PLAY EVERYDAY: Snow Spraying with the Kids

 It's cold. It's colorless. It's January.  Its hard to get excited about going outside with the kids when it takes a year and a day to get everyone into warm clothes. But, the effort is well worth it once you are out and enjoying each others company.

Whether you are looking for new ideas to PLAY, or just want a break from pulling kids up the sledding hill try snowpainting/spraying for a different snow day activity you and the kids will enjoy.

We found cheap spray bottles at IKEA for .49 cents each. But, spray bottles can be found nearly everywhere. Simply, fill them up with water and a few drops of food coloring, shake, and you are good to go. Our one rule was "no spraying people" as that gets messy and cold really quick. Experiment with color. If the water is not dark enough the kids can't see it in the snow.

PLAY IDEAS

• Change the stream on the bottle to spray or just have a steady squirt to create drawings or patterns in the snow.

• Decorate your latest snowman or creation with different colors. They will end up blending and creating a fun tie died effect.

• For little ones practice drawing/spraying letters and/or numbers in the snow. Older kids can write their names or play a game of tic tac toe.

• Create a maze, spiderweb, or other obstacle type course that the kids and you have to go through superhero style. Jump into square shapes. Run around circle shapes. Etc.

• Make a scavenger hunt. Spray shapes and letters in the snow and then have the kids come out and see how many they can find. By spraying with their color they can show they have found it.

• Let the kids be kids and you be one too! Sometimes its fun to just walk around and spray. My bottle was gone before theirs as I tried to make different designs in the snow and help show them what and how they could spray. 

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Fashion Friday - Are you a Mom like me?

While I don't know anything about you or what your day entails as a Mother. I do know what one looks like for me. Yesterday that day was spent cleaning up an entire tube of toothpaste emptied around my bathroom. It was a long walk in the heat to get to a park so the kids could "get some energy out" and a fight to get them back in the stroller to go home. It was a lost beloved flip flop on the way home from the park, looked for by me on a bike at dusk up and down the route we took several times. (Which would result in a trip to several Target stores this morning trying to find a replacement when they are sold out in the middle of summer. Go figure.) It was a giant box of Cheerios emptied out on my couch and thrown all over my house. It was no naps, epic tantrums at the grocery store, and a visit to a sick neighbor that ended up in her laundry detergent begin poured all over her laundry room floor and dripping down her heat vent, and me leaving embarrassed and adding her soap to my grocery list so I can replace it. It was a near sleepless night the night before and the night after. It was spent with the endless messes, requests, and demands. 

The few moments I stole for myself to scroll through my Instagram left me feeling like a deflated balloon as it showed picture after picture of "Moms like me" playing with their children while looking immaculately perfect. Captions like "playing blocks before nap time," "chilling at the pool," and "breakfast in perfect pi's on a perfect bed in a perfect house" while the mothers in these pictures appear to have just returned from the Oscars and slipped out of their evening gowns into a slightly less fancy picture perfect outfit. Did you just return from family pictures, a wedding, or a 5 star spa? Is your Mom on the way over to babysit for the night while you and your husband go on an anniversary date?  Do you have a full time nanny who does the childcare? Who looks like this on a daily mom basis because I sure don't. Sometimes I wish I did. But I don't. A year ago I took a 60 second bathroom break and returned to the wood and glass panel door being ripped off its hinges by one of my children. I can only imagine what would happen if I left them long enough to look as good as some of these moms do because I do know it takes some serious time to look like that. 

Are they bad moms? Are they wrong to look like that? No. Beauty is defined differently by each of us. Children are different ages, stages, and temperaments. I've learned that my "dressed up" is a whole lot different than others definitions of "dressed up." I've learned that looking like a million bucks is not real for me on a daily basis, and that is ok too. For me I have found out why moms like tee shirts and jeans. Its easy, comfortable, and cleans easily. I do have my days where I look better than others, as I sit here makeup less, hair in a messy braid, and holes the size of grapefruits in my jeans that I've been wearing for over a decade. But, I hope that if you truly are a "mom like me" you too realize that Instagram perfection is maybe not what it seems and we shouldn't think it is. We all put our best selves forward on social media and it's not fair to judge your worst to someones best, or your best to a fantasy that is not what it appears. Be YOU. Be Happy. Dress up or dress down, whatever that may mean for you. But don't feel bad about it, and wonder where you are falling short. You are doing the best you can and that is all that matters. Be your kind of pretty. You'll be happier that way. Promise.

So for this fashion friday, embrace the graphic tee, wear your jeans, holey or otherwise with pride, rock that ponytail, or cover it up with a hat. Free your feet in flip flops, leave the jewelry in your closet, and top it all off with a smile. You are a babe, just the way you are!

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