Salt Painting

Salt Painting is a fun activity!  It dries puffy and sparkly from the salt.  Samantha kept asking if the sparkles were treasure :)  Best part...you probably already have the ingredients in your kitchen!  

Mix equal parts

Water

Flour 

Salt

Food coloring or tempura paint...if you don't have any thats fine it will still work

Cardboard or paper plates....This definitely works better on something thicker than regular paper (regular paper won't work)

Squeeze Bottles...I found them at Michaels 2/$2

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Make sure there are no clumps otherwise the bottles will get clogged and the top with shoot off (trust me...it happened twice).  Add a few drops of paint and mix again. Now pour it into your bottles...a funnel would work great to help you pour it in but you can use a spoon or make shift funnel.  Now let your kids have fun!

It's great for the kids that like sensory play.
Plus the salt gives you a nice exfoliation ;) 

Here's our outcome.
By the end everyone had there hands in it

This is a great sensory and gross  motor activity.  My 3 year old  and 1 1/2 year old were both able to do this.  The clean up is also really easy...Just wiped everything after they were done (looks messy than it is).  

Have Fun!

* I used 2 cups and have some left over.  You can save the left overs for the next day or share them with a friend.  

Cake Mix+ Fat Free Greek Yogurt

You've seen this all over Pinterest...

So I tried it for you....and it's pretty good :)

I was skeptical at first but hey if Dr Oz and Hungry Girl recommend it...How can you go wrong?

Plus the bonus...You can eat the batter and not worry about the eggs :)
The batter was just as good as I remember it as a kid!!

So now you can have your cake with a little less guilt (or more ice cream)

You can find the recipe here


Have a great Saturday!

Flubber Recipe

I use to love making Flubber when I taught preschool.  It is so easy to make and the kids loved it!
I made some today with my two kids and it was the same...Easy to make and they really enjoyed it :)

To make Flubber you need:
Warm water
Glue
Food Coloring (optional)
Borax

The Borax was actually easy to find...Target had it for $3.  I looked it up on amazon but the cheapest i found it was for $7.   You can always go in with some friends and share the cost :)


Mixture A
3/4 C. Warm Water
1 C. Elmers Glue
Food Coloring

Mixture B
2 teaspoon Borax
1/2 C Warm Water


Stir Mixture A into a small or medium bowl.  Mix Mixture B into a large bowl.  Make sure that both bowls are mixed well.

Pour mixture A into Mixture B reach your hand in and pull out the flubber :)

Here's what it looks like when it's finished

There will be extra water in the bowl but that's ok :)

I had my kids play with it on placemats.  You can use cookie cutters, play scissors, rolling pins.  Its just fun to play with and feel.  Great sensory activity :)

Red, White and Blue Dessert

I found these Red White and Blue Cheesecake Yogurt Cupcakes on the blog Skinny Taste.  They looked good and seemed easy so I tried them.  I was right!!
You can find the recipe here
I love this blog because she makes healthy, family-friendly recipes

I know that the vanilla wafers don't cover the bottom but it didn't make a difference.

They might not look exactly like they do on Skinny Taste but they are delicious!!

Enjoy!!

Mom's Brain

Source:  http://sippinglemonade.com

If You Give A Mom A Muffin...

If You Give Mom a Muffin

Author: Beth Brubaker

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her
she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook
("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger").
The cookbook is setting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The checkbook is in her purse
that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two-year-old's diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her
that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are...If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

4th Of July Fun

I love the 4th of July!  It is one of my favorite holidays!  I wanted to share a few 4th of July crafts.  

The first one is my favorite....Hand print and Foot print Flag!  I couldn't really take pictures of the process because I had to help guide their little hands and feet :)

Aiden's hands are the stars and Samantha's feet are the stripes

Here is our American Flag.  Now I need to find a good place to hang it 

Firework Streamers...

The easiest 4th of July activity ever

You Need....

Streamers (Red, white, blue)

Foil

Tear all three streamers into strips (any length will do) and then tear a small square of foil.  

 Hold the end of the streamers together while you wrap the foil over the ends (this holds them together and acts as a weight).

Now you have your fireworks!  You can throw it or run with it...pretty much anything.  Samantha and Aiden had lots of fun throwing it up in the air and watching it fall.  We will probably bring them to the 4th of July parade too

Happy 4th of July!

Banana Ice Cream

I have seen Banana Ice Cream all over Pinterest including here and here. So I finally decided to try it.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  Samantha and Aiden both really liked it.

Ingredients:
4 bananas ripened
1 T Cocoa powder (optional)
2 T Peanut Butter (optional)

Slice the bananas and put them in the freezer for an hour or two (just until they are frozen).  Then place them in the blender or food processor and blend.  Blending the bananas took a few minutes but once they were blended it was just like ice cream.

Once everything is blended put it back in the freezer until it hardens.  

There you have it a healthy tasty summer treat :)

Enjoy!

Fun with Rainbow Rice

The rice actually dried a lot faster than I thought it would. It was dry within a few hours :)

I poured the rice in a disposable baking dish and added some cups and spoons for them to play with. They had so much fun! They played with it for a long time. They even asked for it the next day

Rainbow Rice

I was going to title this post~Colored Rice (like everyone else)  but my playful little girl kept saying, "Look, we are making a rainbow!" So it stuck.

I have seen this done before but have never actually tried it.  I wanted to see if it was as easy as everyone says...it was super easy and fun to mix the rice :)

The make the rice took about 10 mins.  The drying is taking a lot longer and testing our patience :)

All you need is:

Vinegar

Rice (I used 4 cups)

Food coloring

Cups

Baggies

Foil or wax paper

 Put a cup of rice in each baggie.  In a separate cup add 1-2 Tablespoons of vinegar and a few drops of food coloring.  The color of the rice depends on how much food coloring you use.

Pour the vinegar/food coloring mixture into a baggie.  Seal the baggie (getting out as much air as possible) and mix.  

 Once you have mixed all of the rice lay it out on foil or wax paper to dry.  This part takes the longest.  You want it to be dry before your kiddos start playing with it :)

This is where we have left off.  Our rice is still drying.  I will post pictures of the playful kids playing with it :)

ENJOY!!

Crayon Rubbing

We were having a long day...no naps and too hot to play outside. Thankfully I remembered this coloring activity. I was even more thankful that she LOVED it!! It kept her entertained for awhile (A while=10 mins...hey, i'll take what I can get)

I used a large sheet of paper, crayons (with no wrapper), tape, and stencils

I taped the stencils to the table...you don't want them moving around.  These were from the dollar store if you don't have any you can always cut out shapes and tape them down.

Then tape the paper on top of it...again you don't want it to move while you are coloring.

I had my playful little girl try to guess what was under the paper.  She had no clue :)

At first I showed her how to rub the crayon across the paper.  She was able to catch on really fast.
As she was coloring she kept saying it was magic.

Here's the final product...

Marble Painting

The kids have been wanting to paint a lot lately so today I gave them another way to paint...with marbles!


Here's what we used...paint, pie tins (to put the paint in), paper, spoons (to scoop the marbles), box and marbles

Put the paper in the box

Cute Baby Toes :)

They wanted to do it together :)

I love how they turned out!!