While Sissy is away at camp, Piper and I are having our own little camp alternating between hikes, museums, and arts and craft projects. Today, our task was to paint a suncatcher. It looked easy enough.

I carefully read the directions out loud. “Looks like each paint color has a number that matches a place on the suncatcher,” I explained. The diagram was a bit tedious, but with Sissy away, I have plenty of time for complicated art projects that require more than my normal reserves of patience.

“Or you could just make it look pretty,” Piper suggested. “There’s a picture of the butterfly already painted. We could just follow that.”

Which is about ten times easier than the stupid color-coded number instructions. Good idea, P.

We opened the first miniature pot of pink stain. The kit comes with a plastic “stain spreader” rather than a paint brush, which adds an extra element of danger.

An hour later, we’d made some progress. Piper stuck with it. Until she decided that she needed an assistant. “An artist needs help, Mom. They need someone to tell what to do. An artist gets tired, you know.”

“Let me guess. I’m going to be your assistant?”

“Yes! I’ll be the master artist and direct you!”

It sounded like another excuse to boss me around, but we were approaching hour two and my back was beginning to ache.

So, with the handy help of the assistant and the bossiness of the master artist, we completed our creation. Ta da! And I learned that Piper is much better at giving artistic direction than following package directions. We can’t wait for Sissy to see our masterpiece.