Pom Poms and Fine Motor Skills

While I was getting the boys ready for church Mackenzie played with her pom pons.  She saw it up in the cabinet and asked for it.  She sure loves pouring, scooping and dishing them up!  And it's great for her fine motor skills.

Sign Language

I taught all my babies sign language, starting when they are about 6 months old.  I would say and do the sign, then take their hands and show them how.  Eventually they would start doing it.  I did more, please, food/eat, drink/cup, play, ball, all done and thank you.  And with Mackenzie we did milk and bird.  There may have been one or two more.  But those are the ones that Mackenzie will still do, and she says the word when she signs it.

It is so wonderful to teach a baby to sign because then I know what they want long before they can verbally say it.  It makes life easier.

A friend of mine is writing a paper on teaching babies to sign and had asked me to take some pictures of Mackenzie signing.  These were the only ones I was able to get out of her on this day.  She is become quite stubborn lately, kind of like her momma.  :)

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DIY Play Kitchen Spices

When I used all the chili powder I washed out the container, leaving the label, for Mackenzie to use in her play kitchen.  She LOVES it!!!  She loves to sprinkle it on her food!  It was so cute to watch her play with it!

Sure do love this fun little girl!!!!

 When she sprinkles it she makes a noise too, I have no idea how to even spell the noise she mades, but it's a sprinkling spice kind of noise.  Just too cute!

DIY Lava Lamps

We made Lava Lamps today.  They super easy and the kids love them!

You need a bottle, vegetable oil (or baby oil if you want clear oil instead of a yellowish color), water, food coloring and Alka Seltzer tablets.

Since we were doing 4 bottles we did 2 where we first put the water in and colored it.  Then we put the oil in.  Then the other 2 we put the oil in first, then the water, then the food coloring.  You want it to be about 2/3 oil and 1/3 water.  Leave 1/2-1 inch space at the top.

When we did the oil first, then water and food coloring it took a few minutes for the food coloring to get to the water and mix with it.  The boys enjoyed watching it, well JJ sort of got impatient waiting.  But he got pretty excited when it started to mix.  The top left picture below is when it first started mixing with the water.  The other pictures are bubbles that form when you drop in an Alka-Seltzer tablet.  I read to break it either in half or quarter pieces.  Then someone told me you can do it whole, but we found when you do it whole, it stays on the bottom for a little but then floats to the top.  The smaller pieces stayed on the bottom making more bubbles for the kids to watch.  The loved watching the bubbles coming up!  When it stops and the tablet is dissolved you can put another piece in.  You can close up your bottle and re-do it many, many times, until it gets cloudy.

Top Left pic is the dye mixing with water.   The others are bubbles from the Alka-Seltzer tablets.

JJ putting the dye in.

Mackenzie and Kolin got so excited to see the bubbles!

Mackenzie

Tanner putting an Alka Seltzer tablet in.

Tanner putting the dye in and watching it mix with the water.

Kolin watching the bubbles.

Grass People

The kids got to give them their first hair cut!  They were so excited!

Jayden and Mackenzie with Grandpop

Tanner

To make the Grass People...
You can find the idea here on Family Fun's website.

Basically all you did is clean a yogurt container.  We had the kids color a paper to glue around the cup, ideally they were decorate it like a shirt.  Then you use those stocking socks, put about 1-2 teaspoons of grass seen in the toe then fill it with soil.  Tie a knot and leave the end hanging down, it will act like a wick for the water.  Then you can glue eyes on and draw a mouth.  Then put fill the cup with water and put it in.

Rock Candy

Back on August 1st Tanner helped me attempt to make rock candy.  You do 3 parts sugar to 1 part water.  You boil the water adding 1 cup of sugar at a time, stirring until it's dissolved, then adding another cup, until it doesn't dissolve anymore.  Then you let it sit for 3-7 days. 

 You cut the tip off a wooden skewer and use a close pin to keep it close the middle of the glass and leave it about an inch from the bottom.  And you can use food coloring to make it different colors. 

 The first batch never crystalized!  I guess we didn't have enough sugar.  So I ended up re-boiling it.  I combined the red and clear, boiled it and added more sugar till it really couldn't dissolve anymore.  Then I combined the blue and green and added more sugar.  This time with in a day we had crystals forming.  The kids were so excited!

We finally had rock candy a few days after I re-boiled it and added more sugar.  However, I think I added too much sugar.  All the blues were stuck to the bottom of the glass, I had the the skewer too close to the bottom.  I managed to chip away with a butter knife and free one blue one.

Tanner didn't want to eat any!  So the other 3 ate them...

Kolin, Mackenzie and Jayden

 Because I believe I had too much sugar, we had a lot of crystals on the glass and I was only able to get 5 successfully out of the glasses, without breaking too much of it, because of it being stuck to glass.

And I had those glasses soaking in hot water for days until all that sugar was dissolved and gone, the stuff that got stuck to the glass.

But it was a fun experiment for the kids to do and watch!

Painting Canvas

I bought some canvas and had the kids pick out some new acrylic paints.  I taped their initial on the canvas using masking tape.  The painters tape wasn't really sticky enough, so I used masking tape.

Then I let the kids paint them!

Again, I only let them have one color at a time.

They had so much fun!!!!

Jayden

Tanner

Mackenzie

Kolin, I babysit him.

Before they were totally dry, I pulled the tape off and then let them finish drying.  Here they all are...

Mackenzie, Tanner, Jayden and Kolin

Super cute!!!  I sure love them!!!  I should have taken a picture of my kiddos hanging up in their room. I love looking at them in their rooms!  And Mackenzie loves her's too!  She'll point to it and say "my M, for me!"  I just LOVE the kids art work!!!!!!!

Nature Scavenger Hunt and Grass People

I had seen some nature scavenger hunts on Pinterest and I thought it would be fun to one with the kids. We decided to do it on part of the Appalachian trail.  And we met up with Jessica and her boys.  She was also babysitting 2 cute little girls that day.

It was very cloudy, very humid and had a chance of rain, but we went anyway.

 Here are all the kids that Jessica and I hiked with...

My kids were so excited!  And while we waited for Jessica and crew to show up they started finding things.

 But once we got started they kind of forgot all about the scavenger hunt part of the hike.  Jayden and Tanner took Caleb and sometimes the older girl, Brenna, and hiked way far up ahead of us.  I was not happy that my boys couldn't listen and kept going so far ahead, out of site!  I've been having a hard time getting my boys to listen to me and stay with me, very frustrating!

in the picture below, Jessica has her point and shoot camera linked to the back of her shorts, she did not sit in anything.

 Like I mentioned before, the bigger kids were way far ahead and totally forgot about the scavenger hunt.  But we stopped to look and some soft stuff growing on some rocks.

 They found a big rock they wanted to climb and discovered some spiders on top of it.

 There was a really cool tree that was burnt on the inside, but not the outside.  I had asked Dave about the burning we had seen and he said he believes they burn the brush, so it's a controlled burn.

 Cutie-Pie Mackenzie... I carried her most of the time!  I didn't want to bring the back pack because i knew she'd want to get down.  And she did get down often.

 After our hike it was raining but we still went to a park and had a picnic lunch under the pavilion.  Then we headed back to Jessica's place to make some grass people.

You can find the idea here on Family Fun's website.

Basically all you did is clean a yogurt container.  We had the kids color a paper to glue around the cup, ideally they were decorate it like a shirt.  Then you use those stocking socks, put about 1-2 teaspoons of grass seen in the toe then fill it with soil.  Tie a knot and leave the end hanging down, it will act like a wick for the water.  Then you can glue eyes on and draw a mouth.  Then put fill the cup with water and put it in.

And here are JJ's, Tanner's and Mackenzie's...

Painting Our Baking Soda Clay

The kids were with me at AC Moore when we picked out some new colors of Acrylic paint.  They were super excited to paint!

To hopefully not mix the colors I put each color in a bowl and each color had it's own brush.  The kids could only have one color at a time.  And too keep the paint off their clothes I just had them go shirtless since it was summer.  The smocks I have don't cover their sleeves, so I figured it'd just be best to go shirtless.

Instead of spreading lots of newspaper out, I just put a cheap $1 plastic table cloth on the table.  It worked great!  And after the paint on it dried, I folded up and used it again when we did the second coat of paint.

Jayden

Kolin

 Mackenzie got pretty messy, so I was glad I took her clothes off!  She had so much fun painting and was really into it!  She also did a great job!!!

Mackenzie

Tanner

 Tanner is so serious when he's painting.

Here are the finished paint pieces drying, and waiting for a second coat of paint or painted designs on them.

Here are the finished pieces, after I sprayed them with clear acrylic, except Kolin's because he took his home.

Baking Soda Clay

Last summer Tanner made the cutest little clay pot at an art camp.  I keep it at the sink and I put my rings in it.  I just LOVE it!  I had seen some pins on Pinterest for making baking soda clay pots so I decided to do it with the kids.

Here is the link for where I got the recipe and instructions.  And here is the link to the recipe right on the Argo website.  I did read some other ones and I remember reading that you can put the clay in a sealed container or bag and it will keep for a few days, so no need to hurry and rush and get it made before it dries out, most especially if you live on the east coast where it is so humid!

Jayden was my big helper!  He measured everything and put it in the pot.  And if you can see the white stuff in his hair, the one time I told him to tap down the measuring cup and he did it a little too hard and baking soda (or corn starch, I forget which one it was) went everywhere and I just busted up laughing.  Jayden's face when it happened was really funny!!!!

Here's the recipe I used...

1 cup corn starch

2 cups baking soda

1.25 cups cold water

Non-stick pot

Wooden spoon

Med-large bowl

Damp cloth, lid or plate

I didn't use a non stick pot or a wooden spoon, and I doubled the recipe.

Combine all ingredients in the pot and mix until smooth.  Cook on low-medium heat, stirring constantly until it starts to look like mashed potatoes and sort forms a ball.  Put it in a separate bowl to cool and cover it partially with a lid or a damp towel.  

I didn't let it cool for very long because the kids were so excited to play with it.

You should knead it a little bit too.

Then divide it up and let the kids have fun!

If you want to stick pieces together use a little bit of water, not too much or it'll get mushy.

Jayden

 I really did not need to double it!  I only wanted a the kids to make a small little pot.  But there was a lot of clay!

Mackenzie

 We used candles to help make the pots.  We basically molded it around the candle then wiggled the candle out.  This way they can also be candle holders.

Tanner

Kolin

You can see the little brown pot Tanner made last year in the pictures above with Kolin.  I had it there for an example.  Tanner had used real clay, but I didn't feel like buying any clay, that's why we made it.  Plus it was fun for the kids to make the clay.

This is how much we got out of doubling it.

To dry it put it on a cooling rack to air dry so the air flows evenly around it.  OR preheat oven to 350 then turn it OFF. Place items on wire rack on a cookie sheet in the oven.  Repeat as necessary.

I did not put it on the wire rack right away because I didn't want those lines on the bottom.  But it took forever to air dry!!!  And I did the oven several times too!  However, it is the middle of summer and very, very humid and we do NOT have central air at our house.  But my husband said they cracked a little because I didn't put them on the wire rack right away.

After they are dry if you want to you can sand them, I did not.  Then paint them and spray them with acrylic spray paint to protect them from water.

Here are the finished pieces, after I sprayed them with clear acrylic, except Kolin's because he took his home.