Foil Painting

This is a project idea I got out of a book the art teacher at my school lent me. You will need a piece of aluminum foil, poster paints, and a white wax crayon.

First, I let Piper crumple the foil up into a ball, and then I unrolled it and spread it flat on the surface. I actually used the heavy duty foil, but I imagine that regular would work fine too. The thicker type might hold up better and be less likely to rip however.

Next, my little artist painted the foil with its first layer of paint. Note to self: I really need to get some other colors of paint. All of her artwork is starting to look the same. She did the first layer in green and on the second day, did the second layer in purple. You should have some thickness to the paint layers so the next step is most effective.

Finally, after the paint is completely dry you will use the white wax crayon. Lightly rub it over the paint to emphasize the foil wrinkles. Piper helped me do this last step, but I did have to help her quite a bit. I noticed that if there was only one layer of paint, it flaked off easily.

Don't Tell Me I'm Too Little

You'd never know by looking at her, that she's only 19 months old. Everyone always thinks she's older, especially because she is so tall. So it kinda shocked me the other day at the park when she wanted to climb up one of the angled ladders, and this other mom said she was too small and would have to grow a little before she could do it. I just smiled sweetly and told her that she might be surprised at how well she could climb. I knew she could in fact climb it because I had watched her do it at another park. Yes, my little monkey has no concept of fear, and scrambled up the whole way with mommy spotting her. Did I mention that I love proving other people wrong. :)

**This is not the exact angled ladder she climbed up. The one she climbed had another horizontal rung at the very top, which caused a little hiccup in her climbing even though she made it to the ledge eventually.

Frisbee Golf

or Disc Golf, whatever you want to call it is one of Erick's favorite things to do. It stands to reason that Piper was introduced to this game very early on. It's not my real exciting for me, but I will play once in a great while. Today I just walked around and corralled Piper. She does enjoy throwing the frisbees and putting them in the baskets. She was tired and cranky, and the course was very wet so we only played the front holes.

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.

Latest Masterpiece

Here is Piper's latest art creation. This was the first time we had attempted to work on the same piece for more than one day. This one took three different days and she used a variety of techniques. I totally copied this idea from the season finale of Jon & Kate Plus 8. In their show they did it all in one day, but I couldn't get the foil technique to work right so we adapted. You were supposed to place foil over sections already done to preserve each technique and layer. However I discovered I must be doing something wrong because everything I put the foil on just smeared and totally messed up the cool thing she had just done. So after the first day we abandoned the foil and just let it dry to keep the layers intact.

Some of the techniques we tried were: fingers, pastry brush, paint brush, sponge wand, hairbrush, crumpled foil, and a plastic scrubber that you wash dishes with usually. She painted with tempera on a cotton canvas. I added some of the paint to the canvas at first, but then she squeezed the rest on by herself and added the final layer with the hairbrush. I did pick the colors: red, green, purple, and black (only on the last layer), but they were the only choices we had actually. Next time maybe I'll let her choose.

She had a lot of fun painting the canvas, but she had more fun painting herself. She was a complete mess by the end of each day and turned the bath water all sorts of fun colors.

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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.

Paint with Water Book

I remember painting these books when I was little, and I finally found a couple for Piper to color in at Target. I bought a Little People book and a Care Bears book. When we got ready to paint tonight, I realized I didn't have any small paintbrushes at home. So I improvised and we used cotton swabs instead. She had lots of fun and it was easy clean up for me.

Stacking Pegs

I was shopping for my nephew tonight at the teacher store, and I saw these stacking pegs that I knew Piper would enjoy. It's a puzzle and a peg activity in one. We have the added bonus that she now says and recognizes the word star, which was not one of the puzzle shapes she already knew.

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.

Monkey Joe's

I have been waiting for a couple months for Monkey Joe's to open. They just built one right down the street from where we live, and I was very excited to take Piper to the grand opening today. It was busy, but not too crowded. I like that they have big kid equipment, as well as dedicated toddler areas for the little ones. Not that it stopped Erick from taking her on all the big attactions and slides. She had a great time climbing and jumping all over everything.

Here's a montage with all the day's fun-filled excitement. My favorite clip is when she slides down the giant slide all by herself.

Spaghetti Shaker

This is a fun and easy activity to keep your toddler occupied for a while. Piper spent at least 20 minutes working on this last night while I made dinner. Take some uncooked spaghetti and break it into shorter pieces. Give your child an empty spice shaker, and watch as she tries to stick the spaghetti through the holes. A simple and cheap game to practice those fine motor skills.

Thank you to The Happy Toddler for providing this activity.