face paints, a few ways

It started a few months ago, this business about face paints. There are face painting stations at two of our favorite haunts, the zoo and the farm. There have been curious questions about face painting, but someone - Peter? - decided that they were for birthday parties and that was that.

Until recently, when someone - Lucy? - realized no, these aren't for birthday parties but for anyone! anytime!

And so began a months-long discussion about getting their faces painted and when to do it. Oh-so-peacefully it was decided we'd do it at the zoo (because most of the face painting options were wild animals), and we'd make sure to do it on a trip when Kevin came, too, so he could see the face paint in action.

Almost immediately after entering the zoo today, Peter turned to me, his eyes bright with excitement, as he realized "we can have our face masks today!"

Lucy picked a pig, the pinkest, cutest animal of the bunch. Peter requested something scary and came away with a dinosaur. They sat so patiently as the artists applied their paint. And the result? They kind of couldn't take their eyes off of themselves. It's not cheap, this face painting racket, but it pays off in little kid enjoyment.

As you'd expect, the face paint didn't last for long. The fine details of their chosen animals melted away over the course of the afternoon - the summer sun and Peter's summer cold not helping matters at all - and when we finally made it to the car, they were little more than pink- and green-faced gremlins in the backseat, a sight not so uncommon in these parts.

The kids weren't really disappointed in their smeared faces, a major relief since the inevitable ruined face paint was Reason #2 why we'd never done it to begin with. (Reason #1? the price tag.)

When we came home, the kids wiped off the precious professional paints and applied their own. It wasn't a professional job, to be sure, but it was fun - so much so that they started over again and again once more.

Thomas got in on the action, but he was much more interested in eating the face crayons than admiring his new animal face.

Comments

[Debbie]

Such cute little faces!