Texture Painting and Printing

We had the best time together one morning doing this texture painting and printing. I saw an idea for this on the artful parent. I grabbed anything I had around the house with texture. The girls and I taped it all down to the little tables in their playroom.

We taped down a large Ziploc bag, construction paper with thing straws glued on, and Popsicle sticks, bubble wrap, and tin foil that I wrinkled up a bit. It would also be fun to paint on sand paper, corrugated cardboard, etc. if you have it around the house.

We used large paint brushes and tempera paint. But any paint would work just fine!

O-man (15mo) is just starting to get in on all the painting action at our house. He's pretty thrilled about it and loves art like the girls! This was so perfect for his age! He had a lot of fun feeling the textures. He even started painting his belly. He got a kick out of that. It feels pretty cool to paint your body!!

This is the "after" shot of the fun we had painting our textures.

Then we pressed our clean white sheets of paper onto our textures and got really cool prints. M(3.5) and C(2.5) really loved this part too.

Here is our print from the bubble wrap and the thin straws.

What a fun morning!

Roadways to Creativity

I intended this activity to be a learning numbers type of activity, involving shapes. It was so thrown together that it didn't really work.

The girls really liked the shapes that I taped down with some sort of drywall mesh tape that was in the garage. They decided to use the shapes as raceways for their cars.

And they changed up the raceway over and over again. They had lots of fun playing with this and I'm grateful for their creativity. Even when my activities seem to fail, they seem to always use them as jumping points for their own creativity and learning.

March Fun

Wow, this is starting to be a monthly visit to the ol' blog instead of a few times a month. Things have felt a lot busier. Oh well, here is the month of March, fun at home...and a couple other places.

Mia woke up one morning and threw her binkie away. She woke us up to tell us. I had told her a couple days prior that we need to think about throwing away the binkies because they are hurting her teeth and we need to get her teeth all better. I didn't think much of it, but apparently she did. So we had a big family celebration with a Plex cake over at Grandma and Pops house.

We played lots with our sensory tubs and even introduced them to brother.

We colored easter eggs with crayons while they were still hot. Daddy made the kids "Broby" from Yo Gabba Gabba and I attempted "Plex"

The girls made these cute little chicks out of egg cartons. They delivered one, along with a fruit basket, to our elderly neighbors who are ill.

Lots of easter Egg hunts this year. We had so much fun. The girls especially loved finding the eggs. Inside the eggs were plastic dinosaurs, confetti (cut-up tissue paper), colored erasers, colorful wooden blocks, paper clips...anything I had in our craft supply that fit. It was all a huge hit.

Trip to the Temple as a family

Dad made this foldable race track. Since then the girls have drawn houses around the streets. It's super cute

My sister threw this huge super hero party for her 5 year old. It was adorable.

My little cutie being a superhero!

Walking over the bubbling volcano

We went to a children's museum in Portland. It was really fun. My daughter loved these magnetic blocks! She sat and played with them for a really long time. I loved seeing her concentration

And this was genius. Plastic nails and styrofoam (the kind that doesn't break apart). Creative building!

O-man making bread with me. He's starting be my little helper in the kitchen. Oh how they grow up!

We made these cool planters out of 1 liter soda bottles. We got the idea from family fun. The top is downward facing in the water so that the evaporation is constantly watering the soil.

The first seedling
Lots and lots of playing doctor. My sister got the kids real medical equipment for christmas.

drinking hot cocoa at Multnomah Falls in WA

Army Men like to Sit Back and Relax

Miss M loves watching videos on our little Canon camera. She thought her army men might enjoy the show too on their freshly furnished couches. So thoughtful. And I think they really liked the show!

A Little of This and That

I was pretty busy with getting my new etsy vintage shop up and running during the month of February and have neglected adding our fun activities at home for quite some time. Here's an attempt to remember some of the fun we've had at home during the months of Jan. to Feb. 2011.

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O man learned how to stack blocks and build towers

M built this "camp fire" with her own two hands. She carried rocks and shoveled the snow. She comes up with fun things to do all day long. I hope that she stays this way and never gets board....I definitely never get board either :)

Lots of rides on the daddy-mobile

Montessori Activity: Polishing Brass

ABC Race Game found at LittleFamilyFun

Made reptile and sea aquariums

Made beautiful art in the snow. (Spray bottles with water and food coloring)

Fixed cars like nobody's business. Their Grandpa owns a transmission and clutch business...thus they know a thing or two about working under cars :)

Fixed some more vehicles

Even duplo man had some cars he aparently needed to work on

Danced the night away with our hand-dyed silk scarfs. I bought these silk scarfs from the dharma trading company and the girls and I dyed them using the koolaid method. These are GREAT for magic tricks too. Daddy was quite the magic-show entertainment for a whole evening with these scarfs.

Great imaginative toy!!!

Built a tent and made a campfire. We only had mini-marshmallows, but they still seemed really yummy toasted over the fire :)

Grinding Wheat to make Yummy bread....we're back at it again. I took a bread for a while and now we're back to making bread each week again. I love that my kids know how to make bread at such a young age. I didn't have a clue how to do it until I was an old lady :)

Oops, another spray picture, out of order

We had lots of lemons from our food co-op and so we made a few batches of hand squeezed lemonade. The girls loved this.

Picnic's in the living room

We had another Anual Pinkalicious Valentines day party with some friends. We made pink princess crowns, read pinkalicious, ate pink cupcakes, and played played played.

A lot of crappy pictures in this post, but happy memories. Love you kiddos!

My Twin's Photography Blog

My Twin Sis just launched her new photography blog a few weeks ago. I think it looks awesome! She's been a photographer for several years now and does a fantastic job. I think her new website fits her fun personality well.

Jenniferbarnesphotography.com

If you have a second, check it out! Add her to your Reader and don't be shy...give her some comment love.