The Real Meaning of Family Time

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Armor All . All opinions are 100% mine.

I may be a little strange in saying that my favorite family moments aren’t from extravagant trips (not that we even take them…), but rather, moments spent together doing the most mundane activities, such as family walks and, oddly enough, washing the car and doing outdoor clean-ups.

When all five of us are home, I’m usually in the garage working on a project or at the computer, the kids are on electronics, and hubby’s silently stalking social media or upstairs in his office working.

This week has been the exception, however.

Not only have the kids been on Spring Break, but hubby also took off the entire week!

I’ve been traveling a bunch lately, so taking an entire week off was out of the question.

And while I feel a little guilty for not offering up some amazing mini-vacation for my family this week, the time we have spent has brought a smile to our faces!

Not only did we go on a refreshing 6-mile walk, order pizza in from our favorite spot, and watch some family movies, we did some yard clean-up and washed the cars!

I know that yard work and car washing hardly seem like “unifying family events.” HA!

But some of my favorite family moments are when we’re all outside together with the comforting hum of the lawnmower…the kids’ laughter in the driveway…and the warmth of spring and summer on our backs!

I love it!

So when the folks at Armor All reached out and asked me to test out their new Ultra Shine Wash Wipes , I knew that spring break would be the perfect time to try them out. Our cars rarely get washed except during holiday/vacation days when we can do it as a family. The timing was perfect.

And I had to admit, I was curious.

How we usually do this is that we drag out the pressure washer from the messy garage, fumble with the hose, grab several buckets and towels, and start soaping up the car and van.

It’s a messy event, for sure. One in which you best believe you come out of a sopping mess. LOL

But these new Wash Wipes claim you don’t need a bucket or hose. GASP!

No water needed??

Suuuuurrreeee……

When we picked up the Wash Wipes while on a shopping trip to Walmart, I don’t think hubby realized they were water-free.

Because when we all scrambled outdoors to get started on the mowing and car washing, I looked over and saw this: hubby had inched the pressure washer through the mess in the garage, expecting to “wash the cars.” HA!

I called over to hubby, who was starting to cut the lawn.

ME: “Hey! You know we don’t need that pressure washer, right?”

HIM: “What are you talking about?? You can’t wash a car without a hose and bucket! Get outta here…!”

ME: “Well, apparently you can with these wipes! You go ahead and do the lawn and we’ll start on the cars….”

Hubby is pretty stubborn and likes to stick with his traditional ways of doing things.

(Ooooh noooo…don’t think he’s going to use an electric lawn mower instead of his tried-and-trusty gas-powered one)…..[insert eye roll here].

So for him to even consider washing a car without a bucket or hose–made no sense to him. HA!

We own a car and a mini-van and both were full of pollen, bird poop, and grime that hadn’t been washed away in at least 6 months!

But like I said….I was super curious.

I had bought three packs because I wasn’t sure how many we’d need.

They kind of reminded me of moist, resealable, oversized blue baby wipes.

Only, in this case, the “babies” were our super-dirty minivan and my old, 11-year-old dented 4-door sedan! LOL

The kids were pretty excited to help out because, they, too, expected me to grab the buckets and hose “like last time” when they got all soapy and messy. LOL

Nope!

This time, we’re testing out the Wash Wipes to see if they do what they claim to do: save time, with less mess.

My initial thoughts were that the wipes were pretty cool.

They cut right through the pollen and grime, leaving a spotless finish.

I found that the wipes got pretty dirty very fast, so I had to fold and re-fold in order to find clean spots. Thankfully, each pack has 12 wipes, so I knew we wouldn’t run out!

This is where I really wanted to see if these wipes would work: on bird poop!

As nasty as this is, I have to show you that they indeed got the bird poop off!

It would have been nice if there was a slight, gentle, scrubbing action in the wipes, for hard, crusted poop like my car had.

I highly recommend you don’t use a fresh wipe on the bird poop because the last thing you want is to waste a whole wipe because there’s bird poop on it! No way you want to clean up poop and then keep using the same wipe. So save the poop for last! LOL

I didn’t realize I had a little bit of gold paint on my hood! How in the world did that speck of paint get there?

Regardless, the wipes cut through the pollen and dirt.

When I was done wiping everything down on the car, it looked great! It only took about 10 minutes for the car, max.

The only thing left to do on the car were the tires! The kids can help with those since they’re shorter and closer to the ground. Less bending for me!

The kids were excited to help out.

But believe me–it wasn’t just an altruistic move…

They’ve been trying to save up money to buy tokens and “bucks” on their silly computer games.

So I did agree to pay them a little bit for helping out. It’s a good lesson to teach kids, right?

Work for what you want!

Even cute little 5-year-old Kojo chipped in with cleaning the wheels.

This shot I captured of them was too cute!

Both boys focused on the task at hand.

Although, Ohene, my 7-year-old cleaning the van wheels said to me, “This didn’t take a long time, Mommy. This is going pretty fast. But the last time, when we had the soapy water, that was more funner.” HA!

Why yes….of course, it was…that’s because I squirted you with the hose, my dear, and gave you suds-beards. LOL

They worked hard and were proud of all the dirt they cleaned off. And it helped me save even more time.

Plus, they earned a few dollars. Win-win for everyone!

Regardless of whether the kids had more fun spraying the hoses and getting drenched, for me, it was perfect.

Earlier that day I had to run some errands so I was dressed “decent” (aka: not covered in paint-splattered jeans).

My hair was looking kind of cute, in a curly-side-sweep kind of way (wink, wink).

Normally, to wash the car, I would have to change into “get-soaked” gear. But this time around, I didn’t have to change!

I didn’t realize it until half-way through, “Heeey….I’m not covered in suds and water-logged flip-flops!”

That was nice not getting dirty for a change!

Anyhow, everything got wiped down, including the wheels…

BEFORE

AFTER

Kwabena used Armor All spray Tire Foam on the tires to help clean and shine them.

I was worried about letting him do it himself (“you’ll spray your eye out, son!”).

But it wasn’t a problem. He’s growing up and I have to give him more responsibility, right?

We cleaned inside the car, too, and along the trim areas that get really dirty…

What’s funny is that by the time hubby was done mowing, the only thing left to clean was the van roof, which he volunteered to clean.

He said to me first, “Sooooo…..we didn’t need the hose…..did we?”

No, baby, we didn’t need the hose. 😉

I did use the Wash Wipes on the rubber floor mats, too, but they were beyond filthy and really could have used a good scrub down. But I just wiped them real quick and put them back in the car after a sweep-through with the wet-dry vac.

BEFORE

AFTER!

By the time we were done:

…we were left with tons of dirt….

…the driveway hadn’t been turned into a river…

…the cars were all clean and vacuumed…

…and we had spent quality time together doing something that needed to be done, but having fun doing it together.

Here are my final thoughts on the new Armor All Wash Wipes:

What I Liked:

• Wipes were large and cover a lot of surface area on the car and van.
• Came in a resealable pack that I can stash in the glove compartment or trunk for quick clean-ups.
• Left no streaks and the finish really shined.
• Can use them to clean the inside and the outside.

Things I Would Like To See:

• I’d definitely like to see a little scrubbing action for hard-to-wipe areas like rubber mats and really crusty bird poop spots.

While I don’t think the Wash Wipes completely replace a good scrub down with soap and water, I do think they are a great way to do quick clean-ups and really do save time and eliminate sopping wet messes! I’d definitely use them again!

The Real Meaning of Family Time

I know we’ve got a crazy way of spending family time together, but for our family, it works.

They still have one more day left to Spring Break so I may decide to take that day off and just spend it playing board games or taking them to the playground.

Hopefully, when the kids get older, they won’t look back on their childhood and think about all the trips that we didn’t take together, but more so, the spurts of time that we spent together, regardless of whether it’s washing the cars, playing games, or taking fun walks through the forest.

It’s not how you spend the time together; it’s whether you enjoyed the time together, right? 🙂

So what about you? What are the fun ways that your family spends family time? And have you heard of the new Armor All Ultra Shine Wash Wipes?

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