Pottery Quarter Outing

Hey Guys,

Here's a recap of a trip I took Xander and Teiya on yesterday - it was their day to go to the Pottery Quarter for a day with clay and paints...

On the way over they're talking a blue streak in the back seat, and they're talking about pretending various things - Teiya says to Xander, "Let's pretend we're on a roller coaster..." - to which Xander says with a little trepidation in his voice, "I don't want to pretend we're on a roller coaster...!" - to which Teiya says, "Ok, let's pretend we're on a roller coaster and pretend we're not afraid..." - to which Xander says, "Ok..."

Later, still on our way to Pottery Quarter, still talking a mile a minute - Teiya is chattering, and at one point Xander says deadpan, "I'm pretending I understand what you're saying..." LOL...

At one point I say something to the two of them, and they react and we start kidding each other - they're dishing it out as much as I am - then after a while, Xander says, "Stop...! - You're annoying me...!" - Ok...

On the way back we're talking about something, and I ask if they know how to find out about something, and neither knew - I said you could "Google" it - Teiya asked "What's Google...?" - I told her that it's a way to search for something on the internet, on the computer - she thinks for a while, and then says that Casey wants to put Google poop on his computer...! - I asked Teiya what that was, and she just laffed hysterically, as did Xander...

At the Pottery Quarter, both were quite disciplined and needed little supervision - surprised me, as I'd anticipated needing to corral and herd them around their painting projects - they'd both been there before, and seemed quite comfortable with the procedures - First we looked for a project for them to do, which took a bit of time as the possibilities are enormous - once they'd settled on projects, they wanted to get their paints - they each grabbed a handful, so I told them they couldn't open more than 2 or 3 at a time, which they didn't - I had to open and squeeze a couple of them for them, as some of the bottles were pretty old and the paints inside a little hard - they each picked brushes, and I explained how to wet their pieces and then paint them - I encouraged them to paint over their colors at least a second time, or the finished colors would be faint and pastelly - they did a good job, even painting on the bottoms a bit - I had been painting on a plate myself, and at one point was putting tiny dots around the rim of the plate with a special bottle, and Teiya got excited about putting little dots on her piece - I helped her do that, and she put 3 dots on it...! - I asked if she wanted more dots, and she said, no, she had enuff....then, she changed her mind and asked me to put some blue and yellow dots around the edges, so I did...

Both spent a long time doing their designs and painting - they worked hard, and chattered all thru/out - at the end, they were done, and were ready to go, but I had them help clean up - "Why...?" to which I said because we had made the mess with water and dropped paint, and we should always clean up after ourselves - "oh, ok..."

Then we departed for McDonald's and a treat, where Teiya ran into a very friendly girl about her age who asked her if she could be her (Teiya's) best friend....Teiya said, "Ok..." - but the girl had to leave with her dad - I asked Teiya if she knew the girl's name, and she said, no...

It was a great day...! - and full of laffs...!

Jiichan...