Fun with Playdough

We had some friends over one day last week and everyone wanted to play with playdough. 

I pulled out all our colors of playdough, some dishes, cups, buttons, straws, googly eyes, pom poms and popsicle sticks and everyone had fun playing!!  It's so fun to see the neat things kids make!

Little Man sticking straws into his playdough.

Sweet Girl adding some arms to a "monster".

The finished monster.

One of Sweet Girl's friends making a "button monster" complete with lots of googly eyes!

More straws and cups.

Popsicle stick monster.

Popsicle stick "Grover".

Stacking playdough.

And another button monster.

What about you guys??  How do your kiddos play with playdough???

Making Rainbows with Marbles

With St. Patrick's Day in mind this week, we decided to make some rainbows using marbles.  Both Sweet Girl and Little Man could get in on the action and I love that.  And it's a relatively "mess-free" activity for the most part!

Supplies needed:

Paint

Cups or paint tray

Marbles

Boxes

Paper

Start by adding paint to your cups or paint tray.  Then drop your marble into your paint and roll it around so it's completely covered with paint.

Add your marble to your box with your paper.

Let your little ones shake away!

I used a small box for Little Man and he loved hearing the marble roll around.

After a few shakes, remove your marble, drop it into another color and then repeat until you have finished all your colors.

Once you remove your papers, you will have a rainbow of colors!

Baby Activities - Pasta Fun

Little Man is loving our box of dried pasta right now  (my recipe for dying pasta is at the end)!!  He will literally sit and play for about 15-20 minutes at a time (which is an eternity in baby years). 

He loves to scoop the pasta out and dump it in the bowls.  I keep several different types of spoons in our box (measuring spoons and cups and ladles), as well as several different size bowls.

And he loves to play in it with his hands making one big mess.

We also have several containers with pop off lids in our pasta box, which he loves to fill up, close and shake.

It's messy, but he really enjoys it!!

Here's my recipe for dying dried pasta:

Supplies:

Dried pasta of various shapes and sizes

Food coloring

Rubbing alcohol

Ziploc bags

Baking sheets

Wax paper

Paper Towels

Pour all your pasta into one bowl to mix up the shapes and sizes (unless you only want to dye one color per one pasta type).  Portion out your pasta into your Ziploc bags.  Add about 2-4 TBSP rubbing alcohol (depending on how much pasta you have).  Add your food coloring to your color preference.  (Note: for the pasta above, I used A LOT of food coloring to about 3 TBSP rubbing alcohol.  I wanted very vibrant colors).  Let your pasta soak in your rubbing alcohol/food coloring for about an hour (the longer they soak the more vibrant the colors will be).  Once you are satisfied with the color, dump bags onto baking sheets layered with your wax paper and paper towels.  I use the wax paper to keep my baking sheets clean.  Most of the liquid will absorb into your paper towels.  The colors will darken as the dry.  Mix all the colored pasta together, add some bowls and spoons and enjoy!

Happy Birthday Little Man!

A year has come and gone....

Where did it go???

Happy birthday to the sweetest and cutest little guy I know!  We love you sweet boy!  You have brought so much love and joy to our lives!

Baby Fun - Stars

This turned out to be a fun little activity for my guy!!  He is soooo busy and into everything so I wanted to try to find something for him to do that would keep him engaged and interested for more than one second!!

I stuck sticky note stars all over our kitchen door and let him go to town pulling them down!!  He loves to stand up and grab stuff so I thought this would be a fun activity for him.

Little Man pulled every.single.one. of those stars down.  Then I stuck them back up....again....and again...and again.  Then I did it for Sweet Girl too.  She just couldn't stand to miss out on all the fun!!

Baby Fun - DIY Rattles and Noise Makers

Little Man is actively exploring EVERYTHING these days!!  He will play with an actual toy for a minute or two, but quickly moves onto something else.  He is in love with water bottles and tupperware for some reason so I decided to make him some rattles and noise makers!  They are so simple to make and you can use just about anything!

For ours I used water bottles, small tupperware containers and a spice jar.  In our containers I added: pony beads, wooden beads, sesame seeds and black beans.

These have been quite a hit with Little Man!!