Stuff my kid says #21

Logan: Mama, I just love your green and purple eyes.
Me: Thank you! You are so sweet. I don't have purple eyes though.
Logan: Yes you do! Right under your eyes is really purple!

A smurfy fairy garden

Today, I wanted to share a project the kiddo and I worked on that went over even better than I imagined. I have seen fairy gardens that other people had created all over the Internet. 

I wanted to be one of those people. After all, don't we all need a little magic in our lives?

I was enthralled. My little guy loves all forms of pretend play particularly ones involving little worlds, so I knew that this was definitely on my list of things to attempt. 

Logan decided that instead of a fairy garden that this would be a gnome garden. The gnomes quickly turned into Smurfs. The first thing I had to procure was a vessel that would encompass this little world. I found a super cheap planter at The Christmas Tree Shoppe. I didn't do anything special except fill it with dirt and then pack the dirt down.

Next, we stopped at a big craft store (A.C. Moore, to be exact), and bought three bird houses. We painted them decorated them and sealed them with a top coat in hopes to make them weather resistant.

Finally we added some ground cover, a spray painted glad ware container for a pond, and planted some gorgeous teeny tiny flowers for Smurfette to pick. 

Finally, our Smurf village was created and the results were completely smurfy (at least according to Logan).

Logan has been playing with it every day, rain or shine. Our ground cover was creeping thyme and another kind of moss which will sprout tiny white flowers. 

I do have peg dolls that I purchased that we may eventually use if the novelty wears off.

But for now Smurfs are where it's at, gigantic 90's cell phones and all. (I'm looking at you, Brainy Smurf).

Update: The Magic Onions is hosting a fairy garden contest! I have entered and you can too if you have created one! Click on the picture to take you to the link up and check out all the other amazing fairy gardens!

Stuff my kid says #20

Me: Daddy used to have a blue jeep.
Logan: Did I ride in it?
Me: No, you were still waiting to be born.
Logan: Oh.... I was still trying to get out of my cage. 

Wordless Wednesday- Feet

More Magic Potions

I really enjoy repeating activities that have already gotten a stamp of approval from my three year old. This magic potion activity is a twist on a previous activity that we tried with vinegar and baking soda. 

My little guy has been feeling under the weather, but this week the weather has been unseasonably gorgeous for March in New England. So I decided to set this up on our new deck and brought him out to enjoy some of the sunshine. I spread baking soda along the bottom of the pan and he was able to pick from four different colors of vinegar. He started out with a tiny medicine dropper. 

It was love at first sight for him. He played with the little dropper for quite a while, layering colors on top of each other. 

But soon, he requested the turkey baster we had recently purchased for activities like this. He spent quite a while squirting vinegar into the baking soda tray.....

and the other part of the time mixing the colors to see what he could create. 

Once he had poured all of the bowls of vinegar into the baking soda, he spent a great deal of time running his hands through the mixture and letting the baking soda drip from his hands. 

Logan took this activity in a whole new direction, and I love how inexpensive and easy it was to pull this activity together!

Rainbow Stew

To help celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, my little leprechaun and I whipped up some rainbow stew. I had never made it before, but it required stuff I already had on hand. 

Here's what you need:

• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of corn starch
• 4 cups of water

Pour all the ingredients into a pot and heat until it thickens. Our "stew" was very hot so I had to let it cool for a while before proceeding to the next step. 

Once it was cooled, I filled as many Ziploc bags as I could. I let my little guy squish it and explore it without any added color. Next I added some food coloring to various areas of the bags and sealed them shut. I do recommend squeezing as much air out of the bag before sealing and then taping shut. 

We created three different bags. The blurriness in this picture is not your eyes playing tricks on you, but I had to include it because Logan's wrist still looks like a baby's in this picture, if I squint hard enough.  

We made one bag orange and the other green. Logan had the best time squishing the bags and watching the colors magically appear. I must admit, I too thought it was quite fun! 

The last bag Logan suggested we add all the colors. It looked just like rainbow stew! 

This experience is great if you want to give your kids a sensory experience, but aren't too fond of messiness. We love the mess here, but we did this activity close to bedtime (hence the Scooby Doo pjs), and I didn't feel like busting out the vacuum for the 5,000 time that day!  

Rainbow Craft

Occasionally the kiddo will see me scouring the Internet for ideas. The other day I was looking at La-La's Home Daycare rainbow craft, and he became extremely excited and requested that we make our own version. I simply cut out a cloud shape and rainbow colored construction paper. Logan glued the strips of paper down in order and then he ripped up a couple of cotton balls to make the clouds. Once it was dry, I punched a hole in the top and hung it from a hook in the ceiling. And voila! A super simple, cheery rainbow craft!