Bright Lights, Big City: Jello Light Table Sculpture

It had been a while since we'd broken out our light boxes and we've been on the search (like everyone else out here) for activities to keep nice and cool.  So we decided to whip up some Jello and see what would happen!  Mom used one of the leftover pieces of acrylic sheeting from our easels and put it on top of our two light boxes to make a nice big surface for play.  Cam had helped mom make several Jello flavors earlier in the day and mom cut them up using different cookie cutter shapes.  And she gave us some toothpicks and wooden skewers to use, which turned out to be too skinny to give much anchoring to our sculptures.  And that turned out to be OK because we mostly wanted to eat it.  Well, I mostly wanted to eat it.  Cam actually did stack some of the Jello blocks together and made different shapes.  Either way - we stayed cool!

Is It Glowing You?: Blacklight Glow Paint

Since our blacklight bubble play, we've been asking mom almost every day to get the blacklight out and play in the bathroom.   And seeing as our nightly baths have been turning into WWF matches with increasing frequency, mom thought that a glow in the dark paint bath might keep us occupied while she was getting us cleaned up.  She found these glow in the dark/blacklight face paints on Amazon and we went to town.  Cami of course completely covered herself.  I chose a more targeted approach, but we both had tons of fun.  And then we had no choice - mom had to wash the paint off, so we got really clean!  These are a little pricey, so I think next time we'll try mixing some of the paint into shaving cream (like these paints we've made before and these we spotted on Pinterest).  The blacklight is seriously saving our sick of winter selves.

SAFETY NOTE: we're no safety experts and we're pretty sure it goes without saying, but if you do this, make sure your blacklight is no where near the bathtub.

Baubles, Bangles and Beads: Light Table Beading

Mom randomly found some plastic, large-eyed needles in our junk drawer and we decided they'd be good to use for some beading.  And because we look for any excuse to use our light boxes, we pulled out the beads that came with our light table kit and used those.  I could do it as long as mommy held on to the needle and thread -- I slid the beads over the top of the needle.  Kane wanted to do it all himself, which he did a few times.  He also set the beads down and then put the needle through, which worked better for him.  But he refused to let mommy tie a knot in the bottom of the thread, so that kind of put an end to that.  Then he just wanted to throw the beads around.  But I've done this a few times with mommy by myself and I really like it -- it's a good way to spend a little quiet time working on fine motor skills.

Rave On: Blacklight Bubbles

We've seen a big uptake in blacklight kiddo play lately and decided to get on board.  Even with this super mild winter we're having, we seem to be getting stuck inside a lot in the late afternoons and are always on the look out for new ideas.  Mom got us this blacklight from Amazon -- we've only used it a few times so far, but haven't been completely thrilled.  It works best in complete darkness and small spaces.  Exactly where you want to be after you've been stuck inside in the winter?  Eh, we still are fans.

For our first go around, we kept it pretty simple -- blacklight bubbles in the bathroom.  The bubbles aren't labeled non-toxic so we tried as hard as we could to keep them off of us, but we just had too much fun popping them with our hands, faces, etc. and finding the glowing residue everywhere.  Unlike regular bubbles, these aren't at all sticky and you can't see the residue once you turn the blacklight off.  We put our glow in the dark jammies on and raved on.  Between the blacklight, glowing bubbles, and the glow wands mom snagged from Target's dollar bin, we had a serious bathroom party for a while.  It was awesome.  Mom had a hard time taking any good pictures with us jumping all over the joint, but we think the fun comes through.

Stay tuned for future blacklight fun, which fun we are pretty sure does not include using it to find pee on our carpets like this one Amazon reviewer (although mom did mention after initially trying the light in Cami's room, that after holding up well through two babies, one with projectile reflux and the other with a knack for peeing during diaper changes, the "baby's room" rug is on its last leg).

my juice glows! 

Blinded by the Light: Lightbox Water Beads

We recently combined two of our favorite things -- our lightboxes and water beads -- for a fun activity that occupied almost a whole afternoon.  Mom found some better water beads that didn't squish quite as easily as our last batch (we liked these better than these) and we used cooking utensils and silicone baking molds to scoop, pour, and sort water beads for a while.  Nothing too complicated here, just some sensory fun.

This made a bit of a mess, so mom found some small, shallow storage boxes at Target that fit nicely on the top of our lightboxes.  Since then, we've done lots more water bead play on our lightboxes -- it somewhat helps us keep the beads from squishing all over the floor.  Although it is such fun to send them bouncing in every direction -- mom loves it.

Glitter Shines Forever: Lightbox Glitter Painting

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).

Shells of Silver: Shell X-Ray Light Play

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.