paint brush, painting them. i said "oh! ella!" and then i just sort of laughed and said "sure. why not?!" and let her paint the dandelions.

(we did end up making prints on the paper with the painted dandelions.)

after we finished painting we took a long stroll around the block. the days are getting very chilly, and i was glad i'd put her in her turtleneck sweater. we found some amazingly beautiful leaves on the ground and noticed all the flowers that have died off since the weather has turned. ella likes to say "those flowers are not pretty anymore." with a scowl on her face and a twinkle in her eye.

my parents are arriving later tonight for a one night visit. tomorrow morning we'll go to russell orchard and also maybe the beach before they head up to maine.