You know that I LOVE to have my kids color, doodle, doodle paintand just have lots of mindless FUN with anything that gets their hands dirty with crayons, colored pencils, markers and paints, right?

The one thing I ALWAYS repeat OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again is "ONLY color on the PAPER...NOT the furniture!!"

Well, as you can see, my kiddos definitely have their listening ears on, but soon, Luca starts to make marks on other places besides the paper...like himself! Sister, she's good, right??? ;)

The more Luca realizes he can make other marks than the ones on his paper, he likes to turn his coloring into a game, by running away and finding anything in the house to color on as fast as he can before we get to him while laughing.

Yep, that's our kitchen floor!! At least he used our GATOR colors!! Oh, and please mind the dirty floor...I should probably clean those soon. ;) You don't even wanna see my cream carpet, that now looks grey. Yikes!!!

When I think I've got the "only color on paper" rules going smoothly, next thing I know, I'm amazed at all the color I find around the house at the most unexpected times, that isn't only from baby bro.

Like here...

That would be a 4-year-old hand print on my comforter. Yep! Luckily, it was crayola finger paint so it came right out. Whew!!

Then, while sitting on my bed, having a quiet moment to myself while talking on the phone with my mom, I look over at my computer desk and I see this.

I was like, "WHATTTTTTT!?!?"

I remember when C got into my gold sharpie marker and she used it to color her belly and her belly button, which we're still trying to clean off, but I had NO idea she used it here.

What a lovely surprise!! I still haven't cleaned it up yet. Guess I should get on it...hopefully those Mr. Clean magic erasers will work on this. And, right about now, you're probably realizing that I don't clean as much as I should these days. ;)

I'm not sure who did this one, but I'm gonna say...maybe lil' bro AND big sis. It's always fun to lift up the blinds in the morning and see lots of doodles on the windowsill. OH YEAH!!!

This one...yeah, not hard to figure out. Someone by the name of "Camille" was here! I still have cleaned this one up either. I don't know, for some reason, when I see our kitchen bar like this it makes me smile.

And this one, right here, definitely big sis!! I was hanging up her clothes in her closet, I looked over and saw this!!

Even though all this coloring and paint ONLY belong on paper in our house and even though it's NOT fun having MORE cleaning up to do, deep down, I do love these little unexpected colorful surprises that I find all around the house when I'm least expecting it.

I smile BIG and I always ask myself, when I see it, "Now...when did she or he do that??? Where was I?? How did I miss it??" Ah, the the life of being a kid and a mommy.

And, not to mention, it totally brings back memories to when I was a kid and I colored the walls in my parents house, right??

They're only little, in this way, once, right?? When they have kiddos, and they're telling me about all the cleaning they have to do because their littles are coloring all over their house, I'll have these pictures to show them, that, they, too, did exactly the same!

But, I won't be buying any new furniture in the near future, that's for sure!! ;)

So tell me...

Got little kids or had little kids? Do you OR did you find lots of colorful surprises in your house like I do? I have a feeling that I'm not alone in this department. :)

Life IS colorful...SAVOR it up!