Painting

I hit some after-Valentine's-Day sales and picked up some fun painting books for the girls. I told Shasta we couldn't do them until we did some cleaning and she was headed to bed for quiet time so it had to wait. When she woke up I was on the computer and she immediately went to the kitchen and started cleaning up the Valentine's decorations from the night before. She then proceeded to clean the family room and never once complained. I was so impressed with her that I got out everything we needed to paint before she even asked. Once she was done she asked if she could paint now and I pointed to the table to show her it was waiting for her. She was so involved in cleaning that she didn't even notice I got everything out! She then proceeded to paint for the next hour, took a 2 hour break, and then painted some more for at least another hour. Best. Purchase. Ever! My rule of thumb is if they spend more time doing the activity then it takes to clean it up, then it's time well spent. It took less than 2 minutes to clean up so I'm thinking I need to go back to Hobby Lobby and buy every last paint book they have...!