Color Experimenting Activity in a Clear Plastic Egg Carton

I've been looking for a plastic egg carton for awhile now. I can never find them at Walmart, but I shopped at Harps the other day and found them there. This is the activity I wanted it for, although Im sure I can come up with other fun things to do with these!

Color Experimenting

A plastic egg carton is perfect for this.

Just add some water and supply some food coloring and a stirring utensil or two

an old towel or plastic table cloth comes in very handy as well

I set up the scenario and built excitement for the activity by telling L that he was a scientist doing experiments to make colors. I even put his "scientist" shirt on him lol.

He always loves the whole role playing thing and he was so excited to do this!

When most of the water was dark, I dumped it out and refilled it with fresh water so he could start over.

 I did this several times.

It was really neat to watch him do this.

What really suprised me was how focused he was on making and mixing the colors.

He didn't rush the process. He was very concentrative.

 

 

and of course, every good experiment around here is followed by...

Linking up at

 

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No Sew Felt Cupcakes

I wanted to make L something special for Valentines Day and when I saw THESE  no sew felt cupcakes, I knew this was perfect! There's an app on my Iphone that L loves to play with where he bakes cupcakes then decorates them. He always shows me his creations and wants me to "eat" them.
It's pretty cute. So I knew this was a perfect gift for Valentine's Day.

I used

THIS TEMPLATE

to create a felt set of 4 cupcakes, 4 liners, and 4 frostings.
I used the glitter felt for the liners.

Then I used the felt to cut out different cupcake "toppings" (sprinkles, marshmallows)

and I also bought some foam hearts (it is vday afterall), and very tiny pom-pom balls to use as toppings.

This allows L to create different combinations of cupcakes, liners and frosting 
with lots of different toppings!

For added play, visualization, and perhaps organization, I then traced the cupcake shape 4 times onto a sheet of white paper then laminated it.

He loved his Valentines Day present!

I just love felt and these were so easy to make!

You can just as easily make these with colored construction paper also.

Happy Valentines Day!

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Laminated Alphabet Activities

We're snowed in which has had me searching for extra activities for L.

 I received a laminator for Christmas from my mom

 (thanks mom!) and decided to bust it out for the first time.

Well, now i'm addicted to it and can't wait to do more projects! No more trips into town and playing the waiting game just to laminate projects!

My first project was laminating the alphabet---one letter per page.

I have all sorts of games planned for these.

Here's a few we've done so far:

Sticks and Strings

Using popsicle sticks and pieces of string, L outlined the letters.

I'll be getting more brightly colored string to use for this when the snow melts enough to get my car out.

ALPHABET BEANBAG TOSS

and we also played a game with our HOMEMADE NO SEW BEANBAGS. I laid out all the letters in order and we took turns tossing our beanbags to letters that we chose and called out, or we just tossed them and called the letter out when it landed on one. Then we picked up the letter and put it in our own piles. L kind of played it both ways but had lots of fun. There was lots of cheering and excitement when he picked up "his" letter that his beanbag landed on and he got to put it in his letter pile. He even told me he was "proud" of me when I landed a beanbag on a letter. It was adorable. This was an EXCELLENT way to review his alphabet!

Beginning Letter Object Find

We've also played a game where either me or L chooses a letter then we run around and find toys and other objects around the house that start with that letter, and place them on the letter itself. He needs lots of help with this game, but hey...thats why we're doing it!

Letter "I Spy"

I've also been taping letters to the wall in crazy places and we play "I spy the letter...." This is lots of fun for him because he loves to play the game "I Spy" anyway.

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Apple Cinnamon Cookies

I've been snowed in for a week and so therefore lots of cooking and baking has been going on.

I have the craziest stash of hershey's chocolate chips left over from Christmas--all kinds (peanut butter, dark chocolate, white chocolate, cinnamon) and so today I decided to use what I think is the most obscure kind--Cinnamon. Turns out they don't show up at many grocery stores and lots of people go searching for them. Because of that, there just aren't that many recipes including them. But then I found this recipe for

Cinnamon Chip Apple Cookies (which I thought wasn't a very good name) and renamed them...

Apple Cinnamon Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon apple juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 (10 ounce) package hershey's cinnamon baking chips (use half if you want a milder taste)

1 cup apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

3. Beat butter, brown sugar, egg, apple juice and vanilla in large bowl until creamy.

4. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5. Add to butter mixture; beat until blended.

6. Stir in oats.

7. Add cinnamon chips, apple and raisins; stir until blended.

8. Drop by teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheet.

9. Bake 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

10. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

(they are easily breakable when still warm so transfer carefully)

11. Cool completely.

These are really good cookies. I added half the chips based upon reviews. My husband doesn't like overwhelming tastes in cookies so i'm sure he'll like that better. I on the other hand think that next time i'll use all the chips. I think I'd like a stronger cinnamon taste. I do have cinnamon extract though, so perhaps i'll just use a drop or two to up the flavor. Although, they taste really good as they are...I just have more of a sweet tooth than my husband. :)

 http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-chip-apple-cookies-48976#ixzz1D80PJIkA

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