I dislike the mess of painting

Confession: I dislike the mess of painting so much that I feel the need to take pictures when we do it just to prove that I did say yes at least one time out of the 792 times that they asked.

Never mind the fact that it had been raining for days and there were absolutely no other choices for activities.

My mommy will be proud that I used "dislike" vs. "hate". She taught me well.

Rainy Day Fun

This morning was a rare one. Rare in the fact that we didn't have preschool, swim lessons, Bible-study, a play-date or some other activity to run off to. Of course we could have ran off to the gym, but, well...you know. It was raining, so I was happy to just sit and chill...as much as is possible with two little ones of course.

But even before breakfast Lily approached me with her paint box in hand...my little girl had a plan. I tried to put it off until Jade was napping, but barely managed to put it off until after breakfast. Letting me get away with just some water colors or possibly some pre-printed "paint with water" type books (where can those be found anymore?), was not in her plans. No, instead she was already mixing colors with the washable tempera paints before my coffee even had a chance to get cold.

Why not throw in some finger paints while we're at it...oh boy!

My only goal in painting with them is for the actual painting time to last as long as the set up and clean up...nothing like making a huge mess for just five minutes of fun. They did great today.

Ready to paint...a first for Jade.

I can't believe I tried to put it off as usual as a "mommy and Lily" activity during her nap. Jade enjoyed it so much and was very neat about it. I put some paint on the stamps and she very gingerly and slowly put them on and lifted them straight back up. I couldn't believe it. Whose kid is this?

This was her free paint...


Then Lily made her hand print with the finger paints. I love capturing the size of their hands like this and even did it recently with Lily's feet too...so I just assumed Jade would think this was a fun idea. NOT the case. Oh the shrill screams of torture as I wet her hand with the paint. She did not want to get dirty. Again, whose kid is this?

But, as you can see, I continued with the torture so I could record the size of her chubby 21 month old hands next to those of her sister.

Lily made quite a few creations on her own...the last of which you see here.


I am sure it doesn't need any explanation, ahem, but just for the record, she described it to me as a lizard with nine legs and a tail...and then she promptly added three eyes when I asked where it's head was. Which all seemed kind of scary to me until she asked if I noticed the bus he was sitting on.

Great. At least it isn't some sort of creature she's seen in the house recently. We have some strange geckos living in these parts. But nine legs and three eyes...that might just send me over the edge.