favorite thing friday

Ever since they were small toddlers, our children have loved to play with paint. When they were only two-years-old, I would let them fingerpaint on our kitchen table. I would strap them in to their booster seats and cover the table with butcher paper, before squeezing a big dollop of brightly colored paint before them.

This activity was always guaranteed to keep the children busy for a solid seven or eight minutes and generate the largest mess imaginable. But for those seven or eight minutes, they were blissfully happy. Until they realized that they had PAINT ALL OVER THEIR HANDS and they'd fall in to a screaming fit, while grabbing at their hair, faces and anything within reach.

Although we own a PBK Carolina Craft Table, with a built in roll of paper, the children all seem to prefer the Melissa & Doug easel that Santa brought this past Christmas, for painting.

On one side of the easel is a dry erase board, on the other side is a chalk board. Through the middle of the easel, one can pull up a roll of paper that is affixed in the center, transforming one or both sides to a paint center.

Because we have multiple budding artists in our home - I will typically clip paper to both sides of the easel - and at least two children can express their inner artist.

The ability to create two separate paint centers works very well because although only one child may have expressed an interest in painting, whenever the easel is set up and paint cups are filled, everyone wants to be Renoir.

We use our easel every day. When we aren't using it for painting, we are using the chalkboard and dry erase board to practice letter writing and spelling. It is one of my top 10 favorite toys and something that everyone enjoys.

Do you have small children?

Or do you know any one that has small children?

For a $5.00 donation to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society via either Margaret or Charlie and a comment left on THIS post, you will be entered in to a raffle to win a Melissa & Doug easel AND the Melissa & Doug easel companion set.

(The estimated value including tax and shipping is ~$125.00).


Your donation is 100% tax deductible.

Your donation is fueling research for a cure.

And your donation will enter you in to a raffle to win one of these easels, which will keep your child happily and constructively entertained for hours tens of minutes each and every day.

Personally? I can't think of a better way to invest $5.00.

When I met with my fellow Team-In-Trainers this past weekend, it came to my attention that there are all kinds of accolades and glory bestowed upon those individuals who are capable of raising the most funds since our season has begun.

What?

You mean to tell me that I've been intentionally sending everyone over to Margaret and Charlie's fundraising pages when I should have been telling them to donate to me, me, ME so that I could have won a new purple jacket?!

When the top three fundraisers from my team proudly stood up to be recognized for raising $2,000.00, $1,500.00 and $1,000.00 over the past few weeks, I couldn't help but smile at how awesome it is that we've raised more than twice as much.

To me, it really doesn't matter that one person raises more than another. What matters is that all of us reach our minimum fundraising goals and that all of that money goes to cancer research.

Thanks in large part to so many of you, earlier this week, I reached my minimum fundraising requirement of $1,750.00. My cousin Candy's $250.00 donation put me over. And my eight-year-old nephew, Michael's $5.00 donation (from his very first allowance) was the cherry on top.

Although my goal is to raise as much as we can, at this juncture, my priority is insuring that my fellow "Cancer Crusaders" have reached their minimum fundraising goals, as well. So to enter this contest, please make your donation to either Margaret or Charlie's fundraising page and don't forget to leave a comment on THIS post.

If you donate $10.00, you will be entered 2 times; if you donate $20.00 you will be entered 4 times. And so on. All of the entries will be placed in to an excel spreadsheet and the winner will be selected using a random integer generator on Wednesday March 11.

Is anyone having as much fun as me? Seriously, if I didn't need to actually work to make money to fund these giveaways, I could honestly see doing this for a living.

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Do you visit BabySteps? Carolyn's Board? Triplet Connection? Mothering.com? Please let people know to head over and enter for a chance to win. In doing so, they will be expediting the cure of a disease that takes one life every 10 minutes and is the number one cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 14.

OK, ready ... set ... GO!