What better way to do that then to give them the tools to do if themself??! (Obviously Kenzie can't do hers alone so we did that for her) I bought some canvases & fingerpaints and let gunner be his own artist.
It was SO. MUCH. FUN!!!
We started with laying a tarp down in the kitchen for obvious reasons. I was really anxious he'd just get up and run around with the paint, but luckily he stuck to his canvas and on the tarp!
Then rick took each of the canvases and taped off sections that were for mckenzie. I am going to work on her sections today while gunner naps (he'll just want to join in the fun again if he sees her painting) - the section for her will be for her footprints.
While rick did the tarp and taping - I put all the colors on paper plates so gunner could have access to all the colors at once. We really really wanted him to do it all by himself without our help to see what he would do :)
& then... It was time to paint!
At first we had to show him what to do and what the paint was and did. He took it slow at first and was hesitant... But it didn't take long for him to start smashing his hands in the paints and on the canvases! (It was a lot like the cake smash session he did) Once he realized he was being allowed to make a mess, well, then he started having a ball!
We held the canvases up for him so he would paint on every single on them (there were four total) and it got real messy real fast!
By the end of the painting - gunner AND I were both COVERED! (He thought it was funny to get paint on my face when he seen dad to it... Dad's right?)
We secretly wanted him to get covered so we could save the shirt (rick wants to frame his shirt and put it next to the canvas were keeping for our house) - and yes - it definitely made for fun pictures & memories of our fun painting night!
Then dad ran a bath and it was time for us to get clean. I'll give it to crayola - when they say "washable", they really mean it! Just stepping in the bath water it instantly came off. It took a little water and we were squeaky clean!
& gunner thought it was just the funniest thing that I was in the tub too! Haha :)
After his full bath was over - he didn't even want to get near me and get paint on him (how quickly he was over it once he was clean)!
The final result? A great family night full of fun memories, four BEAUTIFUL masterpieces made by gunner himself (I secretly wish I could keep them all) and a very sleepy toddler who slept GREAT!
Id say painting gifts was a success!
& now today when he goes to sleep - it's time for little mckenzie to get her feet wet (literally). Let's hope that goes as smoothly as it did the first round!
{{UPDATE}}
I did McKenzie's footprints (and much thanks to a warm bottle propped up in her bouncer while I painted her feet) - her footprints turned out great! They were the perfect additions to an already adorable painting! Here are the final products!
And this one were keeping for our house :) it made me sad knowing I couldn't keep ALL these beautiful and special masterpieces of our little ones hand & feet - so of course I had to have an extra one made for our house! & now painting will be a normal thing in our household - I'm thinking we'll need to start a gallery wall soon because we had so much fun and I just can't get enough keepsakes like these <3
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