Messy Monday Halloween Edition: Witches' Brew!

I love holiday-themed play, so when I saw that Halloween was going to fall on a Monday this year, my wheels starting turning, This is what I put together for our Halloween-themed messy play: Witches' Brew!

Here is what I used:

1 package of green Jello

1 container of mandarin oranges

1 package of giant googly eyes

3 toy frogs

I prepared the Jello per the package instructions and added in the fruit following the method on the box. When I added the fruit, I also added the google eyes. I poured the whole thing into a plastic cauldron over 3 bath-toy frogs.

I bought the store-brand Jello, but I didn't consider how the box was small, so it didn't fill up much of the cauldron. Also, I was going to have it set up in the cauldron, but it had a hole in the bottom, so that didn't work out how I planned either. But hey - we still had fun!

I didn't get a lot of pictures because once Beatrix got into it she wanted to share and as a result, I got sticky too.

I set it on a pastry mat and some towels to minimize the amount of mopping I would have to do. She actually stayed on the towels so no mopping for me!

I think older kids would really get into this activity. Especially if you had all of the ingredients in different bowls, they could mix and then serve the brew!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Sugar Cookies: Part 2.

 Here is a glimpse at the craziness of cookie day!

 I am so grateful that Beatrix gets to bake cookies with her great-grandma, just like I did as a little girl!

 A view from below, thanks to my aunt's glass table-top!

 Playing with some dough.

 Time to frost!

Mr. Fish's "Eye-Scream" cone!

Beatrix really enjoyed playing with the cookie dough and even had a few tastes. She loved eating the frosting too! Don't be afraid to jump in with your littles and let them make a mess! :)

Halloween Sugar Cookies, Part One: The Dough

I have mentioned our family tradition of making Halloween sugar cookies briefly in a previous post. Well, the time has come to make them this year! I will even share The Recipe. I have never tasted a cookie like them and they are my absolute favorite!

Grandma's sugar cookies

2 c sugar

1 c butter

3 eggs

1 c buttermilk or sour milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp nutmeg

pinch of salt

About 6 c flour

Roll and cut. Bake at 375 for about 5 minutes on the top rack and 5 on the bottom, rotating pans. Frost when cool.

I was so focused on making the dough, I forgot to take step-by-step pictures. You just make the dough in the typical fashion, adding just enough flour so the dough does not stick to your fingers.

All wrapped up and chilling for tomorrow's fun!

Sticky Spiderweb ~ Toddler Craft

I just love doing crafts and Beatrix is at an age where she is able to do some fun process art and I am loving it! Yesterday we both had a great time making this "Sticky Spiderweb"!

I took some strips of packing tape and stuck them together to make a big sheet of stickiness. (Contact paper would be ideal for this, but I didn't have any.) I then taped that to her highchair tray.

I let her feel how the tape was sticky.

Then I gave her some pieces of twine (you could use any yarn or string you have sitting around) and showed her how to stick it down. I ended up cutting the strings much smaller than I had initially made them.

 She enjoyed pulling up the strings almost as much as she liked sticking them down. While she played, I told her about spiderwebs and how the string the spider uses is clear and sticky to catch bugs. I just love her concentrating face!

Here we were just about done with our web. I had her pat it all over to really get the string stuck down. She liked this part! When she lost interest in playing with the string and the sticky, I got her down and pulled up the tape. I cut off the pieces that held it to the tray and taped it onto a piece of construction paper - sticky side down. I added a little spider friend, the date and her name, and then hung it on the wall!

We had such a fun time doing this craft together. I hope you take some time this week to create something with your little ones!

Beatrix's Bum-kin

Handprint crafts and babies don't mix very well. When they are really little they don't want to open up their hand but when they are bigger they won't hold still. So what to do to commemorate baby's first Halloween?

The bum-kin!

That's right. A bum print, decorated to look like a pumpkin! 

I don't have pictures of the process, because as you can imagine, it took all the spare hands available! We stripped her down naked in the bathroom and Mr. Fish and I wore old clothes that could get paint on them. I quickly coated her cheeks in pumpkin orange paint (I used acrylic because it was what I had. If you were worried about toxins or things like that, you could use fingerpaint.) After painting her bum, I plopped her onto a canvass that I had sitting on the toilet lid and then into the bath she went! She tolerated the whole process without a fuss. WhIle Mr. Fish washed her up I added a few finishing touches. 

I look forward to the look on her face when she is a teenager and I am still proudly displaying her bum-kin for all her friends to see! (Tee hee!)

(un)Messy Monday? Spiderweb Basket!

Whoops! A week went by and I forgot to post! This Monday we did a super-fun activity that I will be leaving available all week, as it was not really messy. A Spiderweb Basket! I got the idea from Pinterest (thetraindriverswife.com) and have been saving it to use around Halloween.

Really easy to throw together quick (provided you have an empty laundry basket - I had to put away some laundry first.) Just cut a few long lengths of string, twine, or yarn - color doesn't really matter. String it through the holes, crossing the basket at random. Hide a few toys in the bottom and invite your child to help "rescue" them! (Yes, that is a mustard bottle you see at the bottom. She loves that thing!

She was quite pleased to discover a new spider friend that Mr. Fish and I bought as a Halloween treat, since she can't eat candy yet. (I decided to give it to her early, as it went perfectly with this activity!)

So there you have it! Putting together a fun activity for your (almost) toddler can be quick and easy - let me know if you enjoyed this activity with your little one!

Messy Monday! (Giant Cereal Sensory Tub)

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I spent most of my free time this weekend working on birthday party decorations. It's hard to believe my little baby will be 11 months old tomorrow! Today we are playing with one of our favorite messy activities - a cereal tub!

This is ALWAYS a big hit, and it is so easy!

All I did was round up all of the old cereal that no-one was eating. (Most of it was left over from scotcharoos or recipes that don't take the whole bag of cereal. The leftovers usually get pushed to the back of the cupboard, only to be forgotten next time I want to make treats. So more gets purchased and on the cycle goes.) I rounded it all up and dumped it in to our pool. This time I added some spoons and a few cups. Last time we had it in lots of big bowls. This is the second time for using this same cereal and I would imagine I will get a few more uses out of it.

 Discovering the cups!

 Taking a taste!

Her favorite part is crunching the cereal up!

I will leave this up all day for her and she can choose to play with it at will. Mr. Fish will give the floor a good vacuum tonight after we pick it up. (He is the vacuumer as Bea is terrified of it and needs her mama's arms while it is running.) 

Happy playing!

DIY Non-skid Socks

Poor Beatrix has a hard enough time crawling in pants, let alone with socks on too. She has plenty of socks, most of them second-hand, and I wanted to find a way to make them work. Enter: puff paint! A little puff paint on the bottom on her socks will make a big difference!

The paint was about $3 a bottle. I resisted the urge to buy the 10 pack and stuck with sparkly pink and silver. You will also need something to slip in the socks to keep the paint from oozing to the top of the sock - I used some cardboard that came in a box of party supplies for Bea's birthday! 

On some socks I traced the design on the sock, others I drew fun shapes or squiggles.

 Even Mr. Fish joined in on the fun!

The paint should be dry in about 4 hours but it is not safe to wash for 72 hours. (Be sure to follow the directions on the bottle of whatever brand you buy.)

I will be doing a few more batches, I think they turned out really cute!

Fall Sensory Squish Bag

Squish bags are cheap, easy to make, and all sorts of fun. They can be filled with a variety of materials - the possibilities are endless! Here's how I made this one!

All you need to make your very own Fall Squish Bag is:

• A sturdy quart or gallon-sized zippy bag (I used a gallon this time, but I have done quarts in the past.)
• Some kind of clear gel for filling (I used dollar store hair gel, you can also use shower gel/body wash, or hand soap.)
• Fake fall leaves (the first fall bag I did I used real leaves, but the leaves turned the gel an icky brown.)
• Small beads
• Glitter!
• Duct tape to seal the zipper edge

Just dump the "dry ingredients" - the beads, leaves, and glitter - in the bag and scoop or squeeze in the clear gel of choice. LESS IS MORE - that goes for the little items as well as the gel. Too much and it is harder to interact with. Tape off the zipper side and all around if you like. I tape ours to the window and Beatrix sits on the couch and plays with it. It is pretty with the sun shining through!

Happy squishing!

Messy Monday! (Pumpkin Spice Scented Paints)

Every Monday Beatrix and I do a messy activity to distract us from missing Mr. Fish after we had him home for 3 days. Mondays are a hard day for Bea, but doing something fun and new helps!

Messy/sensory play is a great way for little ones to learn and discover the world around them, all while having fun! 

This week we painted the bathtub with pumpkin spice scented paints! 

The orange on the right is just canned pumpkin leftover from the pumpkin bread I made last night. I normally would have saved it to make pumpkin pancakes, but I still have leftover pumpkin pancakes in my fridge that Mr. Fish made this weekend, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make some fun fall paints!

The other 3 paints are baby oatmeal with a few drops of food coloring. I added a different spice into each color.

The green is clove, the yellow is nutmeg, and the red is cinnamon. They smelled super yummy!

 Since everything in the paint is edible, this is a perfect activity for little ones who still stick everything in their mouths. In fact, that just adds an extra sensory experience as they taste the flavors of the pumpkin and the different spices!

I gave her a big paintbrush and some cups to play with as well. The tub was cold and she didn't like that, so I ended up sitting her on a towel.

This would also be great on a highchair tray! You could mix and match colors and scents for practically any holiday or season. 

Bathtub painting is a fun sensory activity for babies, toddlers and even young children. It would be something that siblings would enjoy doing together - they could even paint each other! The cleanup is easy, just wash it down the drain.

If you do this activity, please share a picture, I'd love to see you having fun with your little ones!