muddy play – more fun in our mobile mud-pit

You may recall that last year,  after seeing all of the gorgeous mud-kitchens out there in the blogosphere, I used our wheel-barrow to create a portable mud-patch last year for the Hooligans (you can see the original post here).

Well, re-creating that mud-patch has been on my mind for days, and yesterday when my feet hit the floor at 6 a.m., and the air in the house was already thick and muggy, I knew the day to do it had arrived.

When the Hooligans arrived, I hauled out the old wheelbarrow and dumped a generous amount of clean potting soil into it.  Then I called to the Hooligans bring some sand from the sand-box.  They’d been watching me, and were oh-so-curious about what I was doing, so they were only to happy to jump into action. They ran back and forth from the wheel barrow to the sandbox delivering and dumping small pailfuls of sand until we figured we had enough.  Then they stirred it all up with their shovels while I was setting up their water supply.

A water jug with a spigot is without question one of the best things we’ve ever added to our outdoor play-space.  I often see them at our local thrift shop.  We don’t have it ours often (although I suppose we should in this weather), but it comes out on days like these, and the Hooligans LOVE it.  The spigot is a bit stiff and provides a challenge for little hands to manage, (think muscle development and motor control) and they love having complete control over their own tap and water source!

After adding enough water to make a great, sloppy mess, they brought cars, trucks and tractors from the sand box to add to the mud-pit, and  I set up a “baking counter” by placing a long board and some baking utensils and “ingredients” at one end of the wheelbarrow.

What great, messy fun!   At the end of the day, the mud-patch gets wheeled away to the shed, and we can pull it out another day.  

Now what to do with those muddy kids?  Click here to see how they cleaned up.

sprinkler fun

Oh, how we’ve waited for this day!  We’ve been talking for weeks about how one of these days the weather will warm up enough that we’ll be pulling out the sprinkler again, and today, my friends, was that day!

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:My-oh-my, we do love Summer-time!

muddy car wash

Oh, we’re loving our wet and messy play now that the summer weather has arrived.  Did you pop by yesterday?  Did you see the baby bath station that we had set up in the backyard?  We set it up again today because it was such a hit, and because a couple of the Hooligans don’t attend on Thursdays and they missed out on the fun.

But today, I added another awesome, wet, messy, sensory activity today that kept them busy all morning again!  Behold the mud-pit/car wash!

I turned our wagon into a mud pit by mixing up some potting soil, several scoops of sandbox sand, and a bucketful of water.  (you can see how we’ve used a wheel-barrow to make an even larger, mobile mud-pit)

Then several feet below and away from the wagon, I placed a large basin filled with soapy water, and I ran our hot-wheels tracks from one to the other.

I set some cars up at the mud-pit and called the gang over.  You can probably guess how popular this activity was.  They LOVED it!

The basin of water didn’t stay clean for long, but that made things even more fun; they had to search around in the black water to find their cars, and the cars didn’t exactly zoom down the track with all that mud either, but the Hooligans didn’t even seem to notice.  They were happy to push them along until they reached their destination.

Now, be prepared: your little one COULD get very dirty.  I’m not saying he or she will.   In fact, a couple of the Hooligans stayed quite clean. Even Miss Mess wasn’t too bad, although I did give her clothes a soapy rinse before sending them home.

This little guy however…

Look at him!  Think he had fun?  Oh yeah!  And it was so cute: I set out a big bowl of water for them to wash up in when they were finished, and he did – he washed his hands until they sparkled and then came running over to me, proudly shouting “I’m clean, I’m clean!”, and looking like this:

Yup sure, little guy.  Whatever you say!

I feel I need to share this next photo for those of you who might be horrified by the state of his clothing.  I tossed them onto the grass (the clothes, not the kids), sprinkled them with some dish soap, and gave them a blast with the garden hose.  In less than a minute, they looked like this.  

See….  don’t let a little dirt scare ya!  Let them get messy!  They’ll love you for it!  And of course, if you’re looking for a cleaner-but-still-messy alternative to this activity you can always do this version of a car-wash.

baby bath station

I have another super-easy activity to share today that your little ones will love!  This kept the Hooligans busy for the better part of the morning yesterday!

I picked up a couple of plastic dolls at a thrift shop a couple of months ago with this activity in mind.

This is a snap to set up.  I used our dollar store kitty-litter basin for the baby-bath, and set up a tray with everything the Hooligans would need to bathe their babies:  sponges, a few baby wash cloths and hand towels, a couple of toothbrushes, various spray bottles, a soap pump (filled with soapy water) and a couple of travel shampoo containers filled with watered down shampoo and contitioner. I also added a stainless-steel “bar of soap” (it’s actually for removeing garlic odours from your hands when cooking).

I filled the basin with warm, soapy water and sprinkled it with a few drops of food colouring just to make it a little more interesting.

What fun!

Squeezing the bottles and sprayers and sponges is a great way to develop motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.  It took a lot of strength to squeeze the shampoo out, and to get the conditioner (they decided all on their own that it was toothpaste) onto the toothbrushes, and to get those sprayers spraying in the right direction.  It was challenging to hold the baby WHILE aiming/pumping the spray bottle so this little one enlisted some help from a friend.

And our youngest Hooligan was fascinated by the dripping water.

It was sweet to see them caring for their babies like they were real little mommies and daddies.

Washing:

Scrubbing:

Shampooing:

Rinsing:

Drying:

All of this led to assorted other water play as well:

A big bowl of soapy water on the ground for splashing in,

and I made a bubble patch in the grass for the kids to squish their feet in.

What a simple idea for play on a hot, summer day!  We’re going to be doing it all over  again today.

cloud dough!

This is something I’ve waited all winter to make!  I’ve seen it done on plenty of other blogs, and every one mentions the mess-factor so I was waiting until the weather was good and warm so we could take it outside.

Cloud dough (I think it’s also known as moon dough) is really easy to make (two ingredients), and it is amazing!  It’s so silky and moldable.  The Hooligans absolutely loved it. I’m not kidding when I say it kept them engrossed for well over an hour.  

You’re going to love how easy it is to whip up:

Add one cup of baby oil to 8 cups of flour.  Stir well.  I used a pastry cutter to mix mine, but a spoon or whisk would be fine.  Transfer your dough to a bin or basin (I purchased this kitty litter box at the dollar store, and it’s perfect for sensory activities), and that’s it.  You’re done!

Set out some containers, scoops and molds and let the little ones at it.

There’s something so soothing and relaxing working with this dough.  The Hooligans were so QUIET while they played with it.  

You’ll want to wear old clothing or an apron (you can find my tutorial for my aprons here.  I make them out of the legs of our old jeans).  It’s definitely messy play, and I personally wouldn’t suggest doing this inside.

I had another activity set up as well.  I filled the wagon with warm soapy water, and added containers, spray bottles, sponges and some farm animals.  

The Hooligans went back and forth between the two activities but the Cloud Dough bin was by far the most popular place to be today.Store in an air-tight container for future use.

spring fever

Hello!  I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I haven’t forgotten about my little blog!   The temperatures have finally warmed up a bit around here, so we’ve been outside appreciating nature and Spring-time!

We are working on a mother’s day craft this week in steps and stages, and it will be finished by tomorrow, so that will be up on the blog by the week-end.

In the mean-time, here’s what we’ve been up to outside:

We had a nest of baby robins which kept us captivated and entertained for a couple of weeks.

I have an album on my Happy Hooligans facebook page which follows the baby from the time the eggs were laid, until they left the nest.  The album is titled “Our Baby Robins”.  I took daily pictures of the babies, and documented their activity and progress.  It was a thrill to put it together and it’s a beautiful collection of photos!  Be sure to pop over and check it out!

Just as the robins were getting ready to leave the nest, the toads showed up in our pond and began mating.  I’m taking daily pictures of the development of the eggs, and will continue to photograph the day to day changes in the tadpoles when they hatch.  That album is also on my facebook page.  It’s titled “New Life in the Pond”.

Outside of that excitement, we’ve been hiking around the neighbourhood, playing in the yard, and spending our days outdoors.  Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been up to:

climbing trees

rolling down hills

investigating ants

and toads

and the snails in our pond

picking “flowers”

learning new skills

workin’ the slide

and playing in the sandbox

And here’s a peek at the Mother’s Day craft we’re working on.  They’re going to be so pretty, so stay tuned!

fun in the blizzard!

We had a full-on blizzard here this morning!   I didn’t know if the Hooligans would even want to go out and play in it because it was snowing and blowing so hard.  I mean, every kid likes to play in the snow, but in a snow-storm?  I wasn’t so sure they’d be up to it, so after snack, I asked them to look outside, and think about if they wanted to go out and play, or if they’d rather stay in for the morning.

Silly me!  They took one look out the back door, and ran for their boots and snow-clothes.

I have to admit that I wasn’t quite as brave.  I opted to plant myself comfortably in front of the sliding glass doors in my family room, nice and cozy, with my camera.  I popped on the zoom lens, and snapped these pictures of my crazy little friends enjoying winter at it’s best!  They went out armed with shovels and snow brushes and had a blast.

There’s really no need for me to say anymore.  The pictures and the smiling faces tell the story. 

Hope these snowy little faces put a smile on yours.

cake and ice-cream in the snow

We haven’t been crafting much since Valentine’s Day, but we’ve had snow, so we’ve been spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the snow while it lasts.

When we headed out this morning, we discovered that our snow was nice and sticky, so we brought out some scoops and containers, and set up a cake and ice-cream shop on the front porch.

Badminton birdies make perfect ice cream cones!

We raided the garden for items to decorate the cakes with, and collected sticks and twigs for birthday candles.

Ice cube trays are great for making a “box of chocolates”.

These simple materials kept the Hooligans cooking up a storm for over an hour.

And I received this lovely “birthday cake” just before we headed inside for lunch.

Do you have snow where you are?

Making the most of the gorgeous fall weather!

Hey all!  I’m so sorry; I haven’t forgotten about my blog!  The weather has just been so unbelievably warm for this time of year so we’ve been hiking, and spending our days at the parks, and trekking around the neighbourhood.

Here are just a few pics of what we’ve been up to in the great outdoors!

I figure we have LOTS of long, cold winter days ahead of us for crafting.  We have to make the most of this weather while we have it!

Yours in play,

Jackie!

a-maze-ing fall fun

Here’s another one of my favourite fall activities, and the Hooligans love it too.  We make mazes, roads, and houses with rooms.  The kids love to play in the leaf creations, and I kinda get some raking done.  Win-win!