Art Project

Note the paint in his EAR

The water was all blue, largly from his hair.

You can see the paint running down his neck, there was just so much!

So the other day-wed. or Thurs. I think- I was all excited to to do a craft project with the kids. I'd been browsing a crafty Moma's blog ( Soule Mama) and was feeling all inspired and really it's been too long since we've done something like that. I think we were all needing to be creative. So I made sure the kitchen was clean, particularly the floor since I planned on useing that too. And I got out all our painting stuff, my Mom got the kids some sponge roller tools for Easter and we hadn't even opened them yet. I taped down some paper off our butcher roll of paper (I got ours through Tony's but I think most grocery stores will order one for you if you ask. They're a lot of fun.) on the table, put on some music and got everyone out there. I've learned to just put the paint on paper plates for them to use it from because it's easier to clean up that way. I had visions of everybody painting these pretty, most likely abstract paintings.......I had hopes of maybe even painting myself.

I expect a mess. I know everyone will need a bath and I'll be cleaning the table, chairs and sink. I did not expect to be cleaning the floor five times in one day. Hands and knees cleaning the floor. Plus spot cleaning a few times as well. And cleaning the walls, the entire front of the fridge, two window sills, the butcher table Tom made me, and the walls by the sink. That doesn't even come close to describing the mess.

The boys, particularly Justin, still just love to just splash the paint on, layer over layer. They're happy just with the feeling of it on their hands.

Jacob did well, and eventually fell asleep. When he woke up I plopped him right in the tub. He was not happy with this and I had to calm him down a bit afterwards. I had Timothy and Justin get in and bathe while I calmed Jacob down. I did not expect the two of them to decide to go back downstairs and paint some more while I was lying there with Jacob. I did not expect them to just pour paint out, right on the floor. It was splattered everywhere. Someone had painted overtop of Leanna's beach picture that was drying on the table (we were going to glue some foam sea creatures from CVS on top of it when it dried). Timothy had a large patch of paint on the top back of his hair. When I found this lovely scene I set Jacob in the living room and started cleaning as quickly as I could. I had to hurry and clean the bottoms of their feet before they went out towards the living room carpet. And keep them from re-dirtying their feet by stepping in any of the paint puddles on the floor. The sink was a sea of blue. While I tackled the mess Jacob came back out and before I could grab him, he'd wandered smack into the middle of the giant paint puddle on the floor! He started slipping and fell. Crying again, he attempted to get up but kept slipping in the paint/paper mess. I had to grab him and he was clinging to my legs as I tried to get all the paint up as fast as I could. I was covered in paint as well, without even painting myself. I did a passable job on the kitchen and then had to run Jacob and Timothy back up to the tub. I didn't even get a chance to give Leanna a bath yet! It took me the rest of the day to finish cleaning the mess up from this little project. I always have this idea of how things will be and get very dissapointed when it doesn't work out. I ddidn't expect it to be perfect. I'm still working on that whole expectations thing......being able to adjust them in order to be a happy person. Yeah, I'm still working on it. At least the kids had fun. : )