Surf's Up Saturday

Yay! Another fun week full of sunshine, laughing, and of course surfing the web into the late hours of the night (and maybe during naptime!). I hope that everyone else is having a great week and looking forward to a fireworks filled holiday coming up.

First is a great alternative to the normal sandbox. I have a love/hate relationship with sandboxes. I love that you can build with sand, pour it, dig in it, the possibilities are endless. But I loathe the sand in the hair, in crevices better not mentioned, and all over the area. Plus it attracts local cats to use as a bathroom. Instead of sand why not use dried split peas? All the fun of pouring, none of the messiness! All you need is a tupperware container, 10-15 bags of the peas, and some shovels/buckets/empty pop bottles. Thank you Tutus and Turtles for another great idea!

Next is a cute stuffed owl from ManicMuffinTotes. I love the vintage look of it and the quirkiness... there are many colors to choose from too and it is handmade!

For those of you who are constantly looking for new craft ideas to do with your little ones here is another great idea from Wondertime Magazine- KoolAid Scratch and Sniff Art!

Materials:

An assortment of fruit to fill a bowl with some overflow (we used lemons, oranges, cherries, strawberries, and grapes)
Medium bowl
Nonwashable markers
Watercolor paper (Canson Biggie Junior pad, $7, dickblick.com)
Small paper cups
Small paintbrushes (Colorations Plastic Chubby brushes, $6 for 10, discountschoolsupply.com)
5 packets (about 0.15 ounces each) unsweetened Kool-Aid (other brands are not as aromatic) to match each type of fruit

Instructions:

*Cover work area with newspaper.
*Heap the fruit into the bowl, letting some overflow onto the table (the more fruit there is to paint, the better). *Use markers to draw an outline on the watercolor paper of the still life you've just created, but don't color anything in with the markers.
*In separate cups, use separate paintbrushes to mix each packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid with 2 tablespoons of water. Arrange the cups in a row and place the corresponding Kool-Aid packets in front of the cups to identify each flavor.
*Paint each fruit you've drawn with the appropriate Kool-Aid "paint." (Note: Grape Kool-Aid looks black when painted on, but it dries to a deep purple color.) Dry about 20 minutes. If some globs of paint take longer to dry, blot the excess with a tissue.
*When dry, scratch a painted fruit lightly with your fingernail and sniff. And don't worry if the kids taste the "fruit"; it's so sour they'll probably only do it once.

Last is a wonderful baby toy find from a company called Oliebollen.com. I love blocks because there is so much that you can do with them and this block set by Peace Baby are so pretty and well... peaceful!

Peace Baby™ products were created as an alternative to the violent imagery that pervades our culture and enters a baby's consciousness from the earliest age. Because babies are aware of their world from the moment they are born, we believe it is important to make images of peace, beauty and fun a strong part of their sensory experience.