Dot dot dot

Every once in a while I see a really cute project idea on someone else's blog that I want to recreate. Like these cute little polka dot stemless wine glasses that I justified by making it a Christmas craft for the kids to work on.

While I raced to paint as many glasses as I could while overseeing the painting of breakable objects by my favorite little bulls in a china shop, my kids' true personalities shone through.

Abby, meticulous and methodical, started strong and made one very nice glass for me, first painting green dots, then white ones, then red. She took utmost care to be sure all sides were evenly covered, all dots were similar in size, and no color overwhelmed the others. And then, in true Abby fashion, she moved on to what she wanted to do, which was to paint candy canes and snow men on the remaining glasses. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was painting with the glasses wrong-side up and that her pictures would be upside down when she was done. I let her have her fun. It was just acrylic paint, and it was easy to wash off when she wasn't looking to make some more polka dotted glasses to complete the set.

Jacob met and exceeded my expectations for his painting, proving that he could cover the inside and outside of a stemless wine glass with acrylic paint squiggles without breaking anything, and stay pretty clean in the process. It helps that he's kind of annoyed at being messy. His finished project, too, went straight to the sink for a scrubbing and returned to the table where he was allowed to start all over, ad nauseum.

Caleb surprised me most. He was my star student, and turned out more keepers than anyone else in the family. He was gentle with his handling of the glasses, cautious with his application of the paint, and quick to ask if he was doing a good job (which he was). I did not have him pegged as my standout painter-of-breakables. I was pleasantly surprised.

Don't tell Abby and Jacob, but those cute little dotted wine glasses in our cabinets were pretty much all courtesy of Caleb and their mom and dad.