Rainy day activity #4: Shaving cream free-for-all

It's only cloudy and gray today, not pouring buckets, so I guess we're having a "nice" day. The forecast looks pretty dreary starting this afternoon and continuing for the rest of the week, though, so we'll keep plugging away at the Big Ole Rainy Day Activity List. Thanks for all your great suggestions, I think the girls have loved every single one so far. They wake up, look outside, then giggle and say "More rain, mama, what's da next rainy day project on da list?" The latest project was Shaving Cream Free-For-All, suggested by Brandi, Vanessa, and Tonggu Momma. With that many cool mamas giving the green light, I knew Ro and Ree would like it. I think I just underestimated how much they'd like it, plus I completely forgot to figure in the twinado factor. Rookie move, sigh... My friend Maggie came over and we sat the girls down at the plastic-covered art table. (You could just tape a big plastic tablecloth or black plastic garbage bag to the table.) Then I handed them a bunch of containers and utensils from the playroom and four cans of shaving cream and let them do whatever they wanted. (I just bet at this point that Brandi, Vanessa, and Tonggu Momma are gasping that I used FOUR freaking cans, and yes, those gasps are warranted. Not a good call on my part. Not at all. I don't know what I was thinking.) Things started off pretty benignly. There were some dignified little giggles, and some cute, restrained squirting. Ro is in the red, and Ree is in the yellow: The tuna can strainer was my favorite!: They loved stirring the goopy, gloppy mess: Then they started egging each other on (this should come as no surprise to anyone): And at some point, the damn cat accidentally dipped her tail in and started painting everything within a 12" radius before we could grab her: While we were occupied with the cat, the shaving cream started to spread. Hm, nothing to worry about, right?: And then, well, I don't know how else to put this, but all hell broke loose: They were practically diving into the stuff. It looked like a fraternity party gone bad. Or good, I guess, depending on your point of view: Maggie and I didn't really know what to do now. We were kind of committed at this point, and realized the bathtub was one really long flight of stairs away... So we agreed to let them finish: I think at this point I might have whimpered and Maggie told me to just buck up, or maybe it was the other way around: Finally they were done playing and it was time to attempt Project Cleanup: Do I even need to describe what a pain it was to get them upstairs and into the bath without leaving a trail of white slime everywhere? I herded them toward the bathroom, barking "no!" and "don't touch that" all the way up the stairs, and Maggie followed with a wet rag, wiping any unfortunate walls, carpet, or toys that happened to be in their path. Oy. Ok, so this was an incredibly fun rainy day project, but it took Maggie and I about an hour (with both of us working steadily) to clean everyone and everything up. We would totally do this again, but this time we'll put the kids in bathing suits and put them in the dry bathtub with the clear shower curtain drawn. That one tiny little change in locale would have saved hours of cleanup, without killing the fun factor. Oh, and next time only one can per kid for Pete's sake. Disclaimer: my guess is that you wouldn't need to go the bathtub-containment route if you only had one "artist" at work or if your little shaving cream enthusiast wasn't as, um, exuberant as Ro and Ree. Cheers!