Hotter/Colder Game

Maybe this has a real name, but today we played a game where one person hides an object (when I was a kid it was a thimble, we are using this tiny barrel that came with our horse playset) and the other person looks for it. The hider guides the finder by telling them if they are hot (near the hidden object) cold (far away from the object) or getting warming (looking/moving in the right direction).





Westley loved playing this and we did so for a half hour- until it was time to eat dinner.
It will likely be added to our favorites list and I'm sure we will keep playing it often.

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Real Flubber

Westley said today, let's make real flubber. I agreed!
I will list the recipe we used and it worked perfectly.
The boys helped stir the ingredients together, which took just a couple minutes, and then we went outside to play with it. They patted, squished, smashed, poked, rolled, and bounced it.
Nice change of pace from play dough.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups  warm water

• 2 cups elmer white glue (I bought a gallon bottle of Colorations brand from Discount School Supply, but the little bottles should be going on sale in stores soon as part of Back to School sales.)
• food coloring (optional)
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 3 teaspoons borax  (on the laundry detergent aisle)

Directions

1. 
   
   

   1

   In one container mix 1 1/2 cups warm water, white glue and a few drops of food coloring.
2. 
   
   

   2

   In a second container mix 1 1/3 cups of warm water and Borax.
3. 
   
   

   3

   Mix the Borax mixture into the glue mixture until combined. (may be some liquid in bottom of container).
4. 
   
   

   4

   Place Fubber on a tray and let stand for a few minutes before playing with it!
5. 
   
   

   5

   Store in air tight container.

I

A Mess- part 2

I had saved our concoction of glue, coloring, and liquid starch from A Mess (see back a few posts) and we got some Borax - the key ingredient to making real flubber. I stirred in a couple tablespoons into hot water and then we stirred that into our glue stuff. At first, it resembled the translucent fat that I cut off raw chicken breasts (sorry for that gross image, but seriously that is what it looked like and felt like) after adding more borax, it turned more into a sensory substance the boys could touch and handle. I got out a cookie sheet and they scooped it with their hands onto the cookie sheet. By this point is was starting to take form, but wasn't exactly flubber.

Will especially didn't care. He LOVED this. I think he enjoyed it more than he would have real flubber. He would slap his hands onto the cookie sheet and then raise them up and watch it stretch up. He was so mad when I made them stop to go take a bath.

This was definitely messy though -their arms, clothes, the table and ground were covered with sticky gooeyness. I haven't attempted to clean up the outside yet.
After it was played with and sat out a while on the cookie sheet, it seemed to almost be turning into flubber.  I stored it away so we'll check tomorrow! I'm afraid Will will be disappointed though as it doesn't stick and stretch like this anymore, and I'm not sure I could recreate what we made last time and today!

Water Baseball

I got this water toy at Walmart for like $5 or $7. It is definitely worth the money. You connect it to the hose and it squirts our water and has balls that shoot up on the water that comes out the top.

This was fun on it's own, but Westley had even more fun using it for baseball. When the ball came up and was held in the air by the stream of water, then he would swing to hit the ball. It was a little challenging for him, but he played ball this way much longer than he ever has using his tee or by us throwing the ball to him. It was pretty neat

Our Zoo

Today we set up our own pretend zoo. We used some zoo coupons as the entry tickets. We played some of our zoo songs on our CD player, and we set up animal exhibits with our different stuffed and toy animals. We had a reptile, monkey, giraffe, horse/cow, bird, and dinosaur exhibit, to name a few.

Westley used a little toy camera to take pictures like a tourist.

Will was our zookeeper. To hold their attention (because unlike most children, my kids are not too into zoo animals) I pretended and said "ooh, that one pooped" Poop they find very entertaining, so then Westley was saying all the animals were pooping. Will went to get a plastic bag and pretended to pick it up. Too funny!

Ezy Roller

After riding one of these in Geppetto's toy store, Westley asked Grandma Martha to get it for him for his (belated) birthday.
Today Westley's Ezy Roller came in the mail. He was very excited.
It is similar to our plasma car in that you pick up motion by turning it side to side, but with this you steer with your feet, but it seems like it can pick up more speed, and it has a brake
It takes a little getting used to but is really neat!  Thanks Grandma Martha!

We need to practice more on flat ground before we attempt going now small hills though as it is easy to fall off sidewalks if you haven't mastered the steering.
We have plenty of years to practice as it include extendable bars to fit all ages (box says 4-14) but I rode it- even without the extenders

A Mess

Every once in a while Kevin will come in the kitchen when I am making something new/involved that hasn't come together yet and ask me what I am making. I will just reply "a mess"
That was this activity today.
We were attempting to make a version of Flubber that did not call for Borax.  (grrr to ehow.com for suggesting that was possible)
We mixed together glue, coloring, and liquid starch and stirred and stirred and nothing happened, it didn't thicken.

So we had a bowl full of sticky yet watery goo.
I figured I would just let them paint with it, since they will paint with anything, but it was barely showing up on the paper. So Westley and I cut up construction paper squares and we all stuck them in the painted on glue.

Successful in being a creative activity.
Failed attempt at some type of flubber creation

4S Ranch Park

This morning I had a dentist appointment which brought us to Grandma's neck of the woods. Near her house is great park with  lots of water features, unique play structures, big slides, and a big grassy hill.
My friend Jessica and her son met us there to play.

I Can Do That! Game

Aunt Lisa have Westley the Dr. Seus   Cat in the Hat I Can Do That! Game for his Birthday. (Thanks Lisa!)

Westley is really into games right now so he was excited to play it.
You get 3 cards that tell you actions to do, and there are little game piece props to use.

I truly enjoyed watching Kevin skip around the trick-o-rama stick with the foam cake cutout held between his elbows. (ah, what a good Dad)

As reviews stated, I agree the trick-a-rama stick should have been made more sturdy.

I would say this is game is good for 3 1/2 - 5 year olds. I think children older than that would be bored by it as it is pretty simple.

Buddy Todd Park

Today we went to Buddy Todd Park in Oceanside (for the first time- even though it is not that far from us). It is very crowded on weekends, but on this Monday there were not many people there. They have this play train that Westley and his playgroup friends spent hours on. I had to continuously remind him that they train was there for all children though as he tended to try and yell at even big 8 year olds to get off his train.

There is plenty of open grass space, swings and play structure, and a really neat tree for climbing.

Will had a fun time too- and kept this hat on the whole time :)

Clothing Store

While I was folding laundry, Westley started to play Clothing Store. He would take clothes from my pile and ring them up on his cash register for me to buy. I told him that if you work at a clothing store you have to fold the clothes and I helped him fold Dad's board shorts. He did a nice job with my help
I asked him if he delivered as I was hoping to get some dish towels taken to the kitchen and he said no. I said, "hmm, well I think I am going to start shopping at a new store that does deliver." He decided that he would do deliveries and put away dish towels and bibs (I love any activity that actually makes my life easier!!)

Don't look at Westley's extreme scaredo in this picture- we did this first thing in the morning before I chased him down with the comb.

Will joined in the fun, loading a shopping cart with bibs - my excitement of having help cleaning up the laundry was short lived

2 Birthday Parties in 1 day

Enough said.
They handled them both well.  I was the exhausted one by the end of the day

Will found a nice little girl to push him on the train

summersaults in the jumper. Westley did some good ones

Will's first attempt ever to summersault. I think he might have been able to do it if Westley wasn't in the way

Flannel Board Stories

We have our Flannel Board that Grandma Kathy made Westley for his 2nd birthday (thanks Grandma!)
mounted to our playroom wall. For the first time, today Westley pulled out some flannel pieces and started making up his own story all by himself. I sat down like I was a student and listened intently. I wish I could remember exactly what he said, but it was about a lady who wanted to fly a kite on windy day, and a cow that jumped over the sun and played the violin.

Will wanted to have a turn and was very cute as he mumbled wording as he stuck up some flannel pieces.

Grandma- will you please add a comment explaining how you made it in case anyone else wants to make one?

Tape Measurements

While enjoying the backyard today, I pulled out a tape measure for each boy. I taught Westley about inches and showed him how to use the tape measure. He discovered that each of our bricks was 8 inches long, and that his shoe was almost 8 inches long as well. He has a cut on his foot and didn't want to walk much, so most of the things he measured were pretty short in length - that he could measure sitting down. It was great practice to learn about inches though. Next time when he's up for it, well see how many inches our entire back yard is.

Colby our cat (Will calls her Dooby- makes me smile everytime) did not really appreciate being measured, but FYI she's about 20 inches long.

Muffin Tin Symbols

I thought I remembered one of my college professors suggesting old muffin tins could be hung on a fence as an activity for children to hit and make noise with.

So Will and I tried it out today. He preferred it hung on the tree than the fence, but the activity didn't hold his attention for long. Either I wasn't paying attention in class, or maybe it was my muffin tin - I was using a cheap one and it didn't make much noise. Maybe next time we will try it with big old cookie sheet ;)
I'm sure my neighbors will appreciate that

Nesting Dolls

We got two wooden nesting dolls from by Grandma. I wasn't really expecting for my boys to play with these, but they love them. Westley was with Grandma today, so here I was just helping Will  one-one-one as he worked intently on them.
Why don't they make toys like this anymore?

The little piece are a choking hazard, but they both really enjoy playing with them

New AquaBlasters

We had water squirts that I had gotten at the Dollar Tree store, and they worked fine, but are made of plastic and the boys would hit them on the ground which would make them crack and then not work. So Grandma Kathy got the boys some nice new Aquablasters.
Westley was all smiles - especially as he threatening to get me wet
Will's still learning how to use it on his own

Thank you Grandma Kathy!

Basketball Name Game

I tried playing Pig with Westley before, but getting letters when you missed the basket and spelling a word means you lose didn't make perfect since to him.
I thought about just playing the opposite with Pig or Horse, but thought it would be better to pick a word that had more meaning to them, and that Westley knew how to spell.
So Westley and Will played this game together with me guiding them - helping Westley keep track of the spelling, and teaching Will how to take turns. They shot a basket and when they made it they got to add another letter to their name. Having Westley's name a little longer worked well. He won, but on Will's next turn he made his basket and finished spelling Will.

We will definitely play this one again.

Horses to Horses

Today we were in Hemet and Grandma Martha got the boys stick horses at the dollar tree. I took the boys to ride their horses to the horses (Grandma and Grandpa's neighbors all have horses). Westley galloped along. Will preferred for me to hold him and his horse and for me to gallop.

The horses weren't too interested in us once they realized we didn't have food for them, but we enjoyed saying hello to them.

Grandma's Bear Puppet

This was my Grandma's Bear puppet that I used to play with with her when I went to her house. She recently passed away and of all the items of value there might have been this is what I wanted most. There's just something about the way Grandma got the bear's face to crinkle (as the puppet hole goes to his nose area) giving off so many expressions. So introduced bear to my children today. I tried to crinkle his face just as Grandma did. Westley took right to him