Indoor Fun: Animal Color Bath

I've mentioned before that we just made it through a couple of weeks where we were basically house bound. Between illness and the heat outside, we didn't have much choice but to hang out indoors. With two toddlers, that gets old fast.  I scrambled to find some activities that were easy to do (I was sick after all) and that would keep the kids' attention for a fair amount of time. One activity that turned out to be a favorite was the Animal Color Bath.

I found the Color Bath Dropz at the grocery store. You can add one or more color tablets to change the color of the water. We experimented with the tablets and found that it was a fun learning experience. It's really fun to see how the water can change from red to orange by the addition of a yellow tablet or yellow to green by adding a blue tablet, etc.  The kids loved playing in the water.

They also loved washing their farm animals. I gave them each a wash cloth and a towel to dry the animals on.  It's absolutely amazing how something so simple can be so engaging.  They spent a good 45 minutes washing their animals and playing in the water. 45 minutes of peace, ahhh.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

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Color Sort- Let's Learn Colors

Jellybean has been having a little trouble with her colors. So, I decided to put together a simple game to help her. I pulled out some sheets of dollar store craft foam in red, yellow, blue, green and orange. Then I pulled out our tupperware of puff balls and asked the kids to sort the colors.

Yes, we were still in our pajamas. Why do you ask?

After the puff balls had been sorted, I asked the kids to run through the house and find two or three toys that matched each color.

They did an awesome job

and were pretty proud of themselves.

At the end of the activity, I asked Jellybean to name the different colors.  She now has Orange, Red and Yellow down pat (at least for now). We're still working on Green and Blue.  3 out of 5? That's a good morning's work in my book. When we were finished, Jellybean surprised me by breaking into a rendition of the Rainbow Song. "Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too."  This was also a good opportunity for Buddy to exercise his teaching skills. He loved helping Jellybean learn her colors. He's a good big brother.

Before we could clean everything up, the game devolved into "Dump the Puff Balls on Jellybean." It was a natural conclusion.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Fizzing Planet Art

Jellybean's complete planet with extra cheesy grin.

We had fun with a new rainy scorching day activity this last week.  This was inspired by an art project that I've seen several times floating around Pinterest.  The nice thing about this project is that all of the materials needed were already in my pantry.  

Buddy and Jellybean working on their creations.

The concept is simple: you fill a pie plate with baking soda.  Then you tint vinegar with food coloring.  We used some ramekins to hold our color. It's so fun to see the baking soda and vinegar fizz each time some color is added to the pan.  It's also fun because the color stays where you put it.

Adding more and more color. Jellybean started adding baking soda to her ramekins so that the entire thing would fizz.

Unfortunately, the one tool that would have made this more fun would have been an eye dropper.  Since I didn't have one available, I had the kids use straws to drip the vinegar into the baking soda. It works in theory, but in practice, this method is pretty frustrating for a 2 and 4 year old. So, I took away the straws and handed them each a spoon. That's when the art work took a serious turn.

Plates transforming into alien planets

Now they were adding a lot of color to the plate. The baking soda still provided some great fizz and added a base so that the color would somewhat stay where it was placed. Buddy started talking about his moster planet and the different monsters that live there. Jellybean was pleased with her pretty alien planet and enjoyed sampling the vinegar color (ick).

Buddy putting the final touches on his monster planet.

This is a great activity for a day when you can't be outside.  They spent a good 45 minutes to an hour on their fizzing planets.  Buddy is already excited to make another one. In fact, if I'd had more baking soda, we would have made more that day.


So, what are your favorite rainy/scorching hot day activities??  


Have a Happy Day!


~MJ

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5 Minute Craft: Color Your Own Wrapping Paper

We were invited to celebrate my beautiful niece's first birthday last Saturday.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a scrap of child appropriate wrapping paper in the house.  We did, however, have a bolt of plain butcher paper and lots of crayons.  Both very useful items to have around. Am I right?

First thing in the morning (which ought to explain what they are wearing), I taped a large piece of paper to the floor and let Jellybean and Buddy go nuts.  If you don't have any wrapping paper, just make some.

Buddy was certain she'd like the ABCs as well as an "Icy Monster." Apparently, that is a monster that is mean to people.

The "Icy Monster" looks pretty mean.

Buddy writes out the ABCs every chance he gets.

Jellybean, just let's the creativity flow. She's a big fan of orange, but I tried to convinced her to branch out a bit.

No, Mama. I don't want to use another color.

A fun time was had, wrapping paper was created and it turned out kind of cute to boot.  I think I'll have them color all of our wrapping paper from here on out.

 Have a Happy Day!

~MJ


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Color Inspiration

It's just over 4 weeks until we can move into our new place. That leaves me with a lot of time to contemplate how I plan to make the space my own.

Today I ran across this great website called Design Seeds. If you haven't been to it you should really check it out. It is the perfect place to gather color inspiration. Each post is comprised of a beautiful picture broken out into a color palette.

Here are a few of my favorites. You'll be able to tell right away that I'm crazy about neutrals. I like the look of one of these for our new front room:



and my favorite:


These two look perfect for our master bedroom.




Head over to Design Seeds and be inspired.

Have a Happy Day!

Which Red?

We are getting our house ready to list in the next few weeks (sorry if this is a surprise to my friends and neighbors that may read this). We are sprucing things up and could use some help picking a front door color.

Here is our unassuming brick house in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood.

We'll be adding shutters back and painting them to match the trim. We'll also be planting some spring flowers.

So...
Which red should the front door be? (The barn red is slightly darker in real life.)

Do you have any other red suggestions for this color brick?
Is it a mistake to go with red?

I need your opinions!

We'll be painting the door either this weekend or next and I'll post the before and after photos when it's complete.

Thanks for your help and Have a Happy Day! :)