No-Mess Color Mixing

~Holly

Take a paper plate and put three puddles of paint (preferably red, blue and yellow) on the plate about the size of a silver dollar. Position them like 3 point in a triangle. Next put plasticwrap over the plate and let them push the colors together by stroking the plastic wrap. Secondary colors will emerge like magic! This lets your child learn about color mixing without the mess

~from the book "Super baby food"

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Bubble Painting

~Holly

Mix equal parts of water and dishsoap. Pour into as many bowls as you want colors, in each bowl add paint. Have the kids put a straw in the bowl and make bubbles. Place a piece of paper over the bowl gently and let the bubbles pop on the paper. When it dries it works great for stationary, cards, wrapping paper, or just to hang on the frig!

We did this a few years ago at a birthday party for Emma.

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September Meeting

We had our carry-in on the 13th and it went well. The kids enjoyed the crafts, we had a color mixing project and bubble painting. Sounds messy, but it was not too bad. I wore a white shirt without thinking about it and somehow did not get any paint on me. Next time I think we will go back to the homemade playdough, or I may try a new recipe I have for silly putty. That way they can play without us worrying about the mess of paints! The mom's enjoyed the food and company. We discussed about how we are sharing recipes and the new blog I have started here. I think this will work well, please let me know what you think. Our next Kiddie Carry-in will be on Sunday Nov. 15th at 2:00. Hope you can come.

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Play Dough

Holly (this is my altered form of the recipe from the book Super Baby Food)

2 + cups white flour
½ cup table salt (iodized or plain)
1 cup hot tap water
1 teaspoon cooking oil (optional-makes dough more pliable)
Dry Kool-aid packages - the amount depends on how many colors you want (I use the cheap off brand)

1. In a large bowl mix 2 cups flour and the salt
2. Slowly add the water and oil. This will be very doughy.
3. Place flour generously on your work surface, then place the dough in as many piles on the work surface as you want colors for (I usually do 2 colors for each batch). The more you do the brighter the colors will be, there will just be less dough of each color.
4. Make a whole in the center of each pile of dough and place the kool-aid in it, then kneed each pile separately like your making bread. You may need to add more flour until it gets to play dough consistency. The Kool-aid color may get on your hands while kneading, but it does not get on the kids hands at all when they are playing with the play dough.

Store in airtight containers (zip lock, old yogurt containers, etc.). The dough lasts for a long time. I forgot about some for about 3 months or so until we went to make more and found our last batch in with the play dough toy bag and it looked just as good as we left it, I was shocked. Although, it is really not an issue since it is so easy and cheap to make. It is much easier to take when the kids leave it out and it gets all dried up.

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Kiddie Carry-In

We had our first Kiddie Carry-In and it went great. We had some great food and the kids seemed to have a blast with the homemade playdough! Most importantly, I think, was us mom's getting to "download" information off of each other. We talked about everything from food recipes to homemade laundry detergent recipes. Nursing tips to tips on getting a toddler to sleep in their bed. We had a few moms that met and talked about home schooling. Some of us even learned from a mom that there is a sensor in the newer washing machines that you have to clean if you want it to run right, who would have thought? Hope everyone can come to our next one, who knows what we'll come away with next time. You know how it is, when you get us women together, we just talk and talk...and talk.

See you September 13th @ 2:00pm
New Hope Lutheran Church

*Good tips for your picky eater
* Perfect for anyone interested in making their own baby food
* A GREAT opportunity for moms to share with each other

Please bring a “Kiddie” dish along with its recipe, anything from pureed infant foods, finger foods, or any kid friendly dish.This is also an opportunity to exchange information about resources, books, products, sanity tips…anything!

Entertainment for kids will be provided.

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Kiddie Connection

Kiddie Connection is a group of mothers that meet to share ideas and give
support. I got the idea to start the group while I was looking for new recipes
for baby food. I made Coreyn's baby food, but didn't know anyone else who did. I started asking around and was given a few contacts.
The recipes seemed interesting, but I thought it would be even better to have
a chance to taste and discuss them. When I got the idea to do a Kiddie Carry-In I started asking people about it to see what they thought and was surprised at the amount of people who really liked the idea. I am very excited about the response I have received.

I know it has been a great source of information for me, especially since Coreyn
has now entered into the world of finger foods. I am always looking for new
ideas. I love it when I find something that really works for my family.
I still can't get over the homemade laundry detergent, We love it and it is
soooo cheap! We meet every other month, usually on the 2nd or 3rd Sunday at
2:00. Hope to see you there.

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