Rolling Eggs & Balls Painting

I decided to take this art activity outside.

It took Henry awhile to get into it.

At first, he only wanted to play with his dump truck and stack the paints in it.

I started by showing him what we'd do to spark some interest.

Henry joined me soon after.

This activity was inspired by Tinkerlab's Rolling Easter Egg Painting 

and Teaching 2 and 3 Year Old's Cars Down Ramp in Paint

But, Henry created and played with the paints in his own way.

Read more »

Photo Project 365 : [99-105]

What have we been up to this week?

Match up the numbers [day of the year] on the snapshots to the week below.

Read more »

Yarn Circle Garland

I'm not really sure what to call this craft,

because the craft got adjusted many times during the process.

But this is the beautiful result:

Remember last week when I had two failed crafts 

before having a success with the vehicle tracks painting?

Well, this is one of the failures.

Turned out to not be a failure after all.

What did Henry and I do to make this?

Read more »

Homemade Play Doh : It's [much] Softer!

As I've mentioned a few times already,
Henry is on a huge PlayDoh kick lately.

One day last week, Henry and I were with his Grandma.
He wanted to play with PlayDoh.
Grandma's PlayDoh had gotten kind of hard and crumbly.

So we set off to make our own.
I've seen many of you guys doing this.
I, honestly, thought it would be way too much work and didn't want to bother with it.
[I've made PlayDoh before, but I was a child...]

We dug out an old recipe out of an old church cookbook.
My mom submitted the recipe long ago.
[The recipe we used is at the end of this post.]

It took only a few minutes to make.

With the exception of Alum,
everything is something I would have on hand.
[Luckily, my mom did, probably leftover from long ago when we last made PlayDoh]

Granted, Henry didn't get in on making the PlayDoh.
But he did enjoy the outcome.
This Homemade PlayDoh is so soft and pliable,
Henry was able to do so much more with it compared to the store bought stuff.

Take a look at these tracks!

Let's see what else that made some neat impressions:

Read more »

Building a Bird's Nest : Outdoors in April

Henry and I have been talking about making a bird's nest for a couple weeks now.

This week it finally got warm enough to spend the entire morning or afternoon (or both!) outdoors.

To make our bird's nest,

Henry and I headed outside to gather our materials for the nest:

small sticks, leaves, dead grass

I also used a couple small boxes (from our gigantic baby food order).

Henry spent the majority of our nest building day, digging dirt.

[This could not have been done without the help of the blue tractor or the dump truck...]

Read more »

Photo Project 365 : [93-99]

What have we been up to this week?

Match up the numbers [day of the year] on the snapshots to the week below.

Read more »

Paper, Paint & Vehicles

[After two other failed crafty attempts today]

Henry created this piece of art:

While I was getting supper on the table,

I handed him a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper.

Color of his choice:

Green.

Poured some washable paint in a container.

And gave him his green paintbrush.

[A couple of months ago, Henry and I bought this basting brush together, 

I told him it would be for him to paint with. 

He has been so excited to use it, and talked about it for a long time. 

I completely forgot about it until today. His excitement returned!]

I set out a couple of vehicles for Henry to drive through the paint.

[note: I only set out a couple, notice the amount Henry added himself]

Read more »

Cupcake Masterpieces by the Future Baker

I had some work to get done at the Bakery this morning,

Henry tagged along.

[That's something new for me. 

Henry tags along with Dad to work at the Bakery quite often.

But never with me.]

I wasn't sure how it'd go.

Then I thought maybe he could make his own cupcakes

while I'm decorating a cake.

It worked perfectly!

Henry really enjoyed himself.

And I got my work done.

-----------
Here's how that happened:
-----------

Read more »

Outdoors in April [take 1]

We've been getting outside every day so far - staying true to the challenges*!
Not much for activities yet - as its still pretty cold.
Although, today it hit 70[!!] and all I did was go for a walk!
Henry went with Dad to the farm and played in the tractors all afternoon.

Henry and I have been working on raking the lawn for the most part.

Henry has been digging in some planting beds as well.
Transferring dirt to his Mule (he has renamed the Jeep to Mule).
And then to the GARAGE!
[which I, in turn, sweep it back out...]

George joined us outside one day so far (besides when we go for walks).
He happily watched from the stroller.

After working for awhile,
we moved to the porch and brought the toys out and played.

I think George enjoyed the sunlight - as did I.


*I've joined two challenges to get outside in April :
   
Will you join too?

Tweet    - Henry is 3 years -   

Photo Project 365 : [86-92]

What did the boys do this week?

Match up the numbers [day of the year] on the snapshots to the week below.

Read more »

Shaving Cream Eggs for Easter Tree

A messy messy activity

ending with a beautiful craft for Easter

Start by adding shaving cream to a pan.

[Henry had troubles pushing it hard enough to make it come out.]

Add food coloring.

Swirl the colors around.

Read more »

Blowing Balloons!

Fan + Balloon + a Preschooler = repeated fun!

All I got to show is this short 12 second video 

of Henry dumping his balloon from his bucket.

He dumps it in front of the fan in our upstairs hallway.

The balloon blows down the hallway.

Henry runs after it.

And repeat.

[Sometimes it blows down the stairs which provides even more entertainment!]

Tweet    - Henry is 3 years (just a couple of weeks!!) -   

Food Tracks & Layered Playdough

Making tracks with trucks and tractors in Play Doh is nothing new in this house.

Instead of vehicles, today we tried food!

[play food]

Craters made from grapes!

Corn on the Cob made nice rows.

And a fork?

Read more »

Photo Project 365 : [79-85]

What did the boys do this week?

Match up the numbers [day of the year] on the snapshots to the week below.

Read more »

Balloon Art

In continuing with our balloon extravaganza :

we painted balloons today.

We painted them two ways :

[1] paint before blowing up the balloons

[2] paint blown up balloons

I liked painting the balloons beforehand the best.

It had a sense of mystery.

What will this look like when it gets big? 

Henry wasn't as interested as I was 

in painting the balloons before they were blown up.

He only made one.

He spent most of his time painting 'lines' on the blown up ones.

[I wish I counted how many times he told me: 'Mom, I'm painting lines.']

Then I blew up the ones we painted before blowing them up.

Henry was excited to see what happened then!

His was completely covered when it was little.

But once it blew up : it was barely marbled! 

and only on half - the line it pretty distinct.

I painted dots on mine.

When I blew it up, Henry noticed :

"Mom, your dots are getting BIG!"

Not art that will stick around long like the 12x12s.

But a fun medium to try!

There's 30 Ways to Play with Balloons 
to get you even more inspired!

Tweet    - Henry is 3 years -    [252][256][248][181]

Activity Course with Balloons

Every child I know has a fascination with balloons.

At every birthday party, every kid wants to take one home.

They are usually the highlight of the party.

[unless you have one of these at your party.]

So this week I thought :

Why do the balloons only come out at birthday parties?

They bring lots of entertainment in just being balloons.

But there's so much more you can do with them!

[Check out the previous post : Balloon Badminton.]

I asked Henry what he wanted to do today.

As usual, his answer was to build a road with his mat.

Read more »

Balloon Badminton

What can you do with a couple of balloons?[Ideas are welcome!]
I blew up a couple balloons and the first thing we did was:play Balloon Badminton!

Read more »

Photo Project 365 : [72-78]

[72]  Sunday, March 13
Dad and Henry lowered the play table a couple inches.
Henry helped put it back together.

[73]  Monday, March 14
What a pose!

[74]  Tuesday, March 15

Henry a little excited!

[75] Wednesday, March 16

Henry helped cleanup.

He tested out what the vacuum would do

when he put his hand up to it, or his pants, or his hair.

[76] Thursday, March 17

What you doing Mom? Decorating a cake. 
Henry thought it was pretty.

[77] Friday, March 18
The boys weren't tired at bedtime.
they had a little fun on and under Henry's bed.

[78] Saturday, March 19
Just George.
[I've noticed that's a pretty common description for many of his pictures... but he really doesn't do much yet!]

Tweet    - Henry is about 35 months -