Treats

My amazing sister sent me this link http://beinglds.blogspot.com/ and told me about this great idea the woman had.  I decided to try it out and Sydney was in heaven.  I filled a mini muffin tin with a bunch of different snacks and gave it to Sydney.  (the empty one had mini marshmallows in it that Sydney devoured in about 3 seconds).  She could eat anything she wanted in the cups but none of them would be refilled until all of them were empty.  This was a fun idea!

Faux Makeup

Do little girlies all love makeup or is it just mine?  My girlies love makeup and love to watch me put mine on.  They always want to put on their own, but at age 1 and 2, I think it's a little early!  I found this great idea on Not So Idle Hands for Faux Makeup.  Just take an old compact of makeup, clean it all out, and pour nail polish in the spots!  I tried to fill mine, but it all evaporates other than a thin layer of paint, so just put in enough to cover the bottom and let it dry.  Mine took days to get rid of the smell, so I stuck it in my garage and let it air out. (Can we talk about torture for the kids to not be able to play with it yet?)

This was a fun project for my girls to do (pick which color goes where) and they have their own makeup to play with and most importantly, NO MESS!

This is one of my absolute favorite blogs for getting ideas to do with the girls.
I never have time to hardly any of them, but someday!

http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com

Go look at it, and then make some neat snack cups!

Canning Ring Pumpkins

I can't remember where I found this, I'll have to be more careful next time. But, my girls had a lot of fun with this outdoor fall game. First, take a pumpkin with a nice stem still attached, we used a big one and mini pumpkins. Then take some canning rings. Put them together and what do you get? A fun tossing game. Laura did ok, the wide mouth rings work a little better than the small ones, but Eden still had fun putting them on the stems. Ryan tried to eat the rings and the bark from the tree. I also want to try making some rings a little bigger out of cardboard cereal boxes.

After they get bored with this game, tie some ribbons onto the edges and let them run around with the ring in their hand and their ribbon kite behind them.

Soft Play Dough

I know there are a MILLION recipes out there for play doughs, but this is the one I tried today (thanks to Google). It turned out quite nice! It is soft and it doesn't dry your hands out like salt dough. I really like using the baby oil instead of cooking oil. It smells good and should last longer without going rancid. I split it into 6 balls, each a bit larger than a store bought PlayDoh can, and made them each a different color. Plenty for a few kids to share.

The original recipe said to microwave for 4-5 minutes and then 1 min increments, but it was soooo long that it *cooked* mine too much. I had to throw out the edges since they were hard. I've reduced the times below, so let me know how it turns out for you!

PERFECT PLAY DOUGH

2 cups flour
1 cups salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons baby oil ( works better than regular oil)
2 tablespoons cream of tarter
liquid food coloring

Combine dry ingredients. Add water and oil. Stir well. Microwave on high 2 minutes. Stir again. Microwave another 30 seconds. Stir. Continue to microwave for 30 second increments, stirring between, until dough is the consistency of mashed potatoes. Cool it enough to touch. Knead in food coloring until dough is desired color. Store in an air-tight container or ziploc bag.

On the Go Finger Painting

For the fun of finger painting without the mess, simply squirt some paint in a sturdy Ziploc bag and seal it tight. Lay it on a flat surface and let your kids draw pictures in the paint through the bag. You just need to make sure your kids are either too young to open the bag or old enough to know not to do it!

Water Painting

This is simply a variation on Abby's previous post about the spray bottles. Sydney doesn't know how to use one yet, so I gave her some paint brushes and a bucket of water and let her go to town on the patio, the rocks, the ants, etc. while I get some yard work done. She loves it, there is absolutely no mess to clean up since the water just evaporates, and I get to hear her running around yelling, "I paintin'!"