Fun With Cornstarch

I have been pulling out some old favorites activities for the kids to do while the weather is getting colder.  Specifically, we have made several craft recipes from cornstarch that are quick, easy, and fairly simple to clean up.  Although not tasty, cornstarch is edible, which comes in handy when your toddler is playing with it. The first was making oobleck, although this time I just called it slime.  To make, mix 2 cups of cornstarch with one cup of water.  William wasn't so sure about this creation at first, but Laney was really excited.  It was all fun and games until she started putting the bowl on her head.  Then it was off to the bath.

Notice her licking it off of her face. Yuck!

The second recipe with cornstarch is "snow." I couldn't believe how long this kept the older two occupied!  They played quietly together at the kitchen table for over an hour.  I also realized that when they were done, I could just dump the snow in a ziploc baggie and we could play with it again another time.  The recipe is 2 cups cornstarch plus 1/3 to 1/2 cup oil.  Or in our case, the entire container of cornstarch plus just enough oil to get the right consistency.  They wanted a lot of snow!! Then they put some of their toys in the snow to go sledding or make "snow dinosaurs."  Laney missed out on this activity because she was sleeping.
Will was very curious about what would happen if we put this snow in the freezer.  He reasoned that since snow is usually cold, if we put this cornstarch snow in the freezer, it would change.  I explained that real snow is made out of water but that this "snow" was made out of cornstarch and oil, so it wouldn't be the same.  He wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing.

Snow on his face!

You might notice in the above picture that William has a bandaid on his chin.  Strangely enough, both he and Eliana fell of the kitchen chairs (totally unrelated to the snow activity) and busted their chins open on the table.  Eliana must have really smacked her chin hard.  I was in the living room at the time, and heard a big crash.  I came running back in the kitchen and found Eliana on the floor.  She looked quite startled, but told me she had fallen on purpose.  That's what she says when an accident happens and she thinks she is going to get in trouble.  She said she was fine, but then went to the bathroom.  A minute later she comes running to tell me her chin is bleeding.  And boy, she wasn't kidding.  She had quite the gash and for a little bit I was afraid I was going to have to take her to urgent care for stitches.  The problem was she wouldn't let me touch her chin to hold pressure to get the bleeding to stop.  After bleeding through a few bandaids, she finally let me put a steri-strip on her chin.  I think she only let me touch it then because I threatened to call her father and have him come home from work to put in stitches himself.  She seemed quite surprised that he could do such a thing, but I assured her that, as a doctor, he most definitely could.  At that point, mom's "special bandage" didn't seem so bad.

Even though she didn't get stitches, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a little scar there on her chin.

Then, less than 24 hours later, Will did the same thing.  I said, "What happened? Did our kitchen chairs turn into ice? Why are you guys falling out of your chairs?!" He was just eating a snack at the table and, bloop, feel right out of his seat, banging his chin on the table.  Eliana was quick to check out his chin and declared that he had a boo-boo just like her.  Luckily, his wasn't quite as deep, so I was able to just put a regular bandaid on it without threats of stitches by daddy.  Both of their chins are on the mend and looking fine.

Gymnastics Class

One of the perks of half day kindergarten is that the kids are still able to do some fun classes together.  This fall William and Eliana have been taking a gymnastics class.  We have graduated from the "Mommy and Me" class to an actual class where I sit in the hall with Laney and watch. 

They start out on mats stretching and learning new skills.

The favorite of both - the forward roll.  You start out in Pencil with hands above the head.  Next is Mountain with hands on the ground.  Then...

Roll!

Pencil, Mountain...

Roll! (this is a pretty common thing heard at my house lately).

Some of the other things they work on are swinging on or over the bars, handstands, frog jumps (or Dinosaur jumps in William's case), log rolls, and the balance beam.  There is also a lot of jumping on the trampoline.  That's where Will spends a good deal of class time.

Laney just walks around with me outside of class from one window to the next.  It is a great way to spend the morning and burn off some energy!

Gingerbread House

This year for the holidays, I bought a gingerbread house making kit to do with the kids.  One of my coworkers had suggested it, and I thought it sounded like fun.  The kids really enjoyed decorating the houses while also eating most of the candy.  Laney just wanted to lick all of the icing off while completely ignoring the task at hand.  After we had built the houses, William really wanted to eat his.  I told him that he could after his dad came home from work and saw it.  So the next day, Will took a big bite out of his gingerbread wall.  Turns out these well preserved kits are not the freshest tasting cookie.  So Will resorted to eating all the gumdrops instead.

Sampling the candy while he worked.

Will used most of the gumdrops, which he called cannonballs.  I believe his house was supposed to be some sort of impenetrable fortress.

The finished products. The undecorated one in the middle was the one we saved for David to decorate once he got home from work.

The aftermath

Will Learns to Ride a Bike

Eliana got a new bike this summer which means that Will was given her old Dora bike (or the Vamanos bike as he called it).  After a bit of practicing, Will really got the hang of pedaling!  At first he had a tendency of steering the bike into whatever direction he was looking.  But that has gotten better.  He also has learned how to use the brake, which is good because while he found running into the van an effective means of stopping, I didn't think that was quite so funny. 
We attempted some family bike rides at the end of the summer in which Eliana and Will would ride their bikes and I would push Laney in the stroller.  We would do pretty well going down the slight hill to the end of the street.  However, when it was time to turn around and head back up the (very slight!) hill to our house, there was usually a lot of me pushing a stroller and a kid on a bike.  I have high hopes for next year though!  We might just make it to the park and back with two kids on bikes!

Look at that big kid! Wearing his Spiderman helmet.

Summer posts to brighten your day

Did I tell you about that time I bought a giant pool on clearance at Target in September?

Eliana asked me all summer long when we could get a big pool.  The bigger one we had had an issue with the side collapsing.  So I had my eye on this pool, just waiting for it to go on sale.  Finally, in September, it did!  And wouldn't you know, after I bought it, we had a week in September of 90 degree days.  So I blew up the pool and the kids had a blast!

Eliana diving for rings

This crazy kid climbed on top of the kids' picnic table and laughed at my concern.

And a bonus picture - Laney really loves climbing.  This is a pretty common place to find her - sitting on something she's not supposed to be on.

Secret Garden

On a beautiful fall day, we took a trip to Inniswood Metro Gardens. I was hoping to take some photos of the kids for our Christmas card.  Apparently everyone else also had the same idea.  I have never seen the gardens so full of people so dressed up!  All being followed by professional photographers.  Three kids aged 5 and under do not make for easy photo subjects.  I could never get all three of them to look/smile at the camera at the same time.  Will obliged for the first few photos, but then thought this whole photo session thing was a joke and made faces for the rest of the photos.  Once he gets in a mood like that, it is hard to convince him to act otherwise (case in point - check out my parent's Christmas card this year).  So I quickly gave up on that idea and instead enjoyed a day of frolicking in gorgeous weather in a beautiful garden.

Classic Will.  He is dancing and farting in this picture.  Perfect for the Christmas card.

We played for a long time in this water table.

Laney kept trying to drink the water.

The Secret Garden. I have a picture very similar to this one from two years ago. But there is a new baby in this picture.

My sweet babes

Running through the tunnel - over and over again.

Fall Fun

 In October, I took the kids to Leed's Pumpkin Farm again.  We had been there a couple years ago when Will was a baby, and I had always wanted to go back.  This year, we had an absolute blast!  The kids were big enough to do almost all of the attractions and we spent the entire day there (probably 6 hours).  Eliana would sometimes run ahead and want to move on to the next activity before Will was done, but for the most part, we stayed together well.  Laney couldn't do too much, but she did enjoy riding down the big slides with me, and seeing the animals in the barn.  A big favorite for everyone was the corn box (like a sandbox but with corn).

Riding the hayride.  We came on the only weekend that had horse drawn wagons for the hay ride.  We had to wait in line a little longer to get a wagon pulled by a horse, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

The Mini Zip Line.  This was a huge favorite for Will and Ana.  They did this over and over again, and we came back later in the day to do it some more.

Corn box with lots of toys in it.

I had to pull her out of the box early because unsurprisingly, she started eating the corn.

Laney refused to participate in this picture.

Feeding the goats.  I was surprised Laney liked this part a lot.  She wasn't afraid of the goats at all.

Someone had too much fun and not enough napping.

Hay bale climbing.

 These are pictures from my mom's family farm.  Laney is actually wearing overalls that belonged to her father or perhaps his sister. So cute!

Eliana playing with her second cousins.

Another hay ride! This time pulled by a tractor, and actually with no hay.  But still fun!

Laney in the Mary Garden.