Rainy Day Activity: Painting with Cars!

Okay, so first of all... WHAT IS UP with all this dreary, Edgar Allen Poe weather we've been having the past couple of weeks?

It's July! I want to be outside sipping an iced coffee while my kids run through the sprinklers... NOT wiping runny noses, eating soup and baking bread in my sweat pants!

Okay, end of rant.

Since Mother Nature has thrown us such a curve ball this week, my kids have been getting pretty stir crazy. So yesterday morning we decided to make our own messy fun.

Here's what we did:

I taped butcher paper to the kitchen table and set out some finger paint on a paper plate. I had Bennett pick out a few of his hot wheels...

Then I let him have at it, dipping the cars in the paint and then driving them all over the paper.
He loved it!

Then afterwards, I let Bennett give his cars a "bath" in the kitchen sink to get all the paint off.

...with lots of bubbles, of course. This is a fun activity in and of itself: fill the sink up with soapy water and let 'em go to town.

Oh to be a child and take such delight in such simple things.

And remember... it's the spontaneous, crazy, silly, messy activities that your kids will remember years from now. I still remember the time when my sweet Mom let my friends and I go CRAZY with confetti for one of my birthday parties. It was so fun. I know it took her HOURS to clean it up... but it's a memory I will have forever.

If you are mess-phobic, just keep telling yourself: It's just a mess. It can be cleaned up. The memories I am making are worth it.

Throw caution to the wind and have some fun!