Rice, Rice, Baby

Over the past (omg.... almost) three years, we have made a lot of different sensory bins for my guy to explore. Most of the stuff I store away, and reuse again and again in other bins. We are green that way. Anyway, when I peeked onto the shelf that holds most of my sensory bin fillers (and the occasional super large cereal box), I spied some white rice. We had used the rice quite a bit in the winter to represent snow, but the day was dreary, and thoughts of winter were far away. I wanted to add some color to Logan's life. So I rounded him up, and my little helper assisted me in coloring the rice. I used the same method to dye the rice as I used with the alphabet letters. Soon enough, the rice was dry, and I sorted the it by color into individual bowls.

Some may have mixed a bit, because I forgot to dry them separately. I set them up as an invitation for Logan to investigate. 

The minute Logan was unleashed on the area, he made a beeline for the rice. He set to work pouring each color into the bin.

Once each bowl had been emptied, he plunged his little hands in and swished all the rice around until it was all mixed up. He was content just digging for quite a while, because he liked pretending he was a dog from his favorite movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. Ahhh..... to be two again. 

At last, he returned to human form, and he decided he wanted to make rainbow soup. He carefully doled out bowls for both of us. He did warn me, "It's just pretend, Mama. Don't really eat it."

Once our soup was finished, Logan spiced up his bin by adding his own personal touches.

I have to admit, that this was my favorite part. 

A Glow Bath

 A while ago, I posted about a glowing sensory bin that I had created. The little one thought it was great, so when I came up with idea to add glow sticks to his bath tub, I suspected it would go over well. And, my oh my, did it! Throughout the course of bath time, Logan repeated, "This is so much fun!" and "Thank you so much, Mama!" probably five million times....... Okay, I'm exaggerating, but only a little bit. 

This picture doesn't really do it justice. The whole bath tub was completely glowing! I had to add more water bath tub a couple of times since the water started to get cold, and Logan did not want to get out. He spent a great deal of time "swimming" through the water and pretending he was mixing magic potions in the clear cups that I added to the tub. 

Once bath time drew to a close, I had plans to stick them in the freezer to extend the glow time for another day, but Logan had other plans for them. He put them all over his bed, and fell asleep with them. It was a great ending to a spectacular day. 

Make Your Own Bath Paint

My little guy LOVES bath time. He is normally content to splash around with his typical bath toys, which regularly get changed out for new out for new ones. But yesterday was one of those wonderful days where he was well behaved and sweet, and I wanted to surprise him with something fun. I squirted a bunch of shaving cream into each container and then added a couple of drops of food color to each.

Next, I added a child to a bath tub and let him go wild.

I washed the paint off right after bath time and it did not stain my tub at all. I can not vouch for white tubs, as I have a yellow tub that only a true 1980's house would possess. My little guy was in love with this activity. He has asked for a repeat of it again tonight. This time we added even more colors. Plus, he got bold and decided to abandon the brush in favor of his hands. It sort of defeated the purpose of bath time, since now his hands look faintly rainbow colored, but it was so worth it.  

Stuff my kid says #14

s
Logan: Where did you and me come from?


Me: What do you mean?


Logan: I mean.... who bought us? Did we come in the mail?....... How did we get here? 

Fall in love with Autumn 2011

Last autumn we made a list of activities we wanted to try to accomplish. It's a lot of the same stuff, since some of these are traditions for us, but I'm adding a couple of new things. Items in italics have been completed. Items that are in italics have been completed!

1. Celebrate Logan's 3rd Birthday
2. Celebrate the husband's 30th birthday
3. Go apple and pear picking
4. Make apple butter
5. Make an apple pie
6. Walk through a corn maze
7. Go to a fair
8. Jump in the leaves
9. Go trick or treating
10. Make some autumn themed decorations for the house
11. Plant bulbs for spring
12. Get pictures taken
13. Pick pumpkins
14. Celebrate Thanksgiving
15. Whip up some scented play dough
16. Visit a new museum
17. Visit a farmer's market
18. Go to the zoo
19. Feed chickens
20. Go on a trip
21. Make leaf art
22. Make our very own light box
23. Paint a pumpkin
24. Go on a hike and enjoy the colorful leaves

I'm sure I will add to the list as the season goes on. What is something that you love to do in the fall? 

Cardboard Village

As I mentioned in my last post, Logan has developed a strong love for anything Smurf related. We have acquired a couple of Smurf figurines, and we had spent a great deal of time building different types of houses for them with blocks and legos.

While we were hunkered down for the hurricane, a special request was put in to make the Smurfs some bigger house. If you are a Smurf fan, you know that those magical blue guys (and one girl) live in mushrooms, but I couldn't find a suitable way to recreate those. I went to my recyclables that were accessible at the time, and came across a few boxes. My husband had left his razor knife in his work van, and it seemed unnecessarily dangerous to send him out to retrieve it, although I may have briefly entertained the idea..... So I had to make due with using kitchen shears, since regular scissors wouldn't work. The results were a couple of houses for the Smurfs to hide out in from the mean Gargamel and his cat.

They were not perfect, or particularly beautiful

but the Smurfs and Logan seemed quite happy with them. 

Another first

Do you remember your first movie? My parents said that my first movie was Benji. Upon my own investigation, I figured out that the movie was called Benji the Hunted. I didn't think I remember it until I looked it up and found a synopsis of it on Wikipedia. It sounded scary and a bit depressing, and surprisingly, I still vaguely remember it. But I bet I know what my parent's were thinking, "It's a movie about a dog that saves the day! She'll like that." I'm sure I did, but all I can really remember is being afraid of the wolf that just wants to kill the dog and everything else that stands in its way.

With that in mind, I thoroughly thought about the first movie Logan would see in the theater. To be honest, as a child I loved the Smurfs. I remember quietly playing with all my Smurf figurines. I had a Smurf bank, I used to pretend I was that Smurf with the flower behind his ear that always looked in the mirror. Also, I just really love Neil Patrick Harris. Plus Logan has been playing Smurf Village on the iPad, so he was familiar with these characters.

The last time we went to the theater we tried to see Hop. Logan wouldn't even sit down. This time, we had him pick out a candy (Care Bear gummy bears), but we didn't even need to break them out to entice him. He was excited, and sat down happily. The whole movie he sat forward in his seat, obviously delighted. He exclaimed excitedly a few times, but other than that, he was the perfect little gentleman.

Do you remember your first movie? Or what was the first movie your kiddo saw in the theater? 

Try this. Seriously.

So here's the deal, folks. I'm still without power at my house. No air conditioning, no refrigerator, no hot showers, and no Internet. It's enough to make a girl cry, if I wasn't so worried about messing up my mascara. I'm joking, of course, it is nearly impossible to put makeup on in a dark bathroom. But I'm really hopeful that power will be back soon. So I can do the things I really and truly love like vacuum.

I've been feeling a bit off kilter with all of this going on. But that's not why I'm posting today. I just had to share a sensory activity that the little one and I tried. While I was at a big box store stocking up for this hurricane, I happened to wander down the artificial flower aisle. Immediately, I thought of Play at Home Mom when I saw these:

Water beads, of course! They are not just for your flower arrangements..... if you ever used them for that. I had never purchased them before this, but I am so glad I did. They came in a variety of colors and were super cheap. Three dollars! These are not recommended for consumption, so if your little wants to taste test everything, you might want to wait until they are a bit older to test these out. 

Also, if you are better prepared than I am, you will most likely read the directions before getting your kiddos all excited to play. In my ignorance, I incorrectly assumed that they would automatically grow the second you added the allotted amount of water. I was incorrect. They kind of just look like this for a long time.  

They need about six hours (or more) to reach their full potential. I let Logan swish them around a bit, and I'm guessing he would have been content just playing this way. But we were headed out, so I put this container out of the reach of my curious kitties and we went on our way.

When we came back, it was as if magic had happened. I added a bunch of containers and scoops and you know, stuff, and Logan jumped right in.

These beads can stain hands, if you are concerned about that sort of thing. They are also slippery, so be careful not to step on them if they accidentally make it to the floor. But, all of those things aside, I really recommend you try these out.

It is some serious fun.

Often, just trying them with your hands simply isn't enough.

And of course, once your standing in there, it only makes sense to try and sit in them.

Have you ever heard of water beads or had any playful experiences with them? I'd love to hear about it!

Edited: These water beads are a polymer that retain water. To learn more about these beads you can check out here:  www.waterbeads.net 

Also: Check out Play at Home Mom for even more ideas on water bead play! I love the light box idea!