I wake up around 6:57 and throw my clothes on. My grandparents pull into the driveway at 7:00, and my mom and I hop in the car and we're off to LePeep. Yum! Since we go there every Saturday, I no longer have to rub the sleep out of my eyes and try to think of the word for "pancakes" when the waitress comes, because she already knows what I get. After we eat, we go home and I watch TV or sometimes take a nap for about 20 minutes before my grandpa comes to pick me up. Every Saturday, my grandpa and I go to the Irish American Heritage Center and paint.
My grandpa has been painting celtic murals at the Heritage Center for... oh, I don't know, a really long time. When you walk into the place, you see his paintings everywhere. And the cool part about it is, they are right on the walls. He has his framed ones, too, but above the stairs, and on the walls, above doorways - there are paintings on the walls all over. My brother and I used to help him when we were little, and we would paint in things that he drew. Those were on the paintings over the stairs. I hadn't really been there in a while, though, when he said he had a spot for me on a painting that he was working on over a door. I was really excited, and when he told my that I was going to draw a circular design, then draw it again on a note card, then cut it out to make a template, then trace it onto the wall, then paint it in, I was so excited that I was going to get to do all that on my own and that it would be right there, on the wall! I didn't know that after that Saturday, I would be going there the next Saturday, and the next Saturday, to help more and more on different things. I have tea and eat lunch there, in the kitchen, with all the volunteers. When we pack up for the day, I always feel a wave of tiredness. When we get in the car and head home, I always find myself opening my eyes and stumbling out of the car. I always fall asleep on the way home!
I think it's really cool that I get to help on a piece of artwork that is going to be there long after we leave for the day, and long after anything framed is moved or taken down. It's really cool to watch the paintings go from just a few pencil lines on a wall to something colorful and finished. And it's especially cool to know that I helped get it there.