Doodley Bugs

When we went to the local budget supermarket the other day I found a flyer for a little kids art group promising lots of messy fun. This sounded very much like a Jack activity. So we went this morning.
We were a tad late due to my trying to take a shortcut across the common, through some brambles (ouch! watch those stinging nettles!) so the little geniuses were already creating. Everything was well set out. There was a table with large items (paper plates and cardboard tubes) for each child with a name tag. Then 3 tables set up for each separate activity: windmill, glitter hat and sunflower. Then there were tables with crayon, paint and textas and a big tub full of oats (!!) with scoops and spades. Oh and a playdough table. Phew. Jack gravitated towards the sunflower table so we decided to make one of those. It didn't take long to work out that the attraction lay in the green paint, which is not as yummy as it looks.
Now when I did storytime at the library, part of the session was a craft activity. I always found it so amusing watching the kids cut and draw for 5 minutes before running off leaving the mums (and dads and grandparents) to studiously and meticulously finish the task at hand. It was very serious. I could see parents wrestling with themselves as they saw their kids cutting the wrong line or using the wrong colour.
I thought of that today as I constructed the sunflower (which was a very good craft - it even had real sunflower seeds). Jack did eat some green paint and scrunch the tube to give it that personal touch.
He also made a hat, though this was a messy business because he kept getting little butterflies stuck to his hands. After that he tried some painting, but this proved to be disappointing as the pink paint didn't taste any better than the green.We used the special tub for washing little peoples hands and then he played with playdough and the oats (not at the same time). By this stage the oats were everywhere. Flying through the air. A little girl who decided she liked us, kept on filling her shoes with oats then walking over to us and tipping the oats out. Obviously this is not a good thing (what would happen if her feet were sweaty and her shoes filled with porridge?) but can you tell a child that doesn't belong to you to cease and desist? She almost did belong to us because as we were leaving she held onto Jack's 'pushchair' and started walking out the door with us. This was only several minutes after we had found another little girl strapped into the pusher calmy waiting to leave. And still they asked us back.
The mums were quite nice. A little bit yummy but approachable. I think they are village mummies (but not in a mosman way) rather than ym's. Obviously they can't be too yummy if one of them has the same pram that we do.