by Matthew | Sep 2, 2015 | Bobbledy Kids, Fun Things to Do, Kids, Life, Projects |
For a long time, the kids had no idea what Robbi and I do for a living. They know we’re “working” because we shut the door to the studio and tell them to amuse themselves in the living room. But for all they know “working” means eating pretzels and watching Netflix. Alden learned Robbi was an illustrator from one of the kids at her school. Once Kato found out that I am a writer, he naturally assumed that I was responsible for the words in all the books in the world.
These complicated concepts seem to have finally distilled into a collective understanding that Robbi and I make books together (some small subset of all the books in the world) and that we sell them in an attempt to make money.
Once all these dimensions clicked into one pleasing package, the kids realized that they had a golden opportunity to walk in our footsteps—and to reap the (imagined) riches that might result.
And so they took out their markers and made a banner.
They took out their scissors and folded single sheets of paper to make small books. (As explained in the tutorial in the back of recent Bobbledy title I Looked Out the Window And).
They took out their pens and wrote stories, to which they added drawings.
Instantly recognizing the shortcomings of their parents’ far-too-focused-on-books-alone strategy, they conned their mother into ordering a big bag of lollipops online, that their store might offer sweet treats to complement the reading process.
They dumped the staples from our staple bin and placed their various titles just so.
They convinced their father to lug their art table down to the corner of Queen Street and High. They set up shop. They beamed enthusiastically at the passers by.
And almost instantly, commerce happened.
People stopped to buy finished books and blank books or to have a hands-on tutorial on how to make their own book.
There were ample opportunities for real-time math lessons as they were forced to make change.
The list of available books contained such winning titles as: That’s Not Cool, Sometimes Dogs Eat Macaroni and Cheese, and Kitty Cat the Acrobat.
About twenty minutes after the shop had opened for business, the inventory was depleted. Kato gladhanded customers while Robbi and Alden raced inside to make more books.
It was a rather successful first day. I’m pretty sure the kids made more than Robbi and I did at our first day selling our wares at a book show.
But then again, we didn’t have the benefit of setting up next to Chestertown’s most popular bakery. Nor are we nearly as blessed with those elusive intangibles that help drive sales—youthful enthusiasm, earnest wonder, and…lollipops.
by Robbi | Jul 25, 2014 | Alden, Bobbledy Kids, Drawing Prompts, Kids |
The other day Alden made the claim that she wanted to be an illustrator, just like me. I was very pleased to hear this (though I have heard her also make similar claims to other people regarding their chosen professions). She went further to add that she wanted to be able to draw just like me. She said she wanted to draw Bill the Dragon from “The Imaginary Dragon.” I suggested that drawing like me wasn’t really as interesting as finding her own way to draw things. She considered this for a bit, and then said she would try to draw Bill just how she remembered him, and not exactly how he looked in the book.
So, for reference, this is how Bill looked in the book – my version of Bill:
And this is how Alden remembered him – I call him Bill 2.0:
I cannot tell you how in love I am with this drawing of Bill: the google eyes, the hands at the ends of his wings, the jutting underbite, the very Bill-like look of uncertainty and fretfulness. It captures the essence of Bill in a completely new way. Mission accomplished!
Which begs the question: What does Bill look like to the rest of you out there?
Email me your drawings of Bill and I’ll post them here on the blog. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
by Robbi | Jun 7, 2014 | Alden, August, Fun Things to Do, Kato, Kids, Projects |
Hello all! Father’s Day is coming up soon, and as usual, we are planning a super-great surprise awesome thanks-for-you-you-are-the-best party for Matthew!
Just kidding. We usually completely forget Father’s Day, because, of course, I am supposed to be the one in charge of remembering. But this year I am ON THE BALL. No, really. I have the perfect Father’s Day craft project for you!
Golf Balls for Dad
So, I thought it would be fun to get a box of golf balls and have the kids decorate them. You know, because golf balls are so plain and white and otherwise not particularly interesting (though I once learned in a heated game of Trivial Pursuit that the average golf ball has 336 dimples. And not Shirley Temple, which was my wrong, albeit much more inspired, answer).
We got our box of golf balls (the kids won a coupon at Olympia Sports for running in the Sneaker Creeper) and our sharpies and set to work.
And immediately ran into problem #1:
Holding onto those suckers! Not ten seconds in, we had already lost two balls under the couch and had to hunt for another that bounced across the room.
August tried his hardest not to be distracted by the sound of retreating golf balls.
I guess we must have gotten those fancy long-distance balls.
Anyway. Once we got ourselves back in order and corralled the balls in a box with our pens, we set to work. Alden is a fan of multi-colored flower and heart creations:
while Kato is a virtuoso of the minimalist, flood-your-canvas-with-color-(preferably orange) variety:
August has yet to fully develop his style, which isn’t to say he hasn’t put some really thoughtful, focused and intense effort into his mark-making:
I am particularly fond of Alden’s “Hands Across the Golf Ball” piece:
That kid is so kumbaya, it slays me.
Soon enough, the balls were done (golf balls make a pretty manageable canvas):
While rooting around looking for wrapping paper (turns out snowmen and santa claus is all we’ve got) I discovered the perfect solution: coffee filters! Seeing as Matthew gave up coffee almost a year ago now, we still have a full pack of those suckers around and don’t have much to do with them.
We decorated them first:
And then added the finishing touches after they were all tied up:
We made a couple of very important discoveries that I will share with you:
1. It’s better if you use two coffee filters. Then you can’t see your golf ball through them, and you can decorate each coffee filter differently and it makes the little crepe flower at the top more interesting.
2. Coffee filters make great hats:
and, of course:
3. Hat shenanigans with your brother is hilarious:
And so, when we finally finished, we had some cute and festive little gifts for Father’s Day.
Of course, I neglected to mention the very important 4th item that we discovered – or should I say, remembered? And that is:
4. Matthew doesn’t play golf.
Alas. Matthew isn’t the manly sort who likes to go out and strike balls with clubs with impunity. Nope. Not even a little bit. So, as great as this little craft project is to do, you likely want to do it for someone who actually plays golf. So, we packed up these balls to send to Matthew’s dad, who is very much the manly sort who likes golf.
As for Matthew, I guess this means we’ll have to get to planning that super-great surprise awesome thanks-for-you-you-are-the-best party after all. Unless, of course, I forget about Father’s Day again before we can do it.
**Wait, what were we talking about?**
by Matthew | Feb 13, 2014 | Alden, Book Reviews, Kato, Kids |
This week we asked our duo of young critics to review a book that Robbi and I both had when we were kids and both remember with great fondness. The book in question is a collection of Richard Scarry stories, delightful little vignettes, some of which are narrative stories, some of which are single-page cartoons, and some of which are just collections of illustrations of things in a particular topic, whether airplanes or vegetables. Scarry is an amazing illustrator. He might be best known for his cartoonish “Busytown” style, but he’s an extremely skilled painter, as some of the stories in the book reveal.
As you can see from the title, this book makes big claims. The question was whether the kids would agree.
And so we sat down to read.
By all appearances, the kids seemed to be having a great time. As I listened to Robbi read, I heard various chuckles of amusement and contented sighs of appreciation. I was certain that we were moving in the direction of two thumbs up
But when we got down to analysis, things we a bit more murky.
Alden’s take:
“I like that it has a bunch of different stories in it. I don’t like all of the pictures, but I like some of them. I don’t like the picture when the girl crashed her car into the fountain. It looked like she got hurt. Also, the person draws cakes well. It has a good mouse story in it. The one that has a Papa Bear in it that couldn’t find his baby bear. Where the Papa cut the cake up. It has quite a few pages. Does that mean a lot? It’s too long to read all the stories. It’s sort of a tiring thing. I sort of don’t like that it’s too long, but I like the stories, just reading one at a time, but not reading the whole book in order. The end.”
Verdict: Thumbs up
I like Alden’s assessment: after all, what good is a book without expertly rendered drawings of cake and a good mouse story? I’m not sure why she was so glum at the prospect of reading the entire book at once. It is rather long and would take quite a few minutes to read in its entirety, but we have never subjected the kids to such extreme reading sessions, usually choosing 2-3 stories before bedtime. As for the girl who crashes her car into the fountain, I want to assure you that she emerges from the incident unscathed. As for the papa bear who couldn’t find the baby bear? You’ll be glad to know (SPOILER ALERT) that he was “hiding” on his papa’s shoulders the entire time.
Kato’s take:
“I don’t like it and it’s too long. All of the stories are nice. I like it because all these beautiful colors are in it. I like the page with the planes. That’s a jet plane. I like when the pig lands his plane in someone’s underwear. That’s so silly (that’s page 181 for those of you who are curious).”
Verdict: Thumbs down
Kato’s assessment was even more puzzling. Although he doesn’t, apparently, like it, he cited only positive attributes. I question the validity of the thumbs down verdict when he freely admits that “all the stories are nice,” that it’s full of beautiful colors, and that it features his favorite thing in the world—airplanes. His feelings ALSO seem to have been colored by a fear that we would make him read it all at once. Perhaps when I’m not looking, Robbi makes them read it all at once? Actually, given her enthusiasm for the book, this would not surprise me.
Regarding that pig who lands in someone’s underwear? Here he is.
That page is always the occasion for much giggling. Because, you know, underwear is hilarious.
After voting, Kato the detractor continued his seemingly positive critique.
Kato: I like the jet fighter planes. I like the spitfire.
Kato: I like this picture because he’s giving an apple to her.
Kato: I don’t like this picture because he’s not giving flowers to anyone.
Kato: I like that I can balance it on my head.
Kato: I do NOT like it when it falls on my toe. Ow! Ow!
And there you have it, our definitive analysis. This book is fun and colorful and full of wonderful things to look at, but it is also long, occasionally controversial (cars crashing into fountains, etc), and bound by the laws of gravity.
If you are inspired by the positives, the book is pretty easy to find.
by Robbi | Jan 14, 2014 | Alden, August, Fun Things to Do, Kato, Kids, Projects, Theme of the Week |
Well, hello there!
When we were researching volcanos for our theme of the week post on Saturday, I thought we could add a link to a tutorial on how to make your own volcano. I did some very nominal searching but most of the tutorials required that you mix up a bunch of dough and actually make a volcano. Nice idea, but we didn’t really have the time or attention span for it. So – I looked around and decided that we could do a quick and easy version.
Here’s what you need to do:
Get a flowerpot (with a hole in the bottom):
and some plastic wrap:
Add 2 Tablespoons of baking soda to your flowerpot (while covering the hole in the bottom with your finger):
Put the plastic wrap over the flower pot:
Secure it with a rubber band:
SECURE IT, I SAID!!!
Add 8 drops of dish detergent (this will increase the bubbliness of your lava):
Use whatever means necessary to protect yourself from vinegar stink:
Carefully measure out 1 cup of vinegar:
Carefully select food coloring for what color you’d like your lava to be:
Stir in the food coloring (I would tell you a drop count, but Kato was a bit overzealous. Let’s call the measure “a solid squirt or two”):
(it occurs to me now that it probably would have been easier to add the detergent to the vinegar instead of to the flower pot. You may now feel free to learn from my mistakes.)
Anyway – onwards. NEXT! Carefully pour the vinegar into the hole in the bottom of your flowerpot (oh, but only after putting your flower pot onto some sort of plate or dish that will contain the impending lava flow):
Be delighted that your volcano worked! Even though in the photo the lava looks white (it was much redder in real life!):
(By “much redder” than white we mean “pink”):
And we discovered the one gigantic plus-side to our method over the other construct-an-elaborate-mountain-out-of-dough-or-paper-maché methods: you can make your volcano really shoot out the lava by tapping the plastic wrap on the bottom like a drum. Sure, it’s not as realistic as a paper maché volcano, but WHEEEEEEEEEEE!:
Of course, there is a down-side to our method as well. If you happen to have any cuts or scrapes or hangnails or bugbites on your hands, you probably shouldn’t try out the drumming method. Getting vinegar in under your skin stings like crazy. Just ask Kato:
And then, of course, the other downside to shooting vinegar all over the room is that the room then smells like vinegar for the next 4 days.
So that’s it. If you want to make a quick and easy volcano, that’s how to do it. If you don’t have any extra flower pots lying around, you could also use a simple plastic cup with a hole cut in the bottom. Or pretty much anything with a hole in it – even just a bottle or a mug.
So go to it! Have fun! And if you have any great photos (or make any great discoveries) feel free to share them with us in the comments section below!
by Matthew | Dec 26, 2013 | August, Kids, Life |
August turned two not long ago. And, as we do when someone around here has a birthday, we made him a scavenger hunt.
Here’s the first clue. Can you tell what it is?
That’s right. It’s a basketball hoop. This will become important in a minute.
We took the clue to August, who was hanging out in Alden’s bunk bed. We explained the challenge. We showed him the clue.
Clearly he was up for the challenge. He ran down the hall, right toward the basketball hoop.
And…right past the basketball hoop. I showed him the clue again.
And something seemed to click. Newly energized, he ran back toward the basketball hoop.
He got himself a chair, climbed up…
…and took a close look.
There he found the next clue. I’d love to show you a picture of it, but our documentarian was too busy following the action to stop and shoot photos of a piece of paper.
The next clue featured a drawing of our antique gas pump. August investigated and…
…found the next clue.
Can you tell what it is?
August could. Fully aware that Christmas was still two weeks away, he peered under the tree.
And when peering alone proved insufficient, he crawled under the tree. Way under the tree.
And wouldn’t you know it, he found another clue.
This one showed a picture of a dog. And not just any dog.
This dog. Who, instead of being honored, was clearly mortified at the thought of being pictured on a clue. (The careful observer will see the clue in question hanging from the collar of the mortified dog.)
Iggy sat patiently in mortified silence while August removed the clue from her collar.
The clue contained a picture of our electronic keyboard, but August was either confused or distracted, because he headed back to the basketball hoop.
When this proved unfruitful (and under the guidance of his sister, who was eager to see the treasure hunt’s exciting conclusion), August made his way to the piano. Where he found another clue.
This clue featured a puzzling drawing. It looked like a frog. It had a handle. But what was it?
Alden and Kato knew.
And a moment later, so did Augie. He lifted the basin of his porta pot, and there, beneath…
…was his super secret surprise birthday present.
Alden and Kato looked on with dread anticipation while August (far too slowly for their tastes) unwrapped his present.
Moments later, the contents spilled out in all their glory.
It was his very own appliqued birthday boy shirt! Made by my mom. August’s chest swelled with pride.
Proud of his success, he took a bow.
August’s big day continued with a birthday card from his great grandma Jeanne.
There was a heart on the back and lots of love inside.
Love and mad cash. August’s net worth skyrocketed in an instant. He took a deep breath and took it all in. “Yeah,” I heard him mutter, “It’s good to be two.”
Later that night, we had some cake. And two candles. Which he blew out with surprising skill and confidence.
He keeps doing things I didn’t realize he had learned. Apparently, he’s watching. Apparently, he’s paying attention.
Apparently, he’s two.
That sure happened fast.
