Clean Mud

At Keiki Steps this week our sensory activity is called clean mud. Anna has loved it. Perhaps a bit too much. The first day, it was all over her dress. Fortunately, it washes out just fine. The second day, I had her wear a smock. Here's how you make it (the pictures are a half a batch):

Grate a bar of soap. The teacher says Dove or Ivory work best but if you want a different color, use something like Irish Spring or Dial or something like that.

Mix it with two cups hot water, tap hot is fine. The hot water helps to melt the soap.

While the water cools off, rip half a roll of toilet paper into little pieces. The quilted kind works best. I don't know if I used quite that much but I added more as we played with it.

Mix the soap mixture into the toilet paper and play.

It takes a bit of mixing to get it to the right consistency. If you want it thicker, add more toilet paper. As you mix, it gets more fluffy until it's about like shaving cream.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel

For some reason, Anna is really into Rapunzel these days. She likes to pretend she is Rapunzel and I am Mother Gothel. I tell the story a lot and have even made up a story of Rapunzel's Easter that gets requested more often then the original (I think she likes that Mother Gothel hides an egg in Rapunzel's hair during their Easter Egg hunt around the tower). Because of this and the fact that Anna sits very still while watching a movie (you might say trance-like), I decided she could handle going to the movie theater to see Tangled.

This was Anna's first movie theater experience and she did really well. We went to the dollar theater in case it didn't work out (and Tangled just got there). Although we were a few minutes late so we didn't have a lot of time in the theater before it started, the movie didn't start for a few minutes after we arrived. In retrospect, I think it was good because then she got to look around a bit before it got dark.

Anna had to sit on my lap to see over the seats but she didn't wiggle and only thought about getting down during a slow scene where they are talking about back story. I had told Anna that we don't talk during movies and when I whispered a comment in her hear, she told me to be quiet. Then after we got home, when Jason asked how it was, she said I talked during the movie. I guess she got that message.

It's funny but while we were watching it, I had this strong feeling of love and appreciation. It makes me so happy that I can share the things that I love with Anna and she loves them too. Who knew a Disney movie could be such a bonding experience?

Imaginary Friends

Anna has come up with some imaginary friends: her baby sisters. Sometimes brothers do things too but it's mostly sisters. They do all the things that she isn't supposed to do. If there is a mess, it was her baby sisters who did it. They don't go to sleep when they are supposed to. I have to tell them to stop playing and go to bed. She even complains about them not playing with her or hitting her. I try to have Anna tell them to stop but they don't seem to listen to her. Turns out I have to be the one to tell them what to do.

One thing that cracks Jason's mom up the most is that Anna will come in and tell me if they have done something wrong. The other day, we were making dinner and Anna came in and said I needed to see what her sisters did. "They" had made a bit of a mess in the bathroom. I have had to tell Anna that even if her sisters do something, she has to be the one to sit in time out for it.

Sensory Activity

These pictures don't have anything to do with the Sensory Activity but they were cute. Anna was painting a sculpture she made at Keiki Steps and felt she needed some color on her face.

The other day, through Keiki Steps, we had a woman come in and show us how to make various sensory activities for our keikis. She showed us some things she likes to get from a website called Steve Spangler. One is called insta-snow. It's a powder that you add water to and it fluffs up and feels a lot like powdery snow. She actually made it in my hands and it felt so strange when it fluffed up. The other thing she had is called jelly marbles. They are small little clear balls that you add to water and they plump up to the size of a large marble. They feel really cool and are very fun to play with. You can add color to the water and they look great as the base of a flower arrangement.

We also talked about things we can make like play dough and flubber (recipes at the end). Some good tips they had for the play dough is you can add smells like spices or extracts to add a new dimension. Through the year at Keiki Steps we have had lemon play dough, pumpkin pie and chocolate. The flubber has been one of Anna's favorite things this year. It's kind of like a more firm slime. We were able to take some home but it's a bit hard to get out of things like carpets and clothes so I haven't been brave enough to play with it much.

She had some fun ideas for bubbles. She had a recipe for making your own at home but I didn't get it. One idea she had was to take a string, pass it through two straws and tie them together so they make a loop. Then you can put it in a big thing of bubbles and make really big bubbles.

Lastly, we made home made sugar shrub. It reminded me of the stuff that my sister, Kristen, likes to get from Bath and Body Works. We got a bowl and mixed in white sugar, raw sugar, grape seed oil and honey (nothing was measured, we just went until it seemed right - it took a decent amount of the oil and honey). To make it smell nice, we added some body wash which also added moisture and helped it be more like the scrub I've used before. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it should be good.

It was a really fun activity that gave us a lot of new ideas for things to do at home. Then we ended it with a yummy cream cheese dessert. The recipe will be on my food blog.

Playdoh

2 cups water

1/2 cup salt

2 Tablespoons oil

2 Tablespoons cream of tartar

3 cups flour

Bring water and salt to a boil. Stir in remaining ingredients. Allow to cool slightly. Knead until smooth.

Variations:

Chocolate - mix in 1/3 cup cocoa with the flour

Lemon - mix lemon juice with the water, use yellow food coloring to correspond with the lemon smell

Pumpkin Pie - mix in pumpkin pie spice when kneading it smooth, color it orange to go with the pumpkin pie motif

You can use just about any smell, color it to match.

Flubber

In one bowl mix together 1 cup Elmer's glue (about two bottles), 3/4 cup warm water and food coloring. In a second bowl, mix together 3/4 teaspoon Borax and 3/4 cup warm water.

Slowly pour the Borax and water into the bowl with the glue and water, stirring constantly until all liquid is dissolved. Knead and store in a covered container. If it seems too runny, it will harden a little bit as it cools.

Funky Tree Friday

Now that we are done with the things that I love (I toyed with the idea of having the second half of the month be things I hate but it didn't really seem like the right sentiment) we can get back to our Funky Tree Fridays.

This tree at the temple is funny to me. It seems like a cousin to these trees from a few weeks ago. I laugh at the way the fronds all grow in a line.

Anna's Birthday

We had a fun birthday with Anna. On her birthday, we took cupcakes to her Keiki Steps class. Anna called them muffins. That night we let her choose dinner and she chose pizza. She was very decisive about wanting to go out to dinner (not just order it in) so we went to a Pizza Hut that has a buffet. It was a huge hit. After we got home, we stuck some candles into the left over cupcakes.

Enjoying our cupcakes with presents waiting.

Then on Wednesday we had a party with our friends at the beach. I made my first (and probably not last) princess cake. Or in this case, a fairy princess cake.

I went with the way of making it by using a bowl to cook the cake batter in and just buying a Barbie to put in for the princess. Unfortunately, after I had made the cake, it only came up to the Barbie's knees. So Jason had the idea to just taking the legs off of the Barbie and making it look like she was sitting. Anna added the mini Barbie in the front. I thought it turned out really cute. In retrospect, I wasn't too thrilled with the writing but oh well.

To go on a tangent, I was cleaning some icing out of one of the tips and it kind of exploded on me. I was impressed with the height.

Back to the birthday. The beach was a hit. I was worried about the weather because it had been rainy and cold (at least, coldish). It was even rainy that morning but it stayed clear at the beach. Our friends all came and it was quite a few kids - three families totaling 11 kids. Jason stayed in the water and watched the kids and I got to stay seated up by the tables and chat with the moms.

Singing.

Blowing out the candles. You can tell how I made the ruffles look like she was sitting.

They were even so excited about going back in the water that Anna left behind presents after we had cake. She found them later when they came back for a snack.

Anna's boys all playing in the water together. They are all either three or four and Anna loves playing with all of them. We heard their giggling all the way up at the table. It was a great birthday and fun was had by all.

#14 Jason

Of course Jason had to be my Valentine's Day choice. We've been together for 12 Valentine's Days and he's still my choice. I won't go into all the reasons I love him (it might get a bit gushy) but I will say this, I can be me with him. I'm comfortable enough to sing in the car without worrying about being off key, sob uncontrollably, tell him what I'm thinking about (even when it could come across as not nice) or even just sit next to each other reading our books. The man in wonderful.