Hammer Time!

We've done a couple of really fun activities with hammers!

First, I gave Trip a block of Styrofoam, some nails, and his hammer. He was resistant to this activity, but once he tried it, he was busy for a long time and was determined to get each nail firmly pounded into the block.

Some took lots of concentration :)

Then, he decided to hammer while on his tummy.

Once all the nails were in, we got out his pliers from Bapa and he pulled them all back out.

Our next hammering activity was delicious as well as fun. We had a great time breaking into a coconut! We worked together with Daddy's drill to make two holes so that we could drain out the coconut water.

Then, Trip got to start pounding.

He was excited to break the shell and get to the meat.

Once we got to this point, it was time for a taste! Trip didn't care much for the water, but he did really like the flesh, which we refrigerated and enjoyed for several days. 

Building Words

I put stickers on some blocks for an easy letter matching and word building activity.

Trip had to just explore the blocks first and enjoyed building a tower.

Then, we got down to the actual letter matching and made a tower of words.

He wasn't too thrilled to show off his work, though. :)

Later that day, he got his backpack and went to "school" at his desk where he had a little more fun with the letter blocks, this time coloring the stickers.

Hammering Baked Cotton Balls

I've been excited to try making the baked cotton balls that I saw at Play Create Explore. I used whole wheat flour in hopes that our baked cotton balls would look like rocks. I put a cup of flour and just over a cup of water in a bowl and let Trip mix it up.

At first, he was excited to help me coat the cotton balls, but his fingers soon got messy, 

which lead to this...

He continued to plop the cotton balls in the flour mixture while I did the dirty jobs of making sure they got coated and putting them on the cookie sheet.

Once the cookie sheet was full, it was time to bake our "rocks." They stayed in the oven at 300* for about 45 minutes.

Our cotton ball rocks turned out great. Next time I would coat them a little less so that there wasn't as much of a "puddle" at the bottom. They served their purpose, though so it was just fine.

Trip grabbed his hard hat that Noni found for him and his new hammer from Bapa and we headed outside.

He had a good time pounding on the "rocks."

 He also enjoyed exploring what was inside them.

After some hammering, we decided to try some stomping. That was lots of fun too, but a little hard on the feet. :)

Stoplight Game and Craft

Although we don't have a stoplight in our town and the nearest one is at least 60 miles away, Trip is quite fond of them and likes to tell us when to stop and when to go.

I saw a cute stoplight beanbag toss on I Can Teach My Child and decided to come up with one of my own. I cut out circles of the appropriate colors and glued them on two pieces of black paper. The yellow circle is half on one paper and half on the other. I then laminated them and taped them together. I also got out some of the beanbags that I had made during B week last fall.

Trip had fun tossing the beanbags, but also really enjoyed just running and jumping over the stoplight. That kept him busy for quite a while as Lightning McQueen looked on.

After all that jumping, it was time for a rest.

Trip was quite happy when he saw the snack that went with our stoplight fun. I used half of a hotdog bun, some Nutella, and three peanut M&Ms.

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!

N Week- Edible Necklaces

Growing up, my mom would occasionally let us make edible necklaces using long strings of candy and cereal. My sister and I loved it. With those fond memories in mind, I thought Trip might enjoy making a necklace too.

With only one grocery store in our tiny town, my candy assortment was quite limited. I bought a package of Twizzlers (the "Pull 'n' Peel" kind), which was okay. It wasn't the delicious strawberry laces we had growing up in Europe, but it worked. I peeled off a couple of stands and stuck the ends together to make a longer sting. We then started stinging Cheerios. Many of the Cheerios didn't have large enough holes to fit on the candy, so another larger cereal (like maybe Fruit Loops or Apple Jacks) may be a better bet in the future (although they would definitely add to the sweet factor whereas the Cheerios tone down the candy). In any case, we made a cute necklace.

Trip tried stringing some cereal and liked the necklace that I made for him. He was genuinely excited to wear it.

And then quite happy to eat it as well!

Have you ever made edible necklaces? If so, what materials have you used?

Snow Painting

The idea of painting snow with colored water is all over the Internet, and for good reason. It's lots of fun! Trip loves using a spray bottle, so I knew he would like taking one outside filled with water and a few drops of food coloring.

He had requested to bring a couple of small toys out with him and I obliged, but they quickly fell by the wayside when he discovered what was in that spray bottle.

"Mommy, I so excycle (excited)!" (You just have to hear him say it in his cute little voice!)

He had a blast spraying the trees,

the fence,

the cinder-blocks,

and the icicles.

Then, it was Mommy's turn. He wanted me to make a boy and I also made him a T.

Trip enjoyed this activity so much that I have a feeling we will be taking a spay bottle of colored water out in our next snow, too.