Unfinished Masterpieces

Like Schubert and his famous symphony, we all have things that are unfinished.

Take, for instance, our wonderful clay creations from October. I was told to give them a week for firing and then another week if we wanted them glazed. So, two weeks later, Bethany and I dutifully carted five children all the way back to the art studio to paint their pieces.

But first, cupcakes from the local cupcake shop.

They even have vegan cupcakes for Josh.

Yes, they were on coupons.

How did you guess?

I forgot to take photos until all had devoured them except Thomy, who is the slowest eater in the world.

Even slower than his father.

Everyone got one to eat and one for later.

The funny-looking one in the corner is Natalie's unfinished cake.

We drove all the way to the studio and the kids, all excited, ran to the shelves where the fired pieces are kept and......nothing.

Well, one of mine was fired, and Kenzie's snake, but nothing else.

Oh, it takes at least two weeks for them to be fired, I was informed.

Grrrr.

I was irritated, but there was nothing to be done.

Misinformation seems to be commonplace these days.

I had one coupon left (remember Josh's reluctance to get involved?) so Natalie worked on some ceramics pieces, with a little help from Mom. 

I took the other kids outside to play in the parking lots.

First, we ate the remaining cupcakes.

Thomy let me eat his.

Then we played hide-and-seek.

Here's Thomy, counting very quickly to twenty.

Kenzie, dashing around one of the parked vans.

That didn't last long, so I introduced them to "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?", only to be told that it is Mr. Fox, not Mr. Wolf.

This vehicle had a huge vacuum hose attached to the back and the worker was manually shifting the hose to suck up the leaves.

That was a long line of piled leaves.

See, kids, I said, seizing a Nana teaching moment, that's why you need a good education. You don't want to spend you lives being the vacuum guy. Can you imagine doing that all day?

That looks like fun, said Daniel, who could not be persuaded that aspiring to be vacuum guy was not a desirable thing.

The boys stare longingly at the vacuum vehicle.

We played Hot Lava on the way back to the studio to check on Natalie and Mom.

They were done.

Can I do one of those pictures, Nana, asked Josh.

Um. No!

Too little, too late, the scurvy scoundrel.

Daniel was mortally disappointed when Bethany announced she was too tired for a stop at Costco, so I suggested we stop at this man-made lake on the way home.

We took our kids there once, about twenty years ago, when it was still wild and free.

Now, it is landscaped and surrounded by restaurants and shops.

All the signs say Do Not Feed the Ducks and proceed to give you a very logical and environmental reason why not.

Photo of said ducks, courtesy of Daniel.

One last kick of the leaves before we left for home.