Kids and Messes

The kids and I decided to get out the washable paint today and paint a few pictures.  I was intently focused on my painting (I was working on some ideas for a new blog banner), and was rather alarmed when I looked up and saw that my two year old had been transformed into The Incredible Hulk.  Apparently Layla was bored with painting on her paper, so she decided to move on to a more exciting project:  body painting.  She even had it in her hair!  Good thing it washes out.  My philosophy with kids making messes is that it's all good as long as the project keeps them occupied for a longer period of time than the time it takes for me to clean it up.  For example, if I let Layla "wash dishes" in the kitchen sink for 30 minutes and it takes me 10 minutes to clean the water up off the floor and counters and change her clothes, I consider that a net gain of 20 minutes.