A penchant for paint

Today saw a return to the typical British weather of rain, rain and more rain, so we turned once again to the delights of painting to while away our afternoon. This is an activity that both the Podlings love, and is guaranteed to keep them out of mischief for at least an hour...normally! Today I got to experience the relative delights of keeping two children from smearing paint all over the kitchen when your mum calls you in the middle of the painting session. Well Mum, here are the pictures....!During a momentary lapse in concentration (mine, not hers), Lily decided to sample the culinary delight of blue poster paint. Beautiful shade of lipstick she has on there, really brings out her eyes! She then decided that her paper was looking a bit full, so proceeded to paint the wall next to her chair. You can see the result in the above photo. Hmmm, I hadn't considered green walls in the kitchen, but maybe I should! Shortly after this, I had to stop her trying to drink the green paint, which I had foolishly mixed in a spare plastic cup. She picked it up by the handle and appeared to know exactly how to use it...probably preparing for elegant tea parties with her dolls. I stopped it as it reached her lips.

Tom, meanwhile, had been mostly content and was quietly painting away. He had tried to get down a couple of times, but I managed to persuade him to stay in his seat with the promise of clean paper and some fresh paint. Then he got bored. He was off his chair and gone before you could say 'Tom don't touch anything!'. I decided that this was a prudent point to end the telephone conversation with my mum. I set off after him and caught him before he left the kitchen, but you wouldn't believe the mess he made in the less than a minute he was out of his chair. Here, for my mum's amusement, is the list of things I had to clean at the end of the painting session:

1. Three of the kitchen walls
2. The door frame
3. My chest freezer
4. Both of the Podlings' chairs (and obviously the table, but you'd expect that)
5. The kitchen floor, in three places
6. Five cupboard doors and two drawer fronts
7. Two very messy children!

Below is a picture of Lily washing her hands at the end of painting session (apologies for the blurry photo), posted mainly because you can see some of the mess I had to clean in the background (and I'd already cleared most of the table by this point). I only buy washable paint, but I have to say that my walls do appear to have a faint green tinge to them now! Ironically, green is my mum's favourite colour. Thanks mum!