water color painting with the light table

Painting on the light table is one of our favorite ways to use the light table.  It adds a little extra fun to water color painting.  

I have used these water colors for over five years.  I love them so much, I have never tried anything else.  The colors turn out amazing and you treat it like a concentrate, so it lasts forever.  Love.  

We saved our egg dying cups from Easter and use them to hold our different colors.  One brush for every color.  I also like using the clementine crate to hold the cups, which makes it less likely to spill.

Oohing and Aahing over the way the color lights up.  

As always, Eleanor joined the party.  Quite excited.  

So excited that she will need two brushes, please and thank you.  

And give it a little taste for good measure. 

Her bum says it all.




Now if only the light table produced a little Vitamin D...

art group - marble painting

Our Toddlers, Twos, and Threes Art Group at the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library is back in action for the new year.  This week we marble painted, which is always a hit with grownups and children alike.  

Dumping the marble from a cup into the paint.  We liked using the spoon to transfer the marble from the paint tray to the box - it adds for a little extra fine motor control to the game.  Some friends liked to use their hands.  Everything goes at art group.  

Shake, Rattle and Roll.

Some friends liked to make it go super fast.  Others liked to watch it roll slowly from one corner to the next.  It is always fun to see each child interact so differently with the materials.

 Well, really I have to observe super quick because Abby is in and out of the art area in one minute or less and Eleanor is usually leading the way to climb UP the slide.

salt dough ornaments

Salt Dough Ornaments

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix ingredients in a bowl.  

The more the merrier.  Knead until soft and smooth.

Roll the dough flat.

Cut out shapes.

Place on cookie sheet.  Poke holes with a pencil/pen.

Bake at 325 for an hour or so.

Hang out in your new Learning Tower just purchased from craigslist.

When cooled and you can get to it - paint away!  We used acrylic paint and glitter.  The unicorn is Abby's most precious possession!

Eleanor enjoyed putting her finger in and out of the hole in the ornament.  

Clean up made easy with the handy dandy Learning Tower.  Seriously, this thing has changed my life.

Glitter explosion.

this moment

joining amanda in - 
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

pumpkin pie play dough

Here is the hands down best recipe for play dough:

• 2 cups water
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 2 TBS cream of tartar
• 2 TBS pumpkin pie spice 
• food coloring (I used the orange gel food coloring, but liquid works just fine)

Mix the wet ingredients with the food coloring over a low heat.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

Remove the warm dough and knead until the play dough is smooth in consistency.

We decided to make pumpkin cookies and pumpkin pies.  I gathered some pyrex spice dishes, plastic knives, pumpkin cookie cutters, and child size rolling pins.

It seriously smells delicious.

Eleanor on the scene.

I want some.  Now.

Any guesses on what she does next?  You bet.  She eats it.  Should that be reason to say she should not be allowed to join our fun?  Nope.  That's what little ones do.  They explore with their mouths.  Eating this play dough would not hurt her.  It tastes really salty though, even with the pumpkin pie spice.  (Ask me how I know?)  So I went with the tasting for a bit and then showed her some different things to do with the play dough other than eat it.  She still tasted it throughout our play time, but she also pounded with roller, batted at it with a knife, broke it into a million pieces, and then filled up our dishes and dumped.  The breaking and dumping kept her attention for nearly fifteen minutes.  Really important work for a toddler.

A little pumpkin patch made by Abby.

And a pumpkin pie for Daddy.  It's his favorite.

So if you have a kid table at Thanksgiving dinner, wouldn't this be kind of fun to play with while the turkey is digesting and prior to letting them destroy the play room?  Let the babies try it too.  

remember kindness

something abby and i are both working on:

we had a quiet moment to paint.

both paintings are hanging above the sink to remind us to slow down and remember to be kind with ourselves and each other.

sisters painting

                                           

It all started with an innocent  request to paint.  "Yes, I can manage that," was my reply.  It was 4:30 p.m.  Dinner was nowhere near ready.  The house was trashed  happily lived in.  I thought I could keep Eleanor busy on one side of the art room so that Abby could use her new easel.  

Lofty thinking.

"Up!"

Oh, I am in love.

Somehow (by the Grace of God no doubt), messes were cleaned, babes were cleaned, dinner was made, housed was not cleaned, but that is nothing out of the ordinary, just in time for Daddy!

And the finger paint came completely out of their clothes with one wash.  Amazing.