Friday, April 30, 2010

favorite thing friday

Last month, when the Easter Bunny was at Target looking for things to stuff in Easter baskets, she happened to stumble upon a cool new crayon from Crayola.

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What drew the Easter Bunny to this particular crayon were the bright, vibrant colors and the fact that they were thick enough for small hands to easily grasp.

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So, the Easter Bunny bought four packs.

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And these crayons turned out to be the biggest hit at Easter. Not only did our four children enjoy playing with them, so did our teen aged nieces and nephew, who were visiting from Michigan. On Easter afternoon, right around the same time the magnitude 7.2 earthquake almost knocked everyone down - we were happily coloring.

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I'm not exactly sure what is in these crayons (I suppose I could look at the label, but eh, Charlie's cuing up a movie for us to watch) but they are so smooth. If you press too hard, they tend to get flaky - and the flakes are like chunks of oily crayon that can stick to things. I'm sure some might complain that they make a mess, but in my opinion, anything that's really fun for a child is usually also messy. If it's messy, it's fun.

Case in point: finger painting. And Playdoh. And mud pies.

(Need I go on?)

Anyway, a month later, we still color almost every day. And best of all, we have been sending all of our artistic expressions to people, with a little handwritten note that reads, "We're thinking of you. We love you. We hope you are having a wonderful day."

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We've dubbed it, "Operation Sunshine."

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And it brings us just as much joy as those who receive our creations.

11 comments:

  1. Love this! We are all about drawing for pen pals too.

    I just got caught up on you all and HOLY COW!!!!! Congrats. Congrats on a new child and congrats on the freedom you must feel having spoken what is true for you. You have got your priorities in order. Good for you. (Standing ovation here too)

    I know God will bless your obedience. Cannot wait to see how it all turns out!

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  2. that made my day in a sweet kinda way. just told lovie about them. we're gonna see if we can find some today!

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  3. Poppa and Kathleen5/1/10, 12:12 PM

    Jen; the children's artwork that they send us brightens up our day, just as their precious smiles do.
    Sorry we can't make it out tomorrow for our visit on the beach: I will heal soon.
    We bought you a box of chocolate and vanilla Joe Joe's and ate them all! We now know why you love em so. Had to wipe up the crumbs with my new Shark Sweeper.....thanks for the tip.
    In your quest to find your answers: remember the prayer of the child walking on the beach with Jesus and he carries her? God could and would if saught.
    Love to all.

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  4. Awesome! What a wonderful thing to do!
    Jen, do you have CVS drug stores there? Today I saw buzz lightyear baseball caps there. If you don't, and don't already have a cap, and would like one for Henry, my email is thewall@nycap.rr.com. Send me your snail mail address, and I'll pop one in the mail to you.

    hugs

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  5. Those look really interesting! I can't believe how vibrant they are. We LOVE our mini twistables crayons and prefer them to the fat kids' crayons.

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  6. We'll have to check those out. Are they a bit like a pastel?

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  7. Oh, I'm one of those who do NOT like these crayons! Yes, they like messy, and I can handle messy to a point. But these are "ugly messy". :)

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  8. Annie - that is so sweet of you. I'll have to see if our local CVS has any of the caps in stock!!

    Anon - I was just using them today and I found that if I take a sharp knife and scrape the blade across the picture, it removes all of the "debris" which really helps to clean it up a bit.

    I LOVE these crayons. Seriously, every time I use them - I like them better than the time before. They are so bright and vibrant and SUCH FUN to use. I can totally take a mess under those conditions.

    Sonja, Pastel!! That's what I was thinking of! I DO think that they are like pastels, but it's been 20+ years since I've had an art class, so I could be totally wrong. They're very smooth and OILY. We dig 'em!

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  9. Oil pastels, then, maybe? Regular ones are dusty.

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  10. I haven't seen them up close, but my guess is that they are like a grease pencil artists use. I'll be on the lookout for them. I've got a 4 year old budding artist at my house.

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