Playmat!

I really wanted to give the kiddos a playmat for Xmas, mostly because D wanted this one, that he had seen at Lowes, but he already has ALL the Cars cars, and that's just not a comfy rug, plus, I wanted something that was OUR neighborhood.... so I found this on etsy. It's super cool, and vinyl would be fun, but, again, I'm super picky, and I wanted to include landmarks that are a little farther away/only do the important streets... so I bought a canvas drop cloth, and some black paint, and C and I got to work...

here's the finished result. our house is in the middle of the mat, and we put the main streets in our town on, and some of D's favorite places... we purposely left a lot blank so we could add in what he wanted (today's requests include a mechanic's shop, (aka a car doctor), and a hospital and the park across the street from the hospital...)

here's Paseo Del Mar, as it intersects with Western Ave, Walker, and Gaffey St, because the whole area is like a strip mall of parks. like 4, all along a 2 mile stretch of road. pretty awesome. D had his flashlight turned on, and put it on the lighthouse picture, and would periodically make foghorn sounds and turn the flashlight in a circle. so cute.

here's the bumpy road (it's a landslide area) to his preschool, (which is fittingly called Beach School, since it's LITERALLY on the beach, in the sand), and PV East (aka the switchbacks) is the way to Grandma's house or the longer way to our house from his school....

here's D, driving one of his Cars cars to see Teacher Sandy at Beach School....
YAY!
the green and blue paints are just wall paints leftover from D's bedroom and our bathroom, respectively, and then we did all the detail with sharpies. so all told, I spent about $10, and then we (C and I) spent about 5 hours on it.... D and the bean both get really excited about pulling it out and building and playing cars on it, so it's definitely being chalked up as a success....