Ooops... when good ideas go wrong

Sometimes as parents we try a little too hard.
We have flashes of brilliance peppered with ingenuity that seem like the perfect thing to do with the kids on a lovely summer afternoon.
But once in a while these ideas have repercussions that leave the kids looking like lobsters.

Yup I said lobsters.


I guess I should rewind here and tell you what actually happened.

Luca and I were hanging out, while Papa packed his suitcase and finished up some things around the house before his trip. Sick of the trains we had been playing with Luca looked up the shelving unit, settled his big eyes on the crafting bins and asked to paint. Loving this idea and pulled down the bins and pulled out what was left of the paint - blue, green and white tempra paint and black acrylic. Not feeling for scrubbing hardened black plastic out of the grout lines of the ceramic I decided it was best to put the acrylic away for another day. In hindsight maybe I should have just gone with the acrylic.

Looking at the three colours of tempra I was underwhelmed.
We had painted with these ones before and the results were drab at best. With a proverbial scratch of the chin I headed for the kitchen to see what I could dig up. With no beets on hand I turned to the baking cupboard... There, sitting untouched on the bottom shelf, were 2 little cylinders of gel colour food tints in hot pink and purple which had been sweetly passed along from a friend, but would likely not get used any time soon. Perfect!

Mixing them with a bit of water in small plastic container I added them along side the tempra paints and headed out onto the patio to where Luca ( dressed only in a diaper ) had started on our creation by using pencil crayons and markers on a piece of an old photo backdrop.
I joined him, ready to create a masterpiece...um mural =P


Luca asked me to draw a fire engine, police car, and ambulance and then headed for the paint. I decided to draw a fish, a crab and a jellyfish ( some of the things we saw on our recent trip to PEI ) and then added seaweed and coral.

Shortly after he had begun Luca's hands and feet were covered in paint. Of course I had expected this... what I didn't expect was that the pink food colouring would not wash off AT ALL after we were done! So much for my bright idea. From his toes to his thighs and half way up his arms Luca was fluorescent pink. Not that he cared though. He just thought it was a fun thing to do with Mom on a sunny afternoon and that, in the end, is what matters.

Today he looks like he has had his finger and toe nails painted pink but the majority of the colour on his arms and legs has warn off from sand at the play ground and bubbles in the bath tub... I have a feeling I should be very happy that his navy blue sheets are on his bed as well. We'll be walking over to the store to get red and yellow tempra paint this afternoon.