Rice play and mosaics

On Friday we had some friends over to play. I had just colored a bunch of rice, so as soon as it had cooled from drying in the oven I set it on the table in reach of the little ones. It was a matter of minutes before Emmett had run back to his bedroom and brought out a collection plastic and wooden animals and invited his little friend to play "Farm" with him. She thought that was a great idea! Claire wandered through after a while but didn't stay for too long. Elowen and Emmett however, played for about 45 minutes with the colored rice and the animals. When they finally wandered away to play something different I printed several simple coloring pages onto card stock and put out glue and lots of different colors of rice and beans and seeds to work with. Pretty soon the kids came back through the kitchen and saw everything set up differently. I explained what a mosaic was and showed them how to do put the seeds onto the glue to color their pictures. The bigger kids did everything themselves while I helped the little ones by applying the glue for them, and they did the rest on their own. They had a great time! The clean up really wasn't too bad. I just raked all of the spilled rice and seeds etc. off of the table onto the floor and swept it all up when they where done!

Mud ~or~ Why is it so quiet right now?

I was busy doing something in the house when I realized that I hadn't heard them playing for the last 10 minutes or so...hmmm. Even though we have nearly 3 acres Claire and Emmett tend to play right next to the house when they are outside without their big brothers. And because of that I can usually hear them through the windows the entire time they are outside.

Around here things get pretty noisy after lunch. I usually don't lay the littles down for a nap until 2:00 pm. That gives them time to play for a bit after lunch and makes it late enough in the day that while they sleep I can clean up (at least some of) the worst messes before Daddy gets home from work. But as nap time approaches, and they get more and more tired, Claire and Emmett tend to get much more noisy. They cry more, and whine a bit more, and fight or fuss with each other more at that time of day than any other. I am often very happy for nap time to roll around! When they wake up, they are both much happier, and then when Daddy gets home from work, things flow a little more peacefully than they might otherwise!

Today they have been running on high speed all day long! I mentioned over breakfast that some friends might be coming over to play tomorrow. Since then they have been super excited, making plans all morning. After lunch I sent them outside to play for a while, saying that when they came inside it would be nap time! ;-)

As soon as I realized that I hadn't heard them, I walked over to the big glass doors in the dining room thinking I'd need to go looking for them. Then I saw Emmett, stripped to his underwear and covered in mud, standing on top of the picnic table. Claire was next to the table on the back porch similarly undressed and also covered in mud. They were both concentrating on playing with the mud so much that they were being really really quiet!  I got my camera and stepped outside to watch for a while.

 After a few minutes I told them not to put any mud in their little kiddie pool, since I had just cleaned it out and refilled it the day before. In a little bit Claire came running in the house dripping wet (although not so muddy any more) and asked me to come out and see their new trick. So I followed her back out and watched as she and Emmett took turns running and jumping into the kiddie pool. When I asked why they were getting the clean pool muddy she told me that they hadn't put any mud into the pool, they had made cookies with it, and did I want one? I suppose, I did not tell her specifically not to jump in the pool while muddy, I just said don't put any mud in it...

Meanwhile Violet was peacefully napping in her little crib. Oh baby girl, it wont be long before you join in these great adventures!

Sparkle Soup

Moving can be hard on little ones. The constant business of all of their big people, sorting, packing and moving boxes, never ending to do lists.... It can be down-right overwhelming. I've been trying to find a few fun activities that don't require any planning and hardly any time to put together specifically for Claire to do in the afternoons.

A couple of days ago after nap time I gathered together several things I still had in the kitchen and took Claire outside for some sparkly play time. I just gave her several small bowls of food colored water and a couple of different kinds of glitter along with some "tools" like eye droppers, syringes, bowls, measuring cups, ladles, etc. I was inspired by a post I saw a while back on Meg's blog. 

The minute I set out the supplies and started filling the tub with water a few big brothers appeared on the scene to "help" :-) 

It was a hit! They all had a wonderful time. I stayed out until the baby woke up from his nap and needed to nurse. Those 3 stayed outside playing with their sparkle soup water for almost 3 hours!

Ages that thoroughly enjoyed this activity: 2.5 years, 9 & 11 years. 

Linking up with the lovely ladies at Creative Friday and Friday's Nature Table and Happy Family Times