Fun in the Sun

We've finally been having some nice summery days.
We visited the cousins and enjoyed sitting outside for the whole evening.

In the backyard!

Logan asked to "paint the fence" again. I let him use "water squirters" for the first time -yes, we're not calling them guns. He used them like they were a painting tool and the idea of pointing at someone doesn't even seem to occur to him. I'm sure playing with older cousins and friends this summer, this will change.

This was the first time Kalia sat in a pool --she's wearing her first bathing suit from Grandma and Grandpa.

Logan washing his cars -Kalia seemed to love being so close to the action

Filling up his hot wheels water set --scored this for five bucks at a garage sale.

:D

Mixing colours with vinegar and baking soda

Logan and I have played with baking soda and vinegar once before and he was surprisingly only mildly interested in it. When I saw the post at Not Just Cute about hiding a few drops of food coloring under the baking soda, I knew we had a winner.

I used glass baby bottles that we're no longer using. Logan really liked the smaller ones as they overflowed.

5 month old Kalia seemed to enjoy watching the activity too!

"Is it water?", Logan asked. "No, it's something else...I got Logan to smell it -definitely not water! Then we tasted it!

After he discovered all the colours that were hidden, I let him go ahead and experiment with mixing more vinegar or baking soda in.

Logan then announced he was going to make purple! He discovered how to make purple when we were painting with our feet and I reinforced it with a colour mixing activity in the bath last week. I'm happy to see that the lesson has "stuck".

Sucking up purple! He's really got a handle on using his turkey baster
AKA "The Colour Mixer"

Adding this to the No Time For Flashcards Link and Learn!

Mod Podge + Preschooler = Great Fun!

Logan has been keen to practice his scissor skills and asked the other night to do a craft with "paper and scissors". I took some origami paper that I had and cut it into strips -this allows him to make a cut with one snip and is a good start to learning to use scissors.

To add to the hand-eye coordination, I gave Logan a bowl for him to cut over and try to get the paper to fall into. He was very happy to sit and cut away!

Last week at Walmart they were clearing out the bottles of Mod Podge for a dollar! Knowing they are closer to eight bucks each, I grabbed one of each kind. Mod Podge is excellent for kids -it's non-toxic, it's washable and it multitasks as it is a glue, finish and sealer. We used the Mod Podge Sparkle and the Mod Podge Glow-in-the-Dark.

Using the sponge brushes again, Logan stuck the scraps of paper we got to a Coffee Mate can.

I held it for him and rotate it around. Logan enjoyed finding spots were we needed to put more paper.
Once it started drying we starting to see the sparkles. We mixed some more sparkle and glow-in-the-dark Mod Podge together and gave it a thick coat.

Afterward we went into a dark room to see it glow! Very impressive! We're going to turn this into a snack container for Grandpa for Father's day -this way he can easily find his midnight snacks! :D

Strep throat, a turkey baster and the grandparents

Logan got strep throat and was home with Kalia and I for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Not wanting to take a sick boy to our usual fun spots like the mall, Walmart, library or park where he could infect someone else we drove to a construction site!

We packed a snack and drinks and checked out some real mighty machines. A bunch of the workers even stopped to wave at Logan which he thought was awesome. We parked at a few different spots and talked about what they were doing. This also gave Kalia time to take her morning nap.

In the afternoon, Logan woke up before his sister and still had a bit of a fever.

I got him to take a bath to help with his fever by turning it into "homework"! He used a turkey baster to mix different colors in plastic cups. Turkey basters are suppose to be awesome tools for preschoolers. Logan picked the different colors to mix and I recorded them on a paper and then he would call out the result for me to record. He remembered that red and blue make purple from out "feet painting" activity so he really enjoyed this. I'll have to come up with some other color mixing activities.

On Thursday afternoon Grandma and Grandpa came to help out! Phew! I'm just getting over a sinus infection which has really tired me out and Allan torn some ligaments in his ankle and is wearing a air cast so we were very appreciative of the extra help.

Kalia had her first baby Mum Mum cracker.

Throwing "bird gliders" out front with Grandpa

Picnic time!

While the kids had a picnic with the grandparents, Allan and I headed to the Hilton for brunch ---five years ago we got married here so it was a little celebration for the two of us!

Painting with Water

I came across the idea of painting with water from the Not Just Cute Blog, so Logan and I gave it a try.

I let Logan know that since we were using water we could paint the fence, doors and patio stones and we could be as messy as we wanted!! He was excited immediately started singing the "Art is Everywhere" song from Yo Gabba Gabba.

He made some really nice Jason Pollock-like paintings on the patio stones

The sun was shining on our backdoor so I showed him how things "evaporate". He asked me to draw our family, so I drew a happy face for each of us.

Logan watched them all disappear and we talked about how the sun was drying up the water. It totally "clicked" for him and he understood evaporation.

The door was nice and warm and the sun was shining bright so the water didn't stay long on it. Logan had a lot of fun painting the door and having parts of "disappear" as he was creating.

We also enjoyed using the fence as a huge canvas! Overall painting with water was a huge hit with this preschooler!

First time linking up to a blog-hop -check it out: