Let's Talk About What We Did Today!

A day that started out gloomy and cold soon turned to a morning and afternoon spent inside while rain pelted the windows and thunder clapped in the sky. Meanwhile, my toddler was plunked in front of the TV watching a movie while I downed a coffee and tried to pry my eyes all the way open.

Side note: Why is it that when the baby wakes the entire house super early in the A.M. she then falls asleep almost as soon as everyone is downstairs??

I didn't want the kiddos to be sitting in front of the TV all day and because of the thunder and lightning a puddle jumping walk was out of the question. So, I reached into my bag of tricks (aka Pinterest) and planned a fun-filled afternoon! By the time the rain stopped we were having so much fun that we continued our indoor play. I was even able to get some cleaning done while the kids sat at the table focused on their projects!

1. Homemade ice cream. We made this last week and it was such a hit we decided to do it again. The first time, we tried the shaking ziploc bag thing...that didn't really work out for us. We ended up with a hole in the bag and salty ice cream....This time, I added some half and half to a container, a splash of vanilla extract, and some sugar (to taste). Then, I just stuck it in the freezer, shook it every so often...and then forgot about it and went to bed. When I woke up this morning it was rock hard, so I put it in the fridge and in no time it was smooth and delicious. YUM!

2. Oobleck. Amazing. We had so much fun with this. I remember doing this when I was a kid and it has not lost any of its appeal! We did 1 cup of corn starch and 1/2 cup warm water with green food colouring in it. We sat and played with this for over an hour. I'm not sure who had more fun with this one. We even added different colours to make marbled oobleck!

3. Baking soda and vinegar volcanoes. My toddler loves this one and made me redo this multiple times in different colours.

4. Ice cube painting. Simply mix acrylic paint with water, freeze, and paint. It gets a little messy. We then used remaining ice cubes in a tub of water to watch the colours swirl as they melted.

5. Coloured pasta. My toddler ate some for lunch and then I gave it to him and the baby for some sensory play. Sure, there was pasta flung around my dining room, in my hair, and in the baby's ear....but you should have heard the giggles!

6. Rain clouds. Since it was a rainy day I decided to try to explain rain clouds to the toddler. You take a glass of water, top it with shaving foam, and a little puddle of blue food colouring. I made a little divot for the food colouring to help it sink into the foam.

7. The Arctic Ocean. Did you know that blue food colouring, some ice cubes, and shaving foam make the Arctic ocean? Well they do! I used my Beaba silicone baby food container to make the ice cubes, which we dubbed icebergs. For this one, I just used the leftover water/shaving foam from our cloud demonstration. Later, we added in hot water to show that hot would melt our icebergs.

Arctic explorers! 

All of these were crafts/projects that didn't take a lot of time or prep and used materials that we had on hand. It was a great way to beat the rainy day blues...and make a mess!