Fun dress-up mini session

A fun dress-up mini session!!

Pretty in Pink!!

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Kool-aid ice bowling

We love to play with ice and so we made Kool-Aid ice balls. Fun for summer play and a great way to stay cool.

All you need is balloons, kool-aid packets, water and a freezer. Then can use pins or plastic cups for the bowling pins. What we used was plastic pins from our Little Tikes bowling set.

Hours of fun and if you place paper down to make an alley then you can have some cool painting as well.

This activity is great for fine motor skills, eye hand coordination and fun way to get moving. Below are a couple other fun games we have done be sure to check them out.

Monster Dice

Squirt Game

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Bubble goop letter learning

Goop and bubbles are fun to play with so we mixed them together to make a fun sensory letter learning.

I took our letter ice trays and made colored ice with them and then added it to our play. You can also use the dollar letter magnets that are plastic they work great as well.

Simple, fun and learning at the same time.

You can buy the ice trays here. Letter Ice Trays There is a lot you can do with these trays from sensory play to bath play.

 Cate made alphabet soup

Making the ARRR sound for the letter "R"

As Cate would pick out the letters we would say the sound along with the letter.

She loved it.

Below are some other fun sensory ways we worked on letters in the past.

Alphabet scooping

Alphabet treasure hunting

Be sure to check our Alphabet learning section for over 50 different fun ways to learn the alphabet.

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Ice goop fun

With summer in the air and July 4th coming soon, we took out the goop today and played with our kool-aid ice and goop.

Fun and super inexpensive sensory play for kids of all ages, plus it will keep you cool playing with ice.

How to make GOOP. Then just add kool-aid ice.

Sorry my camera battery needed to be charged will post pictures when we play again. Cause this was a fun activity the kids loved it.

Be sure to check out the  Scented Goop play as well. Also, all the fun things you can do with Kool-Aid.

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Literacy learning with stamping

I love to tie in learning with play with my kids. We have been working on sight words with Jake and the other day I was going through my scrapbook stuff and found some alphabet stamps.

I knew there was something we could do with them, so I kept thinking and came up with stamping words from our flash cards.

Wasn't too sure how Jake would like doing it, but I took them out and he liked it. Plus it is great for fine motor and eye hand coordination skills as well.

Materials are simple......ink pad, alphabet stamps, paper and flash cards or you can spell words. I like the flash cards cause they can do it while you are cooking or working on something else.

Below are some other fun ways we have tied learning into play. Be sure to check them out.

Counting with cupcakes

Alphabet matching puzzles

Hands on science learning

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Magic Jello ice

Kids love science and we are always exploring to fine new things to do with things around the house. Back in March we made Fizzing Shamrocks and since then we have been messing around to make a better mold.

Well we came up with it and had a lot of fun playing with our Magic Jello Ice Stars. They are simple to make and super fun.

All you need to do is mix about 3 tsp of jello with 1/2 cup of hot water, once the jello is dissolved then mix with about 1-2 cups of baking soda. Don't make it too thick you want it a little runny to pour into the ice trays. (We got our start ice trays from Dollar Tree)

Then let it freeze and you have your magic jello ice.

Place on a tray and make them erupt and bubble with vinegar. Once the vinegar dissolve them you will have a goop like sensory play.

NOTE: You can make them with Kool-Aid as well.

This is a fun experiment for all ages.

We love ice play be sure to check out some other fun ice things we have done.

Alphabet ice learning

Dinosaur ice excavation

Ice Volcano

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Weather in a jar

We love doing fun and simple science experiments that tie into learning. We have been talking about weather, so I put together 3 fun weather science experiments you can do using a jar.

Make your own rain in a jar. All you need is a jar, coffee filter, rubber band, and dropper.

I placed the coffee filter over the top of the jar and put rubber band around it. Then I placed colored water in a container and let the kids use a dropper to place water on the coffee filter. Once the coffee filter absorbed the water it dripped like rain.

Here are some facts about rain that we looked up.

• Rain is an important part of the water cycle. Learn how it works with our page explaining the water cycle for kids.

• Rain falls from clouds in the sky in the form of water droplets, this is called precipitation.

• Heavy rain can cause flooding and landslides.
• Rain allows us to create electricity through hydropower.
  
• Plants need water in order to survive, they receive much of this water from rain.

Make your own rain cloud in a jar. This experiment the kids loved. All you need is a jar, water, shaving cream and food coloring.

Fill jar 1/2 way, place shaving cream on top as the cloud, then have the kids drop colored water on the cloud and watch it.

After we did this experiment we talked about how a cloud holds water and then that is how rain is formed.

Here are some facts about clouds that we looked up.

• There are a range of different types of clouds, the main types include stratus, cumulus and cirrus.
  
• Stratus clouds are flat and featureless, appearing as layered sheets.
  
• Cumulus clouds are puffy, like cotton floating in the sky.
  
• Cirrus clouds are thin and wispy, appearing high in the sky.

• A cloud is a large group of tiny water droplets that we can see in the air.

• Rain, snow, sleet and hail falling from clouds is called precipitation.
  

Our last experiment was making a tornado in a jar. 

I remember doing this in elementary school, so I wanted to show the kids. It's very simple we just filled the jar with colored water and then swirled it around and you get a tornado in a jar.

Once we made the tornado in a jar we talked a little about tornado's. Below I added some facts we looked up about tornado's that we thought were pretty instructing to know.

• Extreme tornadoes can travel much further, sometimes over 100 miles (161kilometres).

• A tornado is a rapidly spinning tube of air that touches both the ground and a cloud above.
  
  
• Not all tornadoes are visible but their high wind speeds and rapid rotation often form a visible funnel of condensed water.

• Most tornadoes travel a few miles before exhausting themselves.

• US States most often hit by tornadoes include Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Florida.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We have also made a rainbow with sunlight  be sure to check out that fun experiment.
  
  
  Rainbow science
  
  
  Also if you have never made fake snow, you have to try this. We love playing with our fake snow.
  
  
  
  Make your own snow
  
  
  
  
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Kool-Aid Ice boats

Fun way to stay cool this summer and have fun playing. Make some fun kool-aid ice boats and play for hours, in the pool or make your own stream.

All you need is some kool-aid packets, ice trays or even small bowls to make bigger boats. Then place sticks or straws in them to freeze and add the sails once the water is frozen.

The to make your stream just get some aluminum foil and add water. We added some rocks to ours. (You can build it however you want)

The kids had fun using their water squirt toys, filling the stream and melting the ice. Fun way to play and stay cool in the hot summer weather.

Ice is fun to play with and there is so many different fun ways to play with it. Be sure to check out some of the other fun ways we have played.

Erupting kool-aid ice

Alphabet ice learning

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Cherish the moments with loved ones

My mom was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure stage 4 June 2012 and it has been a year of up and downs for her. She had a pacemaker placed in July and she just never felt the same.

She was admitted in the hospital March 22nd 2013 and just kept getting worse test after test and trying new medications. We lost my mom and best friend to a long 2 months of fighting for her life on May 11th 2013. 

Deep down I know she was ready to go be with the Lord, cause her life just wasn't the same once they placed the pacemaker in and she couldn't do and eat things she wanted to. When I stayed at the hospital with her April 19th 2013, her and I talked and she told me she was ready to go home, not to her house but to be with God. That was then I knew she had lost her fight to keep living. That was very hard for me to take in, but at that time she had been through a lot that month. I told her, "Mom if you are ready then I will get through it." 

It has been very hard for me to deal with and explaining this to my 4 yr old son Jake who was very close to her. My daughter 2 years old Cate didn't really understand just knew Meme was sick. But we are all getting stronger each day. We write messages to Meme and send them attached to balloon. Read books on how to deal with it and talk about all the fun times we were blessed to have with her. Even thought I wish it was more!!

Getting ready to let the messages up to heaven. We had people write thoughts at the viewing and attached them to balloons.

Balloons up, up, and away.

Below are just some of our favorite memories together, cause we were very blessed to have a lot.

If we weren't together then the kids were skyping or on the phone with Meme, love technology.

In the last 4 years since my son was born we had many, many, many trips back and forth from Fl(where meme lived) to Va(were we live).

So my message to you is to cherish all the moments you have with your loved ones and ALWAYS take pictures so you can look back on these moments and NEVER forget them.

So this is why I have been away from blogging the last several weeks and will try to get back in the swing of things within the next month or so. Thanks to everyone for your support.

Jell-O bubble fun

Bubbles are fun!!! My kids love playing with bubbles. We have made firework bubbles, colored bubbles in the bath, and even made scented bubbles.

This is super easy to make, all  you need is a bowl, dawn dish soap, water and jell-o. Mix them together to make your jell-o bubbles. Then get a straw and blow bubbles.

Today we had fun with Jell-O bubbles. We blew in the the bubbles to see who could make the biggest bubble mountain. Jake and Cate had a blast and laughed so much.

I just love all the face expressions when making the bubble mountains.

Be sure to stop by our Outside Fun board on Pinterest for more fun things to do this summer.

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Balloon science comparing gas, liquid and solids

We were making ice the other day for once of our science projects and Jake asked how the water turns to a solid. So I was explaining to him that water freeze when it is below 32 degrees, like when  it was winter outside and we placed our Fruit ice project outside and it froze.

So that got me thinking that it would be a great time to compare liquid, gas and solids. I saw this great experiment at Fit Kids Cludhouse using balloons. Fun and easy for a preschooler to understand the difference.

We took 3 balloons and filled them up with Gas, liquid and solids. Then we compared the 3 balloons. To fill the balloon with gas see our Bottle blowing balloon experiment. Then add water to 2 balloons. 1 water balloon place in the freeze overnight, that is how you get the solid.

Then compare the 3 balloons. What Jake said about each:

Gas....light weight, floats a little when you try to throw it, hard to break on the grown unless you stomp on it.

Liquid...heavier then the gas balloon, but lighter then the solid, when you throw it up it pops and water is everywhere, easy to squeeze

Solid...hard when you try to squeeze, when you throw it breaks to pieces, the heaviest of the 3 balloons.

The kids had the best time breaking the water and ice balloons.

We love science play and learning be sure to check out our Science Board

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