Finding North: Family fun

Showing posts with label Family fun. Show all posts

March 27, 2012

Messy Art Party

This past weekend I threw a Messy Art Birthday Party for my son, Tanner, who turned 2 and my niece, Jada, who turned 7. It was a great theme for the variety of ages and I think over all a great success!! Here’s what I did-

I transformed our garage into an art studio with different stations for the kids (and adults) to do some messy art projects. Most of the decorations were from the dollar store. I love that place!! The ceiling decorations were balloons and plastic tablecloths that my mom happened to have a big roll of.

Finger Painting Wall

This was a big hit. I ordered a roll of art paper from amazon.com and hung it up along one entire wall of our garage. It was kid height and they could create as they pleased.

Birthday Boy

Birthday Girl

Of course a big bucket of warm soapy water was available to wash their little paws when they were done.

Marble Painting

This was a pinterest idea. You put a couple globs of paint onto a piece of paper in a aluminum pan. Roll the marbles around and BAM you have yourself some funky art!

Sand and Noodle Art

I made dyed pasta from a recipe found here. My sister had some colored sand in her art cupboard. Put those together with some good old Elmer’s glue and you have yourself some art work.

Slime Station

Using yet another recipe found on pinterest that I posted on here earlier this month.

Creative Coloring and Painting

Crayons, Paints, Paper and Imagination

Art Display Wall

Using clothes line and clothes pins, I made an art display/drying wall. What it was a great way to display our art. What a beautiful display right? There’s nothing better that homemade art projects proudly displayed!!

Egg Splat Painting

The weeks leading up to the party, I carefully cracked eggs (only removing a small hole on top). Then I rinsed them out and filled them with paint. I put a piece of duct tape over the hole to make little paintballs. I did a test run of throwing the egg down and found that I got a more dramatic SPLAT when I stomped on it so that is what I had the kids do and the day of the party. This was a really fun activity. I only wish I would have eaten more eggs in the beginning of march so that I would have had more paint-filled eggs.

Like I said, the party was a HUGE success!! All the kids and adults had a great time (minus a stomach bug that got 1/3 of the party guests out of commission early this week). We had great weather and lots of fun!

I will post another photo bomb later of all our guests and doings of the day!

March 4, 2012

Creative Kitchen- Homemade Playdoh and Flubber Recipes

As you may have noticed from my pictures, Tanner and I do a lot of “cooking.” He helps me make edible food along with some creative creations. He loves pulling up his step stool, dumping in ingredients and stirring things up. Since he is Mr. Independent, this is a great way for him to feel much older that his (almost) two years. If you ask him, most of the time he will tell you he is five. Occasionally he is four, but never two. In the neverending world of Pinterest, here are the best playdoh and flubber recipes I have found.

Just Like the Real Playdoh (so they say)

1 cup Flour

1 cup water

1.5 tbsp oil

1 tablespoon alum

1/2 cup salt

2 tablespoons vanilla

food coloring

Mix all dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until reaching the consistency of very thick mashed potatoes. Remove from heat add vanilla. Split into balls and add desired drops of food coloring. Work color in by kneading the playdoh.

Tips: While cooking, the goop goes from soupy to thick very quickly. I may have had my burner on too high, so just watch out. Also, when it was in the pot, the playdoh appeared a little lumpy but as soon as I started kneading it, it became smooth. Also, I store the playdoh in sandwich baggies in a gladware, in the fridge. I read somewhere it stays better if refrigerated. I don’t know if this is true or not but our playdoh is a week old, been played with everyday, and still soft and good as new. Also, any food coloring stains left on your counter can easily be removed with a Mr. Clean Magic eraser.

Flubber Recipe

Mixture 1:

3/4 cup warm water

1 cup Elmer's glue

Food Coloring

Mixture 2:

2 tsp Borax

1/2 cup Warm water

Stir mixture 1 in one bowl and mixture 2 in another. Make sure both are mixed very well. Pour mixture 1 into mixture 2. No need to stir, just reach in and pull out a glob of flubber. Work it for 2-3 minutes.

Note: 1 cup of Elmer's glue is almost exactly what is in the big bottles you can buy. it might take 2 of the regular sized glue bottles.

This was a fun one. Tanner liked reaching in and picking up the slime. I have this stored in a gladware container as well to bring out and play with. Not sure what the shelf life is of Flubber but we will see. Tanner calls it “mud” and likes to put his animals in it.

Play Cooking

Another thing T-man likes to do is just pretend cook. I will put a small bowl of flour, a small bowl of dry oats, and a small cup of water out for him that he can then dump into a larger mixing bowl and stir it to his hearts desire. This will keep him busy for literally 25-30 minutes. It makes a nice pasty concoction that he thinks is really cool. I add food coloring drops for him so he can mix it up and see the color spread.

If you don’t feel like making anything real, try having your kid do some pretend cooking with real ingredients. I bet they will LOVE it too!!

Happy creating!!

October 31, 2011

Mommy's Little Creatures

This year the kids dressed up like a bee and a dragon. We walked next door to my aunt and uncle's house for their first trick-or-treating experience. I think Tanner liked it. He may or may not have had a supper consisting of two bites of lasagna, a kit kat, a butter finger and a sucker. Oh well..he loved it and its only once a year.