this morning, mama j & i surprised the girls by taking them to Cookies & Canvas, a local (& somewhat national) business where you sign up, pay a minimal entry fee, & then paint the painting-of-the-day for two hours while you munch on sweet, crunchy cookies.

(don’t have kids to take?  there’s an adult section, too- Wine & Canvas).

i tried to pick a painting that all three girls would enjoy…a snowman in January? perfect.

with a quick stop at bucky’s on the way outta town, 

mama j & i had enough caffeine to make it through a class full of 5-15 year olds & their respective parents/nannies/etc.

after we walked in, picked out our own easels, threw on aprons, & wet our set of paintbrushes, 

we started.

step-by-step, the instructor led the way through our snowman extravaganza.

two hours passed quickly by as we meticulously formed a hat, head, body, eyes, a lightbulb nose, & every other imaginable detail….like a pretty pink hat bow, of course!

the girls had an overall good time (even with the earlier than usual saturday morning wake-up i forced upon them!) & we walked out of class with paintings that Picasso would envy… you know, if he were into that whole cute snowman look.

all in all, i would definitely go again (with or without precious children by my side)…

& i’m pretty sure i heard the youngest say, “i wanna go back next weekend!”

i’d call it a Saturday success-a snowmangirl success.