Mommy & Me

Hannah has been very excited to do a painting to enter in our local fair in a little over a month. Our friend Sara was kind enough to give us some supplies that she thought might help Hannah along in the process. Hannah was so giddy on the way home that we had to go right to painting when we got here. We painted out on the patio to eliminate some of the mess. When we were done I moved the mess out to the yard and hosed it off.

The subject she chose to paint was the sun. She moved on from there to stripes, mountains with castles, and pump houses. She chose most of the colors and requested that I paint along with her.

Hannah standing back to admire our work. I think next time she will be required to paint only on paper. That easel was not easy to clean!

How We Spend our Days Part 3

This is admittedly a little late but here is a craft project we worked on for Valentine's Day. I didn't actually get a picture of our finished product but you can go here to see what we were shooting for. I used a potato to make a heart stamp. Hannah hasn't quite figured out how to stamp. It's more of a stamp and smear. Any of the ones on the paper that actually look like hearts, I made. They ended up being flowers in the end. Hannah helped with the assembly by picking out the buttons to go with each one.

Stamping only lasted for so long before she wanted to do finger painting...so we did.

This play doh was made in desperation one day when I for the life of me could not find the store-bought stuff anywhere in the house. It turns out it was in her basket of books. She is pretty particular about putting things back where they belong but I guess she thought the play doh needed a new home. I think I've shared the recipe that I got from Kari before but in case I didn't here goes.

Play Doh

2 1/2-3 c. flour

1/2 c. salt

1 Tbs. alum

2 c. boiling water

2 Tbs. oil

food coloring (I like cake decorating food coloring paste for more vibrant colors)

The last time I made it, it seemed to sticky and I had to add more flour. Add what you have to to make it a nice consistency. This play doh is much softer than the store-bought kind and can be easier for little hands to use.

Hannah likes to pretend to eat it but she has quickly figured out that it does not taste very good!

Finger Painting

Or maybe it would appropriately be called "body painting." We haven't succeeded at finger painting in quite awhile. I tried it a few times and Hannah just wanted to rip the paper up rather than paint. My excitement was renewed last time I was in town so I purchased some finger paint. I dug out some butcher paper and we were ready to go.

Now that I look back at the last time we finger painted I also called it "body painting." I guess that's how it will be for awhile. I was a bit more prepared this time with the necessary items to keep sort of clean while painting and then corral the mess when we were done. It was more fun this time because she could tell me that she wanted "more red" or "more yellow."

"Forehead Painting"