Family Home Evening

Last night for Family Home Evening, we talked about who the new prophet was and then we took turns "being the prophet" and "listening to the prophet" by playing that picture game where you describe to someone how to draw a simple picture without telling them what it is and then we compared pictures. I know, a little far-fetched, but it was fun. I was impressed that McKenzie actually had such a great time with it. Here are the pictures we dictated and drew:

Exibit 1 shows the picture that Jason dictated to McKenzie and the picture that McKenzie drew.

Exibit 2 shows what I dictated to Jason (obviously he added his own embellishments).

Then Jason and McKenzie drew their own pictures to dictate to me, since I had drawn the prepared ones.

This is Jason's picture dictated to me......oooooooooh, how sweeeeet!

Finally, Here is the picture McKenzie drew. I was so curious how she would explain this to me. As she did, I quickly started writing down her instructions inbetween following them. Here they are:

1. Draw a circle

2. Now draw an O in the circle

3. Then draw a man eating a cookie - 'cuz that's a cookie

4. Now do a curved line

5. Then do a dot

6. Now do a bunch of dots

7. Then do a circle
8. Now draw some squares

9. Now do more circles

10. Then do a circle-line (?)

Then she said, in a very encouraging tone, "O.k., now that looks like a lollipop, that's great! Now do a rainbow in the lollipop. That's all! It's going to be perfect. Yours looks great!

This is what I drew - which wouldn't be so embarrassing if I didn't have full artistic license to draw the man who was eating the cookie the way I wanted to.

After drawing my man, I said "How Embarrassing" Jason responded, very matter-of-fact, "Self-Portrait with donut." Thanks for the vote of confidence, Love of my Life.

Well, at least Mckenzie appreciated it, I thought. But I thought too soon. When all was said and done, she asked "Is that a horse? 'Cuz that looks like a horse". I assured her it was a man. "Well, is that a girl? Because it has that hair." No it's a man. It's a man, o.k., people? Not me, not a horse. I followed specific instruction to draw a man, and that is precisely what I did.

This is especially embarrassing because my Mom is an artist. She taught art lessons while I was growing up and painted many oil paintings. She was the Manager of the Spori Art Building at BYU-Idaho last year. She took an art class and whipped out the following portrait in class in less than 2 hours (a little hard to see 'cuz of the glare - go to her blog www.benedicthome.blogspot.com to see more of her art sometime). I guess I could give myself a little credit - my Horse-Man probably only took a little over 5 minutes.

Needless to say, next time I visit my mom, it wouldn't hurt to join my neices as they strap on aprons, roll up their sleeves, and pull chairs up to easles. It's about time I take advantage of a free art class or two.