Food Fun

Here is an easy activity to throw together that uses things you already have around the house.

I took a big plastic bin and filled it with funnels, spoons, little bowls, scoops, jars, small cars and trucks and lots of beans! 

The beans were too big for the funnels we have, and the kids really wanted to use the funnels, so I also took out rice and couscous.  This was a little risky considering the potential mess I could have had to deal with!  But I asked the kids to 'please be very careful' and had a broom and dustbin close by. 

Matthew gave the funnels a work out!

Jillian was very proud of her jar of rice and 'soup'.

Jillian has a wonderful imagination and Matthew will do just about anything Jillian asks him to do, so they had a great time mixing, pouring and stirring together.

Play Makeup

This is such a sweet and simple little activity for the girly girl in your house {that would be Jillian in our house}.  Jillian loves all things dress-up, make-up and jewelry.  This is a change from our Sarah who does not like jewelry and thinks make-up is gross.  So it is fun to indulge Jillian a little bit!

Gather up some old make-up containers.......

.....and then fill them with some fun and bright nail polish!

{fill the container higher than you think because it will dry to about half the height}

Now here is the tough part......you have to tell your little girl that she will have to wait at least 24 hrs for the play makeup to dry {depending on how deep your containers are}.  Patience is a virtue right?

I had Jillian wait about 5 days!

I wanted to be sure the smell was out of the nailpolish.

Let the containers dry in a well ventilated area {I set them out in the garage}.

Jillian was SOOOO excited to finally play with her new makeup!

Idea for Play Makeup Not so Idle Hands via Meet the Dubiens.

Shaving Cream Fun

Often when we craft I am a little too particular about not making a mess.  A messy craft can leave me feeling a little twitchy and wondering why I attempted it in the first place.  I decided it was time to just let the kids go wild and have a messy fun time.  I sat them down and let them spray shaving cream all over the kitchen island.  I think they thought that mommy had gone mad!

This is a great sensory activity and it really wasn't too bad to clean up.  It was interesting to see how at first Matthew didn't like having any shaving cream on him but then he relaxed and started having fun. 

Jillian wrote out her name.

I knew before we even started that Sarah would be the one who would play the longest with the shaving cream.  She is our sensory loving child.  I still remember when she was in daycare and her teachers showed me a picture they had taken of Sarah covered in pudding.  They had been painting with pudding and Sarah had decided that she would take a bath in it!

Have fun! 
They are only young once!

Can you guess?

While I was stringing together our Fruit Garland from my last post Chris took Matthew to some of our favorite stores.  He was shopping for some last minute gifts and to get all the delicious food we are going to have on Christmas Eve and for Christmas dinner (the letters F and M are the letters in our Christmas dinner - no it's not fried macaroni - can you guess?).  He came home with some GREAT stuff. 

Can you guess what these are?

If you guessed cupcakes from the most amazing cupcake store around - you are RIGHT!  Some of the mouth watering flavors he and Matthew picked include: gingerbread, white hot chocolate and peppermint  hot cocoa - YUM!

He also picked up a Christmas tabe runner on sale while at Williams Sonoma.  Hmmmmm I wonder what last minute shopping he was doing there?  I have been wanting these mixing bowls.  We'll see what Santa brings.

A package was also delivered today.  Chris had ordered a Christmas car for our train a few weeks ago.  It's a snow globe car that plays Christmas carols - very cute.

......and I just had to throw in a picture of our little Nathan.

....and if case you haven't guessed I also learned how to link to websites!