More painting

We painted again but loved this paint so much last time that I didn't try another recipe. The finger painting turned into face painting with Daddy around. 

Pool Time

Enough said. 

Magnet Matching

I made the girls some magnet puzzles. Alyssa's has a wide variety of shapes and colors. Abby's is simpler - 4 animals. I found the animal pictures online and made the shapes up. I used Adobe InDesign but paint or something else would also work. Then I printed out the page on cardstock and then again on magnet paper. I turned the cardstock version into the magnet pieces by cutting them out, laminating them, and putting a strip of magnet on the back. The magnet paper fits onto a small cookie sheet from the dollar store and is interchangeable. 

Quick thoughts:

• Abby can take the pieces off but she doesn't really get putting them back on in the right places yet. Alyssa loves it but is very particular that they are lined up exactly right. She is so different from her mother - a little perfectionist. 
• I need to find some sort of sealant for the magnet paper. The magnets on the pieces draw on the paper. 

Slime!

We found a wonderful recipe for slime here. For ours we used white glue and a little bit of red glitter so our looks very different. It was pretty easy to make. I'll just point out that it works a lot better if after mixing the starch and glue in the bowl for a few minutes, you take the blob out and continue mixing on a table or another bowl where any excess starch is not present.

Alyssa was very suspicious at first. She would not touch it. Eventually I got her to poke it and pull it by hiding her toy animals in the slime. She would stretch it big and say, "woah" with huge eyes. So funny. She was enthralled, but still didn't like it when small pieces would stick to her hand.

Abby was a little hesitant as well, but not nearly as bad as Alyssa. Abby just would touch it then retract. Touch it then retract. Then she started playing with it. She did try to eat it a couple times (apparently it doesn't taste good cause she made some real gross faces). To keep her mouth occupied and her hands free I gave her a mouth brush to suck on. It mostly worked. 

Quick thoughts:

• Love it. Both girls cried when it was time to put it away. Although we have played with in since and Abby doesn't last very long. 
• It washes out of clothes. It actually doesn't stick to clothes unless it sits there for a few seconds. The slime settles when it is not being moved and stretched. It can be a little sticky after it settles, but it washes out. 
• It keeps in a zip-lock although it seems stickier each time we get it out. Maybe next time I'll mix a little starch with it again. 
• It is a very clean "messy" activity. It doesn't get everywhere, but it does need supervision. 

Music Time: Keyboard

Everybody needs music time! 

Soapy Sponges: Again

Because it is getting warm and we love bubbles!

Matching Animal Cards: Getting Harder

We still love our matching game. Alyssa has really upped her game with this one. She needs a little help focusing and we do it together, but she is really good at her animal identification. Her favorite animals seem to be the bunny, the dog, the elephant, the panda, the flamingo, and the cat. She avoids and ignores the rhino completely. It is the only card set that she will not match up. No idea what is going on there.