Tonight, to celebrate the end of a lovely Halloween, we put together one of our old favourites – a glow-in-the-dark bubble bath.
A handful of glow sticks and a chunk of Lush’s Calacus jelly run under warm water, and we had a colourful, bubbly, glowing bath.
And since Grae’s been carrying around these little ghost candles for the last week, we decided that tonight would be the perfect time to put them to use.
♥
After making each of her little dance class friends a mini mason jar filled with pink sparkly slime, plus giving out another 40 slime packets at Strong Start this morning, Gracen was excited to get her hands on a batch or two of her own. So today, between the Halloween festivities, we carved out some time in the afternoon to set up a very simple little slime station.
Here’s how we set up the station… Slime in three colours, a handful of small containers, a strainer spoon, a sand sifting shovel, plastic cutlery, some bowls all on a plastic tray.
Gracen quickly settled on the blanket next to her tray and began exploring. She wasn’t so sure about really diving in at first, but before too long she was picking up full batches of slime at a time and watching them slip and stretch out of her hands.
What I like so much about this sort of slime (besides how cool it is to play with), is that despite the fact that it looks like it can get pretty messy, it’s very easy to tidy. Because it acts more like a solid when removed from little people, dishes, and blankets, it just kind of clumps up and comes away clean. Plus, it doesn’t stain skin and it washes off of clothes and blankets without any effort. Messy play being easy to tidy? A definite win in my books.
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Bright and early this morning {while still in pajamas}, Gracen and I put together some little Halloween treats for her “yittle dance class fends”. While a little non-traditional, I wanted to make something Gracen-friendly (she hasn’t had refined sugar / junk yet) and call me a downer, but between sweets from family members, school, and trick-or-treating, I think most kids get more than enough junk on Halloween as it is. Our alternative? Mini mason jars filled with sparkly slime. ☺
First off, Miss G helped me collect a few ingredients from around the house… Warm water, Borax, food colouring, glitter, and white glue.
To get us started, she emptied a generous amount of white glue into a large mixing bowl…
Then added some warm water…
A single drop of gel food colouring (she chose pink which isn’t particularly Halloween-ish, but I figure it’s perfect for a group of teeny tiny ballerinas)…
And a liberal amount of glitter.
Then we stirred everything up really well until the mixture was smooth and all of the glue globs had disappeared.
After setting our glue / water mixture aside, we added some Borax to the remaining warm water…
And stirred it well.
Then it was time for the magic! While Gracen gently stirred the glue / water mixture, I slowly began pouring the water / Borax mixture in.
In just seconds, we could see the liquid starting to thicken up and come together in a large mass.
Once everything had been well mixed, I poured out what little excess water was left and Grae began kneading the slime. Before long, the slime was firmer, less sticky, and ready to be packaged.
But not before sneaking in a little play time first though. ☺
Afterwards, we separated our pink sparkly concoction into 12 mini mason jars, which we already had on hand from the individual mason jar cheesecakes we had at Gracen’s recent 2nd birthday party.
With our slime divided into containers, it was off to the computer next. Gracen chose some fluorescent pink paper and the pumpkin clipart, I chose the fonts, and together we came up with these super simple labels.
A little orange marker and a dash of sparkle, and here’s the finished product.
Sparkly Slime (adapted from this recipe)
Combine the first set of ingredients until the mixture is smooth and free of glue blobs.
In a separate measuring cup / bowl, combine the second set of ingredients until the Borax is dissolved into the water.
Slowly pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture, stirring as you pour. When the slime comes together in a large mass, pour off the excess water and kneed the slime for a few minutes.
Package in pretty little mason jars and gift to your friends on Halloween.
* One thing to keep in mind is that while clear Elmer’s glue will work just fine for this recipe, the ‘environmentally friendly’ version will not. Trust me. We tried it. TWICE. *
* Also, if you’re wondering about the safety of Borax, this post is extremely helpful. *
♥
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Tonight Gracen and I whipped up some insanely easy “paint” to amp up this evening’s bath time fun. The best news? It only contains two ingredients.
Before getting started, we rounded up a few things… Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Liquid Soap (ours is almond scented), some traditional liquid food colouring, a couple of paintbrushes, and some paint containers.
With our materials gathered, we got started by pouring some of our liquid soap into our containers.
Next, Gracen squeezed a few drops of food colouring into each.
And gently stirred the colour into the soap.
That’s it! Less than two minutes later and we were ready for bath time.
Once in the tub, Gracen happily painted the tiles with “numbers” and “zigzags” using her homemade paint. It was a messy, drippy, bubbly good time.
Another perk? We ended up with a blue and purple bubbly tub full of water.
And a squeaky clean toddler who smelled deliciously of almond.
When it came time for bed, we took the shower head down, gave the tiles a rinse, and watched all of our designs melt down the drain with almost no effort. I must admit, our white grout is tinted slightly pink and blue in a few places, but meh – it will fade with time. All in the name of good fun. ☺
Two Ingredient Bath Tub Paint
Measure out soap. Add food colouring. Stir.
Have fun!
♥
After our most recent tea party with a pot filled with “tea”, I realized that I haven’t really given Gracen many opportunities to practice her pouring skills (with the exception of cooking and sensory bin/bath tub play, I guess). So tonight, just before I began making dinner, I set up a little water pouring station for her. All it took was a towel on the floor, a plastic serving tray, some measuring cups/jars/pitchers, and some coloured water. Gracen was thrilled, of course.
She transferred water from one container to another, watching the colours change and muddle for the better part of an hour, which was the perfect amount of time for me to prep dinner, clean the kitchen and wash a big load of dishes. Doesn’t get much better than that. Afterwards, clean up was a breeze. The towel went into the wash, the dishes got rinsed, and that was that… Another ‘Mama needs to make dinner’ activity to add to my {mental} list. ☺
♥
If you don’t feel comfortable letting your little one handle glass jars and measuring cups, you could always replace them with plastic ones instead. Switching out the water for dry goods like lentils, beans, and popping corn would be fun too!
Here’s a new {Halloween-themed} felt board activity I whipped up for Miss G this afternoon while she napped. It was a super quick project and couldn’t have been more simple to put together.
All you need is some felt (I just use the cheap craft store stuff for felt board activities), a really good pair of scissors, and maybe some fabric glue if you want make your pumpkin stems green like I did.
I often cut out my shapes freehand, but since I wanted 3 distinctly different pumpkin shapes, today I quickly sketched them out first.
Next, I cut out my pumpkin shapes, as well as some green stems for the tops.
Using Aleene’s OK To Wash-It fabric glue, I attached the stems to the pumpkins and set them aside to dry. Of course, you could stitch them on or use regular craft glue for this job instead. Or, another thought…you could not attach them at all and let adding stems to the pumpkins be part of the designing process.
While the glue dried, I worked on cutting out some jack-o-lantern eyes, noses, and mouths. I did this freehand, making up the shapes as I went along. Folding the felt in half in order to make symmetrical noses and mouths / two eyes at once made the job a lot faster and easier.
When Grae woke up, she was super excited to find her new felt board jack-o-lanterns waiting for her and got to playing right away.
She designed and redesigned the jack-o-lanterns again and again, sometimes very cautiously and sometimes more abstractly. She even ended up using eyes as eyebrows and upside-down mouths as moustaches (two things I wouldn’t have thought of!)
♥
For an easy and inexpensive felt board DIY, click here.
Over the course of the last week, Gracen has been very into collecting “autumn sings (things)”. At first, I thought we’d use the items to make a couple of art projects and a sensory bin (which we did), but the collection grew so quickly and became so diverse that I decided a special area to display and admire her beautiful nature items was needed.
So this morning, we started out by taking down Grae’s beloved {pretend play} frozen yogurt shop and making room for a new nature display. At first, I thought we’d use the same little table we had used for the shop, but just as I was thinking it would be nice to have something more like a long skinny coffee table, these vintage apple crates came to mind (they are actually the very boxes Grandma Charlotte’s family received apples in when she was a little girl!) They couldn’t have fit the space better and not only does their rustic charm suit a nature table perfectly, but when stacked on their sides, they provide extra storage space by turning into shelves.
Grae and I started emptying our bags and filling up the shelves (being the little organizer she is, she of course wanted all similar items together, so I was very lucky to be granted permission to split up the apples/corn/pinecones into a couple of different areas). As she started to try and stand her tree branches upright along the wall, I realized that Great Great Grandma Amy’s vintage mason jars would display them beautifully.
Our items came from a variety of spots… Most of the leaves, branches, and twigs were found while walking around visiting parks in our neighbourhood in Vancouver. The baby pumpkin and dried corn were found on our most recent trip to Davison Orchards. The pinecones were picked in Grandma Charlotte and Poppop’s front yard, and the dried flowers and berry bunches were found in the back. Grandma Charlotte and Grae retrieved the cat tails and birch bark while out on a walk, and the new apples were snagged from a big box in GC and Poppop’s garage. ☺
When we were all done emptying and arranging, the end result was a cute little autumn-inspired corner in G’s room where she is free to explore nature at any time.
So far, she seems to enjoy rearranging her items and reading in front of the shelf most.
Knowing our little nature lover, I’m thinking this collection will continue to grow as the season progresses. And we just may have to start fresh and create a new one come winter…
♥
I know not everyone would feel comfortable having glass jars and/or inedible berries within their little one(s) reach. Please only do what you are comfortable with.
Matching is HUGE in our house right now. Coordinating is simply not good enough for Miss G anymore. Everything. must. match. To the point where she will pick a treat (organic fruit leather) with a blue package while grocery shopping because she is wearing blue pants, cutting her carrots requires an orange knife, and wearing white socks isn’t happening if there is no other white in the outfit. So when I came across an empty egg carton during my usual nap time house cleaning, I decided to use it to put together a little matching game rather than recycling it.
I had everything else I needed on hand… Acrylic paints in primary colours, plus white and black, a paintbrush, an old rag, and some water.
I simply painted each egg spot by swirling the paint up from the base to the top edge.
I made sure to include the basic rainbow colours, plus black, white, and grey, and of course aqua because, well… it’s the best colour ever.
Afterwards, I gave the inside of the lid a quick coat of white paint.
Now if I’m being honest, Gracen awoke from her nap before the paint was fully dry and she was so excited to play her new game that we took it to the bathroom and used the blowdryer on it.
When it was fully dry, I poured a bunch of buttons in the lid, removed the clear ones, and asked, “Do you want to play?”
With a prompt “Yes!” and zero direction, she got busy matching the buttons to the colours painted in the cups.
Grae loves playing and the nice thing about this little game is that when she’s finished, she just closes it up and everything is contained and ready for next time.
♥
I’ve had this little idea in mind ever since Gracen received her ice cream sand toys back at the beginning of summer, and today was a perfect day to make it happen… With it being cool and dreary here in Vancouver, spending the afternoon on a wet beach making sand cones didn’t sound overly appealing… Making yummy-smelling play dough ones in the warmth of our house, however, certainly did. Not to mention the fact that Grae fell in love with playing ‘the ice cream game’ at our community centre’s playground recently, so opening an ice cream shop (which Grae quickly decided should be a frozen yogurt shop instead) it was.
With our best ever no cook scented play dough made and a few things collected from around the house, our shop was ready for business.
Our play dough went into some empty yogurt containers we had on hand…
We made candy sprinkles by chopping up some colourful plastic straws we had leftover from Miss G’s birthday party…
Colourful buttons became Smarties…
And some silicone baking cups and the plastic cones from Grae’s Melissa & Doug set became our cups and cones.
We also collected some scoops and spoons for eating and serving our frozen treats, some coins and a money jar, and fabric bunting {also from the birthday party} to spruce up the shop. ☺
Together, we wrote made a quick sign for our shop. I asked Grae how much one of her frozen yogurt treats cost, and without skipping a beat, she said “Two!” So two dollars it was…
With her shop set up and ready to go, it was down to business welcoming her customers (me!), making delicious-looking play dough treats, and collecting money in exchange.
Not a fan of cones? Not a problem – a bowl for you!
Cheers to rainy days and frozen treats!
The frozen yogurt fun went on all afternoon…
And after what felt my 53rd order, Papa eventually came home and relieved me of my customer duties (thank goodness – I don’t know if my belly could have handled another candy-covered cone).
Gracen and I may have just stumbled upon the best. play dough. recipe. ever. today while combining my old go-to with a few other ideas we found around the net…. Now I know I said similar things about this recipe, but this new one involves no cooking (win!) and smells delish (double win!)
We did have to make a trip to the grocery store beforehand, as a couple of the ingredients are not things we regularly keep on hand, but it was well worth the trip. This is by far the softest, squishiest, smoothest, nicest feeling {and smelling} play dough I’ve ever come across.
Now before I share the recipe, I want to say that there are LOTS of factors at play when making play dough at home. It seems like it should be a simple enough task {and I promise that it is}, but there a few things to consider and I want to be sure that your play dough turns out well. Believe it or not, things like the elevation at which you live, the weather / humidity where you are, and how you measure your flour can all affect whether your dough turns out too sticky, too dry, or just right.
For the purpose of this recipe, know that I measure flour by scooping a heaping amount of flour into my stainless steel measuring up and pressing it down into the cup on the inside of the bag. Thus, my flour is fairly packed down in the measuring cup.
Also know that if your finished play dough turns out too wet, you can save it by adding a little bit of extra flour, bit by bit (just go slow here – you can overdo it quickly!) and kneading it in. At the opposite side of the spectrum, if your dough seems too dry or tough, you can add moisture and soften it up by adding tiny bits of one of the wet ingredients (boiling water, oil, or glycerine) at a time, again being careful not to overdo it.
The BEST Scented No-Cook Play Dough
*If using Kool-Aid or Frosting Creations, additional food colouring is not needed. You can also skip Kool-Aid / Frosting Creations all together and use the gel colouring for a coloured but unscented dough. Or leave out all three for a unscented, natural coloured dough.
Place all of the ingredients, save the boiling water, in a bowl and whisk well. Measure the water using your dry measuring set and add it to the bowl. Give the mixture a quick mix with a wooden spoon, banging off it off every once and a while. At this point, the mixture may seem too wet and sticky to make good play dough… Do not fret! Leave the semi-mixed dough on the counter to cool for 5 or so minutes. Afterwards, dump the mixture out onto the countertop and knead really well. You’ll know you’re done when the dough is fully cooled, soft and squishy, and the super smooth.
Enjoy!
FIY: Kool-Aid is a powdered drink mix that you add sugar and water to make ‘juice’ and Frosting Creation Flavour Mix is a powder used to flavour store-bought icing. Both can be used in this recipe to scent AND colour the play dough, but they can easily be left out for a natural, unscented dough or replaced with food colouring for a coloured, but unscented dough.
FIY #2: Non-edible glycerine is readily available in the first aid section of most grocery stores and edible glycerine is available where cake making supplies are sold.
FIY#3: This play dough will last for months if stored at room temperature in an air-tight container or bag. Do not refrigerate or store near a heat source or on top of the fridge.
FIY #4: When making this play dough, we use dry measuring cups only – even when measuring the boiling water.
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Okay, so I know that we are very likely the last ever play-lovin’ people to jump aboard the water bead train, but we’ve finally done it. And they’re awesome.
The truth is, while I’ve known that they could be purchased online, I was hoping to just ‘bump’ into them one day while doing some shopping. I know this is ridiculous, but I’ve had my eyes peeled for months while at children’s stores and teaching stores, but of course I’ve had no luck finding them in those places… Am I the only person on the face of the planet that did not know what water beads were actually intended for?! Here I was, thinking that they were some sort of revolutionary sensory-based material designed especially for play, when they are actually intended for using in flower vases and readily available at florists and in the floral sections of craft and dollar stores. Duh! My bad…
That is until we were picking up a couple of lily-esque flowers for a pond sensory bin in our local dollar store the other day… Sure enough, there they were. Squishy, shiny, smooth marbles packed in small containers of water. Non-toxic and environmentally safe. Score! I may have been a little overly excited given the situation… But hey, what can I say?
We first used them during our recent messy play date and today we took them outside again in a simple water bead sensory bin. Miss G requested the water beads be in pink water, so pink water it was. We gathered up a few kitchen goodies (a slotted spoon is a must) and headed outside.
The coolest thing is that because these particular beads are clear, they’re nearly invisible when in water (especially in non-coloured water).
Then you put your hands in the bin expecting just water and discover a squishy, slippery surprise. (Of course, Gracen already knew what to expect, but apparently it still felt wonderful enough to get elbow deep in the bin.)
Catching them while in water can be a little tricky, but it’s a big part of the fun.
That’s where a slotted spoon comes in handy (especially one of this size). Grae quickly realized how much easier it made collecting her bouncy water beads and got to work filling up her tray.
Of course, what fun is a sensory bin without squishing your toes in it?
A few things to keep in mind about water beads… Firstly, though they’re non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally safe, they {obviously} should not be ingested. Also, from what I’ve read, they clog drains quite badly, so if you set up a water bead station in your bath tub or sink, be sure to use one of those mesh drain inserts to make sure none of them slip down into your pipes. Lastly, they will dehydrate over time if left out of water. Either store them in a sealed container with a little bit of water, or if they do dry out, simply soak them in water for 8 to 12 hours to rehydrate them.
I have a feeling there’s a lot of water bead fun in our future… Brad and I picked up several packages of the dehydrated kind while on a little date night to the Summer Night Market last week, so we’ve got a stock pile of red, purple, pink, aqua, and multicoloured ones ready to go. I’ve already got a million ways to use them floating around in my head… How fun would setting up a bubble tea station be? Or putting them into a big container of thick shaving foam? What about mixing them up with glow sticks and playing with them in the dark or creating a Halloween sensory bin filled with water beads, slime, and creepy crawlies? I feel a Pinterest visit coming on very soon… ☺
♥
The three of us were sitting down together today and I yanked out these two supplies for a little activity I’ve had in mind for a long while now.
I originally saw these velcro building sticks at Tot Treasures and loved the simplicity of them.
With our sticky velcro dots attached to each side and firmly pressed down, we were ready to try them out.
We begun attaching them to one another and quickly realized that they would be 10 times more fun with velcro dots on both sides of the sticks (more dots on our list for next shopping trip!), but Grae didn’t seem to mind.
Her favourite? Making ‘snakes’ and ‘zigzags’.
♥
Today, Gracen and I tried something I’ve had on my {mental} ‘list’ for a very long time now… Magic milk painting! And I’m very happy to say, it was every bit as cool as I thought it would be. I’m not sure where I saw it first (it was a long time ago), but I found this post via Pinterest, we followed the instructions, and the activity was a huge hit.
Here’s what we used… Homogenized milk (I’ve read it works better than lower fat milks), food colouring, dish soap, toothpicks, and a plate (all things we already had on hand – bonus).
My happy little scientist / artist decided to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and took our things outside. With a thin layer of milk covering the bottom of the plate, Grae added drops of food colouring in various places around the dish.
Then, for the magic… With her toothpick dipped in dish soap, Grae began touching the food colouring drops. The soap causes the colouring to radiate away from the toothpick, creating beautiful circles and swirls of colour around the plate.
The more you dip, the more the colours move and blend. I must say, it’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch.
The coolest part is that the colours continue to dance and mix long after you touch them with the toothpick, so you don’t have to constantly be adding more soap to enjoy the beautiful effects.
Just take a look…
Eventually, the milk becomes quite muddled and the colours no longer ‘dance’ as well. At that point, it’s time to fetch a fresh dish of milk and start again.
We tried 3 times, twice with whole milk and once with half & half cream (thinking that the higher fat content might make the results even better), and I must say, the whole milk worked best. The cream did work well and made the colours move a little more slowly (which is a good thing if you want the activity to last longer), but at the same time, the slower effects did seem to take away (just a tiny bit) from the magic of it all.
Both Gracen and I enjoyed this activity so much that we’ll definitely be doing it again soon. And although dairy products past their due date freak me right out (I know, I know…), it would be great to pull out when you have milk that’s gone a day or two past its best before date.
♥
After nap time today, Grae actually came up to me and said, “Do fun ac-ti-vi-tee?” Funny little duck. Yes, baby girl, we can always do a fun ac-ti-vi-tee. In fact, that’s why I’m constantly adding to my Toddler Activities Pinterest board. For moments just like these.
I love the idea behind this simple sun bleached puzzle, but because the sun wasn’t shining all that much in our neck of the woods today (and because it takes a couple days time to create), we decided to make our own ready-in-an-instant version, sans the sun. ☺
First up, Gracen helped me collect our materials… A piece of large black card stock, a silver sharpie (a white/yellow/silver/gold crayon or pencil crayon would work too), and an assortment of flatish objects from around the house.
Next, we traced the objects onto the card stock. Grae helped with tracing a couple of the objects, but for the most part, she was very content with watching me trace and announcing the names of the objects and the shapes they left on the paper.
Here’s what our household objects puzzle looked like when we’d traced all of the objects.
Miss G got busy matching right away. I swear she lives for stuff like this. In between shape and object names, she kept repeating “Fun game. Mama (and) Grae Grae make FUN game”.
Finished! (I spy toes.)
Celebration dance in order.
Here’s a little video of her being silly on her second time through…
♥
This morning Miss G found a little wooden Melissa & Doug box {that used to house her alphabet magnets}, brought it to me, and asked, “Play game?” Ummmm… Okay. I was certainly not going to turn away that sweet little face, so I had to think on my toes.
The two compartments of course lead to a sorting activity of some sort, and the first thing that popped into my head was colours.
I grabbed two pieces of coloured paper, cut them {very roughly} to fit inside the compartments, and asked Grae if she wanted to help me find little things in pinks and yellows.
Of course she was more than game, so we went around the house collecting things and deciding whether or not they were too big. This is what we came up with.
Grae needed no explanation. I simply said, “Do you want to play?” and off she went.
I did realize part way into our collecting that the activity wouldn’t last long, but we had already started and it’s not like it was a huge time investment, so we continued along our way. I wasnt timing, but the game probably lasted all of 60 seconds from start to finish. The good news is that Grae seemed to enjoy herself and was happy to take everything out, mix it up, and play again and again.
Next time, if we wanted to get more ‘bang for our buck’, we could easily use two more similar colours (aqua and blue, grey and black, or something similar) or try sorting based on something different all together like circles and squares, wood and plastic, or tall and short.
Here’s a little video of Grae hard at play multiple rounds in:
♥