by Laura Falin posted in Life

I love getting outside with my kids -- hiking, biking, cooling off at the lake. All the noisy chaos that happens in the house seems not quite as loud when we're all outside. Also, no one is messing with my stuff.

But I dread putting sunscreen on them. I have to confess, I get a little relieved when we go swimming at an indoor pool because I don't have to mess with it. A few BabyCenter bloggers were talking about sunscreen application woes when one said her fantasy would be a sunscreen mist in the doorway that her daughter passed through every morning. Like a carwash but with sunscreen. This is a genius idea and I will pay her a thousand dollars if she makes me one.
In the meantime, we make due. My husband swears by the spray-on stuff, which does work. I just worry about hitting every single spot, and spray sunscreen seems to only last for one afternoon with our group of six. Not exactly the best bang for my buck. My method for years involved trapping squirmy toddlers between my knees and holding them firmly in place while I squirt sunscreen into one hand and slap it on every exposed area I possibly can. Usually someone got it in their eyes and cried (which is good, actually, because it flushes out all the sunscreen I just accidentally got in there).
Then several years ago, manufacturers started making sunscreen sticks, which saved my life, and perhaps my kids' eyesight. I love those things. Here are a few more suggestions to make applying su...