Slime!

When we lived in Logan, UT we went to a family day on campus. They had bounce houses, games, crafts, and huge tractors. Each college had a station and an activity they did for the kids. One of the activities was to make slime. Everest still remembers that (it was before I was pregnant with Leaf-Everest was only 2). The other day he told me he wanted to make green slime like we did in UT.

I found an easy recipe on Family Fun's website. It is just glue, borax, water and food coloring. The boys had so much fun with it. We usually make play dough, but decided to make slime for a change.

Waiting for the slime to congeal. Everest was so excited. In the beginning Everest wanted green, but when it came time to add color, both boys picked blue.

Everest with his slime.

WOW!

Leaf wasn't sure what to think at first.

Then he rolled it.

Then he realized if you put it near the edge, it will drip down.

We got out cookie cutters and other things we use with play dough. Later that night, I had a meeting and the boys played with Nathan. They found out you can also draw on slime with markers. 

* Slime Recipe (recipe from Family Fun Magazine)

3/4 c warm water

1 c glue (white or clear)

food coloring

4 t borax

1 1/3 c warm water

1. Mix together 3/4 cup warm water, 1 cup glue and several drops of green food coloring in the first bowl.
   
2. In the second bowl, mix together 4 teaspoons borax and 1 1/3 cups warm water.
   
3. Pour the contents of the first bowl into the second, but don't stir. Let it sit for 1 minute, then lift the now-congealed slime out of the bowl.
   
4. Divide slime so that each child has a piece to play with. The glue in slime can make it stick to certain fabrics. To minimize accidents, give each little monster a zip-top bag to store it in.
   

*A friend told us to use clear glue and add things like glitter or sequence.

Tissue paper sun catchers

While I was reading a few blogs one evening, I found a fun craft that Leaf could easily do. It is hard to find art projects that both boys can enjoy at their own level. This one is perfect. It does take some prep work on my part, but it was worth it. The blog I saw, did this as a Cinco de Mayo craft, but you could do it for any holiday, season, or gift.

I choose a leaf, for Leaf to do. It was a simple shape, and it was big enough for him to be successful. I also found some outlines of bugs, vehicles, and flowers online (if you look up coloring pages or black line master, you will come up with more than you can ever want). I traced and cut out the shapes on construction and scrapbook paper.

We had plenty of scrap tissue paper left over from making flowers for Nathan’s birthday (I save everything…I knew we would find something to do with the scraps). Leaf helped me tear the tissue paper into small pieces. 

He had fun doing this, who doesn’t? It is fun to rip paper!

Next, I cut clear contact paper to the same size as the paper they were working on, and let them get to work. The only part that should be sticky is the cut out, so the kids put tissue paper all over. When they are done, you add another piece of clear contact paper to hold all the tissue paper in place.

We messed up on Everest’s rocket. I put the sticky part on the white side of scrapbook paper. That meant he had to work on the side with the clouds. It turned out fine, but you can see all his work, instead of just the rocket. He chose to do his rocket in red because rockets make fire. He enjoyed this enough that he wanted to make one for Nathan’s office. He decided on another rocket. He made it very colorful and then wrote his name on it. I forgot to take a picture before Nathan took it to work.

 Leaf wanted to hold his while he was sitting on the potty. Everest sat beside him, so I got a picture of their creations.

Everest took his rocket in to preschool for sharing. As soon as he got home, he asked me to hang it up by Leaf’s. 

 

Mother's Day gift gone astray

*I had to delay this post until our mom's got their gift. 

Gelatin sun catchers.

Recently I put up an inspiration line in our dining room. It is a simple piece of twine connected to push pins. I find all these great craft ideas online or in magazines and I save them, but then I never look at them again. Now, when I find a fun craft idea or saying, I hang it on the line. It has helped so much with our crafting. Everest has looked through all the pages I have and picked a few of his favorites. 

We found a sun catcher craft idea in Family Fun magazine. (If you want to craft with your kids, but don't know where to start, I highly recommend this magazine. I do not love the commercialism in it, but I do love the crafts.) Everest and I decided to make them for Mother's Day. We went to the grocery store to collect all the supplies and started making them. 

Mixing the gelatin and adding food coloring.

They were turning out thinner than I thought they should be, so I added a little more water to them. (They are made from unflavored gelatin). We added food coloring, then dumped them onto a plastic plate. We then added drops of food coloring and swirled them into cool designs. 

For Everest, this was the most fun, making the designs.

We also added glitter, that was lots of fun too, but quite messy.

It said they should dry over night, but 2 days later, they were still...jello-y. 

Everest has a good time playing with the pieces that were still pretty rubbery.

Not thinking I put them in the sun to dry. Big mistake, they melted into a mess. All our nice designs ran together. I set them on the counter meaning to throw them away and start over, but forgot about them. Later that evening, I found they were drying. They were not nearly as nice as they were in the beginning, but they still turned out ok. Everest liked them and wanted to finish making them for Nonnie and Grami, so we cut out some shapes and added string. We started these sun catchers in plenty of time to send them for Mother's Day, but since we had so much trouble, they were sent late. Sorry, Nonnie and Grami, we hope you enjoyed them when you did get them.

In the end they turned out ok. They catch the sun nicely, even if they are wrinkled and bubbly. Everest named each one of them, we had moon and ball, watermelon, foot print, square and heart. Some of the names he came up with were very clever

We love and miss you both! Hope you had a great Mother's Day.