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!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Year of Color {Yellow} Edition

This month's Year of Color snuck right up on me. I kept telling myself I had all the time in the world to come up with some really fabulous yellow stuff, and then boom, it was yesterday.

So, instead of spreading out our fun like we've been doing the past few months, the kids and I did all the yellow things in one afternoon. I thought it might be kind of stressful, but it turns out we all had a lot of fun, learned some new stuff, and not once did I hear the whiny, "I'm boooooooored," or the high pitched screech that can only be made by a 21-month old when she's not getting her way.

I really wanted to find a yellow wall, but that just didn't happen. I settled with the three of us in yellow threads instead. It also needs to be noted that Julia was in a particularly good mood and gave me some good stuff for our pics.

Read

I wanted to find a book dedicated to yellow. But, total procrastination left me with no such luck. However, the kids library is chuck full of books with yellow covers. So, I set the kids to work, and had them pull every single yellow covered book they could find. We spent a good portion of our afternoon snuggled up on Marcus' bed reading some favorites that have been somewhat forgotten.

The particular book we're reading in these photos is Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss, and Marcus absolutely LOVES it. He loves trying to identify all the "wacky" things on each page.

Bake

To keep our afternoon moving along smoothly, I figured a boxed cake mix and some sprinkles would be easy enough. I wasn't wrong. Marcus helped me add all. the. sprinkles. to make a batch of Funfetti Gooey Bars.

With kids you cannot go wrong with sprinkles and white chocolate chips. Full confession: these are a bit too sweet for my liking, but these two had exactly zero issues consuming every last morsel of their bars.

Experiment

If I had to guess, this was Marcus' favorite activity of the afternoon. I can't say I blame him, as I was pretty amazed by it as well. 

We made our own "quicksand" with a super easy recipe of two parts baking soda (I used a half cup) to one part water (a quarter cup), and I tossed in a few drops of yellow food coloring so it would coincide with our theme. We mixed up the concoction until it felt like a solid in our hands, but when left in the mixing bowl it looked like a liquid. We added the quicksand to a cylinder tube we have from another experiment kit, and then went about the house looking for objects we wanted to sink in the quick sand. 

We were pretty optimistic about the number of things we were going to sink. In total we collected 10 items, but ended up only sinking four. Such is life with little kids. 

Our submerged items ended up being a kids spoon, a green crayon, a domino, and a C battery. Before dropping them individually in the quick sand we guessed which items we thought would sink the fastest. Marcus chose the spoon and I selected the C battery. 

Quicksand Reference

It took the spoon 1:13 to sink, the green crayon 1:40 to sink, the domino 1:02, and the battery only :47. 

To date, I think this may be our favorite experiment, and I wouldn't be surprised if this one happens again in the future. 

Craft

Lastly, our craft. I really wanted Julia in on this because the baking and experiment portions are just a little too much for her yet. This one, however, she could totally do, and she actually wanted to do it after seeing Marcus have a go at it first. 

Bee Handprint inspiration

Little bumblebee handprints! A few swipes of yellow and black washable paint along the palms and fingers (exclude the thumbs), a quick dot with a permenant marker for the eye, and few yellow wings snipped out of construction paper, and the kiddos had the cutest little craft done in under five minutes. BAM! That's my kind of craft.

That wraps up May! Don't forget to drop your link if you're joining us this month for all the yellow things!

Next month (6/16) is PURPLE!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Year of Color {Pastels} Edition

With April being Easter month pastels seemed only fitting for the Year of Color selection.

However, finding a craft, an experiment, a book, and a treat to fit within the color scheme proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. That doesn't mean we didn't try.

Let's start with the obligatory monthly photo. This time I had Scott jump in the photos with the kids and me. We had just gotten back from Easter Mass and we coordinated pretty well. Not to mention, I've kind of made it mandatory that we take a family photo every Easter.

This was the very best photo of the whole bunch.

Julia's personality on display...

Marcus wins the character award.

I feel our Easter attire was pretty spot on in regards to pastels. I'm not sure I can say the same about the rest of our Year of Color activities, but we had fun in the process!

Read

We read several Easter themed books this month. None were specifically designated "pastel," but the colors within the books illustrations were. I figured that was close enough. 

What a Wonderful World - Tim Hopgood
The Littlest Bunny in Los Angeles (also available for other cities and states) - Lily Jacobs
Easter Bunny's Amazing Day - Carol Benoist and Cathy Gilmore
God Gave Us Easter - Lisa Tawn Bergren

Grandma and Grandpa Dudding sent the kids What a Wonderful World. The song by Louis Armstrong is one of my all time favorits, and to have it in book form is pretty special. It was near impossible reading this aloud without actually singing the song.
The Littlest Bunny in Los Angeles (also from Grandma and Grandpa Dudding) was a fun story of a brother and sister who adopted a tiny bunny. At night the bunny became the Easter bunny and goes on several adventures throughout Los Angeles. Marcus really enjoyed this one.
Grandma and Grandpa Macke sent the kids Easter Bunny's Amazing Day. Talk about a unique and beautiful way to entwine the story of the Easter bunny with the story of Jesus' resurrection, and in a way that kids could understand. I had no idea what to expect with this book, but I love it, as does Marcus, as he's asked to read it several times. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great way to explain the Easter bunny and Jesus at the same time.
God Gave Us Easter (also a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Macke) has been on repeat with the kids. It's another fabulous story of Jesus and the meaning of Easter.

Bake

For the baking portion of our color I went the easy route and made up some Easter Blossom Sugar cookies.

Marcus enjoyed helping with all the sprinkles, as well as making the cookies disappear. I tried to get fancy and use Robin's Egg candies in lieu of regular Hersey Kisses. I did not love the final look, or taste of said candy. Next time we'll stick with the Kisses.

Easter Blossom Sugar Cookies Recipe

Experiment/Craft

Finding a pastel colored experiment was impossible. I scoured the internet looking for something, but came up short. So, we combined our egg coloring (the craft) with the experiment...

Thanks to Erin for sharing this fun and easy way to dye eggs!

1) A can of shaving cream in a large pan.

2) Several drops of food coloring dripped on to the shaving cream.
3) Lightly swirl the food coloring drops into the shaving cream with a straw.

4) Lightly roll hard boiled eggs in the shaving cream/food coloring swirl mix.

5) Allow eggs to sit in the mix for at least 15 minutes (we left ours in for two-ish hours).

6)Admire the finished product!

There you have it. Another month of color! If you're joining us this month for pastels be sure to link up below!

Next month (Friday, May 19th) we'll be showcasing YELLOW!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Year of Color {Pink} Edition

February is filled with all things love, and hearts, and red, and PINK! So, this month's Year of Color was devoted to pink!

I knew instantly where I wanted to head to snap a few photos with my babes this month. It wasn't even a question, I had to get to this spot.

If you saw the Wall Crawl - LA Love post a couple days ago I hinted at this wall, but I wanted to wait to share it today.
After Scott so kindly snapped a few pics of the kids and me I was able to convince him to jump in some shots as well. After seeing Scott with the kids, I think he should make cameos more often!
Marcus asked to try his hand at taking photos, so I passed the camera over and he started snapping away.  Marcus took the last picture of Scott, Julia, and me. Minus Scott's impeccable ability to spice up a photo, Marcus did a pretty good job!
The infamous pink Pall Smith wall can be found at 8221 Melrose Avenue.

After the pink photo op I did a little digging to read, bake, experiment, and craft with pink as our primary influence.

READ

Thanks to Julia's growing library, we had Pinkalicious on hand. I was initially worried Marcus would find the story "too girly," but he thoroughly enjoyed reading all about pink cupcakes.

BAKE

When I stumbled upon strawberry chocolate chip cookies I knew we had a winner. Not only was the recipe so easy Marcus could help whip them up, they were also mighty tasty. I had two little ones who couldn't have agreed more.

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 box strawberry cake mix

1 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In large bowl, mix together cake mix and baking powder. Set aside. In a smaller bowl, whisk eggs, oil and vanilla by hand. Add egg mixture to cake mixture and stir to form dough. Stir vigorously until all of the pockets of dry cake mix are gone. Gently mix in chocolate chips.

Drop rounded balls of dough (about 2 Tbsp) onto prepared baking sheet. Make sure balls of dough are taller than they are wide.

Bake for 10 minutes. Do not let the cookies get brown. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes - they will be very soft at first. As they cool, tops may settle down. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  

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EXPERIMENT

Pink flubber! Remember that gak, flubber stuff that was cool circa 1990? It was right there along side the silly putty and what not. Well, we attempted a super easy recipe and made our own.

Marcus helped with about 80% of the creation of the flubber. Julia tried several times to eat the flubber, and failed miserably with each attempt. The entertainment of the flubber lasted about as long as it took to make the stuff, but it was fun to see it all come together and try make bodily noises with it in a shot glass (just a heads up, we were not able to successfully make one single fart noise).
Flubber
1/2 cup white glue
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 tsp Borax
Food coloring (we used 6 drops of red)
Mix 1/2 cup glue and 1/4 cup cornstarch in a glass bowl. Add food coloring and mix again.
In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup hot water and 1/2 tsp Borax until it is dissolved. 
Add it to the glue mixture and stir again.
Get your hands in there to mix and work the flubber until it is no longer sticky.

CRAFT

This one was super simple, fast and easy, as any paint craft should be when it involves an 18-month old.

I know you wipe some away, but these prints were made to stay.
So keep them forever, a treasure they will be.
A special, "I love you."
For you, from me.

I had Marcus use a lighter pink to create the large heart with his hand prints. Once that was dried I wrangled Julia up and used a darker pink to create the smudgy mess in the middle using her hand prints. Once everything was dry I added the little saying to the bottom of the prints and mailed them off to the grandparents for Valentine's Day! Nothing too fancy, but full of sentiment and love.

Phew! That wraps up February's PINK prompt! If you've joined in the fun this month be sure to drop your link below so we can see how pink has inspired you.

Next month the color prompt is GREEN. We'll be linking up on Friday, March 17 - St. Patrick's Day!

An InLinkz Link-up

Flubber source: Paper Tape & Pins
Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookie source: Sally's Baking Addiction

The Year of Color {White} Edition

When first debating what to do with this month's prompt of 'white,' I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I knew the kids would be involved (I am a mom blogger after all), and I knew there would likely be a photo of them wearing white. It wasn't until a bit later that I decided to jump in the photo with them. That idea then morphed into a goal: get in the color prompt photo with the kids each month. So often I'm behind the camera, and rarely do I step out in front of it. The Year of Color is the perfect opportunity to get color coordinated and in some pictures with my kids. May it also be noted that this will also push me to step out of my yoga pants at least once a month.

If nothing else is accomplished for the rest of this link-up, at least the kids will have a few photos of the three of us together.

I knew I couldn't stop with just a photo of us wearing white. The prompt quickly grew into much more...

On Fridays Marcus doesn't have school. And, each Friday Julia is able to take a solid nap in her own crib (no car naps on Fridays!). During naptime Marcus and I are often looking for fun, quiet things to do while the littlest sleeps. In brainstorming ideas, I decided I would focus on each color prompt while making the most of that one-on-one time with Marcus.

Over the course of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning we read a book, did an experiment, made a craft, and whipped up a snack all centered around the color white. Each activity only lasted a handful of minutes, which was just right for a four-year old. Honest talk: I'm not sure I'll be this ambitious each month, but I'm really liking where this link-up is heading for us.

January :: White

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

We actually didn't have time to fit this book in Friday afternoon. But first thing Saturday morning we cracked it open. I attempted to have Julia sit in on this, but as evident by the photos, that didn't go as planned. Regardless, Marcus and I enjoyed a little snuggle session while reading about one of our favorite groovy cats.

Erupting Snow

Creating.

Since we don't get snow, and Marcus has been asking to go to the snow for months, I figured we could bring the snow to us. Marcus was really hesitant of the texture of the snow, but I thought it was awesome. It felt very much like snow, and was physically cool to the touch thanks to the shaving cream! We made a few snowmen, gave it a good splat on the counter a few times, and then set to work making it "erupt" with vinegar. Marcus hated the smell of the vinegar, but loved watching the transformation from "snow" to the "snow explosion."

Playing.

Exploding.

To make:
1 box baking soda
1 can shaving cream
1 cup vinegar
Large mixing bowl
Large spatula

Pour entire box of baking soda into the mixing bowl.
Add approximately 1/2 - 3/4 can of shaving cream to baking soda.
Mix until baking soda is fully incorporated with shaving cream.
Play with snow until ready to make it erupt.

Cotton Ball Snowflakes

By far, the easiest 'craft,' and probably a favorite of Marcus' (at least for now).
The first snowflake we made I helped draw a snowflake on the paper, and Marcus traced the lines with glue and added cotton balls atop the glue. That was basically the extent of the craft, easy-peasy; just the way I like to craft.

After the first snowflake I let Marcus go to town and do everything 100 percent on his own. The following snowflakes made by Marcus appeared to be more like blizzards. It was all insanely simple, but Marcus loved it because apparently kids love gluing things? This was the first time he'd ever used school glue, so that was extra fun to him. A week out from the original project and he is still making cotton ball blizzards.

To make:
Colored construction paper
Cotton balls
School glue

The Best Rice Krispy Treats

After all the white Marcus decided the finished treats needed a little sprucing up. Naturally the best way to do that was dump a ton of blue sprinkles on top.

This little activity excited me the most. Growing up I remember my dad making Rice Krispy Treats regularly. It's been years since I've had this simple and delicious snack. In the kitchen Marcus helped as much as possible. And, conveniently, Julia woke from her nap just in time to help do a little taste testing. Both kiddos have done a stellar job helping to make these white inspired treats disappear.

To make:
4 Tbsp butter
8 cups mini marshmallows, divided
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp milk
6 cups rice krispies

Melt butter in large pot over low heat.
Once butter is melted add vanilla and 6 cups marshmallows.
When marshmallows are melted, add milk and remaining 2 cups of marshmallows. Just before marshmallows are fully melted (you want the mix kind of clumpy), add rice krispies.
Mix until rice krispies are evenly covered with marshmallow mix.
Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan.
Lightly spread treats evenly throughout pan. Don't press too hard, as treats will become very hard if pressed together too much.
Allow to cool fully before cutting and serving.


Whew. That wraps up all things white for January. How did white inspire you? Be sure to drop your link below!

Next month's link up is Friday, February 17, and the color prompt is pink. That should be easy, right?! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Cheers to the weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

Erupting Snow : Paging Fun Mums
Rice Krispy Recipe : Midwestern Moms