Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tail (FSPDT): June 2012

Kid's Co-Op # 12

Is it me or is Friday just coming faster and faster? Here is this weeks Kid's Co-op. I think I have the list for you this week, lets see. Yay, it worked. Hope you find something fun! Happy Friday everyone.

Mud, Mud, Mud- classic kid activity (Happy International Mud Day)

All post are ©

I have been seeing all these mud posts and wondering why now? Well, I guess there is an International Mud Day(IMD) I never knew about. June 29th marks this day. I have 2 boys, one which is old enough to play in dirt, rocks, and sand all the time. He doesn't need a holiday day to make a mess. We have never gotten in the the mud though. Another great sensory play activity. I though at 3 1/2 yr, why not start now. As a child I loved playing in the mud. Making mud pies and adding rock as toppings. It makes me smile just thinking about it. This day was as good as any to start. When little brother was sleeping we set out to have some mud fun! My son helped me get all the toys and gear out. I brought the watering can and we added water to a dirt spot we have in our yard. It stays this way because he already plays in the dirt here a lot. I know when I was little people said "God made dirt so dirt don't hurt". Well, dirt can house parasites and fungus, so do play at your own risk. We had a good time and then came in and cleaned up well. We also hosed down before we came in. I hope you can have some fun in the mud too. If you do not like dirt maybe try sand or another alternative? A rock hunt is always fun too. You don't have to play in the mud for IMD just get out and enjoy the earth.

Mud, Mud, Mud- classic kid activity (Happy International Mud Day)

" Almost all creativity involves purposeful play"
Abraham Maslow

Bring some toys!

Play in the water or lake as big brother called it.

Scoop up water and mud with a truck.

You can't have just one truck, you have different ones for different jobs.

Half way in just a little messy.

Hard at work.

As the water dried he had to add more.

Now he is getting muddy:-)

I am surprised he came out this clean. If we had more than an hour out there he probably would have been covered from head to toe.

Hope you enjoy International mud day too.

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check us out on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

and our G+ community, All Things Kids.

We linked up at Family Frolics! Check it out.

The Very Busy Spider book with snack and simple activity

We went to the library to play with their puzzles and get out of the house. Of course we came home with books. This is one of them we came home with: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. I have been trying to do little snack and crafts with my boys this summer. I used this book to make a snack and a simple activity.

The Very Busy Spider book with snack and simple activity

Colored noodles have been all over pinterest and my face book page since I follow several blogs. Here is another blog to check out and how they used noodles to have fun:
Rainbow Alphabet Spaghetti by The imagination Tree

I thought this looked like such fun and wanted to let the boys try it out. We love to make a mess over here and this looked perfect. What a great way to try out your senses by playing with noodles. I did this with my oldest son when he was young but it was just plain pasta on his plate while sitting in his highchair. Wow, I never thought of adding color. So, this was new for me to add some extra fun to it for the boys. This is my now youngest sons first time playing with noodles. Since 4th of July is right around the corner for us, I made the noodles red, white, and blue. I also used some star confetti I found at Walmart.

Wow, Friday just keeps sneaking up on me. Here we are again. It is time for the kid's co-op follow this blog link to all the wonderful ideas for kids. Hope you find at least one thing you can enjoy with the family! Happy Friday everyone.

Check out the kid's co-op facebook page

We linked our 3-fun ways we played with just bucket

Here are a few I liked:
Pinwheel wreath
Ice ice baby
Fire engine toy-DIY
There are so many more great ones but don't have time to list them all. Go check it out!

DIY hand foam soap- at it again

It was time to refile my foam hand soap and I wanted to try something different. This is the first post on DIY foam soap. I had some olay dish soap, the pink one that smells so good! I decide to try it out this time.
What you need: old foam hand soap bottle, soap, and water.

What to do: put soap in the bottom of soap bottle( I just poured this time-the 1st post gives you an amount), then fill with water and shake it up. After the suds settle you may have to add a little extra water.

I just love this ! The soap leaves my hands feeling soft and the smell it great. My last soap worked fine and smelled good too. However, I like this new one better.

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

Check us out on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

and our G+ community, All Things Kids.

3 fun ways we played with just a bucket of soapy water

We love water play at my house as I am sure most families do. This day we went outside with a bucket of soapy water to wash off our window crayons. This was the first fun thing we did wash the windows. You might think this is work but we had a blast. Then the second fun thing for my boy was washing their play house and third and final fun thing was washing their cars! We also had some bowls of plain water outside too. My youngest played with these more just splashing and pouring them out. We love simple fun at our house. And I love these activities even more when I don't have to spend a lot of money on supplies. These activities were done with things we already had. Go outside and have some fun!

Water Play

3 fun ways we played with just a bucket of soapy water

One bucket equals lots of simple fun!!!!

My husband is a wonderful daddy. It has been a heart warming experience to watch him over the years bond with our children. The love he has for them can be seen in his eyes. When big brother or little brother give him a hug or a kiss my husband lights up. And even if daddy is really tired after working a long week, he will still take the time to play. This is so special to my boys to spend time with him. And my husband wouldn't want to miss out on these moments he has with them either, even if hes tired. I love to step back and watch them play. It is a priceless experience. I love to hear him and my oldest 3 1/2 yr talk. Even if it is just about what to name the hot wheels they are playing with. One of their special bonding things is to ride to the gas station and get drinks and gummies. Love that they have their own thing. Our youngest is now 1yr and has stated to realize daddy has to leave for work and gets upset now:-( He has grown to love daddy very much over this last year. I love to watch him get his shoes almost every morning for daddy to take him outside! I look forward to all the heart warming moments they will have. And I know we will have those I want to pull my hair out at moments over the years too but we don't live in a fairy tale over here, lol. But I am so blessed to have a man that is such a great daddy to our boys. I thanks God for him and the role he plays in our lives.
I do wish all of you guys a very happy Father's Day, you all are so very important in your children's lives!!!

Tiny town on one of our adventures with the kids!

Big brother, Daddy, and little brother out to breakfast one morning.

Please feel free to leave a comment about dads. I would love to hear from you.

All Things Playdough: recipes and play ideas

We LOVE playdough over here. It was no surprise when my sons teacher wrote out on his evaluation that his favorite center was playdough! They kids love playing with it and I love making it! It is exciting to me to find new scents and colors to present to them to explore while they play. Playdough his a great sensory substance and is great for fine motor skills. Since we love playdough so much I decided to put together all of our current playdough post it one spot for you to look through. So here they are. I hope you may be able to find at least one playdough to try or activity to play with your kids too.

All Things Playdough: recipes and play ideas

I have not been feeling real creative or like gather craft supplies to make an awesome Father's Day gift this year. Pregnant and chasing a 1yr and 3 yr all day is getting to me these days I guess:-) How do you do it mom's? Ok, back to father's day gifts. I have just bought a few things for my husband this year and I had nothing for our dads as of today! So I decide to go simple for the men who have everything already. We took some pictures of the boys the other day and had them printed. I picked up some frames at our walmart here in town to put them in. I did order a cute picture something but it will be here late for the grands:-( I got mason jars and peanuts also. What I did was put peanuts in the jars. Then I printed out little tags: WE ARE NUTS FOR YOU DADDY! and just changed the end for grands. I cut them out with my scrap book scissors and tied on jar with yarn. I say whats wrong with simple and traditional. I think it all turned out cute and know they will enjoy it. These gifts would be great with a gift card add or etc...
Hope everyone has a Happy Father's Day with their guys!

Is it Friday already! Here is this weeks Kid's co-op http://learnwithplay.blogspot.com. The link to this blog will take you to all the wonderful ideas that are shared each week. Hope you find something fun for you and your family!

I think these ideas that are linked up are great:
ice cube fabric paint
crock pot playdough
coco cloud dough
Mud pit
Ok now you go find your own favorites!

Check out the kids co-op facebook page!

The numbers above in the title are how many co-ops I have posted for me to keep up with:-)

Orange Jello Playdough With Cars and more

I was inspired to try the jello playdough from the blog momto2poshlildivas. The post made it look like such fun. What better time than now with the playdough pledge( put together by The Imagination Tree, the Nurture Store, and Sun Hats and Wellie Boots) going on than to try out some new playdough! I didn't have enough jello to try the above blogs recipe. I had to google to see what other recipes were out there to try. I found this one http://www.playdoughrecipe.org/. I had everything for it. The link will take you to the direction on how to make the playdough.

Orange Jello Playdough With Cars and more

What I used:

After I made the playdough I put it on wax paper to cool. I sat out a tray and some toys for my son. We added little wooden sticks, this was new for us! Then when the playdough cooled I sat it out for him too. It was a little sticky but we played anyways and had fun. He had me making things with him today. He has days he wants to do it himself or just have me watch. Do your kids do that to you?

Here are some pic's for you to see what we did.

This pic is so funny to me. He is making a face as he is pushing really hard to make a carrot. I told him we should use less playdough for that, he said no.

We have to have cars in almost everything we do! His choice.

Our garage we made with the sticks.

Our snowman for the backyard. This is what big brother told me.

Our snakes. Mommy and baby snake he said.

Now he has lots of cars parked. We had a lot of fun. We played about 30 min's. We haven't got it back out yet. I put it in a Ziploc bag and we will see how it is tomorrow. Maybe we can play some more. This is it for us and the playdough pledge, glad we could be inspired to try some new playdough, My son's (3 yrs) favorite by far is the sand playdough! We also had scented playdough and farm theme play that we tried this week and it was fun.