Little Artist

I noticed Parker seemed a little bored the past couple days. Poor kid...he's stuck in the house with me all day! He loves being outside, but after about 10 a.m. it's too hot for me to stay out very long. We don't have a good backyard for playing so I can't just let him go out by himself. Instead we usually take him out front and let him walk around. Once he has his little blue bucket in hand, he marches off down the sidewalk looking for new things to 'collect'--rocks, leaves, bark, etc. Can get a little tiring following (or chasing?) him around!

I wanted to get him some kind of little art project where he could get messy. I had seen something on pinterest that looked fun, so we ran over to Michaels for a few supplies. I picked up a set of finger paints and a small paint tray. I already had watercolor paper, alphabet stickers and small sponges at home.

I spelled Parker's name on the watercolor paper using large alphabet stickers. Colors didn't matter because they'd be taken off later anyway.

I put down a piece of plastic on the ground in some shade and got some water and wet cloths ready,  then I took out the paper I had prepared as well as a couple extra sheets. The paints said they were washable on most surfaces, but I stripped Parker down to his diaper just to be sure we didn't ruin any clothing. Then we sat outside and started painting! I showed him how to dip his finger in the paint and color on the paper and he happily started working on his own. I placed the paper with his name in front of him so he'd work on that one first and he was doing a pretty good job of getting all the colors on it. After a while he started dipping into several colors before spreading it onto the paper so it was all becoming a muddy brown. Rather than give him all six colors, I should have gone with my first instinct and only used two or three at a time. Not a big deal, though. He was having so much fun! Too bad I forgot to take my camera out with me!

When his name page thoroughly (and thickly) covered, I pulled it back and gave him the other pages to play with. Once he ran out of paint I set the papers out in the sun to dry while we got cleaned up. They didn't take long to dry in the heat. Then I pulled the stickers off so his name would show...

 Parker's first little masterpiece!  :)