The Adventures of Art Lad

I AM SEVEN!

I had my party yesterday before my birthday and it was GREAT. Dad made an obstacle course in the back yard and you had to crawl through tubes and roll a tire and jump in shoeboxes and climb a wall and dig through hay and go down a slide and the fastest one got a prize.

Here I am on the slide.




I did it in 1 minute 11 seconds. I was the fastest! Evan was second with 1 minute 25 seconds. Silly Dad was slowest because he got stuck in the crawling tube and all you could see was his legs. Then he rolled the tire over himself and that was funny too. It took him 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

Then we had cake. Grandma made me a lizard cake using one of my pictures! She says they do it at the store but she learned how too.

Here was my picture.







And here was the cake! She did good!







Then I got presents from my friends: a Transformer and some new brush pens and some modeling clay and place to keep my bugs so I can look at them when I draw them.

Then we went back outside and the obstacle course was GONE! Dad was sitting on the step breathing hard because he took everything out and turned the yard into a safari hunt. He went FAST, faster than on the obstacle course. He hid 88 lizards and snakes all over and we each got a hat and a box and ran like crazy to catch them. I got 15 snakes and lizards. Nick got so excited he threw up. Afterwards Dad did the count and said there are still 11 lizards and snakes on the loose out there.

They were not real. They were rubber lizards and snakes.

Here we are. Dad wore a hat too.





Then something bad happened.

Right after everyone left my head started to hurt and that was bad because I woke up next day with a 103 fever.

I am SICK on my birthday.

I still opened my presents. I got a Black Canary from Justice League and some other super guys like King Kong and a lizard. I also got a special video camera for kids called a Vidster so I can do my own movie and not use Dad's camera. I will put my movies on here. Grandma gave me new jammies and a spin art kit! My uncle gave me dollars that I can buy anything I want. I think I will buy some paper or maybe a video game.

I watched Scooby Doo with Dad all day and then I fell asleep! I never do that since I was a baby. I woke now and have a 101 fever. I am sad because tonight is when they trick-or-treat in my town and now I can't go. So I am wearing my cheetah costume and have to watch out the window. Dad says he will stay with me because he can't stand seeing a sad cheetah in the window.

My sister is going as a fox and she says she will ask for two candies--one for her and one for me. Sometimes she is a good sister.








I am happy anyway for all my presents. And for the cards people sent me on my email. Thank you!

I still wish I could trick or treat.






Bye!

Thomas

I am SEVEN in FIVE days!

My Grandma and Papa are here right now! They drove a long ways from the woods where they live. They live like in olden days. Papa has wild animals in his yard--he had a bear eat his apple tree and one day a moose walked by! He grows his own big garden and chops down trees to make fires in the house.

Grandma knows good stuff too. She can make big cakes with neat things on them and she is making a lizard cake for my birthday.

Guess what? She can also make clothes on her stitching machine.

I sent her a cheetah picture and said I wanted to be a cheetah for Halloween.

And she made it!




Is that a cheetah or is that Thomas?




Surprise! It is me!



Here is the picture I sent Grandma.





Here's me. I drew colors on it like the picture I sent.



We both look smarty.

She is the BEST Grandma, because that is not even my birthday present. She and Papa brought piles of presents for me. Mom yelled a lot when she saw the pile but she has to let me have them because Grandma is old and has tricks to make you do what she wants. Dad just says "Okay" because he says it is CRAZY to fight with Grandma.

He is right.

But don't tell Mom.


Bye!

Guess what? I have my BIRTHDAY in 11 DAYS. That is how long I have left and then I AM SEVEN!

That is a long time to be old.

But Dad is 37. He is even older. Mom is the same as Dad, but no one is supposed to know.

I have the best birthdays. Grandma comes and she makes BIG cakes. She made trains out of Ho-Hos one year. Last year she made a jungle cake with a dinosaur on the top.

This year, I want a lizard cake.

Because I am also having a lizard party. It will be all about lizards. Dad said he will do a safari in the back yard and I can be like Austin Stevens on Animal Planet, looking for the lizards. And they will be looking for me! If Austin is not careful on his show HISSSSSSOWCH! They shoot out and bite him. Some of them don't let go. They take you with them so you have to grab onto a log. You are on your own on those shows because the man with the camera never helps you. If he did, there would be no show.

I think about the man with the camera now. I have a camera Dad gave me and I take videos. It is tricky but it is like drawing pictures only you have to make pictures out of people in real life. Maybe I will show you a video some time. I did one of Dad breaking a board but that is not like what I really want to do.

I have a list of what I want. I want:

More brush pens
A spin art thing
Black Canary from Justice League (she looks like my new friend Ashley)
Modeling clay
A big pile of white paper for drawing
A video game like Tom and Jerry
Books, especially ones by Mr. Feiffer

I am having a party with six friends. I am having Evan and Cole and Dustin and Andrew and Nick and Noah.

(Mom says no girls this time because she can't stand it. They leave me notes now. Ashley left me a note and I showed Mom and her face got all squinchy. She took the note away.)

I did the invitation myself. See?



Mom thought it was a giant lizard walking on houses. IT IS NOT! THOSE ARE BIRTHDAY CANDLES ON A CAKE! Dad copied it so I left the name part open and will put a different name in each one.

Do you want to come? I wish you could. I would invite Flip and Twinkie and Legoboy and Lucy and Baby Grace and the Animal Planet lady (you could bring Jasmine and you don't have to bring any presents. Just bring a snake skin like you found that time) and the Ninja Lady and Katy and all their mommies and nice people who come here.

It would be a big party, and you wouldn't have to bring anything.

Unless you wanted.

Dad says I am talking way too fast. But I AM SEVEN SOON!

I will tell you more later. I have to finish my snake and mouse book!

(Oh. Dad says I am way up past my bedtime).

Night-night!

We are really busy at school now. I am doing A LOT of writing. Writing is harder than drawing because you have to get the letters right and remember how they are all spelled. Pictures are easier because it's what's in my head.

But I am working really hard on writing. Dad writes all day and sometimes all night. He says it is the only thing he is good at and he tells really good stories. He says people gave him money for writing and that's how he bought our whole house and everything inside it except the stuff Grandma and Papa send us.

Someday I will go to work like Dad and I will want to get money for drawing AND writing together. So I am doing it now.

I started a book today called Oh Mouse, Oh Snake! It is about a snake that chases a mouse in a swamp. My other books were just pictures with me telling Mom and Dad the words. This time I am doing the words all by myself.

It is hard to spell the words. Dad said just to put the words down like they sound so I did that and I went faster. I have two chapters done now.

Here is just one page.






Here the mouse is running for his hole. The snake is chasing him because he ate his sister. See him in the corner. He is coming!

I wonder if he will catch him.

Want to see more?

I will tell you later...

(Dad said to put dots at the end. That means you have to wait)

Bye!

We are back from seeing my cute baby cousin Grace.

She is from a place called Guatemala. I drew a picture of a giant lizard that comes from there. Here he is.





He is a big lizard, way bigger than a Komodo dragon. He is bigger than a blue whale, and you know they are big! He can run 55 miles an hour. That's fast and his head is as long as a school bus. He eats mice, birds, other lizards, dogs, and people and houses. One orange lizard can wipe out a whole neighborhood.

But to stay big he has to drink lots of water, otherwise he shrinks up and looks like a raisin.

It is lucky baby Grace doesn't live there anymore. I am glad she is here with us.

My bus is coming. Gotta go!

I am reading a lot of books at my school now. I really like the lizard and snake ones but I also like the dinosaur ones. The pictures in them are really good and show what living in the dinosaur times was like.

This is a mommy baryonyx watching her babies. They are hungry!




We are going soon to Ohio to see my Grammy and Grandpa, but also my new cousin. Her name is baby Grace and she is coming from a whole other country. I have a placemat of the USA and other places and baby Grace's country is so far it's not even on my placemat!

I wrote her a letter and made a picture for her for when she gets here. She can't read yet, but she can see the picture and be happy.

This is the picture.





It is a dinosaur family going to see a new baby at someone else's house. Just like us. Get it?

I will be gone for a while but I will be back next week. Bye!

Thomas