Water + Food Coloring = One Happy Toddler

Last week was unbelievably warm, I think it was 92 on Monday, so we spent a ton of time outdoors.  Bea loves her new tricycle (more on that in another post) but I also wanted to find some activities for her to do in our backyard.  We hope to have a sandbox in the next few months and eventually a swing set so up until now our backyard playtime has involved a lot of shovels and buckets, which she loves, but I thought it might be fun to add another element.

I can't remember if I read about this particular idea on a post over at Play at Home Mom or if I'm taking several posts and combining them into one, but I know I came up with the general idea through reading about their outdoor play.

I basically used several glass and plastic containers that we had and filled each one with different amounts of water and food coloring.

I also had a few empty containers, a big bowl, and a spray bottle filled with water.  Bea loves to pour and dump anything from one vessel to another so I knew this would be a big hit.

It didn't take long for her to pour everything together so the water was a deep purple/black for most of the time but she loved it.  She must have poured and scooped for over an hour, only stopping every so often to spray the water bottle.

And not to be left out, here's a picture of Charlie enjoying the sun.

Heather

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  We started the day with Easter service then had an egg hunt in our backyard followed by an afternoon of playing outside.  

A few from the afternoon, including Bea's first "self portrait".

Heather

Water Beads

Have you ever heard of these?  I hadn't until recently when I spotted a post on them over at Play At Home Mom.  They looked really cool and it sounded like the kids went absolutely nuts over them so I thought we'd give them a try.

I purchased a pack at Michael's (they are located in the floral section if you're looking) and you can buy them in two types, already hydrated and ready to go, or dehydrated, which is what we did.  I poured about a fourth of the package into a huge bowl and filled it with water one morning.  By the time Bea was up from her nap they were ready to go.

This was by far her favorite sensory project we've done.  She loved everything about them, the feel, the color, scooping them up and putting them into her bucket and then back into the bowl.  I think we were outside playing with them for well over an hour.  They have this crazy slippery gel like consistency, I think I enjoyed them as much as she did!

The only drawback is that they will break if you squish them too hard.  So now we have bits of water beads all over our backyard, but hey, at least it's not in the house!  I also need to check into storage.  I think you can store them in a Ziploc (minus the water) and they will last a few weeks.  We, of course, forgot them outside overnight and it was a little too cold for them.  Oops!  Or as Bea would say, "Whoop a see" (that's her version of whoops).

I also found this great idea for water beads over at Modern Parents Messy Kids for Easter.  Since I'm not planning on giving her candy and chocolates this would make a great alternative.

Heather