Silly Putty Recipe

Today we made silly putty, or as Silas calls it "silly puddin'." The first recipe we tried didn't turn out so great and our silly putty was stiffer than the stuff I remember. So in an effort not to rob my kids of a real silly putty experience we tried again.  

Here is the recipe that worked:

1 whole bottle of  8oz glue...then add a few drops of food coloring and stir...

 ...pour glue into 1/2 tsp of borax mixed with a 1/4 cup of warm water and stir...

...keep stirring, drain liquid, knead...and BAM here it is...

The green was our second attempt!

 "Silly puddin' is SO fun!"

My Big Kids

During this transition of becoming a family of five, Jack and I have started referring to Silas and Lois as 'the big kids.' Jack will offer to take the 'big kids' with him when he goes out somewhere. 

How did Silas and Lois become my 'big kids?'

For the past few weeks since Asa's been born, we've been inside more and so I've been trying to come up with some fun activities for the kids to do. I had an extra canvas and we put strips of painter's tape on it, and then the kids got to take turns painting a color in each shape.

The kids loved pulling off the tape, and seeing that they made art!

Special Pancakes

Pinterest and I have a love-hate relationship. I see all these cute, fun kids ideas on there, but when I actually try to be craft mom, it never goes as planned and it's a total flop. So, you can see why I was so excited when colored pancakes were a hit this morning in our house! You would have thought I'd hung the moon. Here's the pancake recipe, and I just let the kids stir in some food coloring. Silas, of course, picked red and Lois picked pink as their first choice of colors for pancakes. The finishing touch was syrup with sprinkles on top. :)

Mission accomplished.

Flop.

This pin didn't go over so well, despite the picture of Silas looking entertained and happy. I was feeling like a stick in the mud, and didn't want to have to clean up a mess, so I tried this. Silas knew it wasn't the real deal, and he wanted to play with the paint outside of the bag. But he humored me, and tried it out for about 3 minutes!

Never Have I Ever...

...cleaned an oven.

 I don't know how I've escaped it for this long. I know you can't be around those types of chemicals when you're pregnant, and since I've been pregnant for majority of the last two and half years, I'll just use that as my excuse :) 

We've lived in this apartment for 2 years now, and our oven was looking pretty gross, so I started looking for natural ways to clean an oven. I wanted to avoid having such strong chemicals in the house with little kiddos around. I found this pin. You just spritz some water on the bottom of the oven, then sprinkle 1/4 inch of baking soda over that. I only left it for about 30 minutes before wiping it off, but I was impressed! 

My oven before. 

 My oven after.

How to Entertain A Toddler: Water Paint

Rain clouds were lingering all morning one day last week, but I really wanted to let Silas have some time outside. I came across this idea on Pinterest. I just filled a cup up with water and gave him a paintbrush, and that made for a happy Silas. 

Pin: Bow Pillow

This last pregnancy with Lois, I was blessed with an abundance of energy during my second trimester. I decided to learn how to sew in order to make her baby bedding. I had some fabric left, and found this tutorial on Pinterest. I'm definitely a novice at sewing, and this pattern was really easy to follow.

Pin: Cleaning Bath Toys

1/2 cup white vinegar + 1 gallon of water...Let toys soak for an hour, then scrub. 

Vinegar is supposed to be a natural disinfectant, and all the toys looked cleaner, so I will just have to trust that this worked!

A Pin For A Rainy Day: Bathtub Paint

Recipe:

1 Tablespoon cornstarch + 1/8 cup baby shampoo + 1 Tablespoons water + food coloring 

I will definitely do this again, because Silas thought it was so cool that he was getting to make a colorful mess in the bathtub! Next time I will omit the water, because my paint came out a little runny. I was nervous the food coloring was going to stain, but it washed off easily.

A Pinterest FAIL..Frozen Yogurt Treats.

I've seen this pin all over pinterest, where you put yogurt in a ziploc bag, cut out a corner, and squirt it out on a cookie sheet, and freeze it. Mine didn't come out as pretty as the original, but I wasn't even thinking that Silas is wary of cold things. So, he wouldn't even try one! Silas loves yogurt, so it was kind of silly of me to go through the trouble of freezing it when he eats it already. Pinterest fail!

Oh, How Pinteresting.

So, I've been trying some things out on Pinterest lately, but seriously who hasn't been??  The world's largest online slumber party has a way of sucking you in, but in turn, has made me pull out some of my dusty craft supplies! I'm always curious when things are marked as "the best thing ever" because I always want to know if it really is the best thing ever. Some of the things I've tried have been flops, while others have turned out good. This has probably been one of my favorites so far!

Silas' drawer before...

Silas' drawer after.

Here's a link to the pin if you're interested!