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Back in December when we finished making our gingerbread houses I really wanted to just throw all the extra candy away but instead I saved it for a rainy day activity. (or a sick day or a snowy day …)
I think I should change the title to “An Overabundance Of Brightly Colored Photos On Another Gloomy Day!”
When we finally had enough empty milk and juice cartons to make blocks I cut the tops off the cartons, the kids dripped various combinations of food coloring into the cartons and we filled them with water and put them outside to freeze.
A couple of days later we peeled the cartons away from the ice blocks…some were frozen a little more solid than others.
The colored water that dripped out made for pretty snow to play in
Colorful snow balls!
Now I am back to hording the empty cartons and yogurt containers to make more colorful ice blocks!
And busy we have been!
The annual gingerbread house making…..
The secret gift making….
The holiday playing…..
And the snowflake making….I am a bit obsessed!
We followed these folding directions at instructables
We also used coffee filters.
And some of us are relaxing with visions of sugar plums or bones and balls dancing in our heads until the big day!
I plan to do the same next week!!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!!!!
Last year I pulled a page out of Family Fun all about Halloween candy experiments. And this year I book marked a page from Mothering Magazine and another link a friend posted on facebook. Low and behold—they are all from the same website …. Candy Experiments.
My kids trick or treated twice this year, so to say we have lots of candy is an understatement!! They went through their stash and donated all sorts of goodies in the name of science.
We tried several experiments from the website. The most exciting being floating M’s and S’s.
Put some M & M’s in a glass jar and some skittles in another.
Add water and watch……..
Floating M’s and S’s!!
We made some sculptures with the sticky candy
We also tried color separation (chromatography) by adding m&m’s to a few drops of water and then dipping a coffee filter in. We waited until some of the color was absorbed and you could see the colors separate.
Did you know that laffy taffy floats?
We did a lot of mixing, soaking and poking.
And we still have lots of donated candy to play with tomorrow!
Did you know that your sense of smell is supposed to be your strongest memory? Brut reminds me of my Dad, the smell of a fire outside reminds me of camping. I love the scents of different seasons. As soon as I smell a coconut or Tropical combo I am immediately taken to summer and scents of sun tan lotion and the smell of pine reminds me of Christmas. The smells of Fall are strong…. apple, cinnamon, pumpkin. These smells are comforting to me and give me a warm, homey feeling.
We made a couple batches of seasonal playdough. Spiked with the scents of Autumn…Apple Cinnamon and Vanilla
Autumn Scented Playdough
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon powdered alum
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons vanilla
food coloring
Mix all dry ingredients. Add oil and water and food coloring. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until reaching the consistency of mashed potatoes. Remove from heat add the vanilla. Knead the playdough.
For the apple cinnamon batch of playdough we added red food coloring and cinnamon and cloves.
For the vanilla batch we added a few drops of yellow food coloring.
Keep this in a covered container in the fridge.
In case you have been wondering where we have been………………
sleeping in the back yard
Visiting the zoo
Gathering information and ideas for keeping chickens (the girls already have names picked out)
Attending fancy tea parties
And a trip to Chicago. I love this city…. I love a city where you can walk to most places or take public transportation!…. And there is so much to see and do in Chicago that is free or cheap…. And all the public art–huge bonus!
The Children’s Museum at Navy Pier is probably one of my most favorite places! It is different every time we go. The whole thing screams Please Touch!
We had a great Chinese dinner in China Town…complete with a lazy susan in the middle of the table!
We love you Chicago…can’t wait to visit again soon!
My husband and I both grew up in Cleveland. I don’t think we thought we lived in such a rockin’ place when we were younger. Last weekend we went home for a visit. I love being a tourist in this city! So much to see and do!!
Friday we took the kids to our old favorite hang outs on Coventry (the Greenwich village of Cleveland). Most are gone now and the crowd isn’t quite so hippy but it was still fun. Playing at the playground and eating dinner at Tommy’s. We need a Tommy’s here in Clintonville. It would surely do a bang up business!!! Pretty Pleeeeeze???
Saturday we headed to the newly renovated and free Art Museum. It is awesome!!!
Then we headed to The Botanical Gardens. I can’t say enough good things about the Hershey Children’s Garden. We could play there all day.
Look –apparently Ginger has a twin in Cleveland
Saturday night we took my in laws to Sokolowski’s to eat. On the recommendation of Anthony Bourdain of course– we got in touch with our Polish heritage!
Sunday morning we boarded The Rapid and headed to the Terminal Tower for a view from the observation deck. It has been closed since 9/11 and is only open for a few weekends.
Just about everyone in Cleveland had the same idea! We waited in kine for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Ginger was not happy
The ride up didn’t get much better
But the views were so cool! Cleveland really does rock! The ethnicity, the history and the big city feel.
Thanks Cleveland! We will be back soon!
