Monday, December 14, 2009

Ornament Painting at Pottery Lane


On Saturday afternoon, Katie Anne and I headed over to a paint-your-own-pottery place called Pottery Lane for one of our annual holiday traditions - ornament painting!  We love painting ornaments with our friends Natalie and her daughter Emma and Vanessa and her daughter Lily.  Even though Lily and Emma are a little more than a year older than Katie Anne, they all have the same interests and get along great - and Katie Anne's so tall that she blends right in with the three-year-olds! 

The girls started with their Christmas gift exchange.  Katie Anne had picked out stuffed puppies in carriers with little puppy supplies for her friends.  Lily and Emma had the same great idea - they both bought Disney Toddler Princesses for their friends!  Katie Anne got an Ariel doll and a Cinderella doll, and she loves them both.

Gift opening mania!

 Katie Anne rips into her doll's wrapping.


Then, it was time for painting our pottery!  I can't tell you exactly what Katie Anne picked because two ornaments are presents for someone else, but I can tell you that she picked out four ornaments in all.  She chose a circle with a "J" on it for our tree.

She picked her own paint colors - dark green, bright green, bright red, and buttery yellow.  It took over an hour to complete the whole ornament painting process, and she worked very hard on her ornaments and painted carefully.

You have to give each piece of pottery at least 3 coats of paint if you want your colors to be bold, so it can be trying on a two-year-old's attention span to keep repeating.  However, Katie Anne did much better this year.  Last year, when she was one, she got bored after the first coat and didn't understand why she had to keep painting the same thing over and over.  This time, she understood the process and why we had to repaint.  She painted all the ornaments herself with the exception of the last coat on two of her four ornaments ... Mommy had to finish those parts of the job.


Vanessa and Lily


Natalie and Emma


All the girls and moms had a great time, and we can't wait to see how our ornaments turn out when we pick them up next week!



2 comments:

Carrie Beth said...

Looks like fun. There's a new place that just opened up right by us and I can't wait to take Handley. BTW, your wreath looks great!

Jason, Erin, Ella, and Colin said...

What a fun tradition!! I can't wait to see the finished ornaments:)