To Do Tuesday posted on Thursday

True to form, I underestimated the length of time it took me to finish this week's project. Tuesday night, when I blogged that I would finish it that night, I didn't know A) that I would have to put Brock to bed again and again and again as he's taken to getting up a lot after lights out to tell us it's not bedtime, OR that B) it would take as long as it did for me to put the finishing touches on this project. I had originally thought I'd give this to the boys for Christmas, but when I started sketching on Christmas Eve, it was obvious that this would take a lot longer to complete than a few hours.



SOOO, what did I do? It's a car mat sketched and colored on a 5x5 piece of canvas. My brother-in-law Kevin had told Erin how much he and his brothers loved their car mat and how it was well designed with ample parking, an outer railroad, and houses for your friends, etc. I took note of those priorities and took some pictures of their mat (which is pretty grody considering the years of use) before I started drawing. I also consulted Tyler and he added that he would like a campground, water for fishing, and a golf course. I tried to think of the toy cars my kids already have and knew that we'd need a farm and airport in addition to the standard city buildings. And not to be too prideful, but how great is it that his is compact. It can be folded and stored SOO much easier than some of the other car racetracks, etc. So, without further ado, here's this week's project:



FIRST, an action shot. Not that they look overly excited, but they were. Really. They watched me a lot of the time and driving their cars on the parts I wasn't working on. Not shown in this picture is their older, Nazi-ish sister, Caylee, who loves to dictate how they should pretend and who gets what house and on and on. I swear, I don't know what to do with her sometimes. I told her she had to back off the town since she wasn't the mayor. She didn't get what I was saying and kept on playing/bossing/causing havoc.
Here's an arial view (ie, me standing on our entryway bench.)


And the from the other side of "town."

Just for your detailed viewing pleasure, there is a railroad station, an airport (with landing strip), mountin road that takes you to a campground. The lake (with boat dock) empties into a river that runs through town and backs up to "Tyler's Tee Box," the local golf course. In town we have a residential neighborhood, a fires station, a police station, courthouse/jail, a hospital, a drive-thru restaurant, a school and playground, a supermarket, a church, and a farm. I'm sure I forgot something major, but there is ample parking spots and lots of roads and driveways. I figure they'll make do with what they have. I'm tha-rilled to have this one crossed off the to-do list.

Now, some of you may not be that excited about this, but I have high hopes this will result in moments of solid brotherly playtime and a lot of creativity. I do, also, want to mention that I asked Tyler to help me color it and he refused, but he DID design the golf course. My brother David told me he'd draw some more buildings, but apparantly he's too busy for my craft projects, so he can be credited with the hospital, courthouse/jail, the airport tower, and the drive thru. Go Brlow-ville!