Sidewalk Chalk and Motherhood

Kids and sidewalk chalk. It's a fun combination, right? Well, mostly. I put it on our summer bucket list this year because I wasn't sure it would happen otherwise. A three-year-old and an eighteen-month-old cannot really be set free in your front yard and I don't typically spend a lot of time out there anyway. My kids are both pretty prone to running away and we live on a busy street, so I'm terrified to take them out there alone. Thus: we wait for a day when Daddy is home and make it a family adventure.

I'm sure in a few years, they will routinely cover our driveway in doodles and dragons and dazzling designs, but for now we are just celebrating the memory of the day that they got to ask Daddy to draw a mermaid and a monkey in between making crazy running breaks for the street.

These are some of the moments that are kind of hard to appreciate when you're going through them. It can seem like a huge ordeal to take the kids out of the house and let them use their imaginations to make squiggly lines across the drive.

But, the memories that come with the crazy antics of toddlers are so very worth it. They're the ones we're most likely to fondly look back upon when our children have grown and gone. So mamas...we have to embrace it.

You can create a glorious sidewalk chalk masterpiece, but even if it's the finest work of your life, the next rain will wash it away. You can only enjoy it while it lasts.

Here's my mom advice for the day. Take a minute and do something simple - yet fast-fading - with your kids. And then hold them close, because while their childhood may not fade as quickly as a chalk drawing...in a few years, it's sure going to seem like it did.

On the day we colored with sidewalk chalk, both of my kids coated themselves in chalk. It was on Addie's legs for days. Deep breath, self. Someday you'll long to squeeze those chubby legs and have a little chalk rub off onto your already food-and-spit stained clothes. I promise.

We're happy to have crossed this item off our Summer Bucket List!
Come see what else we're doing to celebrate summer this year!