Three Cheers...!

The story starts about a few weeks back on Memorial Day Weekend, when I had to help T1 on a diorama that she had to make as a final project for school. She chose the book, Cam Jansen and the Double Beach Mystery. I YAY-ed her choice cos I'm thinking "Beach" is going to be an easy scene to set up.
We had a fun shopping spree at Michael's and we went berserk buying art materials :)
So, we ended up spending hours on making the diorama, with absolutely no complain whatsoever from T1! She loved every bit of it - the drawing, the cutting, the painting, the pasting, the carving...even though it seemed never-ending! I could see how much she loves art!

So, when my good friend, VG forwarded an email to me about an upcoming painting competition, I registered T1 right away. I really, truly wanted her to have fun.
I did not want her to be completely clueless, so I asked her to think for a few minutes about the topic before painting.

There were two age groups that the kids were competing in, 6-9 and 10-13. The kids were asked to choose one of three topics - Healthy Food, Family Fun or Fashion.
T1 apparently chose family fun.

Sis-S had registered my niece, P for this too. And it was a good catching-up time for the two of us while the girls were painting away to glory :)

When their time was up, we were allowed to peek in and take a look at their paintings. I couldn't help smiling when I saw T1's painting! It was like she'd done a painting of her diorama. She had a picture of mommy and herself playing at the beach! I suppose she was completely clear on what to draw from her recent project.

My niece-P chose "Healthy Food" and painted a beautiful lone apple and a distant pear on a table (covered with a beautiful table cloth), and a couple of pictures hanging on the wall of the room. So realistic!!

On Saturday, Pup called me when I was at the gymnastics class with the girls and told me that T1 won 3rd place! I was really thrilled! Of course, I had "hoped" like every mom does that she win. But I really was not expecting it. She was one of the youngest kids in the crowd (being 6 1/2) and has had no formal training in Art (not counting the stuff they do in school).

A really cool thing is that they had announced the results in a local TV Channel and displayed her painting too. Of course, we have it DVR-ed, cos I knew we were going to be at the Gymnastics class when they were going to make the announcement.
I couldn't wait to get back home and watch it on TV.
Pup didn't tell me anything about the older kids' results. He did not know. My friend, VG had called to congratulate and that's how he knew!
So it was time for double celebration when we saw that my niece rightfully won the first place in the 10-13 age group!

On Sunday, the kids were given a trophy and a gift certificate at a small ceremony!
It was a real proud-mama moment! Strangely, I was happier now than when she got her first trophies for ASHR in Kumon (translates to being above Grade level).

I'm really glad we were able to give her that bit of encouragement for something that she whole-heartedly enjoys!! So, Art Classes, here we come!!