The Year of Color {Purple} Edition

It's June! Can you believe we're already this far into the month? Madness. June is also the official start of summer. Can I get an amen. Another June notable is that the month has three birthstones, one of them being alexandrite, which happens to have a beautiful purple hue. And, purple just so happens to be this month's color prompt!

Over the course of this past week the kids and I have been busy with all things purple.

Smiles from everyone! Now, could someone tell me how to get Julia's hair out of her face without needing, oh, you know, a comb, a clip, or a hair tie?

Purple also just so happens to be the colors of Scott's Alma matter, Kansas State University, which means there is no shortage of purple attire to be found in the kids closets.

Read
I was thrilled when I found quite a few books that were based on the color purple. We selected a few and couldn't wait to crack them open.

Purplicious - a sweet book that tackles the issues of bullying. I'd highly recommend this read to young boys and girls alike.
Purple, Green, and Yellow - Main character Brigid loves to color, but gets into some serious trouble when she uses markers to color herself. Marcus was really intrigued by the sequence of events with this one.
Mr. Pine's Purple House - Mr. Pine lived on a street with fifty white houses. He couldn't tell which house was his. So he solved his problem in a very unique way. I think this was the favorite from all of us. Bonus points for being a classic!

Since the temps have been quite warm around here many of our afternoons have been spent at the pool. Our reading time has been the perfect way to relax after all that sun and splashing. Usually, this is a time dedicated for Marcus and me, as we cozy up while Julia takes her afternoon nap. However, after I snapped a few pics and started in on Mr. Pine's Purple House, Julia woke and joined us for our story hour. I wasn't sure how Julia would do with books that didn't have things to touch, or flaps to flip, but she sat through each book. And, I loved that peaceful, book-filled time together.

Bake

Due to the summer heat I've been trying to avoid turning on the stove or oven at all costs. So our "baking" was more just making. And each treat was ridiculously easy to create.

The healthy one: purple grape and cheese skewers. We had these after a morning spent at the tide pools, and it was the perfect snack.

The not-at-all-healthy one: Purple Flurp - a delicious concoction of grape soda and ice cream blended together to make the prettiest purple shake.

We don't really let the kids drink soda, and the few times they've taken sips they always express a huge dislike (not a bad thing in my book!), so I was a little leery with how this would go over. However, the ice cream blended with the grape soda really took the carbonated kick out of the drink and left us with a creamy, smooth, delicious treat. This isn't something we'll have often, but it was fun to have a special little snack.

Experiment

Yet another experiment involving baking soda and vinegar. I mean, what kid doesn't love to see things fizz and "explode?" 

This Fizzing Cloud Dough was super simple to make, and it was such a great sensory activity. 

We started off the experiment while Julia was napping. This gave Marcus some time to play around with the cloud dough, which reminded me a lot of Kenitic Sand.

Just before we pulled out the vinegar Julia woke from her nap to join in the real experiment fun. Making the cloud dough fizz!

We played around with how much we made the cloud dough fizz. We first used a pipette to see just a little bit of fizzing. 

Then, the grand finale. We poured so. much. vinegar. on the mass of cloud dough, and we had a pool of cloud dough fizz on our counter. Each time the fizz would taper out the kids would both excitedly shout, "MORE!" 

All throughout I encouraged the kids to feel each part of the experiment. Both Marcus and Julia were a bit hesitant to put their hands in the pool of fizz, but once they tested the waters they both found the texture and feeling of the fizz on their hands fascinating. 

Craft

After all our purple fun I needed a craft that was super simple and took less than five minutes to knock out. Insert purple hand print art for the win. 

Each time we do hand print art I always chuckle at how differently the kids react to the paint on their hands. Marcus wants to wash the paint of immediately. He becomes pretty upset if we don't wash right away. Julia, on the other hand cannot wait to get paint on her hands, and would leave it on all day if I let her. Girl friend could care less if her hands were a wet painted mess.

Grandmas and Grandpas may or may not be receiving these butterflies in the mail in the very near future.

Whew!! That wraps up anther fun color prompt. 

If you've added some purple to your June be sure to link up below!

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