Month of Fun - Day 25 - Slime Recipe

Today I stood at the pantry wondering what we could do today that would be new and exciting. Nothing came to me so I moved on to making breakfast. Later in the day, after Auron had flooded the kitchen and threw a tantrum when I pulled the plug out of the sink putting an end to his fun, I thought back to my time in Kindy/kinder/preschool whatever you like to call it. My FAVOURITE activity was outside in the messy play troughs. In one of the super long troughs was a mixture of cornflour and water. I swear they must've had to use boxes upon boxes of cornflour to make enough to fill it up.
Today we made a scaled down version. I wasn't sure how Auron would like it, he's weird about what he does and doesn't like. Lili on the other hand is always keen for a bit of mess!

How you do it

Slime

1 C Cornflour (cornstarch)
1 Teaspoon food colouring
3/4 C Water

Pour cornflour into a medium size bowl
Mix the colouring in with the water
Slowly add the water to the cornflour stirring until a thick paste has formed

Some cool things about this slime: 

If you mix it really slow the spoon moves through easily

If you try and mix it really fast it's almost impossible!

If you pour some on a hard surface it acts like a solid, pick it up and it turns into liquid.

Month of Fun - Day 16 FINGERPAINT

This morning I was getting the milk out of the fridge to make Auron's breakfast, as I turned around I heard a horrible cracking sound in my neck. I don't know exactly what happened all I know is my neck is crazy sore and not feeling any better tonight. We have been camping out in the lounge since last Friday while Lili takes over our room and sorts out her sleeping (SO CLOSE by the way, last night only one wake up for 5mins!) I don't know if that has anything to do with it but probably. If it's not any better by tomorrow i'll go see someone. 

Today for our fun activity I made the kids up some Finger paint. Here's the recipe

FINGER PAINT

6T salt

3T sugar

1/2C cornflour

2C water

Food colouring

In a saucepan combine salt, sugar, cornflour, water until well mixed

Continue to mix over a medium heat until thickened

Split the mixture into individual containers (I used four)

Add different coloured food colouring to each container and mix well

Once cooled you are ready to go!

Auron took a little while to get into this activity. I think he was a little confused about me wanting him to paint with his hands when usually I am trying to get him to use a brush or something. Once he got the idea that it was ik to get messy he had a great time. Lili had no hesitation but she was making waaaaaaay too much mess, getting more on her clothes than anywhere else. I put her in bed, and spent the next 40mins painting with Auron. I really enjoyed it too, quite therapeutic. 

I'm not sure what we will use our mural for, maybe wrapping paper? It's pretty cool. 

Month of Fun - Day 9 COLOURED NOODLES

Today started early as always. Lili is still waking at night, only once but she wakes screaming hysterically and takes a good hour to calm down. It's really strange. So we are still exhausted. Auron usually stands at his door and whimpers and whines until I tell him to come into our room just before 6am. I don't know why he just stands there and complains. I guess I should count myself lucky that he isn't one of those kids that constantly get up out of bed each night.
Once he comes in he's loud and wants to wake Lili up. That girl needs her sleep! So the last 2 days I've told him to go turn the tv on. This gives me 30mins extra 'sleep' before the images of him burning the house down cooking toast are too much for me to handle.

Now that is how my morning started.

For our fun activity today I made the kids coloured spaghetti noodles, the cooked kind.

Here's how to do it:

1. Boil your pasta noodles until cooked well

2. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process

3. In a zip lock bag combine 1-2 teaspoons of food colouring and 2 Tablespoons of water

4. Place the pasta into the bag and squish around until well covered

5. Allow to sit for 1 minute so the colour can soak in

6. Pour back into colander and rinse a 2nd time under cold water to remove excess colour.

Now Auron HATED this, he was freaked out by the texture, but it was right up Lili's ally. It went straight into the mouth and she thoroughly enjoyed squishing it between he fingers.
Since it only has food colouring and water added it is totally edible, if your kids are into rainbow coloured pasta for dinner...
I wish different colours but once I went to the cupboard I remembered an incident which occurred a few months ago involving a 2 year old, food colouring and our bed....

I have also made coloured pasta and rice using dry pasta. This stuff is great we have had it for over a year now and its still in use. We get it out about once or twice a week. You can find the instructions for that HERE

Month of Fun - Day 8 FLOUR FREE PLAY DOUGH

Ok people I think I may have just found the BEST play dough recipe ever! We make play dough fairly regularly in our house with the usual flour and salt recipe cooked in the stovetop. It's good but I was feeling the need for a change.
The last time I made playdough was when I was back home last month. My the 2 year olds played well with it loved it and made a huge mess, as you would expect from 2 year olds. My 10 year old sister on the other hand was caught eating it. Her excuse "I didn't know that was going to happen!" The time i made it before that Auron put it in the washing machine then turned it on. You can imagine how that turned out. I am still finding bits of red playdough in my washer despite it being months ago and after multiple cleanings!

Ok so on to this wonderful recipe! It's gluten free if that matters to anyone. The original recipe came from HERE but I adjusted it a little to make do with what I had.

Gluten Free Play dough 

1 Cup baking soda
1/2 Cup cornflour
3/4 Cup water
2 Tablespoon paint or food colouring

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and mix together until well combined and smooth
Place on a medium heat and stir continuously until a ball is formed
Removed from heat and allow to cool until it is cool enough to handle
Knead the dough a little before giving it to the kids.

I swear this is the softest most silkiest playdough you will ever ever make! Auron must have thought it was a bit like pasta dough because he got out the pasta machine and is having a blast making blue pasta! Lili on the other hand did what you would expect most 10month olds to do (not 10 year olds) she tried to eat it, and was not please with how it tasted at all!

Month of Fun - Day 7 DIY LACING SHAPES

Woohoo we have come to the end of our first week of the Month of Fun. Today we went to church. One of my favourite parts of Sunday is having lovely babysitters (thanks Kayrooz family) who love our kids and pretty much steal them as soon as they walk in. It's nice because the kids love them and are happy to go with them. It also gives us a bit of a break, and I get to sit with my lovely husband and hold his hand without anyone else demanding my attention!

I had intended to make these lacing boards before we went to church as a nice quiet activity for Auron, but I decided to have a nap instead since I only got a few hours sleep last night. The idea came from HERE.

Here's what to do

1. Cut out the shapes you want on cardboard. You want them quite large.

2. Glue on some cute scrap-booking paper or card

3. After the glue has dried, use a hole punch to make holes even distances around the edge of the shape.

4. Attach a length of string to the card through one of the holes.

5. On the other end of the string attach a bobby pin or anything else you think would work well as the "threader". The original poster used a piece of drinking straw, I will probably do that once I find my straws...

Voila all done

These have kept Auron busy for 30mins so far and he doesn't seem to be getting bored yet

Month of Fun - Day 5 SANDPAPER PRINT TEESHIRT

I was hoping the weather might be nicer today but it's still grey and dismal. We were off to such a great start this week! Nonetheless I had another inside activity up my sleeve. I had read a few months ago about making prints on to tee shirts using wax crayons and sandpaper. I bought the supplies months ago and never completed the project.
I couldn't find the actual tutorial on how to do it so I just made it up from what I remembered.

1. Draw your picture on the sand paper in crayons. You need to make the wax layer quite thick. I had to go over Auron's lines a bit harder after he had finished.

2. Place a piece of cardboard inside you shirt so that the colour does bleed through

3. Place your sandpaper picture face down onto your tee shirt

4. Iron over the back of the sandpaper for about 30sec.

5. Carefully lift the edge of the sandpaper to see that the picture has transferred. If not iron a little longer.

6. Put the shirt in the dryer for 20 mins to set, or use a hair dryer if you don't have a clothes dryer.

Note: wash by itself the first time you wash.

What Auron enjoyed most about this activity was drawing on a different texture. Lili loved scratching on the sandpaper and rubbing it together to make noise.

Month of Fun - Day 2

Today we set up the sandpit and paddling pool we bought yesterday. Auron was so excited so I let them get in with their PJ's still on at 8 in the morning. Auron played and played and played. Lili was entertained for awhile but not long enough so I took her inside while I did the house work. You know that boring stuff you have to do everyday. 

Lili went down for a nap and I went back outside to play with Auron and teach him the art of making sand castles. It was getting warm so I let him turn on the hose to fill up the paddling pool. When Lili woke up she was all for the water part of the day. I also cant forget to mention how ridiculously cute she looked in her togs with her fat little belly poking out! 

The kids played and played and played. We stopped for awhile to eat lunch, then it was back to the sand and water! Daddy came home just after lunch, and hung out with us and played water fighting with the hose. 

We eventually made it back inside at 2pm for everyone...mummy and daddy included to have a nap. 

Coloured Rice and Pasta

We've been a bit poorly at our house this week. Well more Aarahi than anyone else. We have been blessed with generally healthy kids, neither of them have ever been sick enough to warrant a trip to visit the doctors. Actually I'm the only one that has had to visit the doctor in the past 3 years and that was only because I was pregnant. I don't know what we do to get healthy kids...they sure don't eat organic and healthy food. Auron has drunk so much juice that he calls any drink "juice" I think we just struck it lucky, or we are just tough?

The last two days we have had a family nap, often not intentionally. We just seem to all fall asleep and wake up at dinner time. That's what happened yesterday then we had no food (ok we had food but nothing we wanted to eat) so we had to go do the groceries at 7pm at night. Nothing like shopping with hungry kids. Auron always makes a beeline to the confectionery aisle. He likes Mentos...because they come in long rolls and are colourful. I like them because they take him ages to open and eat. Like I said "not healthy" It may or may not have been his second packet of the day......

Today we got out our coloured rice we made last year. Auron loves to dig in it and find the little plastic animals we hid in it. It can get kind of messy but it vacuums up easy enough. We usually wait for Lili to have her nap before we do this.

I also made coloured pasta which we use to practice our sorting and counting. Lili often gets these and tries to eat them. I can always tell because her face is covered in food colouring that has seeped off the pasta while it's been in her mouth. So far it hasn't done her any damage. No matter how well I try to clean up she always finds things to put in her mouth. At the moment it's buttons. Auron had been playing with them and I was sure I had picked them all up but every time I turn around shes putting one in her mouth. I think she has a secret stash somewhere.

Here's how we did it

Rice

Rubbing Alcohol or white vinegar

Food colouring, the liquid kind

Ziplock bags

Newspaper

Put rice in ziploc bag

Add 1TBS of alcohol for each cup of rice

Add 2TBS of food colouring...or however much it takes to get the colour you want

Close the bag and squish shake and rub to get the colour mixed through

Spread rice out on newspaper and leave to dry for an hour or so

Pasta works the same way but you may need to add more alcohol and colouring. 

We made 3 different colours. Auron loved to mix them together. We made our batch about a year ago now and its still good. This is a great addition to your sensory play. 

Silhouette Princess Canvas

This morning we attempted toilet training. I didn't happen Auron cried and cried to put his nappy back on. I knew I should have gone with it a few weeks ago when he was happy about the toilet and wearing big boy undies, but I was living on 2 hours a night sleep so obviously the patience was not there!
My sister is toilet training her son too, I haven't heard how that went maybe she can give me some tips and tricks.
My poor little Lili bug is teething terribly! We arrived home from church yesterday around 5pm and I checked her gums to see if there was anything to show for her grumpiness all day but nothing. I checked her again at bed time around 8pm and BAM 3 new teeth! So I put her to bed drugged up on Nurofen and she had the best nights sleep in weeks, although she did wake up wet right through her nappy! Hopefully this will bode well for our trip to NZ in 2 weeks.

I put Lili down for her nap and she fell asleep mid scream, it was hilarious I wish you could catch those kind of things on camera. Now that she was sleeping blissfully Auron and I got to work on an art project. My idea of what I wanted him to do and his idea were rather different. Oh well I let him go with it.
I saw the idea for silhouette portraits here. Who knew Tori Spelling was so crafty. Anyway, I couldn't get my kids to cooperate to get a photo taken so I looked up colouring pages for Disney princesses. Tinkerbell looked cute enough. Auron, well he wanted a plane so that's what he used for his.

And heres how to do it and our finished projects.


Materials

Paint
Canvas
Brushes
Mod podge (or PVA watered down a little)
Glue

How to do it

1. Paint your canvas

2. Cut out your chosen pictures, make sure you get all the fine details in

3. Paint picture black

4. Glue picture on to canvas

5. Seal the whole canvas by painting over it with mod podge or pva. Don't worry that it looks white as it dries clear.

Indoor hop scotch

When I was little this was one of my favourite games to play, hop scotch and elastics to be specific. While the kids were napping Aarahi and I got out some masking tape and marked out a hop scotch right on the lounge room floor.

Easy

When Auron woke up he was some what confused. I tried to show him how to play but he just wasn't getting it but even so he looked like he was having the time of his life just jumping up and down.

I think I must have had way more energy when I was 7, I was tired after 2 go's, but in all honesty I can't actually remember when I last 'hopped'. This 26 year old body is too old for hopping!

We had family over for dinner and my little cousin took the hop scotch for a spin, she didn't need any instructions. Auron just wanted to talk on the phone and walk around in E's shoes. Sometimes I worry about his shoe addiction...

As the night ended they had some fun with the whiteboard. Sometime kids are just entertained by the simple things. Auron love B She's the only one with the energy to keep up with him 

Cloud Dough

I saw this idea floating around a while ago and knew that Auron would love it! This kid loves mess! I made up the recipe while he was out doing errands with Daddy.
OK to be honest I spent a good 30 mins playing with it myself before he came home. The baby oil make it feel so soft on your hands, not to mention the smell! I'm curious as to if you could make it with other oils? coconut? almond?
The dough is kind of similar to wet sand, holds it shape when molded.

The recipe I used was

4 Cups plain flour
1/2 Cup baby oil

Then just mix away. You will have to get your hands in there to get it mixed well.

Note I did try to add food colouring but it didn't work too well. Auron added glitter from the craft cupboard though which worked really well.