Ordinary Life : Early Childhood

Showing posts with label Early Childhood. Show all posts

Ba-na-knees

RyeBanana: "Are those REAL bananas?! They're made for Minions. :: hugging the baby bananas:: I just love these ban-na-knees!"

Rye is all about the Ninja Turtles these days. We haven't seen the new movie, but she has brothers who are more than happy to dig up old media for her. Her favorite is "Mikey" but she's no fan of the color orange, so she often calls him 'the yellow one'

The Black Period

...because we ran out of pink 'Squirt Paint'...temporarily:

SEED BOMBS

There are various ways to make seed bombs. We chose the method that used materials we already had on hand. It was one of the cleaner options as well.

Start by choosing seeds that grow well in your area. A quick glance at 'native' plants may be helpful.

Put scrunch tissue in a large bowl - this scrunchy filler can often be found in the gift wrap section of your local Dollar Tree (and possibly lingering in the bottom of any recently received gift bags) If you have a paper shredder, you could recycle the collected shreds or make your own shreds using colored paper.

(gotta make time for BigSib Photo breaks)

Toddler helper optional but highly encouraged.

Pour water into the scrunchy paper. You may wish to add layers of color separately to prevent dyes from blending.

Mush the paper together until it will hold shape, then drain excess water:

Mix in seeds:

Roll paper to form jawbreaker sized bombs (or larger if desired) Paper can also be pressed into cookie cutters to form other shapes.

This part is not unlike the process for home made paper. Once a shape is formed, squeeze any remaining water and place on a cookie sheet to dry. This may take a day or longer.

As you might be able to see, by the time we returned to this project, the 'bombs' had already begun sprouting.

All that remained was to toss them into abandoned lots or areas that needed a touch of life. To me, it was the trickiest step. For all the positives associated with planting flowers and sprucing up unsightly plots, tossing the bombs from my car window into scrubby areas, without the benefit of explaining, "We are not littering!" felt deviant.

We Made A Cat

We made a cat!

No, not THAT cat~ another cat.

A paper mache cat.

Look, if you ever want to work on control issues- do paper mache with a toddler. Whether you need to work on not having to be in control or operating from a place of more self control, getting creative with a tot is sure to help...at least confirm the issues are present.

What follows is a pictorial journey from two balloons, some newspaper and flour paste to a new paper friend that follows us around everywhere... except the pool... I had to put my foot down on that :)

Pasting strips of newspaper around balloons.

DRYING

No one has to teach them these things... she just knew how to paint herself... and she enjoyed it. We were killing time with creativity while waiting for the paste to dry...she was SUPPOSED to be painting paper.

A cat begins to take shape...

...and a mess.

It's always a pink cat she wants...

Staying busy with the 'squirt paints' while Mom works on the smaller details.

It was late when I left the cat to dry. Rye had already turned in...

Rye meets her new friend first thing the next morning... and wants it to go swimming with her. She's got a thing or two to learn about cats.

She put her shoes on all by herself... can you tell?

A hair bow and collar of ribbon for holding a jingly bell, our project is complete. She wants to know:

"CAN WE MAKE A DOG, TOO?!"

Rainbow Sprinkles

Rye's art & snack session was set up like this.

Look closely at those pencil leads, it will be important later.

Sugar is brainfood...it was a perfectly nutritious snack...stop judgin' me :)

Sprinkles make ya sweet...

...and Sprinkles are inspiring!

Yes...just a shirt & training pants... it's what works for us...

~Sugar Lips~

Okay, time for the story.

I bought a container of sprinkles in hopes of convincing Riley to broaden her culinary horizons. Currently, she and Buddy the Elf share a similar palate.

Yes, sprinkles are made of sugar too, but if you shake them over, say, Mashed Potatoes or Chicken Nuggets then sugar becomes a lesser ingredient. Especially when compared with most of her current preferred favorites, like "Big Chocolate Cupcake Cookies" (a.k.a. Reese Cups) and Pink Ice Cream.

It isn't an exact science, but it has met with some success.

So, Riley had a little bowl of sprinkles during her art and snack session and needless to say, when she was finished I had a living room full of rainbow colored sprinkles and some artwork to add to Riley's portfolio.

BUT... I didn't clean the mess up.. I had to run to a baseball game for Chandler. I left the chaos to be dealt with upon our return.

The thing is, by the time we returned- it was dark. Riley had fallen asleep in the car. I tucked her in and went quietly to the living room to clean up her 'creative explosion' from earlier. I left the lights off and vacuuming til morning, opting for the quieter method of sweeping sprinkles from the coffee table into my hand.

Who can resist sprinkles, I ask you?

Not me, that's for sure.

Absentmindedly, I licked a few clingy sprinkles from my fingers as I walked the lot of them to the wastebasket.

"These taste like PLASTIC!' I thought to myself.

and

"That's what I get for buying sprinkles from the Dollar Tree."

I had brushed the remaining sprinkles into the bin and returned for the pencils when it dawned on me:

"OH! I bet I just ate colored pencil leads..."

I opened the little container of sprinkles to taste-test my hypothesis:

If they tasted like plastic, I knew my menu expansion plan would need to be adjusted- a more expensive brand of sprinkles sought and bought before we could proceed with sprinkling the scrambled eggs in the morning.

However, if they were sweet, as sprinkles should be, I would know I had just tasted the rainbow... quite literally.