We won $10!!!

Last weekend was our city's chalk art competition. It sounded like a fun thing to do with the kids, so I signed us up, knowing full well that I have absolutely no artistic experience or talent. Yes, I have my areas of creativity, but drawing is not one of them. The theme was "folklore" which I thought encompassed just about everything, but it still took me a long time to come up with a picture. Since Bridger was my helper, I thought that we should draw something that would interest him, like a John Deere Tractor. That was a joke. I even tried using the grid system, but somehow it was unrecognizable upon completion. So, I gave up on that venture and looked for something a little more abstract--that way no one would know if it was completely backwards!
No, I didn't do this lion--or the flower above. Although they are fantastic, aren't they?
I didn't even do this patchwork quilt--which I should've and could've though of, but didn't.

My two sisters, Vanessa and Rebecca also competed in the competition, they were doing an elaborate flower--it was really beautiful by the time they were finished.

Jeremy showed up to take Kennedy (he also took Bridger, so much for my fall back plan of him being cute and people taking pity on our artwork....) and I got to work. It was really fun mixing the colors--I worked for about an hour and a half when it started raining. At first it was just a drizzle. It never really "rains" in Utah, I thought to myself, this will just all blow over any second. As the rain fell hard, as artists scrambled to save their pictures, and as I was working under an umbrella that, in the strong wind, blew itself inverted and resembled a stick, I decided that it was time to take shelter. It was sad to see all those beautiful drawings washed away in a half hour. This drawing (below) took two girls 8 hours--it was amazing. I felt really bad for them. But, I didn't feel too bad for myself, I figured it would help my chances. You know, "oh, look at her drawing! I bet it was so nice before the rain hit...." :)

So, here is what we came up with. It is a sun. This is what it looked like during the rainstorm. Luckily in Utah, things dry up pretty quick, so Bridger and I and everyone else got back to work by 7:00--about an hour before judging. I knew we would never win anything, but we still needed to finish.

My sister Vanessa came over to help, since hers washed away and there was no salvaging it.

This is what we ended up with..... Bridger desperately wanted to win, but I told him " it's not about winning or losing, it's about having fun"--poor kid, totally didn't help. Then he came up with a solution. He said: "let's get ice cream", I agreed and all was well. We had a great time, we were covered in chalk and soaking wet (but, like the sidewalk, we dried fast). We will make this a yearly tradition--we didn't win any prizes, but we did get a $10 gift card to Target. And if you know me, and know how cheap I am and how much I love Target, then you know that I was a happy lady. Of course, I shared with Bridger. It's sad that I had to clarify.... I even have some left over chalk, so I think we will be beautifying our own sidewalks here pretty soon!

The next day we attended a bike parade at Jeremy's parents church. The kids were soooo excited to ride their bikes and have them all decorated. Bridger was completely pale with excitement--he was focused--speed--after this picture, he never looked at us again. He had to prepare himself. I guess....
We didn't have much in the house by way of traditional decoration, but we had a bag of pink balloons (left over from Kennedy's birthday) and we had a basket full of jewelry. So, we made a princess bike and Kennedy thought she had died and gone to heaven! She wore her crown with pride.
Our cute niece, Madison, was there with us--she tried to ride Kennedy's bike, but found out she was just a "little" too big! Look at those long legs!
They threw candy at the parade--so, after this picture, Kennedy had her mouth stuffed with taffy. It always gets stuck in her teeth and she always wants me to get it unstuck for her. Ewww! Is that really part of a mother's job description? Good thing she's cute.