Painting Pumpkins with our Punkins

What was supposed to be a fun filled day on the farm, turned out to be a playdate at Nana's playing in the sandbox and painting pumpkins.

Mother Nature struck yet again, and for the 2nd time we had to cancel our trip to Tanglewood Farms to see the miniature animals. Oh well...

My mom, aunt, 2 cousins, Trace and I were going to meet my cousin and her daughter from Atlanta down at a farm we have all heard about (but never actually gotten to see) to spend the morning amongst the "little" animals.

However, after the weather forecast called for an 80% chance of rain and severe wind gusts, not to mention my continuous nightmares involving pushing strollers and chasing 4 children under 5 through a rain soaked mud hole that smelled of manure... we opted out.

Some may say we choked, I like to think it's mother's intuition. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know how that would have turned out.

I have been on enough field trips in my adult life to know that small children, torrential downpours, wind gusts, and mud are NEVER, NEVER a good combination!

So... as I said earlier, my mom offered to have us up to her house to play in the new sandbox Papaw built for Trace in their basement.

(I mean really, doesn't every kid have an indoor sandbox in their basement?)

Trace and Abam (as he calls him) loved playing in the sand and running around the wide open basement. Of all the toys down there, they spent most of their time playing on the exercise equipment... go figure.
While the big boys played, Lucas looked on and cackled from his walker. He is absolutely adorable!! Big brother Abram calls him punkin... so sweet!
I thought I would reach way back into my crafty Kindergarten days and get the boys pumpkins to paint.

FYI moms... washable, finger paint does not adhere to the surface of a pumpkin. And because I had not tested this theory at home prior to our project, Nana had to come to the rescue with markers.


I'm sure their dads will love the boys in their floral smocks, but the moms will appreciate the importance of a good cover up :)

For all the time I spend picking the perfect pumpkins, gathering the paint, brushes, smocks, and newspaper to cover the counter, the boys literally spent less than 2 minutes coloring their pumpkins and then looked up as if to say... "OK, what next?"

Oh... the attention span of little boys!

They played and wrestled (if you can call it wrestling when it's totally one sided and one child is pleading with the other to get off of him)... sorry Abram. We are still working on the "gentle" play concept. He was so patient with Trace and such a great sport.

Trace totally loses all control when he's playing with other kids and it's full out energy to the point of exhaustion (for he and I).

On a positive note, he did come home and take a 3 hour nap afterwards!!

Sometimes I watch him and think... is this normal?? But from the stories I've heard about his daddy at this age, and the stories I remember of my brother at 2, it's in his genes. Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me, not to mention high blood pressure and gray hair!

Thank you Lucas and Abram for coming to play! I love those little guys and I hope and pray they all grow up to be the best of buddies!