"Can I Play One of Your Games?"

Jacob just loves playing our games, his way of course. Ticket to Ride is a favourite and also Zooloretto. So when Daniel was sleeping I thought I'd let him try Settlers. He loved it.

A Warning

So remember that big baking soda and vinegar "volcano" we made recently? Well, the boys wanted to do it again. Of course they did, it was awesome, it was fun, it took up a lot of time and all I have to do is a load of dishes and a load of laundry afterwards. I was feeling brilliant and creative so I thought they could each have their own volcano... One yellow and one blue and then when the bubbles came together it would be green. Good plan. I also thought "hey, I have half a box of baking soda in the fridge that should be replaced so why don't I just use that up, instead of the brand new box I bought at the store last week?" Sure, I know baking soda is in the fridge to absorb weird smells, but the baking soda doesn't stink... Right? WRONG! Mix that old fridge baking soda with vinegar and now all of a sudden your kitchen is filled with all the aromas you didn't want in your fridge. Seriously gross. But, the boys didn't care, they had a total blast, spilled stinky vinegar-baking soda-food colouring-water all over the place, and used up most of a cold boring morning. Now I am wondering... Should I sanitize my kitchen from that stinky mess, or is it okay because it is vinegar?

The Elephant in the Room

I have been waiting to try this recipe, so today I told the boys I would be making Elephant Bread during their "quiet time" for our afternoon snack. Jacob was so excited. He remembered when I made Monkey Bread and looked forward to this new treat all day. The boys asked why it was called Elephant Bread... I said it was because the pieces look like elephant ears. This is a sticky, gooey, caramelly, pull-apart bread. Enjoy.

"Elephant Bread"

Put this stuff in your mixer bowl:

2 cup all purpose flour
3 tbsp honey
2 1/4 tsp active dry year
1/2 tsp salt

Set aside.

In small saucepan melt:

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup milk

Remove from heat.
Add 1/4 cup water and 1 tsp vanilla.
Let cool briefly. Add to flour mixture.

Start mixer. Add 2 beaten eggs and 3/4 cup flour

Cover and let rise 1 hour.

Roll dough out nice and flat (like a pizza)
Brush 1/4 melted butter mixed with 1 tsp vanilla on top.
In small bowl mix 1 cup white sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle the majority over the buttered dough. Completely cover dough with topping.

Using pizza cutter slice into approximately 2" squares.
Stack these squares unevenly into 3 piles.
Carefully place in buttered loaf pan.
Sprinkle any remaining sugar/cinnamon on top.
Cover and let rise 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake 35-40 minutes until top is golden.

Try not to eat the whole thing.
Jacob, Daniel, and I ate half of it. It was delicious.

Frederick

Hurray! Another storybook craft! These are my favourite. I just love reading a book and then creating the character in the book with the boys. Jacob and I read the book "Frederick" by Leo Lioni together and then he asked to make Frederick. And I think they turned out so cute. In the story four mice are storing up food for the winter, but the fifth mouse, Frederick, isn't helping. Instead he gathers sunlight and colour and words. The other mice don't understand him but when the winter runs long and the food runs out, Frederick warms them with memories of their beautiful meadow, and ends the book with a poem. Daniel wanted his Frederick to one carrying corn (there is a picture of the mice storing up corn in the book) and Jacob wanted his Fredrick to be eating a chocolate chip cookie (this comes from a picture where Frederick is eating a nut with black spots).

"ROAR"igami

So my brother in Japan sent us another Japanese craft to do. This time it was origami. It was way easier than the last craft!
"Firetruck" & "Digger"

We Love Experiments

The boys started asking to do "Volcanoes" this morning, which is basically a pie pan full of baking soda and then I make four small bowls of different coloured vinegar. They use tiny measuring spoons to make mini colourful volcanoes. Today I said "Why don't we make a really big volcano?" 

So we did. I put 3/4 cup of baking soda in a bottle and shook it up with some red food colouring. Then we added 3/4 cup of vinegar. Their reaction was awesome. 

"Bubbles!" That is what the boys kept yelling. I felt smart putting the bottle inside a dish... Good thing too!

We added vinegar three times before the baking soda ran out. Measuring spoons joined the fun.

Next we added some canola oil to see how it didn't mix. This was not smart, since I did not foresee oil stains on their shirts.

Next we added blue food colouring because I had no more ideas. We needed about four more cups of water to make it a fun adventure. They made Pepsi Pudding... Which to me sound delicious.

They played with this for about 1 hour and it was awesome.

Oh yeah... There was also glitter glue involved... When squeezed in it didn't mix and made glitter snakes, which was really cool.

Beanbag Monster

Sorry the pictures are all sideways... I can't seem to make them flip! 

Anyways... Awhile back I made beanbags for the boys out of a bunch of scrap fabrics. These are great beanbags... kind of pyramid shaped, good for throwing. We kept waiting to get a big enough box to make a monster to throw our beanbags at. I had found a few on pinterest I liked (Can you tell I use that site a lot?) and the boys both loved the open mouthed monster. The boys helped design and paint this guy.

After about 2 days of using it for its proper purpose they discovered it was also good for climbing...

 For the record, the monster was also used as a chair by Jacob to watch an entire movie. And then they had a BLAST destroying it. Monster is now in the recycling.

I was going to be annoyed and then I thought- painting, throwing, climbing, resting, and breaking... all before recycling. That's alot of activities for one box that before I had kids would have just been recycled. Good times.

Tangrams Rule

I love tangrams. If you've never played with one, it is a square divided into 7 shapes. These 7 shapes can be arranged into an infinite number of designs. I found a website that showed how to make every letter of the alphabet and another site that specialized in tangram zombies. However, this was a project I devised for my MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) group, so it needed to be appropriate for 4 year olds. This was my practice version, to save ink the boys and I coloured the shapes ourselves... The final project looked more professional but I gave them all away since this one works just fine! The square is 6"x6" on a peel-and-stick magnetic sheet. I also made a little cheat-sheet with a couple of designs for the kids to follow.

A bunny... the cheat sheet is to the right.

A house

Doing it himself: Jacob's Fish

A Doony... don't worry I don't know what that means either.

Daniel was so proud... he made a Lady.