Our Fourth Failure

So let me paint a picture for you:

It’s a warm summer’s night.  You and your perfect little family are lounging together on a pretty little picnic blanket in a perfect little spot overlooking the river. The hot breeze is making your daughters hair curl up in the cutest way and the temperature is just right for your other daughter to be wearing a light summer dress, toes bare.  You smile, kindly, at all the people who are watching your cute kids with adoring eyes.  Waiting ’til dusk, you light a sparkler to the amazement of your two year old who watches with wonder and curiosity reflecting in her eyes. The conversation is light and sweet as you all curl your toes in the cool grass, waiting calmly for the fireworks to start.  Once they finely begin to explode, you all huddle together as a family, watching the glowing embers fall back toward the river.

Pretty picture, huh?

Well that was  not, defintely not, what our Independence Day looked like.

It was more like a mess of crying kids, sweaty heads from almost 100 degree heat, too long of a walk from the parking garage to the river front, and way too many drunk people and lit cigarettes than anyone should be comfortable walking through. Then there was my darling two year old, who upon arrival to our 1 square foot plot of riverfront acreage, decided to start screaming, “Mommy, please don’t drop me in the river! Don’t drop me Mommy, no no no!”. Yeah, you can imagine the looks I was getting. I pulled out the big guns with gummies and glow sticks and iPhone movies but it was all a definite no-go. Brandon kept his cool, certainly trying not to give me an I-told-you-so glance (and I love him for that), but I was losing it big time. This was not, definitely not, how this night was supposed to be.

    

We packed our kids up so quick you might not have ever known we were there. It was a wash. We were on the highway and home tucked in bed faster than you can say 4th of Joo-lie!

 

At least we managed to sneak in a sparkler.

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What was not a failure, however, was our homemade watercolors! We used them with fantastic results. The colors are bright and vibrant and glide smoothly onto the paper. I love having the deep, separated wells because it was much easier for Lilly to swirl the paint around without mixing and muddying up all the colors. Geeze, I sound a little up tight about my paints don’t I? Maybe I should learn to let go… Anywho… Lilly was very proud and we had a nice half hour of watercolor time where Lilly was quiet and happy.

I let Lilly use a white crayon underneath so we had “secret pictures” revealed when the paint was applied. She was thoroughly impressed!

If you want the how-to tutorial for the watercolor paints, click on over to this post where I give detailed directions and the recipe for these lovely paints.