Painting on a Dry Erase Board

This huge dry erase board is my alltime favorite garage sale find. There were two for 7 dollars a piece (do you know how much these things normally cost?!) so my mom and I each took one for L to play with at our houses. Ours is in his room with all sorts of magnets on it. He loves it!

However, today it occured to me that he could probably paint on it with washable paint! I tested a corner and it wiped right off. So, then outside it went and the fun began :)

I love that L plays great independantly but also asks me to join in quite often.

I'm usually always up for messy fun.

One thing L always does is ask me to draw out a story or scene of some type. These are always his ideas. I know he loves to see his thoughts come to life. In this case, he asks me to paint a tree with apples ( I painted the tree and he added apples). Then he asked that I paint him climbing the tree trying to get an apple. He also wanted me by the tree watching him climbing it.

So thats what I TRIED to paint.

I think ive mentioned before that i'm the worst artist in the world.

It's all stick figures and cartoonlike creations with me...but L doesn't mind :)

He then asked that I draw a rainbow, which I did. Then he wanted it to be a circle. So I turned it into a circle and he asked that I put certain people standing on top of the rainbow-naming them one by one (he included me and daddy, and some of his friends and even one of daddy's friends)

out of this play came L's first attempt at drawing a stick person!

After a quick hosedown, the board was good as new!

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Outdoor Pretend Play: Carrot Garden in a Storage Container

When I was younger my grandma had raised gardens and a few of them were just for us kids. Sometimes we planted things and sometimes they were just used for making mud pies. I remember pulling carrots and eating them straight from the garden. Well, the other day L wanted to buy the BIG bag of carrots instead of baby carrots and it gave me an idea. We don't have a garden at home (yet) so I got one of our large storage containers, added some potting soil, and put some carrots in the soil. I gave him a basket and a bucket of water as well.

So simple...but he loved it.

He pulled them up and replanted them himself many times.

He loved washing them and of course he had to taste a few as well.

I want to warn anyone reading this that L brokeout in serious hives from playing in the Miracle Grow potting soil. My husband works with a guy whose kid played in their garden that had Miracle grow and the same thing happend! I would now advise anyone to not let their children play with miracle grow potting soil, just in case. We'll be using REAL dirt from now on.

 (talk about some major mommy guilt!)

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Mud Kitchen

I brought L's kitchen outside for some serious mud pie action. It was amazing! We were outside for easily 5 hours of mud fun. A big plus was that cleanup was super easy I just hosed everything off when we were done! The downside...I can't just dig a hole in my front yard and our back yard is a rock yard) so I used potting soil (or mix?..anyway, the one without the fertilizer) and after we were done L developed a rash (read bottom of post). Soooo, next time we'll have to go looking for some "real" dirt.

(crazy that I have to go buy dirt though)

But nevermind the rash...L had SOOO much fun!

The Setup

Ingredient Basket

Mud Chicken

So proud of his soup, and of course Mommy had to taste everything :)

I couldn't resist making a mud pie of my own

and after making my own mud pie I was fully on board with helping cook a mud feast.

From left to right we have:

rock soup, mud bread, mud chicken, mud muffins, and mud tacos

Now, after getting some "real dirt" i'm totally inviting some mom friends over so our kids can have a

Mud Pie Playdate! 

I want to warn anyone reading this that L brokeout in serious hives from playing in the Miracle Grow potting soil. My husband works with a guy whose kid played in their garden that had Miracle grow and the same thing happend! I would now advise anyone to not let their children play with miracle grow potting soil, just in case. We'll be using REAL dirt from now on.

Talk about some major mommy guilt!

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