Different Ways to Make Bubbles

There are so many ways to make bubbles. First, I gave my girl a pan full of baking soda, and several cups full of colored vinegar. She used all different sized spoons (and a turkey baster) to mix it all together. And boy did it bubble!

 Next we made home-made bubble solution. I made a whole bowl full before I thought about the fact that I didn't have any bubble wants. My solution (pardon the pun)? I just used one of those campfire lighters to burn a hole through some plastic spoons. Problem solved!

Finally, and old classic: Dawn in the kitchen sink. I am always amazed how clean I can get the rest of the kitchen when the kids play like this in the sink. It entertains them for a solid half hour, if not more. This time my little one had the idea to go get all her toy dishes and wash them with the scrub brush. Awesome! I'd been meaning to wash those for a while.

Letter Walk

We make this letter wheel out of a paper plate and then walked around the neighborhood looking for letters on signs, license plates, and utility boxes. Whenever we found one of the letters, we fold it down on the plate. We never found Q, but we did find all the rest.

The Princesss and the Pea

I love it when literature comes to life, so when my girl asked me if we could play Princess and the Pea after reading the book, I said, "Absolutely!" In the book, the princess slept on 20 mattresses. We opted for 20 blankets instead. Also, in our version there was both and Prince and a Princess who laid upon that pea. I'm not sure the kids could actually feel it, but they were great at tossing and turning!

Texture Balloons

I filled several balloons with all different things like macaroni, play dough, flour, sugar, pennies, salt, cotton, water and other things I can't remember. The kids played and played with them, squishing them, throwing them, stepping on them, and attempting to stack them.

When we were finished, I had my daughter guess what was in each one and then we cut them open. I was really surprised how many of them she guessed right. The favorite to open was the water. Both kids got a kick out of see how far they could squirt the water.

Date Night

With a husband who is getting a Master Degree while working full time, we don't always get our date nights. I do, however, often get to go out on dates with these two handsome kids (who look so much like their dad that it almost counts as a date). 

For our last 'date night' we went out for ice cream at Menchies. It was so fun. There was a kids' corner with a little table and chairs, a chalk board, coloring pages and crayons, and all sorts of different board games. We stayed for almost an hour eating, drawing, and playing. 

 Our version of 'Guess Who' was to open all the doors, then shut all the doors, then open all the doors, then shut all the doors, then open all the doors.......you get the idea.

Our version of 'Connect 4' was also pretty modified. If I were to market this game the box would say, 'See How Fast You Can Put in All the Chips'

After ice cream, we found a fun fountain to watch a short walk away. I thought this picture was too cute not to share.

 And the evening was finished off in the best way possible, a footprint competition, seeing who could make the most footprints before they all disappeared. I think the boy won.

Rainbow Rice

I have seen this several times on Pinterest and it really is a fun as it looks. The recipe is really easy. For every 4 cups of rice you mix in 3 T. rubbing alcohol and 2 T food coloring. I halved the recipe so that I would end up with more colors (2 c. rice, 1 1/2 T alcohol, and 1 T coloring). We mixed ours up in Ziploc bags.The rice then needs to dry for about an hour or so before it's ready to play with.

I thought it looked so pretty once it was done!

 While we were waiting for the rice to dry we went and played in the mud.

 And when it was finally time to play, the kids LOVED it.

One more final picture because I thought it looked so pretty all mixed together.