Messy Monday: Seashell Washing

Hello! We are getting back in the swing of things after the holidays (still) and I finally got together our first "Messy Monday" activity of the year: Seashell Washing!

If you are a little leery of messy play, this is the activity for you! I love water for "messy" play, because it is cheap, easy, and doesn't usually require a lot of prep work.

Growing up, we always had a "Beach Day" sometime in January. We would turn up the heat, wear our swim suits and do our schoolwork on pool floaties in the living room while listening to the Beach Boys and eating popsicles. That was my inspiration for our activity!

I placed some shells in the bottom of a shallow tub (any bowl or bucket would work fine) and added water. I used warm water, since it is winter and a bit chilly. I set out our trusty kiddie pool with some towels around it, just in case of splashes. I set the tub with the water and shells in the pool with a couple of washcloths and waited for Beatrix to take interest. She was very curious and crawled right over. (Note: it is important to me to create activities for her and "invite" her to participate, not force her to.) I stripped her down to just her t-shirt and plopped her in.

I grabbed a washcloth and started "washing" some shells to give her an idea of what to do and encouraged her to try it as well. She did for a little bit, then moved on to her ideas of how to play with this scenario.

She enjoyed watching water drip off of the washcloth and drip on to her leg.

She loved stirring the shells up and making the water splash out!

She looks soo tired in this picture. She was fighting naps and bedtime yesterday and I don't think she slept very well. Thankfully she wasn't grumpy, just really mellow. After lunch she kept laying on the floor and cuddling Cupcake.

She played with this for about 45 minutes and she appeared to be having a grand time!

This activity could really be done with any water-safe item: rocks, toy animal figurines, even fruits and veggies! I also think it would be fun to use soap to make bubbles - toy dishes washing perhaps? It would be great to do outside in the summer for some cooling-off play. 

Now if only I could get her to wash the dirty dishes in my sink... ;) 

DIY No-Sew Carseat Poncho (and One for Your Build-A-Bear Too!)

I advocate for a lot of things: breastfeeding, babywearing, cloth diapering, and carseat safety! If you choose not to do the first three, that is your choice and I do not judge you for that. But if you choose to be flippant about carseat safety, that makes me upset. One big rule with carseats is no coats! Last winter we had one of those Cozy Covers on her infant seat and just zipped that over the top. This year it is not so easy. I am not a fan of fussing with the coat on and off in the car. (In fact, many times I don't wear a coat, because I don't like to fuss with it.) This idea seemed so genius to me! A lady in my mom group was making these for some other members and so I decided to make my own version!

  

The first step was choosing the fabric. Beatrix quickly fell in love with this print. She really loves puppies! We went with a solid gray for the back (you could just do one layer if you live somewhere not quite as chilly.) I got 1 yard of each. Since we did two layers this is reversible! Then I measured from her shoulder down to about halfway between her knee and her foot. I doubled that length for my measurement of where to cut. So hers is 1 yard wide by however tall x 2 (I could not find my measuring tape so I just used a string). Mr. Fish suggested we make Cupcake a matching poncho with the extra. Cupcake is the puppy she made at Build-A-Bear on her birthday and she is quite attached. The pictures I took of the process are with Cupcake's poncho, but it all works the same way.

Disclaimer: I tend to just wing things and I did not follow a pattern, nor do I have exact measurements. That is just the way I do things. This was really easy and no-sew fleece projects are very forgiving. You could also hem this instead of tying the edges if you like. I just didn't feel like dragging out my sewing machine. I just put it away last week after finishing up Christmas presents.

Set both of your fabrics on top of each other and cut to the desired size. You could make the end shape a circle or a diamond if you like - make those cuts now. We went with a rectangle for simplicity sake. Next you want to cut the neck hole. Fold the fabric in half the hamburger bun way, then the hot dog bun way. Mark the center and then make a small cut down into the fabric and then across the fold on each side. It should look like the picture below on the right. I just guesstimated the neck hole size, but you could measure the neck of a shirt that fits.

Next, cut each of the triangles that make up the neck hole in half and in half again like you see below.

(Can I just add how I hate cutting fabric with animals or people on it? It is so freaky cutting through their heads and limbs!!!)

Next tie each of those little triangles with the corresponding triangle in the layer below. You could trim the ends if you like. Here it is with the neck hole tied and the fringe cut.

Below on the left is Cupcake's poncho all finished! Cupcake is modeling the print and the gray below in the middle and right pictures, respectively. (She holds more still than Beatrix.)

Above is Bea's finished poncho, folded, like it would be if it were on her. Below it is all laid out.

We also had enough fabric to make a small blanket for Cupcake or her dollies. Below are the two matching cuties! She was not too thrilled that she could not see her arms, but she got used to it quickly.

Here it is in action! The idea is to flip the back up over the back of the carseat, lift the front and buckle underneath that. Keeping your little one warm and cozy AND safe too!

Messy Monday: Peppermint Oats

Happy Monday everyone! We had a grand time this morning with this activity and you can too!

Ingredients:

Oats
Peppermint extract
Red and green food coloring

I put oats in two separate zippy bags, added a splash of peppermint extract and a few drops of food coloring. shake and knead the bag to really get the food coloring worked in. (I did this last night so the coloring could soak in better and we did not have any stains.) The peppermint scent was quite mild. You could leave it out if you wanted, it would still be a really fun activity.

I put them in a Christmas tin, but you could really use any container you like. I thought Bea would enjoy mixing the colors so I carefully filled the container keeping the red and green oats separate. They looked really pretty once combined as well!

We had Christmas music blaring as we played, so Beatrix was dancing and having a really jolly time. We worked on scooping and dumping skills by filling the muffin tin. We also stirred them around and buried our hands in them! And for easy cleanup the spilled oats will just be vacuumed right up.

These could be used over and over, so I am storing them in the tin. Older kids may enjoy making a batch of these and sprinkling them outside for "reindeer food" on Christmas Eve!

Winter Window Squish Bag

With Christmas decorations up, it was time to say goodbye to our Fall squish bag and hello to our new Winter squish bag!

Beatrix plays with these every day, she just loves looking out the window while smooshing the contents of the bag around with her fingers and toes.

Here is how I made it!

Ingredients

Some kind of gel (I use Dollar Tree clear hair gel)

Glitter (I used blue, silver, while, and black)

Beads (I used red, white, and green)

Poms (I used red and green)

Snowflake window clings

A good quality gallon-sized freezer zippy bag. (cheapo ones tend to rip easily.)

I have found it to be easiest if you put the "dry ingredients" in the bottom of the bag first, then add the gel. 

The dry ingredients - you don't need to put as much in as you think. This was actually a LOT of glitter. It would be just as pretty with about half that amount.

Here I am trying to show about how much gel I use. Just enough to keep everything moving around nicely. Again - not too much. Don't fill the bag full!

I put up some snowflake window clings under where I was going to put the bag, for a little peek-a-boo surprise! It is fun to move the glitter around to find the big flakes. 

I think this is my favorite bag I have made so far! Mr. Fish says it reminds him of when Jack Frost paints the windows. Beatrix seems to like it as well!