Give it a whirl Wednesday: Ice Cube Painting

Pinterest gave us another fabulous toddler-friendly art idea last week:  ice cube painting!  It took just a wee bit of prep work the night before, but Annabellie LOVED it.  Every day, multiple times a day, she points out her beautiful creations on the fridge, and there are still colored cubes in our freezer to enjoy another day!

 

You'll need just a few basic supplies:  an ice cube tray or two (got mine in a 3-pack at the dollar store), food coloring, craft sticks (which I snapped in half), paper, and a lipped cookie sheet.

I mixed about half a cup of water with each of the five colors we used. This created 3 cubes of each color.

 



 

I stuck them in the freezer for about 45 minutes or so, until they were supposed to be frozen enough to hold the popsicle sticks, but not completely frozen yet.  Except they weren't quite frozen enough... my sticks ended up a little catawampus.  Annabelle didn't mind - they worked fine.

 

 

We laid a ruinable (not a word, but you totally understand what I mean) towel down and put her paper in the cookie sheet.

 

 

Then I just let her go to town!

 

 

 

 

And this was the final, gorgeous result!

 

She created one large and two smaller masterpieces with the same cubes.  Then I let her have a little messy fun playing with the melted rainbow puddles.  All in all, a huge success. And I'm pretty sure the large painting will be framed - the colors are amazing and she genuinely created it all by herself.

A Monday moment

Two Months

Look at you, you beautiful, smiling, growing girl!  And to think we ever worried about loving you as much, loving you enough.  Friends told us, "Don't worry.  It will be there, like magic.  Don't worry."  We worried, I worried, but all for naught. It's there, little one.  And you are magic.

A Monday moment

Give it a whirl Wednesday: Vinegar and Baking Soda

I don't know about y'all, but I am a HUGE fan of Pinterest.  I could, and often do, spend hours and hours pouring through all the pretty pictures and creative ideas on that site. It is like a gorgeous, interactive magazine that's always ready at my fingertips. It's what I do waiting in line at Starbucks, while feeding the baby at 3am, and sometimes even in the restroom.  I know - TMI, Andrea, T M I.

One of my most active boards is called Bean, where I pin ideas for Annabelle's bedroom and playroom, books I want her to read someday, or activities I want us to try together.  Because we live in hell Arizona, our outdoor play time is pretty limited in the heat of summer, so these activities have become the highlight of our days this month.  We try something new every few days, and repeat the faves in between.  I thought I'd dedicate Wednesdays to showing you what we've tried and loved (I'll spare you lame stuff, but I might sometimes post a total epic fail just for humor's sake.)

Yesterday we tried a little toddler chemistry.  We've all seen, and most of us have made, the classic erupting volcano science fair project. This is a simple variation on that theme of the fizzy reaction between baking soda and vinegar.  Here's what you'll need:

Plus a baking dish or lipped cookie sheet. Fill whichever with about a half-inch of baking soda. Then drop a few drops of food coloring (we used 3 colors) into your cups and fill half-way with vinegar. Add a dropper to each cup - got a six pack of those droppers at Michael's.

Put it all on a towel, or two, take a deep breath, and embrace the coming mess, Mom.  Just show your little one how to use the dropper (23 times) and drop it in the vinegar dish. Enjoy the chemistry magic!

 

And just to keep things real, it looked like this after 40 minutes:
 

 

All in all, a great sensory activity.  We used our color vocabulary, counted drops, took turns, and discussed texture at the end when we were letting it fizz in our hands and playing in the wet soda. For slightly older kids, I can see color mixing and even science journaling about our observations.  Thanks Pinterest for another success.

 

*Here's the site of my original pin: Indulgy.com

It's sure been a while....

It has been well over a year since I logged onto this blog.  I guess I lost interest, lost motivation, and certainly lost a lot of my free time.  One became two, and three became four...

 

 

Those are our girls.  Thanks to Shannon, Sophie joined this family on April 19, 2013 and our hands and hearts are FULL.  Having a first child is a huge adjustment, but having a second with a 2 and a half year old is a huge amount of work.  Joyful, exhausting work.  We are so, so lucky.

Needless to say, family takes priority over internet fun and games. Over all hobbies, really.  And over sleep. 

But summer break has started and I might just be able to squeeze in a little time to document our beautiful life on here.  Maybe.

*Photos by First Day Photos @ Scottsdale Healthcare Shea

Wordless Wednesday: Sidewalk Chalk