Shadow Hedgehog Runs on a Shirt

I painted another shirt as the previous two are wearing out at the cuffs: Ansel wanted to know why Shadow's fists aren't clenched while he's running. I did not have a satisfactory reason.
As illustrated in the top photo, he was not all that impressed when he got the shirt on his body.

Ninjago Kai and Skylanders Dark Spyro

Today it is Ninjago and Skylander: Of course, Kai is wearing his last episode outfit while riding Dark Spyro.

Ben 10's Cannonbolt and Skylanders Wrecking Ball

Another Ben 10 and Skylanders team-up: Cannonbolt and Wrecking Ball. Both roll and have pointy teeth, but the Skylander in particular seems uncertain about the situation.

Ben 10's Heatblast and Skylanders Hot Dog

Heatblast from Ben 10 and Skylanders Hot Dog: both suffering from magma disorder, but who is hotter?

Skylanders Hot Dog

It's still all Skylanders all the time around here. When not actually playing the game, one can pretend to be a Skylander...or at least talk about the game endlessly.

Roaches Pulling Santa's Fruitcake Sleigh

A strange holiday request: roaches replaced reindeer pulling a fruitcake sleigh.  (Something to do with kids dropping holiday food on the floor and wanting to leave it there for the long term)
The request came not from a child, but in fact from my mother.  It seemed only fair that Grandma should have at least one napkin.

The Grinch and Vilgax from Ben 10

 

Two of my son's favorites this week: the Grinch and Vilgax from Ben 10 commiserate about being green and promise not to steal Christmas this year.

Rudolph and Santa with Sunglasess

Archer's first question this morning: "Who is the guy with Rudolph?" His second: "Why are they wearing sun glasses?" I think I can safely say that my Rudolph with light bulb nose was not a success....

Rudolph the Red Nosed

 

 The kids were immediately dissatisfied with my attempt at a more realistic Rudolph:

"Mom!  His nose is supposed to be like a flashlight!"

Samurai Santa from "Manga Claus"

Samurai Santa: "Manga Claus" by Nathaniel Marunas, art by Erik Craddock, is always a popular bedtime book with my sons this time of year.  The swarm of evil ninja teddy bears makes it all the better.

Skylanders Crusher

And yet another Skylander:  Ansel tells me his goal is to have all of them on his napkins.  He still claims to have no interest in actually playing the game, but his older brothers chronic fixation makes the characters cool enough for napkins.

Skylanders Eye Brawl

The Skylanders Giants obsession continues to rage at our house.
My personal favorite is Eye Brawl, one that the kids don't have.

Mr. Stuffins with Maimed Robot

 

One more appearance of Mr. Stuffins from a cover by Matt Cossin.  

The boys would really like to see a movie about an animate stuffed bear, but are certainly way too young for "Ted."

Mr. Stuffins Take Down Guy in a Suit

"Mr. Stuffins" continues to hold our sons' attention.  They are really hoping for a sequel.  As the series was released in 2009, the prospects don't look promising.  This image is from a variant cover by Matt Cossin.  Ansel specifically asked that the guy have broken glasses, but I went for the slightly more friendly popped lens.

Mr. Stuffins with Defeated Ninja

 

"Mr. Stuffins" defeats the Ninja: the kids love the idea of a plush toy who is actually an ill tempered secret agent. The suction cup pistol was probably not ok for Quaker lunch.
My apologies to the gods of perspective.  It was a late night, and there are no revisions on napkins.

Hanukkah Reindeer

Ansel was none too charmed by my attempt at interdenomenational  holiday cheer.  This one has not gone to school yet... and there are only 3 more days of Hanukkah.  I originally envisioned some sort of Rabbi Santa, but Ansel mounted a protest, so I reduced the sleigh cargo to a bag of loot.  Unfortunately, mostly what the holiday is about for the kids anyway....

Young Justice Tim Drake Robin

Ansel was reminded of the coolness of "Young Justice" yesterday.  Usually he prefers Nightwing above all other iterations of Robin, but Tim Drake does have that fighting staff.

DragonVale Rainbow and Skylanders Spyro Dragons

We debated what would be the ideal combination of DragonVale and Skylander characters.  Archer convinced me and Ansel that the hue and rhyming names of Rainbow and Spyro made the most sense.  I was so sure about the compatibility of the personalities, or the relative sizes, for that matter.

The "Going Home Bear" Hangs Out With Batman

Hosting the "Going Home Bear" for an evening is a major Kindergarten event at my sons' school.  Each child has a turn to take the bear along for his afternoon and evening activities, copious documentation by a parent with a camera phone is strongly encouraged.  

Ansel and Archer carefully tucked the bear into his own bed in front of our wood stove, but we imagined that he had an exciting evening out with a poorly drawn Dark Knight.

Skylanders Bouncer

As his older brother's conversation lately concerns almost exclusively which Skylanders characters he wants to receive for holiday gifts, it is not a surprise that Ansel is on a bit of a Skylanders kick also.

Sklanders' Tree Rex

In a moment of fraternal peace, Ansel chose his older brother's favorite Skylander for lunch today.

Bat Santa ("Christmas Knight")

We were discussing the similarities of Batman and Santa before bedtime last night based on the amusing "Christmas Knight" trailer.  I think the two characters have very similar levels of plausibility for the kids.  Ansel fell asleep before offering me any napkin directive last night and was not pleased with the results this morning.

Diego from Ice Age

We watched Ice Age over the weekend.  The kids had seen the sequels but has somehow missed the first...or forgot that they saw it.  Diego, the scary, but eventually soft-hearted, predator was Ansel's favorite of course. Ansel deemed this napkin to be "too scary.'  Guess I got carried away.

Skylanders Wrecking Ball and Drobot

Apparently, at school recess, my younger son pretends to be the creature on the left, and his best friend is the one on the right. I don't want to ask what he is doing to act out the tongue attack.....

Missile Mouse and Batman

We finished rereading "Rescue on Tankium3" by Jake Parker last night.  On the napkin today Missile Mouse is paired with Batman in place of his nemesis in the book, Blazing Bat.  

Ansel declared Missile Mouse to be "totally awesome."  Is he more awesome than Batman?  Maybe this week.  Batman never really goes out of style with 5 year old boys, but he has his fallow periods.

This particular not very well drawn Batman hails from the tv series"Justice League Unlimited" which Ansel watched on the way home yesterday.  

Missile Mouse and Robot 44

The adventures of Missile Mouse by Jake Parker are always popular bedtime reading.  Ansel was particularly taken with Robot 44 in the second book, "Rescue on Tankium3," last night.  I tried to pacify the weapons with food, but the result looks like Missile Mouse might be handling radioactive broccoli.

Skylanders Wrecking Ball

Ansel requested another Skylander character.  Perhaps his older brother's campaign to get Ansel to play the game with him is beginning to work.

Dark Spyro from Skylanders and Shadow the Hedgehog

 

After listening to his older brother discuss Skylanders non stop over the weekend, Ansel requested one of his own on a napkin. This despite not wanting to play the game himself.

Mini Bunnymund from"Rise of the Guardians"

The big sarcastic bunny temporarily reduced to an insipid mini version was definitely a highlight of "Rise of the Guardians" for my younger son.

Ninjago Season Finale Kai with Fire Sword on a Shirt

He's been wearing the same shirt every day since September, so I did my best to come up with an alternative....or something new for him to wear constantly until the cuffs literally start to erode off of the sleeves. 

Both of the kids were just ridiculously excited about the Ninjago season finale and the new costumes and weapons...(Buy more LEGOs mom!!!)

His brother promptly requested that I paint a shirt for him with 5 Ninjago characters on it. 

Shadow Hedgehog Sweatshirt

I am not sure that Ansel will ever wear this sweatshirt out of the house.  The sleeves are a bit too long, and that is an insurmountable problem for him.  

Plus, wearing it would reveal his secret identity.  

He and I had some basic conceptual problems with this project:  Initially, I thought I was going to paint a picture of Shadow on a sweatshirt, but slowly came to understand that Ansel didn't want to wear Shadow's image.  He wanted to be Shadow.

Perhaps if the sweatshirt had one of those fancy hoods ala Volcom that zip all the way up and have perforated fabric in the eye area...but that clearly exceeded my skill.  

Shadow Hedgehog and Red Robin

 

Shadow Hedgehog rides yet again, this time in a team up with Red Robin from "The Hit List" (pencils by Marcus To).  This image of Red Robin appeared previously on August 14th, when he was paired with Ace the Bat Hound.  Perhaps Shadow is the new Ace? 

Ninja and Visible Troll

Unrepentant violence in this one as well as repentant bad drawing:  I took another swing at the Ninja with Troll, (see November 9th for the original sketch by my older son) but as Ansel helpfully pointed out, I failed to give the troll two clubs, or spikes, or many of the important features that his brother had provided.

Shadow the Hedgehog with Utensils

...And more Shadow the Hedgehog. He suffers from dysfunctional perspective arm syndrome, but, hey, that background sure is bright, isn't it?

Hordesman from Knights of the Lunch Table

 

We are finishing our rereading of the third book  in Frank Cammuso's Knights of the Lunch Table series.  Ansel asked for a bad guy sidekick from the series because "He's so cute." 

This guy falls off the tree branch laughing and lands on a seesaw, thereby catapulting a bowling ball into the windshield of the evil school principal's car and getting the book's protagonists in $300 worth of plot driving trouble. 

Beast from "Knights of the Lunch Table"

Shadow Hedgehog Running Without a Weapon

 

Shadow Hedgehog. Again.  

Ansel wanted him to be running fast like Sonic, with his feet in a "circle blur."  I was somehow unable to pull that off... and was more interested in the, ahem, perspectival opportunities of Shadow's limbs.   Ansel accepted my failings graciously this morning.

Shadow Sonic on Motorcycle

 

Unsurprisingly, as he has both a huge gun and a motorcycle, Shadow the "dark" version of Sonic is now at the top of our Kindergartener's list.  I had to remove the rather large weapon to pacify the image for lunch.

Batman and Sonic

Ansel's complaint about this one was that it does not look like Sonic is moving fast enough.  He told me the unrealistic hedgehog should be whitish and blurry.

Unidentified Ninja with Invisible Troll

 

Unidentified ninja with unseen troll: Last night, our older son made a sketch for me to follow for this napkin for his brother. Unfortunately, I misunderstood the arm position and neglected to include the giant troll who was strangely invisible in his drawing. Below: the first drawing from last night, and then this morning's additions showing what he really wanted me to draw.  The second image would certainly have been more fun to do as a napkin, no doubt.  If only I had known about that muscular troll with the loin cloth.

Wreck-It Ralph and Bunnymund from Rise of the Guardians

 

"Wreck-It Ralph" or "Rise of the Guardians" ? 

 Well, probably both.   My kids are remarkably receptive to advertising campaigns.

Sonic Again

 

Sonic is still very much on our sons' minds this week.  They were determined to see a Sonic TV show.  The best I could do on iTunes was a Christmas special from 2010, but they were very pleased with that.

Ninjago Kai and the Red Ranger from Power Rangers Samurai

 

Just how large are those Ninjago people?  Somehow it seemed more plausible to imagine Kai as small enough to bounce off the knee of the Red Ranger.  (Plausible used in a relative sense, of course)  A LEGO minifigure who is as tall as a human adult would be rather massive in width.  Ansel seemed happy enough to see two of his favorites together and did not question my scale choices.  

I did slip up last night, neglecting to passify the weapons.  Hope the swords will not be an issue at school today.