To See Things The Way They Do.

I love that my kids think differently then I do.  I also love that they spark my imagination and my creative thought process. 

My little man loves the beach.  He loves the creatures and the sand and the splashing but when he was three he especially loved to collect "clouds," or to us grown people, white rocks. 

Last year at Birch Bay he came running up to me with handfuls of "clouds" and I told him to put them in his pockets and we would take them home and find a special place for them.  Payton held onto his special find the entire drive home...inspecting each one and tossing any that were not white enough for his cloud collection.

After unpacking and getting settled back home I told him to bring me his clouds.  We then began to create a visual memory together.  I first had him pick out the sky paint and told him to cover the entire thing.  While it dried he picked out some fun paper for a tree and some things to make flowers appear.  After designing the scene we got out the hot glue gun and went to work on the clouds.  After he painted the word "clouds" on his art we found a window box frame to dispaly it in.

Now his treasure sits right on a window ledge in our play room for him to look at every day.  Those special rocks, with their fun history are safe and pretty forever. 

It'sreally fun to create something special with your kids. His pile of "clouds" could have just sat in a bowl or glass jar but instead they tell the story of the day he discovered them. I'm lucky my kids have the imagination I sometimes forget to foster in myself. I am grateful to have a second chance to see the world through a child's eyes.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”

* George Bernard Shaw