"Are you a Pinterest Mom?"

The question was posed to me by a Mom I'd never met before while we pushed our kids on the swings at the park a few weeks ago.  She was talking about her daughter's upcoming birthday and all the sudden turned to me and asked: "...are you a Pinterest Mom?" I wasn't quite sure how to answer because I didn't know exactly what a Pinterest Mom was.

If I'm being completely honest, my first thought was "no", because I imagined a Pinterest Mom probably looked a little something like this while cooking breakfast for the family:

Source: allposters.com

And most days I look like a little more like this when we "cook" breakfast:

However, I do have a Pinterest account and I'm a Mom, so maybe that's all she meant.  I listened for context clues to see if she thought it was a good thing or bad thing to be, but as I pushed the stroller back up the hill towards our house I still wasn't sure exactly what made one a Pinterest Mom and whether or not I wanted to be one.  I consulted the good folks of the interweb, but they didn't seem very decided either.  Half of the links were to proud moms who seemed to be finding inspiring ideas for their fun, organized homes and the other half of the links took me to articles with headlines like this:

Source: today.com

I decided then and there that I would conduct a little experiment to find out for myself if being a Pinterest Mom was something I would enjoy.

But before I could begin any of that I had to remember my login and password.

Once I was finally in, a quick check of my stats told me I had five boards with three pins - all on the same board and all photos of enormous libraries that I must have pinned the day I created my account.  I had somehow accumulated 185 followers (sorry guys) and I also learned that in the last few years the fine people of Pinterest finally realized secret boards were a good idea.  This reminded me why I probably never logged back in to pin anything after that initial sign up.  If I was stealing an idea for a cute Christmas card photo, why would I want to show everyone the shot before my boys were in it?  Hats off to whoever figured that one out.

I resolved to plan out an entire day of Pinterest meals and activities for me and the boys.  I created a new board called "Pinterest Mom" and started looking for entertaining and easy things to do.  I don't sew, saw or sift flour so "easy" was the key word here.  With my board securely pinned in place, I promised myself to take a moment at the end of the day to evaluate whether I felt energized or exhausted and use that to determine whether I'm truly Pinterest Mom material or not.

Welcome to my day of Pinsanity:

8:30am - Rainbow Pancake Breakfast:

Noah was super excited about these because I showed him the photo the night before.  He was excited when he woke me up asking for them and excited while he helped me make them and then almost giddy when he saw them piled beautifully on the plate.  The excitement lasted right up until he started eating them.  He picked the red one (pink really) and ate about four bites.  Benny ate slightly more than Noah, but we ended up dumping half of our rainbow down the garbage disposal.  I tested them and they tasted like pancakes, but apparently my kids are not huge pancake fans.

Pinspiration

Our Attempt

Takeaway:  If your kid likes pancakes, save yourself the extra dishes and mixing by making ONE colorful pancake.

9:00am - Cereal Necklace:
Anyone who knows Noah knows he loves accessories.  He had fun separating all the different colored Cheerios into different bowls.  I helped him string them all on and then he did a dance with them.  About ten minutes later he had eaten half the necklace.

Pinspiration

Our Attempt

Takeaway: Scratch the pancakes altogether and give them the necklace for breakfast with a glass a milk.

10:00am - Handprint Valentines:
I love handprint projects - reindeers, Christmas trees, butterflies - you name it, they're all over the house.  Noah loves smashing his hands in paint and this always seems like an easy way to contain the mess.  I bought little cards, but his hands didn't fit (future baller? pianist?) so we decided to make some giant Valentines for grandparents.

Pinspiration

Our Attempt

Takeaway: Measure hands on paper before you dip so you're not running around the house searching for white paper while your toddler's hands are covered with red paint.

10:30am - Kisses (and Photos):
I bought bright red lipstick this summer, but I've only worn it once because although I felt really sexy when I left the house, when I checked the mirror at the restaurant I saw this:

Source: International Clown Hall of Fame via AP

For these photos I slathered it on and kissed all over the boys, hoping to get a shot of them together.  That plan didn't work so well... but when I popped them in the tub afterwards I got this shot of Benny, which made it all worth it.

Pinspiration

Our Attempt

Takeaway: Super long-lasting all-day lipwear lasts longer on kids cheeks.  There were still little red patches on their cheeks after two baths when I kissed them goodnight.

12pm - Under the Sea Lunch:
I know I'm probably not looking like the healthiest Mom at this point, but when I was little I had a friend whose Mom used to make us hot dog octopuses for lunch, so I think this pin made me nostalgic.  I got a little carried away with the "seaweed" and "bubbles".  Noah thought it was pretty funny.  He also realized my octopuses didn't have enough legs.

Pinspiration

Our Attempt

Takeaway: If you're going to eat a hot dog outside of a ball park, it's way more fun to eat a "quadropus".

5pm - Flubber-Making
We had to wait until Benjamin went down for his nap to make this one.  It's super easy, and only three ingredients, but I don't really know what Borax is - the final ingredient - so I figured we'd keep the 10-month-old out of the picture.  Noah thought it was gross...which also translates to awesome.

Pinspiration

Our Attempt

Takeaway: Make this... and if you figure out if Borax is safe (to touch, ingest etc), message me.

So Am I?

I had pinned a dinner, but around six o'clock I texted Ryan and told him to pick a restaurant to meet us at after work.  My sister called a few minutes later and asked: "So what did you discover? Are you a Pinterest Mom?".  I took a moment to think about it and replied: "I might be, but I'm not sure I have Pinterest kids and this is too exhausting to do for myself". 

The boys and I had enjoyed a wonderful day, but as we cleaned up the flubber and washed Noah's hands, I crouched down to dry them and asked him what his favorite thing we did that day was.  His reply: "digging for butterflies" in the backyard - the only activity I hadn't planned.  He's not a color-inside-the-lines kind of kid.  It might be his age, but I don't think he'll ever appreciate a day's worth of pins.  So while I'll probably continue to use Pinterest as a crafty version of Google when we spill our last bottle of bubbles and need a homemade version, I don't think my empty boards will ever be filled with recipes and crafts.  My collection of library photos might grow, but for now I think my time pinning would be better spent figuring out why someone is planting butterflies in our soil.