Mother's Day Craft 2014

You know how you see those amazing ideas on Pinterest and think, "YEAH! I am TOTALLY doing that next (insert holiday here)". Well, my neighbor and I decided we were going to be ambitious this year for Mother's Day and do some of those Pinterest-y crafts for our moms.

Our first idea? Garden stones! HOW ADORABLE!

via

You just mix up some Quickcrete, let it set a little bit, and stamp your little's feet in there.

Scratch their name in the cement while it's drying really quickly and vioala! Adorable, affordable gift.  ....right?

Until you realize a one year old and a 15 month old would rather play in the concrete and eat it than cooperate, and then claw their concrete-covered hands and feet all over you. The end result? Actually, not bad...

Since we got so filthy making the concrete and we only had two forms, we opted for a more colorful route for the other Grandmas. (For some reason, we thought paint would be cleaner...)

Terra cotta pots were our target and we wanted those perfect, Pinterest-worthy handprints by our littles on the sides so we could decorate them and give them to Grandma, like a badge of pride she could display in her garden.

When, in fact, this is what we got:

 NAILED IT. 

Along with two really, really REALLY filthy toddlers. Billy may or may not have gotten a taste of that colorful (non-toxic) paint...

 Oh yeah, then he rubbed it INTO his ear canal.

Billy dipped his hands into Logan's paint, Logan dipped his hands into Billy's paint...and before we knew it there was paint everywhere, and Billy was eating it.

At one point in this hoopla I was in charge of both babies. They were having a blast in the baby pool, but Billy couldn't stay still.

So I picked Billy up, turned to take a drink of water because it was every bit of 85º out and thought "Ahh. What a beautiful day". Then, I realized I was supposed to be watching two children and whipped around to find Logan halfway across the yard, teetering on the edge of the cement stairs.

Later, when it was my friend Lauren's turn to watch the babies she had Billy on her hip and Logan's hand in hers, trying to walk him up the hill of our yard to get to me. Logan went one way, Billy leaned the other, they both whined and squawked, the sun didn't get any less bright or hot and there was still cement everywhere.

Our conclusion? We're thankful that God blessed each of us with one baby at a time this go-around because we can't imagine needing to keep our eyes on BOTH of these boys at once...ever!! Total toddler trouble!

Needless to say, all Grandmas and Nanas loved their gifts and laughed at the story of how they were crafted. I'm not sure Lauren and I will craft together with the boys in tow again. Next time, dads get to watch them!!