Weird, wonderful snow dough

What does the weather look like in your area?  Around here it's been wet and cold.  Ick.  We had a bit of snow last week and then yesterday it ice-rained.  Ick ick ick.

As you can probably guess, Baby Chuck and I have been staying in quite a bit.  To battle the stir-craziness, I've been crafting and crapting things for him.

Feeling inspired by the snow, I made snow dough by mixing 2 C of cornstarch and 1/3 C of vegetable oil.*   The resulting dough was velvety soft and crumbly.  (Hubby described it as having the consistency of wet sand.... except that it's dry.)

Everyone had fun playing with it.  I enjoyed making "snow balls" and Baby Chuck liked crushing them with his tiny fists.  


Ooh.  I see a patch of sunshine.  Ok, we gotta enjoy it before it disappears.  Hope the weather is nicer where you are!

(*Sorry.  I had a brain fart and completely forgot where I found this recipe so I can't properly cite it.  Big thanks to one nice blogger.)  

We ♥ music class

You know when you're in the middle of doing something you love.... and you just don't want to stop because you love it so much?  That's how I feel during our weekly music classes.

Seeing the kids' responses to the music just makes me so happy.

Music time from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

Special thanks to quick thinking Elizabeth for capturing this special moment on her iPhone.

Ice skating

Hi everyone!

Did you have a good weekend?  We had a nice time last week catching up with an old friend in the city  and hanging out with family at the ice-skating rink.  Here are some photos from the skating rink.  Although Baby Chuck and I didn't skate, we still enjoyed people watching and being with family.

Mess free toddler paint (using Ziploc bags)

Now that Baby Chuck and I've already tried one finger paint recipe, I figured we'd give another a try.  We found a nice and easy recipe for finger paints from Easie Peasie and then we learned of a great mess free trick from Housing a forest   Here's what we did:

Ingredients:
- 3 T sugar
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 C cornstarch
- 2 C water

Materials:
- saucepan
- fork
- measuring cups and spoons
- Ziploc bags
- masking tape


Directions:
1.  Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan.  Warm until you get a thick goop.

 2.  Once thickened, remove saucepan from the heat and let it cool.  Then, pour your sticky goo into different containers.  Add food coloring into each container and stir until you get your desired color.  (Don't taste the goo.  It's gross.  Just thought I'd put that out there...)

 3.  Pour your paint into the Ziploc bags.  Squeeze out the air from the bags and seal them shut with masking tape.  Then, let your child squish to his heart's delight!

 Disclaimer:  Baby Chuck enjoyed squishing the paint around for a couple of minutes... and then he moved onto something else.  But not to worry, Hubby and I then had a go at the bags.  It was quite relaxing to squish the colors around.

Have a great weekend!