Sticker resist t-shirts, part two

We made our sticker resist t-shirts last week, and after 1 washing . . . the paint mostly washed off.  Which one should expect if one was using washable craft paint, right? Ha ha ha. 

 So we tried it again, this time using fabric paint. And of course it worked out a lot better!


Before being washed: 

 After being washed:  

 Whoo hoo! I'm glad it worked out and the kids each have a personalized shirt that they made for themselves (with the exception of Theodore, but he'll have a chance to make his own someday, I'm sure).  :-)

Kid interviews -- 2012 edition

Here is the 2012 edition of kid interviews! It's funny how some of Oliver's answers are very similar to last year's. :-)  (You can read last year's answers here.)


Maria: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Oliver: A Ninjago Lego designer
Buttercup: A firefighter


M:  What is your favorite color?
O:  Orange, gray, blue, yellow and black
B:  Blue


M: Who is your best friend?
O:  Nathan, Cooper, Shelby, and [his stuffed] Elephant
B:  Skylyn


M:  What is your favorite food?
O:  Macaroni and cheese
B:  Pizza


M: What is your favorite game to play?
O:  Lego Creationary
B:  Playing in the pool


M: What is your favorite song?
O:  The Imperial March and the Philadelphia song [the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song]
B:  the Thomas the Train song


M: What is your favorite book?
O:  the Ninjago character book
B:  Saint George and the Dragon 


M: What is your favorite thing to do?
O:  Play with my Ninjago ninjas and snakes
B:  Play with my shark and Theodore

Sticker resist t-shirts

This is a super cute idea that I've been wanting to try since I saw it on the Having Fun at Home blog. 

You'll need:

--white t-shirts for each child

--foam letter stickers

--paint and brushes

--something to put under the top layer of the shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through to the other side (I used fingerpaint paper, but you could use cardboard, wax paper, foil, etc)

Spell out each child's name on the shirts, making sure you press the stickers down hard enough to make them stick all the way around. 

Then have the kids paint all around the stickers. 

After the paint is dry, peel the stickers off and voila! 

The only problem is that I used washable craft paint (!!!) instead of digging out my acrylic paint. So the paint may wash off or bleed after they go through a wash cycle . . . but that's okay, we can try it again!

Creamy Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes

I used to make a weekly dinner menu so I would always be prepared for dinner, but then the 3rd baby came along and . . . 1 year later I still haven't gotten back in the swing of menu planning. :-)  Since I'm usually scrounging at the last minute to find something for dinner, the other day I found the All Recipes Dinner Spinner app and downloaded it on my phone, and it's not only fun but I've made two yummy recipes from it! This is the first one -- Creamy Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes.

You'll need:

1 (12oz) package pasta

2 tbsp olive oil

1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed and crumbled (I used regular smoked chicken sausage and it was fine)

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup diced onion

3 cloves garlic, minced (I used ~2 tbsp minced garlic)

(I also added ~2 cups of chopped fresh spinach)

1 (28oz) can Italian-style plum tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped (I used 2 14oz cans of Italian-style diced tomatoes)

1/2 cup heavy cream (I used 1/2 cup whole milk)

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp minced fresh parsley (omitted)

Cook pasta, drain and set aside. Heat oil and saute onion and garlic.

After onion and garlic have caramelized, add sausage and cook on both sides until browned. Add spinach and cook a little bit longer, until it's wilted. 

Take a few minutes to play with the sweaty baby boy.  :-)

Stir in tomatoes, cream and salt. Simmer until mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Stir cooked pasta into the sauce and heat through. 

Yum! Delicious, super easy, and it took about 20 minutes from start to finish. Everyone gobbled it up. I'm definitely making this again. :-)

Just add water!

I love summer! It's so hot, but I love playing outside and getting all sweaty and dirty, playing with water, splashing in the pool, and all of that good stuff.  Another thing I love about summer is that when the kids are going crazy inside, we can just go outside and they'll entertain themselves with the hose for an hour without (usually) fighting. ;-)  

Here are some pictures of Oliver and Buttercup playing outside last night with their makeshift water slide. :-) 

Squishy egg

This is a fun, super easy experiment we did last week. (I found it on the Clorox website.)  We used vinegar to dissolve the shell on an egg, which left us with a squishy, naked egg! It was really neat. (Here's a website that explains the reactions and why it happens.)

You'll need:

an egg

vinegar

a container deep enough to cover the egg with vinegar

2 days

First, place the egg in a container, and pour vinegar in until the egg is completely covered. This is what the egg looked like right after we poured the vinegar into the glass -- the bubbles started forming immediately.

 Put the container in the refrigerator, and leave it there for 2 days. Change the vinegar after 1 day. 


This is what the egg looked like after about 36 hours:  

 This is what the egg looked like after 48 hours:

It was really cool! The shell had dissolved completely. The egg really was squishy, and the kids were able to hold it and bounce it (very gently!) on the countertop. 

Then the 3 year old squeezed it a little too hard and that was the end of the egg. :-)  But it was super fun and really interesting!

Ball??

Like most babies, Theodore loves to play with balls. He gets so excited when he sees one somewhere, or even when he sees something that vaguely resembles a ball. He flaps his little fat arms, and says, "Ball? Ball? Ball? Ball? Ball?" until we either confirm that yes, it is a ball, or let him touch it. :-)  

This morning he and I were at Target (the big kids were at church camp) and we passed a display with lots of those big bouncy balls. Theodore went crazy! He frantically flapped and flapped, and said, "BALL????" with such a sweet little voice that I had to buy him one (and one for each of his older siblings, too).  

He insisted on holding it in the cart on our way through the store. :-)

It was hard for him to hold onto that big ball in the store without dropping it, so he was a very happy little guy when we got back to the car and he got to hold it in his lap. :-)

This is the view from the front seat -- how cute is that??!  I love that sweet little boy. :-)