The other day I pulled the paint out, our Gathre mat and Blake helped me collect the little pumpkins from around the house. You know, so we could decorate some pumpkins! I made myself a promise before we even started that well, I was going to just let Blake be a kid. I wasn’t going to worry about a mess, I wasn’t going to tell her “no” 15 times, I was just going to let her have some fun and I was going to sit back and enjoy it.

So that’s just what we did. I think sometimes in life not only does your little one need it, but you do. I can tell you for sure I definitely needed that 30 minutes of just watching her have fun, be silly and get messy. It’s kind of like a fresh of breath air, like oh wow, I can breath and not worry about every little thing around me.

We used washable paints, had the Gathre mat down and it was perfect. Now I promised I would link everything for y’all on instal-stories, so shop everything below:

As for the Gathre mat, we use it ALL the time, for just about everything and when she was younger I used to throw it under her high chair, you know to catch the mess that doesn’t end up in her mouth (AKA: 90% if her food). It wipes off super easy, folds up and we just store it in the pantry. It’s great for all the things (paint, food, play-doh, literally all the messy things).

Ready, set go paint den’ pumpkins, pour yourself a Dr. Pepper and just sit back and enjoy the mess.

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