Week 2 activity- Painting a birdhouse

So I guess I cheated a little on this weeks activity. Reese has painted before, but never a bird house :) Let me start by sharing what happened the first time I let Reese paint.

The picture says it all, doesn't it? This was not a smart-mommy move. I took Reese to a free art class at the Orange Blossom Society (a place in town where kids can take classes.) We had done a little fingerpainting at home and Reese really hadn't been into it. So I thought this class would be fun. The first thing out of the instructor's mouth was "my only rule is to not touch your kids." She was all about letting the kids  explore etc. I am ok with that too. But after 45 minutes of exploring (a pretty long class for an 18 month old in my opinion) Reese had a total melt down.

She was covered in paint from head to toe and was bawling because I tried to corral her. She was totally overwhelmed by the experience and we left the school in the middle of a huge fit. (Not only was she bawling but I had stripped her down to her diaper so she wouldn't get paint in my car.)

I should be fair- she did have fun for the first little while. But once she figured it out, she was all over the place. I was frantically trying to protect the other moms' clothes and children from my tornado of a toddler. So after that I decided to introduce art a little more slowly and more systematically. I still let her play and be creative, but it's not a free for all anymore.

So painting the bird house was really fun. I bought it for $1.00 a JoAnns and we already had the paint and brushes so it was CHEAP which is always good. We have a bird feeder on our deck and she has been really into the birds, so she thought it was fun to paint a little bird house for them. Of course, after a couple minutes of painting, she just wanted to stick the brushes in the 2 holes in the front. That's more her style of play- putting things into something else. But we let it dry and she was super excited to show it to Spence when he got home. So I would say birdhouse painting was a success!