Coloring Eggs

Masterpiece on the Floor

Look what happens when Daddy isn't watching me! Magic Eraser cleans up permanent marker fortunately.

Mommy made Daddy clean it up.

First Ice Cream Cone

We stopped at Ritters today and enjoyed some ice cream (actually frozen custard). Piper did a really good job with her cone and was great about wiping her mouth every couple bites or so. She would not eat the cone part though and told me it was yucky. Maybe next time.

Easter Eggs

We decorated our Easter eggs tonight. I wanted something easy that only took one step. Have you seen the Easter coloring options lately? There's glitter, wax, stickers, plastic wraps, and more. Our kit was a basic dye pack with oil. It gave the eggs a tie-dyed look. All I had to to was dunk the eggs in a couple cups of water and we were done. Oh, and I also had to remove Piper from the top of the table every five seconds, and wipe up the spilled water, and save the eggs from being cracked or dropped, and so on.

Fun in the Mud

It was beautiful weather Saturday, but it had rained the day before and it was still wet when we had our cookout. I took all kinds of toys with me for Piper to play with: her sand toy, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, books, a ball, and more. Guess what she wanted to play with...er in? The mud puddles! She had a ton of fun playing with her sand toys in the puddles. I had to go back and get her play shoes so she wouldn't ruin her new ones. Her clothes were just cheapo (but still cute) Garanimal brand, so it wasn't a big deal if she got them messy. They'll wash.

I also have a new camera so it was nice for me to play around with it and I think I got some good shots. I'm still learning about using it in manual mode though, and I really want to take a photography class this summer. The only shot I played with in Photoshop was the last one. The rest are completely unedited. So, I cut her feet off in one of the pics, but oh well.

Playing on the Sandbar

Behind our apartments we have a decent sized woods and the river is a short hike away. We took Piper down there a few days ago and she had a blast playing on the sandbar. Apparently the sand didn't bother her as much as it did at the Children's Museum. I bought her some sand toys to use the next time we go down there, and I know she'll have fun digging and sifting in the mess.

Ooey, Gooey, Oobleck

I did this activity with my first graders last Friday, so I thought Piper would enjoy playing with it too. Knowing that she loves to get messy, I knew this would be right up her alley. I did not add the food coloring to her mixture, and it was a little thin at first, but eventually it was the perfect consistency. If you have never done oobleck before, you have to try it to understand how very cool it is. I use it to teach about solids and liquids in the classroom, although it is actually neither one. It is a non-Newtonian substance (feel free to Google that if you really want to know more)

Oobleck is based on a Dr. Seuss book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck. In the book it was really bad if you ate the oobleck, but our oobleck was made out of cornstarch and water, and was harmless. I thought it wouldn't taste very good and Piper would keep it out of her mouth, but not my child! She decided it must be dinner and tasted it every chance she could.

Here is the recipe if you are inspired to get messy yourself.

Oobleck Recipe

2 cups of corn starch, 3 drops of green food coloring, enough water to make a thick mixture (about the texture of pancake batter) I usually measure equal amounts of water and corn starch, but mix water in slowly.

Flour Power

Someone on BabyCenter suggested that they let their child play with flour in a bowl, and that their child would stir and pretend to cook with it. In theory this sounded like a fun idea. I was anticipating a mess, and thoughtfully chose a bowl that was deep. The stirring idea was not received well. Piper decided that the spoon would however, be useful to fling flour all over the room. I figured she would attempt to eat it also, but assumed that flour probably wouldn't taste very good, and oh well...it's not going to hurt her. Sure enough she decided to taste it...over and over. It did however keep her entertained for quite a while. Even after it was all over the floor, she still tried to pick it back up and put it back in the bowl. Hmmm...I'm not sure who learned more from this experience?

Yum, Cherrios!

This is what happens when I'm on the computer and stop paying attention to her for a minute. I didn't actually let her sit there and eat them. Even though the floor had been swept that day, I still threw all the cereal in the trash. She was not happy!