Items needed:
-Sun, or rather, warm-enough weather to bring the mess outside
-1 Mug of hot tea (unless certain 3-yr-old's demand, ahem, request a mug--then make it two)

-Brightly colored non-toxic paint (reason for that illustrated later)

-Three sets of paint clothes (in our situation it was two, in which Mommy Bee was wishing she would have been a little more prepared with her attire)

-Brightly colored paint

Painting Instructions:

First set two sides of an easel up for each child, lest your oldest child can't handle not knowing what your youngest child is working on, then one side will do.

Get a paintbrush armored with paint.

Or a hand will do, really.

Make sure the paint is not consumed, this is where the non-toxic will be beneficial. If a child ingests the paint, the wise thing to do would be to take more photos, purely for the high entertainment factor. Calling poison control can wait for later. It's up to you, though.

Make sure subject's attention is fixed on what he or she is painting. Space ships look much better when one is entirely immersed and not paying attention to distractions.

Distractions such as a pesty little brother playing peek-a-boo through the easel.

Ask pesty brother to take a break and just look cute, correction, cool, from the sidelines.

Above all make sure to have subject(s) wear their paint, I mean, game face.

Repeat instructions frequently.

Some people's last painting venture was months ago--entirely too long of a break for these two budding artisans.