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Our kids are growing way too fast. I’m sure that’s how it always happens, but recently Colby and I have really felt the time slipping past.
Chey and Nic are in college and have great jobs. Wyatt works all the time as well, and all three of them are out of the house. Colby and I stay busy enough with our own responsibilities, plus the girls’, so our family time has been reduced a bit. Therefore, when I mentioned to Colby that I missed our older kids, he decided a family day was in order.
At-Home Painting Party
Initially, he wanted to plan a full day at Six Flags. But, after researching the hours and price of tickets, we nixed that idea and brainstormed more things to do. We weren’t coming up with much that we had not already done and were getting frustrated. Colby took Cole outside for a bit and came back in pretty excited about an idea that came to him while in the backyard.
He began talking about an at-home painting party… that we would do ourselves. After listening to all he described, we decided it sounded perfect! We had never attended one of these painting parties and couldn’t wait to see what the kids would think!
Much to our surprise, the kids were all actually excited about the idea! We just needed a few supplies to make it all work. 16 x 20 canvases, acrylic paints, brushes and easels were the easy part. Fortunately, I was able to find a site that offered free instructional videos to help us with the art.
After setting up two folding-tables over a drop cloth to protect the floors, we lined up our canvases and paints and sat down to create. The video was easy to pull up on our smart TV so that everyone could see and hear the instructions. Now, since we’re all novices, we had to pause the video a few times, but it worked well for us.
Due to a little perfectionism, we took twice what the video time was to complete our paintings, but it was so much fun! We laughed at our attempts and did our best to persevere through the silliness. We had snacks and drinks for everyone, as well as more than enough enthusiasm to go around.
When it was all said and done, we had 9 incredibly different, absolutely perfect paintings! At one point in the video, we decided we were good enough to do our own thing. Or, perhaps we figured out our pictures were not looking as much like the instructor’s as we thought and switched it up a little.
Throughout the craft, we learned who had a steady hand, who needed symmetry, who had an eye for colors, and who threw caution to the wind when creating. Mostly though, we just had fun! As far as family days go, it was definitely one for the books. Hats off to my amazing husband for the idea and to our family for going along with it all!
Get the Supplies!