Not-So-SAHM

Barely Scraping By: Biocolor Scrape Resist Painting

2012-02-17T05:18:00.000-05:00

Mom generally finds packaged art kits to be underwhelming, but we are so glad she sprung for the Biocolor paint kit from Discount School Supply. It came with a really great DVD that has tons of projects showcasing Biocolor's unique properties. And although we probably could have found many of the projects online, we've found the DVD to be a really good starting point for lots of fabulous Biocolor ideas (even though the videos are kind of hokey). We recently did a scrape resist painting and LOVED it. We did these for Valentine's Day for our daddy, but it could be done in so many different ways.

To make a resist painting like ours, you'll need:
- a few different colors of Biocolor, including white;
- a scraper (we used the ones that came with the kit, but a strong piece of cardboard, credit card, etc. could also be used);
- and some sturdy paper (we ended up putting layers and layers of paint on ours).

Squirt some white Biocolor on your hands and rub them together. Then make two handprints on the paper and use the white paint to make any other design or writing that you want to show up. Next, pick another color and make a design, like a circle or heart, and repeat concentric designs with the additional colors. You could also just place drops of paint around the page. Last, use your scraper to scrape the colors out over the page and over the white handprints/words/design, etc. Whatever color of Biocolor you place on the page first, will resist the other colors -- we also tried using silver as a resist color and loved it. It's so cool that the colors don't mix (which is why they worked so well on our Chinese New Year's squish dragons).

If you don't have any Biocolor, but want to try another cool scraping project, check this out.

Sand in My Shoes: Upshur Playground

2012-02-16T05:25:00.000-05:00

We are getting so antsy for the weather to turn - we've already started working on our spring/summer bucket list! But we decided not to wait for the swimming pool to open and check out Upshur park now. It was crowded with school kids when we arrived and Kane was in a real mood that day, but he shaped up once he saw that there was a pretty big sand area to play in. We pretended to bury treasure and mapped out a treasure map in our head. Mom couldn't get me off of the swings - I wanted to swing higher and higher. The park is small, but there was enough to keep us occupied for a bit and we will definitely be back this summer for some outdoor swimming!

For a more thorough and multi-perspective review, check out The Playground Review's write-up.

When the Volcano Blow: Mini Volcanoes

2012-02-15T05:29:00.000-05:00

So the last time we made a volcano, it turned out a little ghetto. We didn't have a great bottle to use and we didn't have any baking soda. We still had fun, but making a proper volcano has been on our list for a while. So we decided to use a few of the thousand juice cleanse bottles mom saved and make some mini volcanoes. We used our old snowflake playdough to build a nice mountain around mine -- Cami didn't want playdough on hers, which turned out to be a good way to watch the scientific reaction. We followed the same recipe as last time (with the correct ingredients this time) and had a blast erupting them over and over again. And we even added in our water beads at the end to see if they'd erupt out of the volcano. They didn't, but it was cool to see in Cami's bottle that it was because the reaction occurred at the top of the liquid in the bottle and the water beads had actually sunk down below it.

All That Chocolate on My Tongue: Valentine's Chocolate Playdough

2012-02-14T05:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!! We wanted to make a sweet treat for our buddies this V-Day, but knew there would be enough sugar flying about and we wanted to go in a little different direction. And given our love of playdough, we were really psyched when we spotted this idea. We made a test batch using our favorite playdough recipe -- we just added about 3/4 cup of cocoa to it. We found that while it smelled delish, it turned a little tough after a few weeks. So we lightened up on the cocoa powder and ended up with this:

- 4 cups water
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/3 cup of cocoa powder

Combine all ingredients in large pot. Stir constantly over medium heat until most of the moisture is absorbed (it will take a bit). Let cool and fold in a bit of baby oil and some heart confetti. Looks and smells good enough to eat - and we had a ball playing with our pastry cutters.

Mom put a small batch in a little red food storage container from IKEA, put one of our stained glass valentines on top, and tied it all up with a little bit of baker's twine (can you tell baker's twine is mom's new obsession?)

All Powerful Amazon Warrior: The National Zoo's Amazonia

2012-02-13T05:11:00.000-05:00

So, how has mom taken us to National Zoo about 8 million times and never taken us to Amazonia? She claims ignorance. I'm going to guess that it's because it's far downhill from most of the things we like to see and she never wanted to schlep down there knowing she'd likely have to carry both of us back up said hill (because we never stay in the double stroller at the zoo, obvi). Thanks to one of our playgroup friends, she finally took me there last week. I LOVE fish right now and I was diggin' it. There are huge fish tanks with viewing ledges for little ones. And up on the second floor you walk through the Amazon rain forest looking down into the pools of water with the fish. I ran around screaching "ish, ish, ish" and blowing kisses willy nilly. It was fabulous. And we were the only people in it (because, mom is right, it is in BFE). Mom thought it was cool enough to overlook the birds flying about in the rain forest (she has a weird thing with birds). From now on, we'll start out at the bottom of the zoo and make that our first stop.

I was giving the Piranhas my best "chomp chomp."

Heart of Glass: Tissue Paper Stained Glass Valentines

2012-02-10T05:05:00.000-05:00

After making our valentine's note cards, we had a pile of almost tie-dyed looking bleeding tissue paper that was too pretty to toss. Mom saved it and we used it to make our valentines for our friends -- we simply pasted it on some waxed paper using liquid starch and let it dry. The sheets of colored tissue paper make pretty stained glass in and of themselves, but mom sandwiched a small piece in between two heart cut outs for our valentines. Super simple and cute.

Glitter Shines Forever: Lightbox Glitter Painting

2012-02-09T05:13:00.001-05:00

Mom has been happily surprised that one of the activities we request most is to play with our lightboxes (good thing -- they weren't that difficult to make, but they did take a bit of time). A few weeks ago mom (nervously) let us do some ziploc bag painting on our lightbox -- we've been doing a lot of the lightbox activities in Cami's room because it's the darkest, but it is carpeted. Mom made up two bags: one with red and yellow paint and one with yellow and green paint. And of course we insisted on adding glitter. We did a little color mixing and painted for some time. I discovered I could make a "negative" handprint by pressing down on the paint. And I liked using Cami's babydoll bottle to trace shapes (although that started to threaten the ziploc's integrity, and mom put that idea to bed. we've seen other people use a Q-tip, which is probably a better idea).

You Spin Me Right Round: Valentine's Spin Art

2012-02-08T05:49:00.000-05:00

We know we are overdoing Valentine's just a smidge, but we can't help it. We love to love you, baby. A while ago, mom picked up a salad spinner on the cheap and we'd been waiting for the right project to use it. Then we happened to come across some white posterboard pre-cut hearts (at Michaels) and they fit perfectly! We put a few blobs of Biocolor on them and a healthy shake or two of glitter and spun it up. I favored a lot of paint and a lot of glitter (shocking) -- we'd put some in, spin it, and then add more. Once they dried, mom taped them onto some baker's twine and hung them up as another garland for Valentine's Day. We have our playgroup at our house on V-day and we are going to have a little party -- woo-hoo!

Some more salad spinner art from around the web:

- The Imagination Tree's prints on black paper

- Cute idea for Thanksgiving -- I think peacocks would work too

- The Artful Parent's mobile

Young at Heart: Valentine's Gift Cards

2012-02-07T05:05:00.002-05:00

Kane and I have been arting up a mad storm lately and given the lack of storage in our house, it's been accumulating more quickly than mom can find storage and display spots. Time to start giving it away! We recently used some bleeding tissue paper prints and turned those into Valentine's gift cards some friends and family.

We tore up several Valentine'sy colors of our bleeding tissue paper and "painted" them onto watercolor paper with water. Once the paper dried, we peeled the pieces of tissue paper off to discover the cool prints left behind. We were able to reuse the tissue paper that got sort of tie-dyed in the process -- more on that soon! We also used a recent batch of our go-to table paint printmaking. Mom bought a pack of blank, bright cards and envelopes from Michaels, cut our art into smaller rectangles (and a few hearts), and pasted them on. We tied up several cards and envelopes with baker's twine and they're good to go.

Starlight in the Sculpture Garden: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

2012-02-06T05:57:00.001-05:00

Mom and I have one day a week where it's just the two of us. We like to do girly things (shopping, nails, lunch), things that are difficult for mom to do with both of us (there are lots of those), or things that will give me a chance to get out of that stroller and explore. Last week we spent that day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which fit the bill for 2 out of the 3 categories listed above. After dropping Kane off at school, we headed downtown and arrived just in time for the 9:30 a.m. open parking time around the Mall. We spent about 45 minutes in the Sculpture Garden first -- it was chilly, but the sun was really bright and I loved exploring the different ways the sun hit the sculptures. By far my favorite was Dan Graham's "For Gordon Bunshaft" -- an interactive, two-way mirror sculpture that was doing some really cool things in the sunlight.

We eventually made our way across the street into the Museum, but we spent a total of only 26 minutes inside (good thing it's free). It was really hard for me to keep my hands off of the sculptures inside (many of which don't have a clear line indicating that it is not something to be touched -- the sculptures in the Garden do) - I actually touched only one and set off one other alarm. But mom figured that was enough. I also liked Picasso's "Woman With Baby Carriage" (I was able to make out the "baby," but I pointed to the "woman" and said "eh?") and the room with Alexander Calder's mobiles. We had some bonus time to run across to the National Air and Space Museum for a quick flight.

We are also really excited to check out the upcoming exhibit: "Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space." Mom spoke to one of the Museum docents about it and it sounds like an interactive, "very tactile" exhibition -- it opens February 23rd and looks super cool for kids. I think that will be a two chaperone trip for us, though. And keep your eyes peeled for the next Hirshhorn After Hours -- plan on getting a babysitter and venturing down sans kiddos for drinks, dancing and some "late night" art viewing -- the website doesn't yet list the next event, but mom and dad are watching!

My Funny Valentine: Marker Tie Dyed Heart Garland

2012-02-03T05:56:00.002-05:00

We came across these cute tie dyed coffee filter hearts and wanted to give them a try -- we have a TON of coffee filters left over from our spray painting (and our coffee maker doesn't use filters. and, who are we kidding, mom uses Starbucks, not our coffee maker). I'm not quite at the scissors stage and Kane is learning, but not quite at the "cut a heart out of this" stage. So instead we used our Do A Dot markers to "tie dye" the filters and then mom used her heart punch to cut out hearts after they dried. We had a hard time pressing hard enough to get a good tie dyed effect. To help, mom stacked several filters together and then soaked them in water. We then dotted the stack with our markers and the water helped spread the color out over the filter and down through the layers. And you know we couldn't resist using our glitter pens on the top filter. Mom then taped the hearts to some baker's twine and hung up the garland. It turned out to stretch almost the entire length of our main room and we love that it's not just pink, red and purple (we've got plenty of other Valentine's crafts going with that color scheme, too!).

I've Got that Glitter on My Eyes: Glitter Glue Painting

2012-02-02T05:24:00.002-05:00

I've really been loving my glitter glue pens. It started out when mom gave me some black paper and oil pastels to work with and I spotted the glitter glue pens that were buried under the pastels. I made mom pull those babies out (and I also spurred another round of organizing for mom) and I've been asking to use them almost every day since. They look super cool on black paper, but I'll glitter glue anything you've got.

Picture Me Rollin: Washington Auto Show 2012

2012-02-01T05:22:00.006-05:00

We had grand plans this past weekend to hit up the auto show on Saturday and the Chinese New Year festivities on Sunday. Unfortunately, daddy ended up taking a little work trip on Saturday. Lucky for us -- the auto show ended up giving us a little bit of everything. Read KidFriendly DC's review for all the particular details, but check out the pictures below to get a good idea of what happens when you let two small children loose in a giant room full of cars (most of) which they can climb into: mad, fun chaos. Our most favorite part was when Kane and I got in the front seat of cars (over and over and over again) and mom and dad hopped in the back -- we pretended we were driving to New Jersey and mom and dad pretended they were the kids. I can't imagine we really sound that whiny, but mom's imitation of Kane asking simultaneously for a different song, a different DVD, a different snack, and informing mom that he has to go "potty"/"my car seat is wet" was spot on. In turn, we did pretty much what they do to us -- pretend not to hear. There were also a few Chinese dragons parading around. So even though we didn't make it to the big parade this year, it was probably enough for us for the weekend.

The auto show runs through February 5th -- get there!

kane's favorite -- a green mini

this is the newer version of our car -- mom and dad wanted to see if we'd fit in the back comfortably. we did not.

Eat Starch Mom: Oobleck FAIL

2012-01-31T05:16:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite fave books lately has been Dr. Seuss' "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" (500 Hats is a close second). During one of Cami's naps, we decided to take advantage of the load of liquid starch we had leftover from our tissue paper bottle lights and try out one of the many oobleck recipes we'd seen around (people frequently call the same recipe oobleck, slime, gak, etc.) -- the one we tried was labeled gak, but we thought it looked more ooblecky (and we had already tried out a cornstarch version).

FAIL.

Although this was a different type of FAIL than the last time we tried to use our laundry starch in its' powder phase -- at least that made something cool. This time absolutely nothing happened. Despite us continually adding in more glue. Does anyone do more laundry than mom and actually know if there is a difference between this liquid laundry starch, which appears to be what peeps are using, and the one we are using and mixing up into a liquid? Well, maybe you don't do MORE laundry, but just do it more correctly? Mom does a lot of laundry.

Must I Paint You a Picture: Shaving Cream Tub Paint

2012-01-30T05:15:00.001-05:00

The weather in D.C. took a remarkably good turn at the end of last week -- even though Friday started out really rainy, the clouds cleared and it was 60 and sunny all afternoon. So obviously Cami and I refused to go outside. Truthfully, I think we all had a little bug. But instead of just saying that, I told mom that "I really hurt my leg and can't walk." I flopped around on the ground for a bit. Then I took up one of my favorite (and most irritating to mom and dad) pass-the-time activities of jumping across the living room repeatedly. Mom said, "Gee, your leg doesn't seem to bother you when you are jumping." I said, "Hey, you're right. I think the jumping helps. But I still don't think I can walk at the park." Can't get one over on me.

Mom decided to break out an activity she'd been wanting to try again, but with Cami and I separate this time. A few months ago she whipped up a batch of homemade bathtub paint with shampoo, cornstarch and food coloring. Things went a little awry with Cam and I in the same tub, so this time she decided to split us up. And she made the paint using just shaving cream and washable fingerpaints. No real recipe to follow -- just squirt some shaving cream into containers and mix in fingerpaints until you get the desired colors. I called mine "shower paints" and took them to my shower. Cam kept them as tub paints and used her bathtub. We got MUCH more mileage out of them this time and they spilled less easily because of the foam. Of course things went south when Cami painted her eye, but it took more time to get there than last time!

Shells of Silver: Shell X-Ray Light Play

2012-01-27T05:24:00.001-05:00

Mom thought it would be a fun follow-up to our recent aquarium visit to take a look at some shell x-rays she bought for our light tables. The set we have contains both pictures of the shells and x-rays of what is inside. We played a matching game and tried to find the x-ray that would fit with a particular shell. Well, that's what I did. Cami just tried to throw the x-rays all over her room and run away with them. Oh well, one out of two isn't bad.

Take Me on a Trip Upon Your Magic Swirlin' Ship: Stoddert Playground

2012-01-26T05:03:00.000-05:00

Mom used to live in Glover Park back in the day and, at that time, Stoddert Elementary School was a tiny little red school house. Imagine our surprise when we went to a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago in mom's old 'hood and we checked out the beautiful new revamped school and DPR Recreation Center. There is a huge, double-decker play structure that served as our pirate ship for a while as we ran off all that birthday party sugar. As usual, daredevil Cami had no problem rocketing herself down giant slides. I loved to climb up to the top deck and hold court. It was also pretty funny watching mom and dad try to haul themselves up this thing. As our sense of adventure grows, I think Stoddert will give Guy Mason (just a few blocks down Calvert) a run for its' money with us.

Bowl of Oranges: Cut Paper Chinese New Year Craft

2012-01-25T05:13:00.000-05:00

We're continuing to celebrate the Chinese New Year this week (we've previously posted about the lanterns and dragons we've made) and because we haven't done a cut paper craft recently, this one sparked mom's pinterest when she came across it. Mom simply used a circle hole punch and punched out a bunch of oranges from various orange craft/scrapbook paper (it's good we're using it -- our baby books/scrapbooks have not been touched in a VERY long time. well, actually, poor cam's is completely empty). Then we used glue sticks to stick them onto black paper. I pretty much did it "by my own self." Cam needed mom's assistance to get started, but she made a second one on her own. She also favored gluing them down and then peeling them off (probably just because mom told her not to. once mom gave that up, cami actually glued them down). Then mom drew a simple bowl shape over the top of them with a white oil pastel. We've had our own bowl of oranges on the table all week long, one of which Cami insists that mom peel at every meal and then refuses to eat. Good thing mom likes oranges.

p.s. omg our house is messy this week. i guess mom didn't get on board with the Chinese New Year tradition of the pre-holiday house clean.

i see you oranges. and i will peel and discard one of you tonight.

So Crack a Bottle: Tissue Paper Bottle Lights

2012-01-24T05:39:00.009-05:00

Because one of mommy's friends seriously misremembered a previous juice cleanse experience as "not that bad," mom figured it would be a good way to start of the new year. One of the only good things to come out of the whole thing was a large quantity of stylish plastic bottles (for what it's worth, that doesn't make the juice taste any better) and we've been coming up with all sorts of fun crafts for them. We've also been wanting to crack back open the fairly large amount of laundry starch mom bought last summer (which we thus far had only tried to use in a pretty epic slime FAIL). So we came up with using our bleeding tissue paper to make bottle lanterns. Mom mixed up a batch of liquid laundry starch while we helped tear the tissue paper into strips. We then brushed a fair amount onto the plastic bottle, placed a strip of tissue paper, and then lacquered that baby up some more. I liked layering lots of pieces and Cami went a little more minimal. Then, for the best part, once they were dry, mom busted out our new Fairy Berry Lights and we each dropped them into the bottle. Instant night light. And although I was too scared of them to have them in my room in the dark, I liked watching them in the living room for a while (and I'm pretty sure they helped light my way up to mom and dad's room during my nightly trip to wake them). The lights only last about 24 hours, but the batteries are replaceable. And the bottles look pretty all on their own when the sun shines through.

p.s. between my new school schedule, the yucky weather, and cami's afternoon nap, we have been stuck inside A LOT. so although we usually like to post a mix of "things to do" and "places to see," we're afraid the arts and crafts posts will continue to be a little heavier for a while.

We Are Going to China Town: Chinese New Year Squish Dragons

2012-01-23T05:58:00.071-05:00

Happy New Year! We've been reading up on the Chinese New Year, which is a 15-day event that starts today. To kick off our celebrations, we ordered dinner from mom and dad's favorite Chinese restaurant (Meiwah) last night. Dad was particularly up for that event, but Kane and I were at the end of a long weekend of a lot of indoor time (it was FREEZING here this weekend and we got our first "snow"of the year) and were throwing a collective tantrum. And that tantrum was further fueled by our fight over who would get to sit on mom's lap as a bribe to eat. Oh well.

We are planning on having a little party (meaning mom, Kane and me) at our house tonight and Kane and I are very interested in the tradition of receiving red envelopes of money. We'll see how that works out for us. To continue our party prep (we made these lanterns last week), we made some paint squish dragons for our wall. Inspired by Kane's recent Rorschach prints and this monster idea, we dabbed some Biocolor on paper and then folded and squished the paint together. We took a look, added more paint, and squished again. I was much more into this than Kane -- he tends to like to scrub all the colors together, but it was a good opportunity for him to practice keeping some of the colors separate.

Once they dried a bit, we added some googly eyes and mom superglued on some metallic ribbon (we were going to go with tissue paper, but we had some ribbon to use up). Some of them look more like dragons than others (one of mine seriously looks exactly like an elephant), but they were all super fun to make.

p.s. if you are in the D.C. area, check out the Chinatown Lunar New Year Festival at the Chinatown Community Cultural Center on January 29th from 12 - 5 p.m. There is also a parade and other festivities from 2 - 5 p.m. on H Street N.W. between 6th and 8th streets. We'll be there!

(OK, mom did this one)

my elephant/dragon

'Cause I'm the Ice Cream Man: Play and Freeze Ice Cream Ball

2012-01-20T05:27:00.000-05:00

I received a Play and Freeze Ice Cream Ball for Hanukkah and we just had not gotten to it yet. So I was pretty psyched when mom said, "Hm. It's too cold to go outside. We should definitely make some ice cream." Makes sense. It's amazingly simple: ice and rock salt go in the outside chamber. light cream, flavor, and sugar go in the inside chamber. and then you shake, rattle and roll like crazy for 20 minutes (with a quick break to replace some of the melted ice and rock salt and mix in the harder ice cream that has started to form). And, boom, you have a pint of homemade, delicious ice cream. Mom highly suggests enlisting the help of your children -- we had a dance party, ran around the house, rolled the ball on the floor (if you are willing to risk it, rolling it on the carpet worked better and has a lower risk of ball breakage), and generally shook our cabooses. We made simple vanilla the first time and loved it so much we ended up making hot chocolate ice cream the next morning (at 8 a.m.). We bought flavored syrups, but so far haven't needed them -- there are plenty of good recipes using (mostly) natural ingredients in the recipe book that comes with the ball. It's dangerous to have on hand, but we figure that we got in a good workout making it, so we deserved the treat.

I'd Like to be Under the Sea: National Aquarium D.C.

2012-01-19T05:33:00.000-05:00

We were looking for something warm and not crowded to do on this past MLK day -- it was freezing out and some of our usual haunts were bound to be jammed with all of the kids off of school for the holiday. We ended up deciding to go the National Aquarium in D.C. It's sort of the joke of D.C. museums/zoos/aquariums, but it turned out to be a perfect fit for us. It opens early (9 a.m.) and lots of other museums don't open until 10. And its' small size allowed us to run around with less "mom helicoptering." We went right at 9 and had the place to ourselves for almost half an hour. It was starting to get crowded when we left at 10 though, so it's best to go early. There were also some viewing platforms for us smaller peeps, including in front of the hilarious octopus. We've heard stories about this feisty guy before and were so glad to get to see him in action -- after he was fed and was starting to open the various containers of food (these things are super smart), everyone started crowding his tank to get a look. He wasn't thrilled so he squirted the crowd with water -- at first we thought the tank was leaking, but the staff told us he did it on purpose. Pretty funny. We don't like eating under scrutiny either.

We also lucked out and were able to park right out front on 14th because of the holiday (usually you can't park on 14th and if you drive, it's best to look for a spot along Constitution). It's also right across the way from the Federal Triangle metro stop. If you're hungry when you're done, the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center across the street has a pretty decent food court or the American History Museum is just half a block up on Constitution and that has a fabulous cafe (which we've already raved about this week).

Because the aquarium is small, we were through it in about an hour -- and that was even after taking two laps. So we went for a quick jaunt up to the Mall for a visit to the Washington Monument. And then we realized it was still 30 degrees outside and we hustled back home.

this was called the "Wheel of Doom" and, appropriately, it whacked

Cami in the face when Kane spun it around.

Give Me Light for My Lantern: Chinese New Year Lanterns

2012-01-18T05:08:00.000-05:00

Mom recently purchased some of these paper lanterns and we had plans to use our bleeding tissue paper on them (we really loved our Hanukkah craft using the paper), but once we realized the Chinese New Year is next week (January 23rd) and we love any excuse for a party, we decided to make Chinese New Year lanterns. Which, in our vast experience, simply called for us to paint them using red, yellow and gold colors. First we used red and yellow liquid watercolors. Cami went more minimal and I (surprise) pretty much soaked my first one. Once they dried over night, we went back at them with our new gold Biocolor (we heart this stuff). Mom strung them together with our sisal twine (will we EVER use that up?) and we hung them above our dining room/craft/home for the never-ending pile of laundry that needs to be folded table. We think these turned out super cool and we're on the lookout for some more holiday related crafts!

(mom hates these light fixtures which we in when they bought the place. in addition to reminding her of austin powers for some reason (who puts pointy arrows on the end of a track light?!?), one light is always out and the bulbs are expensive and impossible to change. totally unrelated rant from mom).

Don't Sweat the Technique: New Painting Techniques

2012-01-17T05:01:00.000-05:00

One of my most favorite ways to paint is table painting/printing and we do that A LOT. It's fun and it's easy for Cami to do, too. But since I gave up my nap a while back, mom thought we could try out some new painting techniques during Cami's nap (man that girl can sleep). I have had a short attention span for arts and crafts lately, so I wanted to try all of them at one sitting! When we paint with watercolors, we usually use the liquid type -- it's usually easier for us to use than the pan type (although Cam is a repeat offender of tipping an entire cup full onto her lap), but mom broke those out for me to try first. I was into it once I realized that you have to really wet them first (in the future, I think mom might help me out by doing that a bit before I get to them). Then I moved onto painting with some pipe cleaners, which I though was pretty cool since I tend to like scrubbing the paper with my paintbrush and it was easy to do that with the pipe cleaners. Last, mom and I took a crack at some folded Rorschach paintings -- this was super cool, especially since mom let me squeeze paint right from the tubes onto my paper. But, I think next time (to avoid an excessive amount of paint on the paper), we'd put paint on a plate first and use a brush to drop it onto the paper.

Now History is Mine: National Museum of American History

2012-01-16T05:56:00.000-05:00

Um... we have no idea why mommy has never taken us here before. It is right up our alley -- we both LOVE trains (although mom is relieved that we are not obsessed with Thomas) and this place is full of them. Mommy and I went last Friday while Kane was at school and I tore my way through the "America on the Move" exhibit shouting "choo choo!!!" non-stop. And I loved the model Chicago "L" train -- we spent a lot of time on that. It was the perfect place to go to spend a freezing cold day - we went right at 10 a.m. and there was hardly anyone there (note to self: do not go before 10 and expect to wait inside -- the security guards did not take pity on our freezing selves and made us wait out in the wind for 14 minutes until exactly 10 a.m.). There was a ton of room for me to run around and I had a blast.

I was less enthralled with "The First Ladies" exhibit, but mom was pretty psyched to see Michelle Obama's inaugural gown. It was a lot of bling, but I still preferred ramming my stroller into the wall while mom and the nice docent ignored me. Plus the ORIGINAL Kermit (and several other muppets) is there -- he's looking less green, but in pretty decent shape. The museum also has one of the best cafes on the mall (with a highly unusual, really decent salad bar) and we had a nice little snack. And, as with almost all other D.C. museums, the American History museum is free. We loved it so much we went back on Saturday with Kane, daddy, Aunt Carrie and Cousin Jack. A little more crowded then, but still a good time.

Street parking on Constitution opens at 9:30 a.m. and it's not too hard to find a spot if you arrive close to that time. Located on Constitution between 12th and 14th, the museum is also a short walk from the Federal Triangle, Metro Center, or Archives/Navy Memorial stops.

I scored a Lamb Chop stuffed animal in the gift store -- it's daddy's nickname for me.

I've Got the World on a String: Twined Block Stamping

2012-01-13T05:53:00.001-05:00

We recently tried out an art project that's all over Pinterest -- string block stamping. We didn't have any wood blocks that were suitable, but we have a boat load of packing material left over from the holidays. So mom cut up some sort-of-square pieces of cardboard and wrapped twine (we also have a boat load of twine left from Kane's pirate party) around it. She kept the wrapping pretty random and tied it securely. We are getting in the mood for Valentines Day (can you tell that we are all lamenting the end of Hanukkah and Christmas?) and we picked a nice bright red paint (and a little purple) to use. Kane and I used foam brayers to roll on a thick roll of paint (it needs to be really thick) and then stamped away. Kane was much more into painting with the brayer, but I actually liked the stamping part best (mom helped me roll the paint onto mine). Although after Kane had a nice coat of red paint on his page, he then used his stamp in reverse -- the string absorbed some of the color making white lines on his red page (it's hard to see on the page below, but it looked pretty cool).

Last of the Unplucked Gems: GelGems Light Play

2012-01-12T05:33:00.000-05:00

We were not happy when mommy started taking down all of the holiday decorations, including our GelGems, and we started to feel a little better when we got to play with them a bit longer. And we really started to feel better when we got out our new lightboxes to use with the GelGems. We started out by rolling them on top of the table, then stretching them, and then tearing them into little pieces and making sculptures. Super fun and a great way to stretch out those holiday decorations!

p.s. if you don't tear them to tiny bits like we did, you can store the GelGems for reuse between two sheets of wax paper.

Some Humpty Back Camels: Mount Vernon

2012-01-11T05:02:00.002-05:00

The last time we visited Mount Vernon, we ponied up the money to become members. We figured that if we went a few times a year, it would be worth it -- and it really has. It's become one of our favorite family spots - lots of open space to run around and there always seems to be something new to see. This past weekend we took advantage of the ridiculous "winter" weather we had and spent the 70 degree Saturday catching the last day of GW's Christmas camel. Apparently in 1787, GW shelled out 18 shillings to bring a camel to Mount Vernon and entertain family and guests and Mount Vernon carries on the tradition by bringing a camel there every year for its' Christmas celebration. We didn't get to the actual celebration this year, but we made it there for the camel's last day. It was pretty awesome. And with the crowds down for the winter, we actually got a pretty decent tour of the mansion, too.

Mount Vernon has two eating options -- a food court, which was closed, and a nicer option -- the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant. We generally do the food court (although always intend to bring a picnic), but because that was closed this past weekend, we hit up a spot along the drive home -- Southside 815. It would otherwise be just another bar and grill type joint, but they have yummy southern food and the most fabulous bloody mary mom has had -- a Naked Jay dill pickle vodka with oversized shrimp. A meal in itself. Mom highly recommends it (and the bread basket).

Rolling in the Deep: TP Roll Stamps

2012-01-10T05:04:00.001-05:00

There is some crazy TP roll art rollin around out there right now, but we thought we'd try and keep it simple and make some TP roll stamps. Mom made a few and I got to practice my scissor skillz and make some, too. And then I kind of lost interest, mostly because they didn't really work (or, more accurately, they were difficult to get to work). Mom helped me stamp out a few and that was that. Oh well, we used the stamped paper as a base for more tissue paper gift tags. I think we might try out these TP cuties next. Cam is really into owls right now.

Sunny Day, Sweeping the Clouds Away: Sesame Place

2012-01-09T05:41:00.000-05:00

Well, it was indeed a sunny day. But it was a FREEZING afternoon that mom and dad chose to hit up Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA (just outside of Philly). In an effort to keep down the number of presents that pile up at the holidays (and with limited success), the 'rents thought Nona and D-Rock could take us all to Sesame Place for our Christmas present this year. We've heard Sesame Place is a mob scene in the summer (it has all kinds of rides and water play then), but they do have a "Very Fury Christmas Parade" during the holidays (and it looks like a very similar neighborhood parade during other times of the year). And there is also a live "Elmo's World" show, a carousel, some rides, a giant net climbing structure, and more during the rest of the year. It really was frigidly cold and windy (especially since we'd been having such mild weather in D.C. and especially for mom who forgot her gloves -- she jammed her hands into a pair of mine), but we still had a good time. We loved the carousel (Cami's first time), had mixed feelings on the parade (although mom and dad seemed to have a ball heckling, in a good natured manner, the various characters to dance and wave for us), and still made out like bandits in the gift shop. Cam's Elmo phone is a BIG HIT. And it was much less crowded than we hear it gets in the summer, so mom and dad still think this was worth the winter trip. (And unless they add some booze to all of those snack carts, it's probably the last time we go!)

You can pay extra to dine with the characters and there are several other on-property dining options, but we chose to leave the park and go up the street where there is strip after strip of Applebee's type restaurants -- a little less crowded and easier to get us to focus on eating, I imagine. Although we of course threw a serious tantrum over mom's attempt to sit and eat in peace at the other end of the table from us. Not even guac would persuade us to keep it together.

Gonna Follow My Nose to Where the Coconut Grows: Black Bottom Coconut Bars

2012-01-06T05:37:00.001-05:00

So we know it's the new year and everyone is avoiding holiday treats, but we had to share this recipe we made (twice!) over the holidays: Martha's Black Bottom Coconut Bars. When purchasing shredded coconut for our chocolate macaroons (which were fun to make, but didn't turn out so well. mom still ate them. shocking), mom poorly chose to go to Whole Foods, which only sold shredded coconut in bulk. Ever try taking two toddlers to the bulk food aisle (where yogurt covered everything is conveniently located on the bottom row)? Not pretty. So in an effort to avoid spending $7 K on bulk foods, instead mom spent like $30 on what must be 20 pounds of shredded coconut. Needless to say, we've had our eyes peeled for recipes that focus heavily on coconut. We hit the jackpot with these little gems, which we found tasted best when chilled. In fact, they were so good we have no pictures of the finished product. We ate them all too fast. Holiday or not, you need to make these.

What the Water Gave Me: Water Beads

2012-01-05T05:03:00.000-05:00

I can't imagine why it took us so long to get on the water bead boat (we've seen so many cool things with them on some of our favorite blogs, including here, here and here), but we are hooked. Mom bought several different colors from Amazon and put them in a plastic storage bin half full of water (we weren't sure how much water they'd soak up). We weren't really interested in them until they had grown large (although mom thoroughly seemed to enjoy watching them change) and mom took them out of the large bin for us to play with. We spent a good amount of time pouring them back and forth between different containers and my pirates thought they were a blast. And we hauled them up to Nona's house with us and we each took a water bead bath, which was super fun (although not super fun to clean up).

Once ours were really saturated, they squished very easily -- especially the pink. We didn't mind it, but it drove mom a bit nuts (they apparently were especially difficult to clean up once squished). So we might commence play a little earlier in the the "growing" process next time. As an alternative (and as a definite try for us, since it was hard to keep Cami from trying to taste these), check out TinkerLab's tapioca pearl experiment -- it looks awesome and yummy.

Fabric of our Lives: The Textile Museum

2012-01-04T05:02:00.000-05:00

The Textile Museum has been on our list for a while now, but it just didn't seem like a good place for mom to take both of us by herself. It's fairly small (for a museum) and currently housed in two historic buildings in Dupont (although it is moving to GW relatively soon). Mom and I popped in one rainy day a few weeks ago and checked it out. To be honest, there just wasn't much for kids my age -- although I think mom thought some of the things were pretty neat. There is an interactive room for kids on the second floor, but it's mainly geared toward older kids -- there are interactive weaving, stamping, pattern designing, etc. exhibits. I still thought it was pretty cool. My favorite part was throwing pebbles in the outdoor courtyard (which drew some not-so-nice stares from the guards even though there was no one else around and I really was being well behaved). But it killed part of the rainy day and I think we'll come back when we are a bit older.

p.s. the gift store there has some really cool, different things, some of which is available online.

Blinded by the Light: DIY Lightbox

2012-01-03T05:17:00.002-05:00

As one of our Christmas presents, mom made each of us a lightbox. These are all over kiddo blogs, but mom used this one as her starting point and changed it up a bit. Here's what you'll need to make ours:

- 1 frosted storage container with lid (mom used these from IKEA -- inexpensive and the frosted plastic really helps diffuse the light evenly)

- a light source (mom used these from IKEA -- not inexpensive, but they are customizable and give off some nice light. and they are on SALE right now. plus the cord is flexible enough that you can shut the lid over it and avoid having to drill a hole for it into the storage container)

- 1 can white primer spray (like this Kilz)

- 1 can silver spray paint (like this Krylon, which is what mom used)

It's a pretty simple construction project:

(1) spray the inside of the bottom container with the white primer and let dry;
(2) spray the inside of the bottom container with the silver spray paint with SEVERAL coats (mom used a whole can on the two of ours, but that is likely because she FORGOT to do step (1));
(3) assemble lights and place in bottom once container is dry (mom found it helpful to coil the cord on the bottom and place the lights on top - so they are closer to the lid);
(4) close the lid, plug in and play!

These are pretty compact, but so far have been sufficient for some cool activities (even though mom forgot to prime them!). Of course we'd love a really fancy light box or table, but chances are we'd break that. Mom did spring for a nice light table discovery kit, though, which has been worth it so far. We spent our first time with the light boxes doing some color work, sorting beads, and checking out some agate light table slices. Word is mom has much up her sleeve for these, but if you can't wait, check out what others have been doing and where we got our inspiration:

Play at Home Mom

Child Central Station

Teach Preschool

The Mommies Made Me Do It

TinkerLab

Looking for the Great Leap Forwards: Happy 2012!

2012-01-02T05:52:00.000-05:00

Wowzers. Were the holidays as much as a time warp for everyone else? We all got to take a break from our regularly scheduled duties (no school for me (and a new one to start in a few days), no babysitters for Cami (other than our wonderful family members), no boot camp for mommy (pretty sure she had a rude awakening this morning), and no work for daddy (well, at least a brief respite from physical office presence)).

We finally picked out a Christmas tree with Grandpa and Grammie B and we celebrated most nights of Hanukkah at home, Christmas Eve with Grandpa and Grammie B in Baltimore, and New Year's Eve with Nona and Grandpa D-Rock in Jersey. Highlights included our new Hanukkah stampers, our new market stand and cash register, our custom super hero costumes, making holiday treats, watching The Polar Express about 8 million times, finding a bell from Santa's sleigh in Grammie B's yard (he was out practicing the night before), extending our New Jersey stay and throwing a last minute NYE partay (complete with new blinged out masks, a balloon gauntlet, and silly string), and watching the Polar Bear Plunge on a very warm New Year's day in New Jersey.

We had a great 2011 and are looking forward to 2012 (and the extra day we're going to get out of it)!

For Auld Lang Syne: New Year's Masks

2011-12-23T06:15:00.002-05:00

This is actually a craft mom had been thinking about doing, but we couldn't seem to fit it in. Fortunately my teacher busted it out right before winter break. Pretty simple -- we painted wooden masks, covered them with glue, and sequined those babies up (mom found these similar wooden masks). But we love them and can't wait to use them at our New Year's party.

Speaking of New Year's, we are taking some time off to celebrate the holidays and hope you all get a chance to do the same. We'll see everyone in 2012!

This Peppermint Winter: Candy Cane Playdough

2011-12-22T05:24:00.000-05:00

We needed to come up with a gift to leave my preschool friends (I'll be moving on to a new school in 2012) and thought playdough would be a good one -- all of my classmates really liked making it with us this past semester. We were happy when we came across Artful Parent's candy cane playdough idea and we decided to do something similar using our go-to recipe. We made one batch, split it into two, colored one half red and left the other plain. Each got a healthy dose of glitter (red or silver) and peppermint extract. Then mom coiled the two together in a tupperware and tied it all up. It's a nice, easy to make gift if you are still looking for present ideas -- I hope my friends enjoy it!

Big Locomotive Right on Time: Garden Railway at the U.S. Botanic Garden

2011-12-21T05:42:00.000-05:00

If you live near D.C. and you haven't heard about the Botanic Garden's Garden Railway, you must be living under a rock. Sometimes harder to get into than the currently hot Pearl Dive Oyster Palace (mom maintains she will get in one day), it's best to try and go during a week day right at 10 a.m. Mom took our preschool on a field trip and we were super psyched to spot all our faves (Thomas, Percy, AND James) mixed in with whimsical fairy gardens and running in and out of mountains. I would also suggest that you watch your step if you happen to take a tour through the desert room on the way to the restrooms -- you will in fact get cactus needles in your hiney if you fall on one (the movies don't lie). I know. Mom spent several minutes picking needles out of my tush. Ouch.

the offending cactus

In a World of Swirl: Swirled Paint Glass Ornaments

2011-12-20T05:42:00.000-05:00

One of the first holiday crafts we did this year was to make some swirled paint ornaments. We used this tutorial as a starting point, but we ended up using tempera paint. Mom thought it might be easier for us to use -- we poured it into small squirt bottles and mixed glitter into some. We bought both large and medium sized glass ornaments, but found that the medium ones worked best with our smaller hands. I found that I was pretty good at getting the paint in and shaking, shaking, shaking. All those yogurt cups we saved came in handy for draining and drying our ornaments. Mom took a second crack at some larger ones using metallic tempera paint and found that those drained almost completely of the paint. Wasn't the intended effect, but they still look pretty cool. We'll try some acrylics next year (and have these and these on our list for ornaments next year, too).

Put On Your Yarmulke, it's Time for Hanukkah: Hanukkah Stained Glass

2011-12-19T05:22:00.000-05:00

Mom tells us that she is "super happy" that Hanukkah and Christmas fall at the same time this year. Our house has been exploding with holiday crafts for the past few weeks in preparation and we recently made these very pretty Hanukkah stained glass pieces. We used these stained glasses as inspiration (and for the templates!), but instead of collaging the tissue paper directly on the back of the black construction paper, mom had us make collages on a piece of white watercolor paper (it is a little thick for light to shine completely through, but it holds up well) using watered down Elmer's glue with a paint brush. Then mom cut out the templates and glued them on top. Kane was interested only in tearing up the pieces of bleeding tissue paper (which is a totally awesome art material that we haven't used before), but not in the collaging. I liked sitting on mom's lap and placing the tissue paper down while she brushed the glue on.

We had lots of little strips of collaged paper left that were too pretty to throw away. Mom is in the midst of a massive present wrapping effort (perhaps why she is "super happy" about the intersection of holidays this year?) and thought they'd make neat gift tags. She used her Recollections tag punch and punched out a whole bunch. Grammie B made some too and even put some glitter in the glue for some sparkle. Mom stamped a set of 16 to use for our Hanukkah presents with the first letter of our name and the number of the night (C1, C2, etc.).

I see lots and lots of bleeding tissue paper crafts in our future!

You Have Led Me to the Banks of Quiet Waters: Quiet Waters Park

2011-12-16T06:43:00.002-05:00

Back in the day, when Vegas was the only child, mom and dad used to pack the car and head up to Annapolis for the day to let Veg run the dog beach at Quiet Waters Park. We hadn't ever been with them and since Veg has gotten the short end of the stick lately, we took him up a few weekends ago. Of course the dog beach had been washed out and was closed (with no currently planned reopening), but we decided that he'd still be pretty psyched about a nice "hike" in the woods. There are many different trails at Quiet Waters, with sculpture placed throughout the Park, and we decided to take one of the paved paths. All was good for about 2 minutes. Then Cami and I decided that we both needed to be carried and I threw a tantrum over my inability to find the exact perfect "walking stick." (more accurately at mom and dad's refusal to let me carry ridiculously large, pointed tree branches as walking sticks). Poor Veg ran bigger and bigger loops around us and you could almost hear him muttering, "seriously, kids? you can't even let me have one GD hike?" Oh well. We chilled out a bit at the sweet playground and were in better spirits when we made it over by the skating rink to the Garden Cafe for a little Pit Boys lunch. There is a really nice room to have lunch, complete with fireplace, overlooking the garden and skating rink. But we suggest bringing your own lunch -- Pit Boys tasted great, but didn't sit so well with anyone. After lunch Cam and I insisted that we were ready to behave and hit the trails again, but our attitude adjustments were a bit late. It was nap time. If you are in the area and have time, we also suggest checking out Cantler's Riverside Inn for an authentic crab feast.

O Christmas Tree: Printmaking Paper Ornaments

2011-12-15T06:19:00.000-05:00

Can you tell that we are in FULL ON holiday mode? We loved making our snowglobes in school with momma, but she knew it wouldn't take that much time. So she planned a second craft doing basic printmaking again (we loved it so much the first time). We each used red and green glitter paint and painted right on our table. Momma then helped us press a piece of white posterboard onto the painted area to make a print. Once they dried, she used her circle cutter to cut out various sizes of ornaments, punched a hold in each, and tied a glittery piece of ribbon on them. Nothing complicated, but we think they look nice hanging in our window (we have yet to get our tree and we better soon -- we have lots of new ornaments to hang!).

The Gold It's In The ...: Salt Dough Ornaments (finished product)

2011-12-14T06:46:00.001-05:00

We heard TinkerLab's warning about conducting stage two of salt dough ornament making outside (have you ever had to clean up a boatload of glitter? yeah, we know that instead mom would have just let all of us have glittery feet for a while), but decided to keep our painting inside and forgo the glitter and non-washable paint for metallic tempera paint (we are related to the original Sargent Art owners who generously gave mommy a BIG box of art supplies a few years back -- we are still working our way through them). We'll see how they hold up. After they dried, Kane practiced using scissors and helped mommy cut the twine for our ornaments. We then honed our fine motor skillz and tried to thread the twine through the ornament -- Kane was a champ. I decided instead to use my snack of veggie sticks -- they fit perfectly, but likely fall short in the ornament holding up department. We loved this project and have a new one on our list for next year -- don't these Artful Parent stamped ornaments look awesome?

Walking in a Winter Wonderland: Winter Wonderland at Smithsonian Discovery Theater

2011-12-13T06:26:00.001-05:00

We hadn't been to the Smithsonian Discovery Theater in a while, but we were excited to see that the theater was having Bob Brown in for a puppet show this holiday season. We've seen Bob Brown at Glen Echo before and even though his schtick doesn't change much from show to show, we think he's hilarious every time. Plus I have recently taken a liking to The Muppets and Mr. Brown used to puppeteer for The Muppets (and something called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, too). Also on our list is to go check out the ORIGINAL Kermit at the National Museum of American History. I sat well and laughed for the whole show. Cami played a game of "test mom's parenting limits in front of crowd." Thank goodness Grammie B was with us. "Winter Wonderland" is over, but you can check out "Seasons of Light," which runs throughout the holidays. And keep an eye out for the theater's upcoming Tot Rock Series (in partnership with Jammin' Java) -- they'll be the last Thursday morning of every month starting February 2012.

Yes, I see that line.

And now you see that line, behind me.

My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard: Ted's Bulletin (and another playseum visit)

2011-12-12T06:25:00.001-05:00

We recently decided to take a second trip to the Cap Hill Playseum location and wanted to go a little earlier in the day this time -- if we were going to pay $6, we wanted our money's worth. We showed up a little after 9 as the website said it opened at 9. Unfortunately it opened at 10. But we sat outside at the little bistro tables and ate our snack (along with another very timely family). When they arrived to open up shop, they told us that they were having a professional photographer there that day taking pics for the website. And, if our moms were willing to sign a release, our mugs just might show up there. After an overly thorough back and forth with the photographer, mom finally signed the freakin' thing. And Cam and I proceeded to ham it up for the next two hours. Two hours. When is the last time we did ANYTHING for two whole hours? Let's just say when the Certifikid deal came around recently, mom snagged those puppies up.

After playtime we went back to Ted's Bulletin for some grub, which we had scoped out during our pre-10 a.m. wait. OMG. This was the real highlight of our trip. Despite the fact that we both threw serious s*it shows for the first 10 minutes and caused the entire family at the next table to gawk in horror and pity at mom (seriously, the three moms of grown children literally hugged her as they left and said "wow. you must really need to get out of the house."), all was good when they delivered our vanilla milkshake (they even let us split one). And mom's "The Rachel" sandwhich. And my healthy "funny face" pancake -- you can get breakfast ANY TIME of the day and they have a great kids menu. Plus the black and white movies on the wall enthralled Cami (at least long enough for mom to eat 1/4 of her sandwich, which is literally all she could eat). I'm sure this is a favorite joint with the locals (it was packed), but we will gladly haul ourselves back to the row for some more of Ted's. If you make a trip to the Playseum, make sure to stop in at Ted's after (just a few doors down). It was even worth the parking ticket we got for extending our stay.

"So, this book is really really old."

whip cream and sprinkles, baby.

oh no Mr. Bacon, turn that frown upside down.

We Can be Heroes Just for One Day: Holiday Mail for Heroes

2011-12-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

We have no particular ties to the military, but given that we've just started to understand the meaning of the holidays (we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas) and our understanding is that serious presents are on their way to us, momma thought it would be a good idea to start doing some things that help us understand that the holidays are really about spending time with your family and friends, letting them know you love them, and helping other people out. We came across the Holiday Mail for Heroes idea from one of our readers a little late in the game (holiday cards must be postmarked TODAY), but we picked up some cards yesterday and spent the last little bit of sunlight we had left (our power was out ALL day yesterday) decorating them. Kane was very excited to "make cards for the soldiers" and I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday animal stickers (and sticking them all over the house). I mean we're going to decorate the heck out of something every day anyways, it might as well go to a good cause. Hopefully we can bring a little unexpected joy to those serving in the military that might be far away from loved ones at the holidays. This will be on our list again next year and we'll give ourselves some more time!

Where it's So White as Snow: Snow Globes

2011-12-08T06:34:00.000-05:00

We were under the impression that it was going to get cold enough in D.C. soon that all this rain would turn to snow. No luck yet. In the meantime, we made some snow globes at school. Mom bought these plastic penguins and superglued them onto the lids of plastic OTC containers (glass containers look nicer, but probably not a great idea with a bunch of toddlers). At school we each got to help pour water into our container, add a few drops of glycerine, and (most importantly) pour a whole mess of glitter inside and shake, shake, shake. We used two kinds of glitter (regular silver glitter from OTC and fancy Martha Stewart glitter) and these turned out great. Mom made a tester the night before with similar plastic cowboy figures and used mostly the MS glitter, which actually seemed to have dissolved a bit the next day and made the water cloudy. So we stuck mostly with the old school stuff for our penguin ones.

Oh, to Live on Sugar Mountain: Red Velvet Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2011-12-07T06:22:00.017-05:00

One short trip to the grocery store with both kids left mom with the following conclusions: (1) she's pretty sure she spent $206.00 on Teddy Grahams; and (2) the Peapod $7 delivery fee is more than worth it. We did in fact leave with our tummies full of Teddy Grahams, but we also finagled a copy of Woman's Day "Guilt-Free Sweet Treats." (oh, come on. you know you always want to buy one of those cheesy recipe magazines at the counter). And since I'm full on into pastry chef mode right now, I insisted that we make something ASAP (about 40 minutes before mom was set to leave for a rare GNO last weekend). Enter WD's Devil's Food Chocolate Chunk Cookies -- You'll need:

- 1 box (18.25 oz) devil's food cake mix
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 1/2 cups (9 oz) semisweet chocolate chunks
- Garnish: 1/4 cup white baking chips

Directions: Heat oven to 350 F. You'll need baking sheet(s) lined with nonstick foil. Beat cake mix, butter, water, egg and vanilla in a medium bowl with mixer on medium speed 1 minute or until blended. Stir in chocolate chunks. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 3 inches apart on baking sheet(s). Bake 12 to 14 minutes until puffed and set (cookies will sink when cool). Cool on pan 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Garnish: Put chips in a small ziptop bag; microwave on high, kneading bag every 10 seconds, until chips are melted. Snip a tip off a corner and drizzle chocolate on cookies. Let set.

We substituted in Red Velvet cake mix (all we had) and instead of using semisweet chocolate chunks, we chopped up and used some of the gold pirate coins from my bday. And we skipped the white chocolate chip icing. We generally find the "total time" provided in recipes to be off the mark -- especially when Cam and I are helping out. But this was right on and they were delish.

Let's Drink to the Salt of the Earth: Salt Dough Ornaments

2011-12-06T06:36:00.000-05:00

Salt dough ornaments have been on our list of things to do for the upcoming holidays, but it wasn't until TinkerLab posted step-by-step instructions that mommy took the plunge. It wasn't at all difficult, but for some reason it seemed like it would be. Mommy actually mixed up the dough, but then Kane and I each got a bunch to roll out and then cut ornaments out of. We doubled the recipe TinkerLab followed and ended up adding about 1 1/3 cups of water, which was still too much. The dough was much easier to work with after we liberally floured it during rolling. Instead of using our kitchen counter, mommy covered our table with butcher paper and then taped down freezer paper (shiny side up) for us to use as a working surface -- it worked out great. And then all she had to do was fold up the paper to clean up. Stay tuned for our painted, finished product! (And if you are in our family, don't. Because it's likely what you are getting as a present!)

I liked to make fingerprint marks in my ornaments.

Music is My Aeroplane: Gravelly Point

2011-12-05T10:31:00.000-05:00

We lucked out on weather this weekend and spent Saturday morning spotting airplanes and playing soccer and football at Gravelly Point. It's a bit loud, but it is the best place to watch airplanes take off from Reagan -- it's right at the end of one of its runways. While daddy taught Kane to tackle properly (just what he needed to learn), I pretended I was an airplane flying around on the ground. We soaked up lots of rays and loved guessing where the airplanes were headed.

And There's Glitter on the Floor: Snowflake Playdough

2011-12-02T06:29:00.001-05:00

Yea, yea, yea. We know it's been in the 60s in D.C. this week, but we've decided it's winter and we wanted to make snowflake playdough for momma's duty day at my preschool this week. We worked off of this no-cook recipe (which we used to make pumpkin playdough at school before), but added blue food coloring, peppermint extract, and lots and lots of glitter. Oh and we added a little bit of baby oil since we had such good luck adding that to our last cooked batch. This no-cook one did not turn out nearly as well as the last (and far from the soft goodness of the cooked one we regularly use). It's always too watery and it's hard to add the right amount of extra flour with a table full of "patient" toddlers waiting for their play dough. But we all still had fun and got some good motor skillz out of it -- we all helped measure the ingredients, mom added the hot water and mixed it up, and then we each got a little batch to mix the food coloring, etc. into. Never able to just let things lie, momma mixed up a batch of the cooked dough at home later that afternoon and we dyed it with our Wilton's (blue and lavender -- a much better color) and got to use our new pastry cutting kits momma bought us from IKEA (I'm REALLY into being a chef right now). I spent at least 45 minutes playing with my new pastry kit and ice cream playdough machine. We all heart playdough in our house. And we love the recipe mentioned above so much, we'll list it here for quick reference (this makes a big batch):

- 4 cups water
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
- food coloring (we found that it helps mixing in the food coloring with the water first -- especially if you use gel food coloring)

Combine ingredients, stirring constantly until most of the moisture is absorbed (it will take a bit). Let it cool on some wax paper and add any extract or scent if you want. You can add the food coloring at this point, too. It's just a bit harder to mix in - but gives the kiddos a good workout. I like to mix in a bit of baby oil to get a good, soft texture. Store in airtight container.

Cam singing happy birthday with her "birthday cake."

She's a Brick --- House: Gingerbread House

2011-12-01T06:39:00.001-05:00

This year we're jumped right on board the crazy train of getting right into the winter holidays the day after Thanksgiving. On a recent trip to Michaels for art and craft supply restocks, I talked momma into buying a gingerbread house to make and we brought it to Jerz for the day after Thanksgiving. We did one last year at my old school with her, but she insisted on buying a pre-assembled one. And now I know why. We were pretty much totally out of icing by the time momma actually got something together that resembled a house. Cam and I basically ate all the candy while mom and dad bricked that baby together, but we had a good time. I'm thinking this is likely the last time we buy one of these pre-baked, but not assembled houses. The gingerbread doesn't taste very good, so we might try to make some ourselves next year -- can't look much worse.

One More Cup of Coffee: Spray Painted Coffee Filters

2011-11-30T06:17:00.008-05:00

Momma generally dislikes doing a lot of overly "cutesy" arts and craft projects, so she's stayed away from lots of the coffee filter ones floating around out there. But we've done a few of them at school this year and she thought she'd give one a try. And we used it as an opportunity to break out a new tool -- the spray bottle. I should have known I was in for something good when momma starting draping the entire table in butcher paper, but I was still incredibly excited and surprised when she started filling up spray bottles with washable liquid watercolors. I LOVED IT. I was a painting machine. I couldn't get enough filters, fast enough. Cami wasn't able to use the spray bottle by herself, but she liked having mom help her use the bottle, shaking paint out of the bottle herself, and painting with a paintbrush.

I think our current plan is to periodically do this project (likely outside next time!), save up our painted filters, and use them for a party garland (like this or this). But this was such a success (despite the household casualties, see below) that I think we're going to try also try some of these:

- coffee filter spray art with markers (which would avoid the spraying of paint everywhere)
- outdoor spray painting
- some printmaking

Oh -- even though I did a really good job of (mostly) keeping the paint aimed at the table and in the direction of the coffee filters, momma would like me to point out that the "washable" watercolors indeed come out of clothes and off of skin quite easily. The same does not go for our bamboo wood floors and white walls, which were unfortunate and innocent victims of this project. We think an arts studio should be at the top of everyone's holiday lists for us.

Beach, Baby: Brigantine, NJ in the Fall/Winter

2011-11-29T06:29:00.002-05:00

Oh how we love our beach any time of year, but fall/winter is really one of our favorites. Even though we can't stay down there all day long (too cold - even with this year's unseasonably high temps) and can't go in the water, we pretty much have the run of the place and Veg gets to make his triumphant return as king of the sand. We spent our Thanksgiving holiday down the shore at Nona's house and as much of that time as possible on the beach. With a few of our old summertime shovels (and some new army men), we played 'till our fingers were bone cold. Veg outdid himself the first day and spent a night up trying to recoup (thanks Uncle Steve, Nona, and Grandpa D-Rock for letting mom and dad sleep!). I think he was tired from all those holes he dug for us! We don't really want word to get out, but this is the best beach ever -- any time of the year.

yes, Kane did need his golf club at the beach.

thanks, Veg.

I May As Well Play: Moon Dough

2011-11-28T06:38:00.002-05:00

Momma and I saw this in the dollar store over our Thanksgiving holiday in New Jersey and decided to pick it up (we were scouring the store for another craft-related item that we couldn't find, but still managed to spend an unnecessary $18). Each of the refill packs we bought came with two little molds in their lids and our playdough toys worked well on it also. It was very strange and it definitely felt very unnatural (that combined with the fact that it was from the dollar store made mom very jumpy about letting Cam play with it -- since of course she tried to eat it), but it turned out to be pretty cool. And even though I got it all over the rug at Nona's house, it vacuumed up easily (we assume playdough wouldn't have, so maybe it's a better choice for carpeted play locations). We haven't seen any other homemade recipes that differ that much from the cloud dough we made a while ago, but it was really a different texture from that. I think we'll keep our eyes peeled for additional recipes -- even though it was from the dollar store, it wasn't very cheap considering most of it got vacuumed up at the end. Maybe we could save more off of our wood floors, but it's always more fun to make the dough before playing with it!

And I Want to Thank You: Giving Thanks

2011-11-24T06:04:00.002-05:00

Inspired by No Monsters in My Bed's periodic "Grateful Lists" (oh those kiddos are going to love looking back on those later in life), momma and I decided to make Thanksgiving cards using the marbled leaves we made, some of my drawings, and things for which I was thankful. Of course, we never quite got it all together (explaining the concept of thankfulness took a bit). But we have the base there and we'll save the cards we made to send out next year. Here are a few of the things I am grateful for this year:

1. "Being happy."
2. "Because you let me help you make the cake."
3. (about Grammie B) "Taking me to her house."
4. (about Nona) "Chairs. Sitting down with us."
5. (about daddy) "For spending a lot of money."
6. "For putting baby sister down." (for her nap)
7. (followed by) "My sister."
8. "For sharing at the museum."
9. "For giving back." (as related to sharing at the museum)
10. "For dad."
11. "Just Kaney."
12. "The car."

Cam has yet to get much of a word in edgewise. She seems to have taken to brute force lately to get her point across, which doesn't really match up that well with our "thankfulness" exercise. We're sure that when she can talk better, up there on her list will be that she's thankful I piped down for a bit.

Happy Turkey Day!!! We'll catch you on the flip side!

Pumpkin You're Hollow Within: Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

2011-11-23T06:50:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early at school and my super nice teacher brought in a turkey with all the trimmings, which I totally chowed. Also a big hit (although brought LATE by momma. ahem. ahem), were the pumpkin pie cupcakes I helped make. These were super easy, used up some of that canned pumpkin we accidentally purchased a while back, and very tasty. A word to the wise -- don't eat or serve these right out of the oven. They are much, much better chilled with whip cream. Like a mini crustless pumpkin pie. Yum.

Pebbles and Marbles: Marble Painting

2011-11-22T06:13:00.005-05:00

We've seen many many versions of marble painting and we decided to try out one of our own. Because we go through paper towels in our house like no one's business (we know, we know, it's not very green. But believe me, it's very very Green), we have lots of paper towel rolls saved up and decided to use those. Mom rubberbanded a piece of foil on the bottom, rolled up a piece of paper and put it in the tube, dipped the marbles in paint, dropped them in, tinfoiled the top, and let us shake away. Kane wasn't very interested, but I thought it was pretty fun to shake away. But this project didn't hold my interest for long either -- I couldn't really see what was going on and mom wasn't in enough of a "free for all" mood to let me dip and drop the marbles myself (and, no, i don't think my past history of ingesting small gemstones should have been relevant to that decision). Oh well. Clearly the only way to go with marble painting next time is large scale.

Crab If You Want Her: Cantler's Riverside Inn

2011-11-21T06:21:00.001-05:00

If you are not from the Maryland shore, as most D.C.'ers are not (in fact, most of them are transplants from all over the place), the local obsession with Maryland crabs is hard to understand. That is, until you go to Cantler's Riverside Inn. And even though we aren't technically "from the shore," we are "born and raised" locally (all 1.5 - 3 years of our existence). So, we get it. And we get ourselves to Cantler's every few months all year long to gorge. Lots of people think "all that work for this little bit of meat?" But all that "work" is fun -- what toddler wouldn't want to wail away with a wooden mallet and check out live crabs in Cantler's holding tanks? Summer is by far our favorite time of the year to go -- get there EARLY to get a seat outside and watch the boats along the river. But fall and winter are just as fun and perhaps a little less crowded.

Kane's First Visit -- August 2009 -- 10 months old

(this was also Cami's first visit, in utero)

Most Recent Visit -- October 2011

Tiny Bubbles: Homemade Bathtub Paint

2011-11-18T06:07:00.001-05:00

Our recent arts and crafts activities have generally ended with us in the bathtub. So mom figured why not just move the arts and crafts there? We usually get to help mix up whatever concoction we are going to play with, but this time around I think mom just wanted to get us in the tub (aka somewhat confined) and she mixed these up herself. We followed this recipe, but used Johnson & Johnson's Pure Cornstarch baby powder instead -- obviously because in our house only real cornstarch does the trick with diaper rash and, therefore, we are out of stock. It worked just fine, but mom ended up adding about 6 tablespoons of the cornstarch powder (instead of the 4 tablespoons called for in the recipe). Mom anticipated the inevitable dropping of the paint in the tub, but was pleasantly surprised to find that even when submerged under water, the paint sort of stayed inside the container and wasn't ruined (when retrieved relatively quickly). Cornstarch - what a wacky thing. I'd like to say that we played nicely for a while, but Kane's attempts at hoarding quickly led to paint in my eye and that was the end of that (even with California Baby bodywash, I was not tear free). I know we'll be doing this again, because we both really liked it. But perhaps during separate bath times.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn: I Heart NYC Stencils

2011-11-17T06:35:00.001-05:00

In honor of a visit from a good Brooklynite friend, we busted out our OTC NYC stencils and took our bright fingerpaints to them. We're no Crisp, but we think they turned out pretty cool. Cam wasn't really a fan - she just wanted to rip the stencils up. I think I'll scoop up some Japanese cotton hoodies and get going on those next. Unfortunately, we were so monsterish when mommy's friend visited (uncharacteristically so) that I think my piggy bank has been frozen until my behavior improves. So I guess we'll have to work these into my existing greeting card line for the moment -- although I think they also look kind of neat left as is on the paper. We'll see!

In the Circle Game: Practicing Circles and Lines

2011-11-16T06:13:00.003-05:00

All of a sudden I've gone from mad scribbling and scratching my way through paper to asking for markers and paper to sit down and draw slowly and intently. I'm really working on my circles right now (at no one's urging) and I tell momma that they are all kinds of things -- lakes, rocket ships, roads, pirates (of course), and on and on. Of course I also love ripping up the pages once I'm done with my drawing. I am also a huge fan lately of these Crayola Pip-Squeaks markers that make different lines (this is COMPLETELY uncompensated shout out) and like drawing circles within circles with various markers to see the difference. Now that I am no longer napping in the afternoon, I get some nice alone time with art supplies for which Cam isn't quite ready (although she also really enjoys chewing on the Pip-Squeaks). Now if Cam would only take that afternoon nap consistently (instead of screaming and rattling her crib), momma might actually be productive, too.

My Muffin Top is All That: Tempting Trail Mix Chocolate Banana "Muffins"

2011-11-15T06:37:00.001-05:00

We have really been loving "cooking" with mommy lately. Given our commitment to keeping mom on her culinary toes, Kane and I try to reject and devour the same exact meal at random. So mom has given up what little real cooking she did and has forged a real bond with Trader Joe's. It seems to incite her less when I scarf TJ's traditional pot roast one night and then throw it at the dog (while also screaming "no doggie - mine!") the next. Guess old TJ just didn't get that particular roast right. In any event, we've taken to doctoring up TJ's staples into various concoctions and we just came up with possibly the best "muffin" ever. Here's the scoop. You'll need:

- 1 box of TJ's Banana Bread Mix (and the vegetable oil, eggs, and water called for on the box)
- 2 bananas
- 1 package TJ's Tempting Trail Mix
- 1/2 bag TJ's chocolate chips

Make the Banana Bread as called for on the box. Add in two sliced bananas, the Tempting Trail Mix, and 1/4 of a bag of chocolate chips. Mix well. Scoop into lined muffin tins (ours made 15 muffins - filled 3/4 of the way). Bake at 325 F for 25 - 27 minutes. While the "muffins" are in the oven, mix the remaining 1/4 bag of chocolate chips with a healthy pour of milk into a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted. Once "muffins" are done, spoon the chocolate on top and let it all cool.

We were able to help mommy with almost all of the above steps, including slicing the bananas with a dull knife. Note that while we didn't chop the trail mix, unless your kiddos are used to eating whole nuts, you might want to do that (although they softened a bit when we cooked them). And, of course, if your kid has a nut allergy, you should skip the trail mix altogether. They looked so good mom let us each have a 1/2 after dinner (even though we had just coated the surface of pretty much everything in Kane's bathroom with toothpaste while mom "made" dinner. but that's another story).

Ocean Breathes Salty: National Aquarium in Baltimore

2011-11-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

It had been a long time since we'd been to the National Aquarium -- since I was about 2 months old. So we went up this past weekend and met Grammie B in B'More for a little swim with the fishes. The highlight of the trip was getting to see the sting rays being fed and the dolphin show. Downsides were the crowds, long line for the jellyfish exhibit (so we never got to see it), and the medium-high meltdowns both Cam and I had. Oh and its like $20 - $26 a pop to get in and see the dolphin show. BS. But keep in mind that you can get a "return" stamp to come back later that day if you need to step out (and, like, deposit your cranky kids somewhere so you can actually see some stuff). We suggest visiting on a weekday. The aquarium does have "dollar days," but a regular weekend day was so packed, I can't imagine what it's like on a bargain day. Keep in mind that you cannot bring strollers (but you can check them). There is also a Children's Gallery, which we whizzed by on our way out the door. We'll keep our eyes open for a Living Social deal, but likely won't spring the dough to go back any time soon.

Blue to Blue in the Night: Elephant Printmaking

2011-11-11T06:03:00.000-05:00

We've worked our way through the alphabet to the letters E and F at school and momma decided to do an art project with the letter "E" with us. One of the only times we all sit calmly at school is when we are painting, so we did a basic printmaking project. Momma found an elephant template on Pinterest, enlarged it, and traced that on to posterboard. She also traced a capital letter "E" and a lowercase letter "e" she made in Word. She then cut out pieces of the posterboard so that each piece had a traced object on it (but didn't cut out the actual shape yet). At school, she squirted two different colors of blue and one purple fingerpaint onto the table in front of each of us. We then got to paint the actual table with it! We made designs, practiced a few letters, and mostly enjoyed making a big mess. Then we pressed the posterboard down onto our portion of painted table and made a "print" of what we had drawn.

You would think momma would have remembered from our recent leaf marbling that the intent was to paint on the back of the traced object (so when she cut it out you didn't see any tracing marks). She didn't. But because she mounted the prints onto black paper, it didn't matter much (you couldn't see the tracing lines). Except for the small letter "e," which she had purposefully traced backwards with the intent of printing on the back of it. No worries -- we all loved the project so much that we did lots of extra printmaking and she was able to trace a small letter "e" onto each of our leftovers. Cam got to do this later in the afternoon at home and she loved it, too. By that point, momma remembered which side needed to be printed. Cam's favorite part was picking up the paper to see the print -- there were lots of "ooooohhh"s. I see lots of table painting in our future.

In the Vanilla Sky: Vanilla and Cinnamon Playdough

2011-11-10T06:14:00.001-05:00

My obsession with Strawberry Shortcake is back in full swing, so when we finally tossed out our pumpkin pie playdough (which lasted FOREVER in homemade playdough time), I requested that we make strawberry playdough. Momma thought she bought strawberry flavor ages ago for something or another, but turns out it was long gone. We briefly thought we could do banana, but that had evaporated. Can you tell momma cooks a lot? Fortunately she had vanilla and because vanilla is my absolute most favorite yogurt flavor and I eat 17 of them a day, I acquiesced. To keep the holiday spirit, we split the batch and made one uncolored with vanilla extract and one colored brown with cinnamon (and a little nutmeg). Yummers. Fits right into my icecream playdough set. And this new recipe we used made really really really soft squishy dough -- must be the baby oil. Makes everything better.

And Charlie's Making Me Smile: Ivory Soap Explosion

2011-11-09T06:36:00.001-05:00

We are a little young for lots of the cool kids science experiments out there, but this demonstration of Charles' Law seemed too cool to put on the back burner. Get yourself a bar of ivory soap, cut it in half (we didn't, and a nugget was left in the bottom of our tupperware container), throw it in the microwave, and go. Ours got HUGE after about 1 minute, so we removed and repeated several times. Be careful, it actually does get pretty hot. When it cooled a bit, we decided that it looked like snow and had ourselves a nice little snowball fight on the dining room table. This was a giant mess. But we smelled good and mom threw us right in the bathtub pre-soaped. Our doggie Vegas helped mom clean up the mess and ended up blowing soap bubbles for much of the rest of the afternoon. Hysterical.

I'm Searching for Adventure: Recess Monkey at Jammin Java

2011-11-08T06:07:00.000-05:00

We were seriously amped that Recess Monkey was in town this past weekend and playing at Jammin Java. Hailing from Seattle (so you know mom likes them), Recess Monkey is a popped up funky indie mix of The Beatles, a little Weezer, and Flight of the Conchords (we mean that in the best way possible. can't you just hear Bret and Jemaine sing "Sack Lunch"?) These guys are all elementary school teachers and I'm so jealous of their students. Despite our pre-show excitement, Kane and I brought serious attitudes with us to the show. All the other kids were dancing up a storm, but we slapped on our grumpy faces and acted like mom and dad brought us to see debbie downer. Like everything else disastrous about the weekend, mom and dad blamed the time change. But of course we haven't stopped talking about the show and requesting that mom loop play "Caterpillar Pirate" in the car.

We'd never been out to JJ before (it's in Virginia), but it wasn't a bad drive, they had good espresso for mom and dad and yummy lunch. And if you ever venture out to Jammin Java, make sure to stop in at the hardware store next door. They'll let you feed their potbellied pig!