More boredom busters

We were supposed to have a play date today, but the weather stopped that from happening. So, what to do on a day that I really hadn't planned on being stuck inside for?!? Pull some ideas from the recesses of brain that I used to use daily when teaching preschool. Last night I made meringue cookies just like my mom used to make, which you might know only call for egg whites so I saved the egg yolks not knowing what in the world for. Today I pulled the egg yolks out and we made paint with them! Perfect! You simply add a couple drops of food coloring to a little bit of egg yolk and you have paint! The best part is the paint dries glossy unlike regular tempera paint. That kept Joshua busy for a good half hour, while Matthew could have cared less after 5 minutes. So, what to do next?! With lunch on the horizon I pulled another simple, but fun activity out of my brain that I thought the boys would love. Can't believe I didn't pull this idea out sooner as it was a HUGE hit with my kids. Painting on toast! Actually you mix a little bit of milk with food coloring and paint that on un-toasted bread, pop it in the toaster and the kiddos have a colorful treat to eat when it comes out. Simple, easy and fun! Who knows what other ideas I might have to pull out of my brain and dust off to get us through the rest of this loooong winter.

Painting their bread for lunch.

Yum!!

Joshua's first creation.

Trying out his masterpiece.

Weird and wacky, but fun

A lady comes to our house once a month for a program called Bright Beginnings (a parents as educators program). We have had the same lady, Dawn visiting for the last 4 1/2 years (since Joshua was about 1 1/2 years old). We've gotten to know each other fairly well over the years and she knows I love new arts, crafts, science things to do with my kids. Last week she came with something called Orbeez. I had heard of them, but thought you needed to buy a $25 machine (not so apparently) to make them so I never really looked very closely at them. The are little tiny balls that you soak in water for a few hours and they grow into little balls of gel that kids can play with - think floral gel, but more kid friendly. I simply bought a small package at Mejier and Target to $5.99 that contains three colors each and we soaked 1/3 of each of the 6 colors. It's a nice clean sensory activity for both boys, especially Matthew and also a great fine motor activity for both of them. Joshua enjoys using the storage containers they came with to create pictures too. Right now we have them stored in an air-tight container and so far so good, but I'm guessing they will either get too slimy to play with or dry back out over time. At least we saved 2/3 of them to make another time.

This is a before of a how an Orbeez starts out in comparison with one that soaked in water for 3 hours. Quite the difference!

Joshua creating a "picture" with the Orbeez.

Matthew enjoying the sensory experience.

Showing off his Orbeez creations.

Be-an artsy

With the warmer temps and disappearing snow last week playing outside after school was a wet option and by the end of the week children were getting bored with the toys they'd played with all week so we had to think of some alternate fun. I had seen this activity in Family Fun a while back where you can create pictures using different kinds of beans/lentils. I bought a varitey of beans and lentils a couple months ago, but never dug it out until last week. Joshua and his friend Corrinne spent about 45 minutes creating and loved it! Even Matthew got in on a bit of the fun, although after a few minutes he was more interested in taking beans and dropping them on the table. Definitely an activity we will do again.

The creation on the top is Matthew's, the flower is mine and the other two are Joshua's creations. The picture on the pink paper is a giraffe eating leaves off of a tree.

Our Little Valentine's

Silly boys!

Check it out . . . . .

Matthew 2/14/2011 - 21 months old

Joshua 2/14/2007 - 21 months old

Can you tell they are brothers?!?

School Valentine Party

Last Thursday afternoon was Joshua's school Valentine's party. Thanks to my dad being willing to watch Matthew and put him down for his nap, I was able to go watch all the excitement first hand. They played some cute games and did a little craft, ate some treats and the most anticipated activity of the day was looking at all the Valentines they received. Fun, sugary times!

Valentine Creating

As Joshua and I looked through Family Fun magazines for ideas for his class valentines there was a clear and definite choice for him. . . . a valentine ipod. I couldn't say no as making these cute little kinds of crafts are fun for me to do, okay well at least the first few are fun to make and usually after that I am over it. We gathered our supplies and began working on them slowly, over the course of several days as these valentines were a bit labor intensive. It wasn't a kid-friendly project so Joshua basically signed his name on each of them and glued his friends pictures on, which he was thankfully fine with. Joshua is very excited to pass them out to his friends so I guess all that work was worth it.

Joshua also had to make a box to bring to school to collect his valentines in. My kid couldn't just do a plan old box, oh no he found a picture (good ol' Family Fun again) of a valentine boat box which he thought would be fun. We got to creating once again, but at least this time he could help with the gluing, taping and decorating. His boat is ready to be filled with all kinds of valentines!

Doing his part of signing his name and gluing his friend's pictures on his valentines.

Valentine boat ready to collect Joshua's Valentines!

February 2, 2011 Blizzard

The predicted blizzard of 2011 hit Tuesday night/Wednesday morning with a vengeance! Thankfully Cory's office closed because there was NO WAY he would have gotten out of our driveway! Joshua woke up and immediately wanted to play outside (foregoing breakfast even) while Cory began the HUGE task of digging us out. Cory and the other guys who live on the cul-de-sac spent a good 2 1/2 hours clearing driveways and part of the cul-de-sac as the county usually leaves this task as one of the lasts. Joshua played the entire time and even Matthew and I played out there for a long time. We celebrated the achievement of digging out with snow slushies, or at least the kids did! The boys and I also tried out an art project of dipping yarn into cornstarch "glue", filling a cookie cutter with the yarn pieces and then letting it dry- looked better in the magazine, but at least we had fun trying it. After lunch Joshua headed back out into the snowy wonderland and played for another 2 1/2 hours with our neighbor, Clay. Clay, who happens to be a sophomore in high school, spent the afternoon building a fort with Joshua; Clay pretty much earned "rock star" status in Joshua's eyes yesterday afternoon!
Not surprising it was another snow day today so the kids spent more time playing in the huge piles of snow and the snow fort again today!

Joshua was almost as tall as the sign by the fire hydrant in our front yard thanks to a huge pile of snow!


The cul-de-sac crew working together to clear part of the road.

Conquering the mounds of snow in our front yard!

Chillin' out watching everyone work.

Joshua created a little hole for himself to sit in.

Snow slushies!!! Yes, they stayed in their PJs all day!

Dipping the yarn for our art project.

Putting the yarn in the cookie cutters.

Clay and Joshua by the fort they built.

Joshua in the opening of the snow fort.

Clay surveys the fort progress and gives Joshua instructions.

Joshua in the snow fort.

Joshua shares his fort with Matthew and Corrinne on snow day #2!