Pom Pom Play

We got out the poms yesterday and baby girl loved them. I used an empty baby wipe container and she practiced picking them up and putting them inside. She caught on quickly and her brother loved coaching her. 

For little man, we worked on making patterns with the colors and counting. 

Rock Painting

After going on a rock hunt with my mom, little man had a bucket full of rocks. So we gave them a bath and painted on them. He is still toting around his prized (and now painted) possessions in the bucket!

Handprints

We often joke that little man is like the mouse from "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" ...because he will ask for a glass milk! Perfect example: he asks for a snack. We open the pantry and he sees paint. This makes him want to finger paint. Next thing you know we are making handprint pictures. Then he wants to clean up. This leads to pouring the entire bottle of soap on the bathroom counter. Once his hands are clean he's hungry and ready for a snack.

Painted 'Tool

Little man loves his step-stools. We have them in every bathroom and he uses them all if the time to wash his hands. He moves them around as needed and often asks, "Where's my 'tool? I can't find my 'tool!" (He can't quite say his S's so stool becomes tool). I picked up a wooden one ages ago at the craft store with the intent to monogram it using my silhouette machine. A year later, I decided it would be best to just tape off an H and let little man paint. [The painting led to finger painting so we added a few hand prints to the stool too! Love those little hands!] I put a few coats of polycrilic on it and voila!

Birthday Bath

The night of little man's birthday we had a birthday themed bath. I threw in some new bubble bath (thank you Auntie A) and a few of his party decorations. I used shaving cream and food coloring to make a birthday cake and used glow sticks as candles. We sang happy birthday and he pretended to blow them out. Afterwards he continued singing to himself... never too early to start practicing for next year!

Water Beads

I kept reading good things about water beads and thought it was time I tried them out for myself. Usually they are used in flower vases to absorb/release water. They are very fun! They are squishy and watery and remind me of fish eggs or jello. They were a little messy (they bounced and rolled all over the place) so I'm glad we played with them outside. I picked mine up at the Dollar Tree and the were perfect for scooping and pouring (two of our favorite things!) 

Spray Bottle

Picked up a $1 spray bottle at Target for loads of bath time fun! Little man liked to "make it rain" by spraying the bottle straight up in the air and being misted as the water fell back down. He also enjoyed spraying directly into his mouth and even spraying grandma!

Memory Cards

I made little man a set of memory cards by printing out two sets of colored crayons, taping them onto card stock and laminating them with packing tape. We started by matching them when they were face up and eventually went to "taking turns" flipping them over. This game will be one that we have to practice a little more. He's pretty good at remembering where the colors are but taking turns is a bit of a challenge!

Hammering Tees

1) we love using a hammer

2) we love play doh

...therefore we love using a hammer with play doh! We hammered golf tees into a big ball of play doh and it kept us busy all morning! 

Cloud Dough

We made "cloud dough" using 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. It had a fun, silky soft texture but was MESSY! It was very similar to wet sand except it didn't stick to your hands.

I poured it onto a tray so he could play with it easier. 

Next time I think we will use baby oil and play with this outside! (Also I think I will double the recipe)

Connecting Glow Sticks

We still love bath time! And we love glow sticks too! This time we took the sticks and connected them.

It was a challenging for little man. The hole is pretty small. But a huge sense of accomplishment when he got it!

And we had to turn out the lights to admire the glow. 

Here is little munchkin after her bath. She loves being nice and clean! 

Inside Snow

Little man loves to play in the snow but sometimes I'm not up for it... So here was the compromise, we brought the snow inside!

I put a towel down and filled a Pyrex dish with fluffy new snow and a few scoops and spoons for playing. It was a huge success! We played in the snow all afternoon, refilling the Pyrex dish several times. 

Of course he wanted to put on his gloves and eat the snow. 

Frozen Toys

Little man's all time favorite toy is his hammer. He looks for any excuse to use it! So when I saw this idea on a blog I knew I had to replicate. Using a hammer to chip away at ice? Yes, please! 

I placed small toys on a paper plate, added water then put in the freezer for a few hours. I didn't add too much water because I wanted it to break apart easily. The cookie cutters and mega blocks were the best. The blocks are hollow in the bottom so he could knock out the ice on the inside.

This would be really fun to do out on the deck in the summertime. There was a lot of melted ice chips by the end if it but it was still pretty easy to clean up. 

And just when I thought we were done, I remembered of a third set of toys I had out in the freezer door! 

Noodle Painting

Little man loves to paint but we needed something new and exciting so we painted on lasagna noodles!