Splish Splash

My kids begged me to go out on the porch in the rain. I couldn't resist their sweet pleas. I figured that while they were out there, they might as well get really wet, so I sent them out with bowls and cups and bottles filled with water to pour, stir, and dump. To say the least, a good time was had by all.

Marshmallow Dough

I found this recipe on mamapapabuba.com. It makes fluffy smooth play dough. It dries out pretty quickly, this is definitely a one time use dough, but it's fun while it lasts. By the way, do you want to know my favorite play dough tool? Scissors. Paper and scissors don't always mix with those chubby little two year old hands because it requires just a little too much coordination. Play dough, however, is easy to cut even when you hold your scissors by the thumbs of both hands.

Marshmallow Dough 

• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (or other high temperature tolerant oil)
• 1 one pound bag of large marshmallows
• 3 – 4 cups of cornstarch
• food coloring

Over medium heat, melt coconut oil in a pot.  Once liquid, add the entire bag of marshmallows.  Stir frequently until marshmallows are completely melted.
Working quickly, divide the marshmallow mixture into four bowls (approximately 1 cup per bowl) and stir in 3 drops of liquid food colouring into each.  Add 3/4 of a cup of cornstarch to each bowl to start.  Using a spoon, stir vigorously until marshmallow goo and cornstarch begin to come together.  Use your hands to knead in the extra cornflour once the dough is cool enough to handle.  If needed, add an extra 1/4 of cornstarch to each bowl to firm up the dough, however, be careful not to add too much as the dough will become overly hard.

Happy Birthday

Play-dough+baby food pouch lids+birthday candles=just about the best birthday cake I've every seen!

Scrubbing Bubbles

We've been using quite a bit of chalk lately. It's such a fun way for the kids to practice writing and since it washes off, I basically let them chalk on everything. As you can see in this picture, there's chalk on our grill, our fence, our porch, our garbage can, and even the kids' bikes. My husband mentioned that it was starting to look like a graffiti artist lived at our house. I laughed, but then looked out and realized he was right. That afternoon, we headed out with two pans full of soapy water and two sponges with the task of cleaning up our back porch just a little.

 My boy mostly splashed around in the bubbles. My girl, however, found this task very rewarding! She meticulously scrubbed the fence. With each fence post she would get really excited and shout, "Look how clean it is!" I think she found a lot of pleasure in this task (which is great! I've always wanted my kids to love cleaning!).

Shortly after she made it all the way around the fence, my son found a piece of chalk and started the artwork all over again. He would dip the chalk in the water and then draw, making the lines extra dark. That didn't deter my daughter for a second. She just followed right behind him, cleaning the trail he left behind.

Oh, and just for the record, the next day it rained and all the chalk that was left got washed away.

So Crispy!

I really like the idea behind 'sensory play'. I spend lots of time on pinterest looking at different ideas. With a limited budget and limited space for storage, its sometimes hard to come up with ideas for sensory play, but when I saw this, I thought it was fantastic! Rice Krispies play! My son usually eats whatever we're playing with anyway, so why not make it something delicious?  We used play dishes to scoop and dump the cereal. They did this over and over and over again. My daughter even tried to count how many spoonfuls she could get in a little cup. 

We also got out the trains because they made an excellent CRUNCH noise and they were driven across the cereal. They also loved the noise it made when they walked across and squished it with their toes. However, once feet were involved, I figured it was probably time to stop snacking.

 

Sound Walk

It's amazing the noises kids can make with sticks, rocks, and even metal water bottles on all different surfaces. We went on a noise walk around the Botanic Gardens and listened to all difference surfaces. This was the favorite.

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.

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.

Splashing in Puddles

We recently had rain and the kids got a kick out of splashing in puddles. After the rain came several dry days that left the kids longing for puddles to splash in, so we created our own.

 

Yes, I did end up with my finger over the lens. No, I didn't realized until I had already downloaded the picture on to blogger. Yes, I am too lazy to pick out a better picture. 

While we were at it, we made water pictures with the wheels of some toy cars. 

 

I Knew I'd Been Saving Those Lids For Something

They're great for sorting, stacking, making into shapes, or throwing into a jar.

Ramona Was So Wise

In one of the Ramona Quimby books, Ramona has the brilliant idea to give her bratty toddler neighbor a box of tissues as a present. It is a big hit and entertains the child for quite a while. I love the Ramona books, and thought about this part of the story the other day while at the grocery. For $2 I bought a box of tissues for both of my kids and let them go to town. Ramona was right, it was just about the best present a 2 year old could ever get.

 

Colored Ice Cubes

I apparently used too much food coloring when I made these because by the time they had all melted, all of our hands looked liked tie-dyed t-shirts. The kids played with these until they were down to the very last little icy pebbles. They put them in the sandbox, watering can, stacked them, threw them, and tried to eat them.

Happy Windsday

It's been quite blustery around here lately, so we decided to do a little wind experiment of our own.

You Have a Glowing Personality

$1 glow bracelets+one dark closet=lots of fun for two little kids.
Even though it looks like it, I didn't actually let the little boy eat the glow sticks.

Spaghetti Monsters

My husband is home late four nights a week because of school. Some days it's hard to get inspired to cook dinner for me and two kids. However, the advantage is that we can cook meals like this: spaghetti noodles threaded through hot dogs and then cooked according to the spaghetti instructions. It definitely wasn't my favorite meal, but there is a good chance that it was my daughter's favorite.

$15 Ball Pit

We bought a $15 bag of balls at Target. I think you can even get them for $10 at Walmart. We threw them into the pack-and-play that we almost never use, and voila! The kids had so much fun playing in it.

Porcupine Play-dough

It's amazing to me the endless possibilities of play-dough.

Play-Dough Faces

You know those electric socket outlet covers? Just draw on some eyes, noses, and mouths with Sharpee and you've got the perfect making for some play-dough people.

Window Paints

We put some tempera paint in a zip-lock bag and taped it to the window. Both kids loved it. It was a great way to practice writing letters, mixing colors, and just feeling squishy stuff without getting messy.

My Baby's Favorite Toy

Is the pastry brush.