Making Sugar Cookies!

On one of the cold rainy days last week we decided to break out the cookie cutters and let the girls make sugar cookies! This was their first experience with sugar cookies, and they did GREAT! Daddy helped so mommy could document our first cookie making experience, and the girls had so much fun!

How it started...

Brianna and Daddy cutting out cookies =)

Brianna very excited about cutting out her very first cookie with a cookie cutter!

Olivia and Daddy cutting out cookies =)

The girls both cutting out cookies with cookie cutters at the same time...Daddy's crazy talented!

Si's favorite picture of the day - Livvy giving Daddy knuckles after a job well done and Bri smiling happily for the camera! Super cute!

Brianna eagerly anticipating the minute she gets to eat one of these delectible sugar cookies!

This was a very fun activity! I have to say though, it was relatively messy with all the flour, and it took the entire evening! What a fun evening we had as a family though - I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Making the cookie dough, cutting out the cookies, and baking the cookies took nearly two hours on it's own, then the cookies had to cool enough to be frosted and sprinkled. The girls were entertained through the whole process though, and they loved being able to use the cookie cutters, essentially on their own. It makes me think that maybe they will be ready to use cookie cutters and play with play-doh sometime soon! They are growing up =). It's so fun to be sharing in all of these first new experiences with them!

Have you made cookies with your kiddos yet? If so, how'd it go? If not, what's holding you back? I would definitely encourage you to give it a try if you haven't already!

Until next time -
Megan

Paint with Water Books & 16 month olds...

I remember paint with water books very distinctly from my childhood. I LOVED them! I made it my mission to find them so my girls would have the opportunity to make the pre-colored sheets of paper come to life by simply running a wet paintbrush over the colors, just as I had done so many years ago.

I think I hyped myself up too much.

First off, I couldn't find the "Paint with Water" books in any of the stores in town, so I had to resort to Amazon. I love Amazon, I do, but next time, tell me that there are only 20 pages in a book that I am about to pay $6.50 for, will ya? I was expecting these HUGE paint with water coloring books, and instead got these two measly 20 page a piece coloring books...at a combined cost of about $13.

It's okay, I thought to myself....I am sure they have improved these since I was little and I bet the pages are awesome! The girls are going to love it! And I will have some art for my fridge! YAY!

There was psych up #2.

The pages did appear cooler (brighter, more vivid colors, fun designs, etc.), but I let the girls "paint" pictures out of the little people book today and I was not impressed. Honestly, neither were the girls. The paper is thin, so when it gets wet, it tears easily. Livvy ripped her paper within a couple minutes of starting the activity, then was handing me pieces of dripping wet colored paper for the next several minutes. Ugh.

We haven't tried the Lisa Frank book yet (in all fairness, it got awesome reviews by comparison), but the girls just weren't digging this painting activity. I think they will do well with this eventually, they just aren't there yet. And I thought I would get more for the cost of the coloring books...so that was kind of a bummer too.

Here's an overview of the activity so you can give it a try with your little ones though! We are definitely going to try it again...maybe in a month or two...

Total prep time for activity: 30 seconds (tape picture to tray and get water and paintbrush)

Total time spent doing activity: 5 minutes...bummer...

Clean up time: 30 seconds (Good! I'm glad there wasn't much clean up since it wasn't an activity that they loved!).

One of the reasons I chose to hunt down the paint by water books was because of the "no mess" feature. The other was the ease of use...I figured that the girls would be able to complete the activity with little effort. I didn't count on the pages getting wet and ripping. In brainstorming after the fact, perhaps it would behoove us to tape the paint with water sheets to a piece of construction paper, then tape the construction paper to the trays. Perhaps that would work!

Have you done this activity with your kids? Do they like it? Love it? Hate it?
Can you think of any other ways to improve this activity? I really think the girls will enjoy it, I think that maybe I just jumped the gun a bit and they may be a bit too young yet =).

As always, your thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

Until next time-
Megan

Sensory play!

As the girls have gotten older I have made a conscious effort to create activities that are age appropriate, educational, and fun for them to do. It's definitely harder than I thought it would be! Although, I have to admit, I have gotten some pretty stellar ideas from Julia over at Pontifications of a Twin Mom. This is one of her brilliant creations =). The girls LOVED the sensory play!

Here's what we did:
We took these ingredients (White and wild rice, lentils, marshmallows, and penne pasta)
**Note - ALL edible and in no way harmful, because toddlers WILL try to eat them!**

And combined them in the girls (old) plastic baby bathtub with a couple of spoons, bowls, and small containers.

I contained the girls and pugs into the kitchen (with hard floors, NOT CARPET, lol) by closing all the doors I could, then using a baby gate to close off the remaining exit. Then I put the sensory concoction down on the floor.

The result???
Happy toddlers for sure! 45 minutes of continuous play! That is seriously AMAZING in the toddler world!

I will have to work with Livvy on the concept of not throwing rice at me, her sister, or across the kitchen, but otherwise, this activity went off without a hitch. I was concerned about clean up and clean up time considering the mess that was remaining when the girls were done playing...

But honestly, it took me approximately 7 minutes to clean up. I simply swept up the floor (putting the swept up rice/lentil/pasta concoction back into the bathtub), then came through with the vacuum to get under the cupboards, fridge, oven, etc..

You'd never know we just had a super messy sensory party in here would you?! LOL. I would highly recommend either doing this activity outside, or inside on a hard tile/laminate/wood floor for ease in clean up. I considered putting the baby bathtub inside the baby swimming pool that we have in the basement, but really, keeping the girls in the kitchen allowed for really easy clean up. I don't think I would do anything differently next time.

I'm really glad we did this activity. I put the marshmallows in a ziploc bag to keep them fresh until our next sensory play date, but I just left the rice, lentils, and pasta in the baby bathtub and moved it down to the basement for retrieval on a boring rainy day =).

So that was our fun sensory play activity! Have you done any cool, creative, or fun activities with your toddlers lately? If so, please do share! I'm always looking for new ideas for the girls!

Until next time -
Megan