Last weekend Mitch and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary (and 13 years together!) at the beach in Bodega Bay. My parents graciously kept all three boys overnight so that we could get away for the day, and when we came back to pick them up the next day they had a special anniversary present waiting for us!
The boys had each painted a wooden shadow box and filled it with treasures that my parents collected on their many trips to the shore. My dad has a big collection of shells, sea glass, rocks, sea life, etc, and he let each boy "shop" his collection for enough goodies to fill up a pie tin. After they finished their shadow boxes, they painted and decorated a matching picture frame, and my mom included a photo of them creating their projects.
Sawyer's frame is decorated entirely with sea glass with a few extra special rocks at the corners. He strategically placed all of his shadow box objects so that they would work well with the photos that he included (waves, sunset and the cliffs). He was especially proud of his intact crab shell in the upper left box. He couldn't wait to get home to arrange his new treasures on our nature table!
Sutton chose to decorate his frame with nothing but seashells. He was especially fond of the starfish and the teeny seagulls that my dad crafted from Sculpey clay specifically for this project (because he couldn't find any starfish that would work well for this, and he knew the boys love them!). Sutton took much more precise care in choosing which items to include, but when it came time to glue them down he didn't pay as much attention to what he was covering up on his photos. He is SO proud of the pinecone that resides right in the middle of the sunset photo!
Sawyer arranging some of Mom & Dad's newfound treasures from our Bodega Bay trip in front of his shadow box. He is incredibly pleased with our Summer nature table, and now it looks so nice and enticing that we're having a tough time keeping Simon away from it too!
I {LOVE} the gifts that the boys made for us, and I {LOVE} that my parents took the time to set this project up for them (you should have seen how teary I got!). I know that I would have had a tough time parting with some of the unique and beautiful ocean treasures that they let the boys use! Thank you SO much! ♥
1 comments:
how sweet and i always love that your boys craft as much as my little guy:)
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