Bulldozer Craft

This super simple craft was lots of fun! I printed a bulldozer coloring sheet. Trip colored it a little, then I cut it out and we glued it on a piece of brown paper. That's when the real fun started. I gave Trip a bottle of glue and a bowl of oatmeal.

He had a fantastic time gluing,

sprinkling,

and gluing some more.

Transportation Cookie Painting

I recently watched an episode of The Pioneer Woman cooking show on Food Network. She was making some super cute hand cookies with her daughter and her daughter's friends. They rolled out sugar cookie dough, traced their hands with a butter knife and then decorated the cookies with a colored egg glaze. I hadn't thought of painting sugar cookies before baking them but had a feeling that Trip would enjoy trying it. He got some transportation cookie cutters for his birthday (thanks Aunt T!), so it was time to put them to work.

I made the dough, refrigerated it, rolled it out, and cut out some shapes. I decided to put them on parchment paper since I wasn't sure how much of a mess Trip would make with the egg glaze.

The egg glaze is simply egg yolks, water, and food coloring.

I didn't have any paintbrushes that I knew were food safe, so we used q-tips. They were not the best, but they worked in a pinch.

Trip enjoyed choosing colors and decorating his cookies.

He also liked using the q-tip to poke holes in the dough.

Once he was done painting, I let him add some sprinkles. After that, he didn't want to paint anymore, he just wanted to use the sprinkles.

They turned out pretty cute and tasted great too. Next time, I will probably make the icing too to add a little more sweetness, but no one complained about the cookies being plain.

Artistic Transporttion Bath

I purchased some vehicle-shaped sponges at the dollar store for our transportation theme and had no idea how much Trip would like them. When we first got them out, he carried them around and played with them. Then, they made a nice addition to our sensory tub and they have also been fun in the bathtub. I thought Trip might enjoy using them to make prints on the tub walls, so I mixed up some bath paint of shaving cream and washable finger paints.

I showed him how to dip the sponge in the paint and stick it on the wall. He got right to work but really disliked having to wring out the sponge before sticking it in the paint.

Soon, the tub wall was filled with lots of colors and vehicle shapes.

We made some shaving cream clouds for the helicopter and airplane (which I cut out of a foam sheet).

Trip had a great time with this bath! When he was done painting, we started taking handfuls of the colored shaving cream and playing with it. We shook hands with it, enjoyed its silky texture, put globs of it on the tub wall, and made a big mess that easily washed down the drain when we were done.

Cars with Milk Lid Wheels

I came upon these cute cars on Pinterest and thought Trip would like them. I have a collection of milk jug lids going for just this sort of thing, so I gathered a few and cut out some cardboard cars. I put a couple of glue dots on each car, then Trip got to stick on the lid wheels. He didn't want me to take a picture of him working. Instead, he took this picture for me. :)

Once the cars had wheels, we started adding letter stickers. I had intended for Trip to put his name on his car, but he wanted to choose other letters. He came up with T, O, and E. I chose to put a Q on the other car.

 After quickly showing off his cars so I could take a picture, he was off to play with them.

Painting with Cars

Trip thought it was pretty fun to use some of his cars to paint. We started off with paper, a few cars, a pie tin, and some finger paint {and a boy who didn't want his picture taken :)}.

Trip drove the cars through the paint, then checked to make sure the tires were well covered.

He then had fun driving the cars on the paper.

It was good to use cars that had different tire treads as they made different tracks and made the painting more interesting.

Once the painting was done, the fun had just begun because the cars needed to be cleaned, so we had a car wash. Check back tomorrow to read all about that!

Microwave Puffy Paint

Microwave puffy paint was another activity I've been wanting to try. It ended up being the perfect thing for a day when we had friends over.

There are several different recipes floating around the Internet, but the one that I chose to use was:

1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
food coloring
enough water to form a smooth paste

I made a double batch and poured the paint into six containers. I then added some food coloring to each container.

We used paintbrushes to create our designs, but q-tips would also work, or you could put the paint in squeeze bottles. I cut up a cardboard box for us to paint on. Since the creations have to go in the microwave to puff up, regular paper won't work.

Trip and his friends had a fantastic time painting and I was so busy microwaving that I didn't get any pictures. Once they were done with their artwork, I would put it in the microwave. It took about 30-45 seconds on high for the paint to puff up and get dry. A couple of pieces took a little longer, but I always stopped every 15 or so seconds to check on it.

Trip enjoyed creating some abstract designs.

I made some flowers.

We discovered that you do need to put quite a bit of paint on the cardboard for it to really puff up. One of our friends had the idea to drip globs of paint from his paintbrush to make polka dots. He then started dripping colors on top of other colors and created some really cool designs.

They puffed up really nicely.

I think this might become a new go-to activity when we have friends visiting. I always have the ingredients on hand and the kids really enjoyed seeing their artwork come out of the microwave.

The Great Sidewalk Chalk Playdate

Now that school is out, we get to have our friends over more often. On this particular day, Trip had six friends spend the day at our house. He was thrilled! A box of sidewalk chalk provided the perfect distraction for all those kids. They worked with chalk two times, both of which lasted about an hour and they made sure that our driveway was well covered with artwork!

Since they were all taking swimming lessons, I created a little ocean scene for them to "swim" in. They loved posing for their pictures!

A little editing added to the underwater effect.

The girls created an ocean scene of their own.

Trip wanted to "swim" with them. :)

The older boys were quite pleased with their stop sign.

 

Fizzing Sidewalk Paint

Trip absolutely loved this activity! It was the perfect thing for a sunny afternoon. I found this super easy recipe from Hands On: As We Grow and it took just minutes to mix up the four ingredients (cornstarch, baking soda, washable paint, and water) and fill a small spray bottle with vinegar (which makes the paint fizz).

Once outside, Trip and I got right to work painting. I wrote his name,

but also had to paint him a baseball diamond (because we can rarely do an art project without drawing some sort of sports field). 

Once we had done some painting, I gave Trip the spray bottle. He loves using a spray bottle anytime, but he was especially thrilled with what the vinegar did to the paint. He proceeded to walk around to everything we had painted and spray each thing.

He loved the fizzing and did a lot of giggling. :)

We will definitely do this activity again!

Y Week- Yarn Art

Trip was eager to join me outside for an art project. He loved pouring the glue into the container.

Thank you Auntie Rachel for giving us the colorful yarn!

I diluted the glue with some water, then we were ready to dunk the yarn. Trip put the yarn in the container and then was done with the whole thing. He went off to play and let me do the rest.

I only made a few shapes since Trip wouldn't ever come back to try it.

I let them dry on the waxed paper. They peeled off fairly easily and were stiff enough to hold together.