My "YES" Mom Adventure

You've seen the blog posts and read the books about being a "yes" mom. Ya know, when your kids ask if they can have some whipped cream, the spray kind, before dinner. And then you say yes and you're well on your way to being a great mom who creates lots of memories. And then it happens, they ask for another squirt of whipped cream and you have to say no. Or, what if you say yes? Super-cool-awesome-best-mom-ever! 3 squirts? Ah, it must stop somewhere. What happens the next day when you open the fridge to get your leftover chicken broth and your 3 yr old spots the spray can of greatness? When does it end? Saying yes to stuff like this makes my skin crawl with guilt; when the opportunity arises too much, and I must say no because it will eventually whirl into a spiral of chaos and then I go back to become a "you never let us do anything" mom.

I was/am a "proactive pinners". The one that pins others' brilliant ideas and actually do them. Most of them are fun things to do with my kids, and my kids do have fun with them. And then when I post pictures on facebook it looks like I'm always doing "cool" things with my kids. I give credit where credit is due and I don't take ownership of the great ideas, but I DO take ownership of everything that happened afterwards... where I said YES!

So, in no particular order, these are the things that weren't "on" pinterest or weren't thought out ahead of time to be "memory makers". But these things my kids talk about all the time, and these things they remember. Most are from a while back, and it makes me happy that they still remember. I hope you can be a "what the hell, yes mom" too!


Jello swimming with friends. This was totally planned and all my idea and it was perfect. We still talk about it often!







Pudding painting. Painting with pudding. Fun for all ages.

Fun story. I decided I was going to put my little Cinderellas to work one afternoon and have them literally scrub the floor with just soap and water. We actually pretended to be penguins.







Sidewalk chalk paint... YES to body paint made of chalk.






Leaving at the butt crack of dawn for a balloon festival. They want to do this all the time. Once a year is enough for this mom!

YES to stargazing on the trampoline... at 5am. Instead of going back to bed. I joined them after I poured my coffee.









YES, you may lay down in the street while it's raining. Supervised of course










YES you may play in the mud in your "not for playing in the mud" clothes.

YES you can go down into that creek in your "not for playing in a creek" clothes. Watch out for snakes kids.
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YES you may make snow angels with the flour/baby oil mix that was supposed to stay in the bin for some nice clean sensory play









And for your viewing pleasure. My Granny goes nuts every time I tell her we allow our kids to jump on the couch. But, YES, you may jump on the couch! Be careful though.