Weekend Makes

DC had a little break in cold weather yesterday and we happily rushed to our favorite trail after school to stretch our legs outdoors. Winter generally forces us to spend so much more time inside than we want, which makes us all very, very stir crazy. And since the weather continues to act in a bizarre manner, we are facing another weekend of cold weather. My go-to after the kids have been inside long enough to turn the entire house into an obstacle course? Bathtime! We'll art in the bath, turn it into a spa, play games, make a mess just so we can stretch playtime into clean-up time ... it's the perfect place to play in the winter and here's what's topping our list this weekend!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 

In Home Entertainment: Tropical Island Tub

With today's forecasted weather it's hard to believe that we had to take an indoor tropical vacaye earlier this week. But this is a good one to keep in your back pocket for those long cold winter days which are sure to return. We came across this little gem of an idea on Growing a Jeweled Rose who has an unbelievable number of bathtub play ideas.

Almost all of our water table toys are frozen up in ice buckets on our roof deck (unintentionally this time), but mom rescued some of the marine life, tiki glasses, shells, and fabric flowers we used in our tropical water table last summer. We filled the bath up with nice warm water, dropped a few drops of blue food coloring in, added the toys and donned our beach gear. Mom planned on whipping up some of the shaving cream bath paint we love, but we ended up not even needing it.

Hey, it got us to dinner time. Or snack time actually. We stuck with the tropical theme and tried out the almond milk green smoothie we had planned - YUM. Even Kane drank it -- here's what we blended up:

- 1/4 cup spinach
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup strawberries (frozen)
- 1/2 cup blueberries (frozen)
- 1 banana

Blend together spinach and almond milk. Then add in fruit and blend until smooth. We garnished ours with a little dollop of whip cream (it was vacaye after all) and sprinkled a few almonds on top. Delish.

We'll Be Glow-in-the-Dark: Fluorescent Bathtub Painting

We're not gonna lie.  This heat has been getting us down a bit.  We're sticky and cranky and not in the mood to go anywhere.  And we haven't been feeling much like doing anything at home either.  In an effort to get ourselves back in the game, mom busted out our trusty ol' blacklight the other day, which we usually reserve for housebound wintertime madness.  We bought some fluorescent paint from Sargent Art a while ago and hadn't used it yet.  I helped mom tape up large pieces of white art paper onto the bathtub walls, we set up our blacklight, and went to town.  I really liked making handprints, but used my sponge paintbrush to go back over for some texture.  Cam liked to use the paintbrush right off the bat and then, of course, took to painting herself (the paints are labeled non-toxic :)).  And we eventually painted the bathtub (which, to mom's relief, did not fluoresce on it's own -- likely only because our beloved cleaning crew had come just that day).  When we were all finished, mom packed up the light and simply turned on the shower.  We washed the bathtub while mom washed us.  And we are feeling our creative mojo coming back.  

can you spot my undies?

one of Cam's

see my tummy?

lights on! 

Must I Paint You a Picture: Shaving Cream Tub Paint

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! 

Tiny Bubbles: Homemade Bathtub Paint

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.