Fun With Homemade Paint

In my previous post I had a pic of a raccoon playing with some cornstarch paint I had made. I had a bunch left over, so when I came home, the kids took it outside to paint the sidewalks with. They had so much fun. It isn't super bright, but that didn't matter. My neighbor Kate came over with her kiddos also. They painted until there was no more paint left. They especially liked to paint their feet and then hop in the wading pool to clean off!

Callie painted a hopscotch

Friends at the Zoo

I know it has been forever since I last posted (sorry PopPop and Nana)! We have been in the process of moving since the end of May. We were going to be out of our house and in our new house in Colorado by the beginning of July, so everything has been packed up in boxes. We ended up not finding a house, so Jamey had to go ahead of us and we will join him in another 3 weeks. In the meantime, the kids and I have been traveling around to Campmeeting and Tennessee. I'm glad we've been able to keep busy since our house is pretty much just boxes!

While living in Bakersfield, I became a docent at our local zoo. I have absolutely loved working there and I will miss it terribly. It was my mid-week "break", kind of my calm from the storm of life. I thought I would share a few pics of my friends there. One of my favorites is the barn owl. They are such beautiful owls. I also really liked the Great Horned Owls, but I don't have a pic of those. Boo!

This is from a couple years ago. A red-tailed hawk.

Visiting mommy at the zoo.

Getting to pet Luigi, our burrowing owl.

Voltaire, our turkey vulture. He is really heavy!

He's got quite the wing span. If he baits off my hand, he smacks me in the head with his wings!

Moe, my favorite little one-eyed screech owl.

I made an enrichment activity for the raccoons. Cornstarch paint. It was a flop though. I should have scented the paint.

Moe again.

Our barn owl. So beautiful.

Getting Betty the Pelican out for some enrichment.

Such a sweet bird!

Let's play some catch.

She caught it!

Our Little Visitor

Today I got a text message from one of our church members saying they had a baby bird and asking if I would take it. I volunteer at our local zoo, and they knew that, so they figured I'd be a good one to call. I went and picked it up and brought it home so the kids could see it. It is a baby kestrel, just starting to get some of its feathers. It was sooo cute! Callie didn't want to put it down. She named it "Chasey" because it was being chased by a cat when it was rescued! I think Callie is going to be a zoologist or wildlife rescuer when she grows up. She absolutely loves all animals. Anytime she sees an animal on tv or in a book, she tells me she wants a baby one! If we lived at a zoo, she would be in heaven! When we took the bird over to the zoo, she cried and cried because she wanted to keep it so badly. Poor kid. We definitely need to live on more land so we can get more animals for her!

Pure joy!

Josh, on the other hand, would only pet with one finger!

Pretty long wings for such a little guy.

Coffee Filter Butterflies

Callie was begging to paint something, so I threw this together really fast. I am going to be starting a unit on bugs/insects this week, so I thought it would fit in perfectly. I pulled out our stash of coffee filters and our spray bottles containing liquid watercolors. The kids had a blast spraying the filters. We had to let them dry the rest of the day before we could scrunch them together with a pipe cleaner to make the butterfly. They were really into painting the filters and made a ton of them. You can see from the bottom pic that we only made a couple into butterflies before they tired of that! (For anyone wanting to know, the liquid watercolors can be bought at Discount School Supply. There is a button for it in the left column of my blog. They are a little pricey, but are so worth it because the colors are amazing! They also last a long time.)

Josh wanted to stack all of his on top of each other.

All done!

Fun Food Friday: Dolphins

I didn't have anything special planned today, so I pulled out one of my trusty sandwich punches and put together this super easy lunch. The dolphins are peanut butter and jelly with candy eyes. There are applesauce and cantaloupe in the large muffin liners, and some vegan marshmallows in the little one.

Products I used for this lunch:


     

Fun Food Friday: A Sweet Butterfly

This was another quick and easy one that I copied from Meet the Dubiens. I am so glad there are so many awesome ideas on the internet that I don't have to come up with everything! It's so much easier to copy, and the kids could care less!

I should have just used regular bread because my kids aren't a fan of tortillas for whatever reason. Callie ate her veggie meat with the lettuce rolled up inside, and Josh just picked out the cheese and ate that. Maybe I should have also just stuck with peanut butter and jelly!

Products I used to make this lunch:

      

Playing With Bubbles

This is a quick and easy activity that I do when the kids seem to be getting into everything and I need to channel their energy into something! I put the plug in the sink, squirt a whole lot of dish soap in, then run the water. I then scrape out all the bubbles into big bowls. I give them cookie sheets and various spoons and smaller bowls. I love watching how their creativity runs wild with this.

Callie made cookies

Josh stirring his bubbles