Tuesday, April 28, 2015

wrestling cousins

and when they weren't busy jumping on the trampoline...they were busy wrestling with a giant mouse? elephant? not exactly sure what they were playing with, but they were all laughing hysterically and having a great time.











jumping cousins

Dominic has an awesome little trampoline, and luckily he doesn't mind sharing. The dads were all brewing beer, and I was able to sit and watch the kids jump and jump and jump. Not a bad way for them to burn off energy. Might be getting a little trampoline for our house too. Thanks for sharing Dominic!!







Wednesday, April 22, 2015

String Theory

I rotate the toys in our toy room every once in awhile, because the littles have short attention spans. You hide a toy in the basement, and bring it back out three or four weeks from now, and suddenly the long-ignored toy becomes a long-lost friend. They play fervently for a few days, occasionally for a week or two, and then I hide it in the basement again until they ask for it by name, or I feel it's time to bring it back to life. But the system is flawed. Sometimes I forget about toys I've relegated to the basement, especially something Z played with, but mostly outgrew. Time passes and I don't realize that Elara has grown into that particular toy. But then I spied the box of beads and laces down the basement, and totally rocked Elara's world. She loves this little box of beads and strings. For at least a few days.













Monday, April 20, 2015

Stuffing Invitations

I really thought the first epic, blow out, invite-everyone-you-know party thrown by my kids would happen the first time Paul and I left them home alone for a weekend. No, they couldn't wait that long.  They didn't even wait for me to leave the house. Every single stuffed animal they could track down was invited to the party, and they all came! Then they made sure everyone was comfortable, and did some karaoke.  At least they kept the mess to a minimum--just a few empty juice boxes and some fruit snack wrappers. 













Sunday, April 19, 2015

DIY Dough!

So I was perusing pinterest. Yes, a dangerous way to pass the time, I know. But I saw this cool recipe for PlayDo, that sounded easy. And I was lucky enough to have all the ingredients on hand. Mostly because the two ingredients were just corn starch, and hair conditioner. Well, we added food coloring too. So three total ingredients. My kids are play dough obsessed, and they like helping make things in the kitchen, so this was perfect for them. We measured, and poured, and mixed and kneaded a little bit, and then we had this super soft (and moisturizing!) play dough. Elara chose pink, naturally, and Zachary wanted orange. This recipe of playdough got a little wet by the next time we wanted to play with it, but it wasn't too wet to play with, and if you add a little more cornstarch it should go back to the same consistency as regular PlayDo. 

The recipe for those who are interested:

Combine 1 part conditioner with 2 parts cornstarch, add 2-3 drops of food coloring. Mix until combined. Depending on the consistency of your conditioner, you might have to add extra cornstarch. I also found that it was easier to mix the food coloring into the conditioner, before adding the cornstarch. That's it!

I have a recipe for playdough that my mom used to make for us when we were kids, using kool-aid packets. I much prefer the consistency and smell of that playdough, but it takes a few more unusual ingredients, and requires cooking, so I'm going to have to do that one with the kids a little more hands off for the process. But--expect a blog post for that play dough to pop up on here eventually. :)