Painting, Swimming and Having Fun

This morning, before I had even finished my first cup of coffee, Kaylen decided she wanted to paint. Not with watercolors, mind you...oh no, those would be too easy for Mommy to clean up. She wanted and bright containers of washable poster paints from Crayola. I can't really blame her - they are a lot of fun to use. Now while I am all for texture exploration by children I have to say; this is just not something that a mom should have to face before an entire cup of caffeine has been consumed.

And because paint to Kelton is like flowers to bees......it wasn't long before his "no thanks" about painting changed to a big, messy yes.






(if you look closely at this next photo, you will see my unfinished coffee cup sitting on the counter next to the very handy wipes for easier clean up)

Once the fun was done, I scooped them up and tossed them in the tub. It's the only way to go! :)

After cleaning them up, and cleaning up the mess left behind, I decided to fill the pool in the hopes that it would warm up by early afternoon. It was supposed to be 86 today but I think it only got to 82. Plenty warm for me, mind you. Here are a couple shots from the pool party.






The day held lots more fun including a very lively game of "Adventure" which is when the kids dress up in their adventure gear and we pretend to go to strange and new places. This afternoon we found Saturn, Pluto and Mars (different size balls in the yard) and we hiked up rugged mountain terrain (play structure) to an iceberg laden lake (their pool). Later we were attacked by wild bears (their stuffed animals) and had to build a fort to keep us save (couch cushions). At one point Kelton ran over to me, hugged me and said "You are great at this imagination stuff!" :)

It was a really fun day around here. Really, really fun.

Trucks, Dolls, Painting and More

Last night after her bath, Kaylen had a little play time while Kelton and I worked on a scrapbook page (his very own creation). Dakota came across the room and whispered "You've got to see this." And this is what we watched. The truck was actually my dad's when he was a boy and the doll and tub is none other than Kira, her new doll from this weekend. The last picture is her ready for bed. Notice all her friends - two dalmation puppies, the truck and Kira with all her stuff. Later, of course, she realized she was missing another doll, her big pink stuffed bear and her hoppity hop. Yes, you read that correctly. The girl actually insists on sleeping with her hoppity hop some nights. Some nights I wonder where she sleeps in that bed. Strange little child. :)



Today we painted. As you can see, I stripped Kelton out of his shirt because he has never not gotten paint all over himself. Except today. Today I should have stripped down Kaylen. That smock did precious little from keeping it off her shirt. But - they had a good time and that's what matters, right? :)



On a side note, today marks one month to the day that my mom died. It's still not really "real" in a lot of ways but in another way, it feels like it's been forever since that day. Time is such a fluid thing, isn't it?

A month.
A whole month.
Wow.

Silly Fun

Having kids can be so much fun! Check out my silly two:






My kids love to paint. They LOVE it. I really do not enjoy the mess. I know it's good for them to be messy and creative and yet....the paint mess just seems so daunting some times. So on those days when I want them to have creative fun but I don't feel like cleaning up paint splatters from one end of the house to the other, I strip them down, put them in the tub and hand them containers of finger paint or some other washable paint and let them go to town. Cleaning up is easy! The shower sprayer cleans off the shower walls, the tub and the kids and the plus side is, once everything is cleaned up, the kids have even had their bath for the night. :)

Did I mention they LOVE to paint? :)