Just Our Day

I bought a Trunk Organizer from Bed, Bath & Beyond that I was eager to put to use!  There's some things that we keep in our trunk for convenience (or an emergency!) and I'm tired of 1) arranging them a bazillion times each week just to have them roll around as soon as I'm in 'Drive' & 2) the trunk looking like a mess.  I have a feeling that this little organization tool is one of those things that is so simple, but is going to make my life just a little nicer and bring a smile to my face.  One such thing is our divided hamper...everyone sorts their own clothes as they go into the hamper so when I'm ready to do laundry, I literally grab the load and go without having to sort.  It really is so fun to find simple little things like that to help make maintaining order just a tad easier!! :)

Anyway, I wanted to get out in the driveway tonight to clean the car out & get it organized.  Most of the time I do this at the carwash & the kids are right there 'helping me.'  You know, putting finger prints on the review mirror so I have one more surface to wipe down, checking the hazard light button to be sure the lights still blink, testing out the horn & scaring all the other carwashers half out of their skin, looking through every single book in the car that I'd just put back in the seat pocket for the 100th time...you know 'helping'. :)  Oh, and I have to love that when I turn the car back on, the radio is blaring to who knows what station, the lights are on bright, and the wipers are roughly & noisily swiping back and forth, back and forth, leaving nice smudgy streaks on my newly washed windshield.  Ahhhh...love having help!

Today I wanted to be strong & brave and just take on the whole task of cleaning and organizing the car by myself.  Which meant I needed to find something VERY interesting to keep the kids (mainly Kip) fully occupied.  Usually every time I think, "Oh, he's really gonna love this activity" or "Ewwww...this'll keep his attention", it's an epic fail.  He's over whatever it was in 2.5 seconds leaving me with a mess to clean up, nothing to show for my effort, and disappointed that I planned yet another boring activity for my little firecracker.  

Sooooo, we set his easel up outside, pulled out some new paint, and they went to town.  Kip painted for probably about 30 minutes...that's amazing!!  I got my stuff done, they had fun, and all were happy :)

Kip's first work of art...

Kory takes her artwork very seriously (seriously!) 

Explaining her picture...fire, a tent, sun, sky, clouds (she wasn't finished yet). 

So Kip had to explain, too!  He said while he was painting that he was painting baby Jesus. So of course, now he's pointing out baby Jesus...see?? ;). Then he said 'here's fire (copycat), the number 'K' (which I painted & he got mad about it), the number '1', & the number 'i'. 

Besides painting his pictures, he enjoyed dumping the water onto the tray multiple times, decorating his painting shirt, & mixing all the paint colors together.  

Just a fun, laid back summer evening...I love it!!