A Horse Of Course

I went over and babysat a friend's two daughters tonight. The older is 7 (I think) and the younger is 2. They are both adorable, sparkling, wonderful kids.

So, the plan was for me to sit and paint a real live actual-on-canvas picture for the older one after her sister went to bed. So, we did this. I asked her what she wanted the picture to be of. She, of course, chose a horse.

Is age 7 like the universal horse-crazy stage, or what? I remember drawing a LOT of horses between the ages of 7 and 11.

I needed a picture of a horse (to remind me of proportions) and it was like the world's fastest painting (we had from about 7:15 to 8:30), but she helped every step of the way, choosing colors, placement, etc. She sat with me and asked questions, drew conclusions ("...so you're putting the flowers on LAST because otherwise it would be hard to put the green grass around them...") and was generally entirely pleasant and charming. The painting turned out pretty well, too. She likes it, and that's the important thing.

Fun was had by all.

And now, I am home, glad to be an adult and able to eat (dairy-free) ice cream for dinner if I want.

Product review: Celestial Seasonings now offers pints of "Tea Dreams" non-dairy frozen dessert (made from Rice Dream, a rice milk). These are all somewhat flavored with chai, which is great since it sort of masks the non-dairy funkiness. I have the Vanilla Ginger Spice Chai version. It's quite good, for non-dairy. There some some odd characteristics, however. If you're trying to scoop a little out before it's softened, it sort of 'flakes', almost like pie crust. It also has a strange 'dry' taste to it (again, unless it's properly softened). So I guess the key is to wait for it to soften up, then just keep in mind that it's not supposed to taste like ice cream, it's just supposed to taste good. Which, it does.