Homemade Finger Paints

What do you get when you add sugar, salt, corn starch, and water? The perfect base for finger paints ... for cheap!

The recipe is simple.

3 T sugar

1 T salt

1/2 cup corn starch

2 cups water

food color

Mix everything but the food coloring in a pot and cook while stirring until the mixture becomes thickish. (Don't let the mixture come to a boil or become too thick)

Let the mixture cool and stir in food coloring. One batch of this goo made all the finger paints above.

If you have baby food jars, or small jelly jars, that is the best way to store these paints. We are fresh out of baby food jars these days, so we used tupperware containers today.

Colored Rice

I have been the "sick-in-bed mom" for too many weeks! It is time to get moving and creating again at our house! I have decided to pull a few tricks out of my bag and have a little fun with what is left of the summer. If you are running low on ideas at your house, feel free to use some of mine! None of them are original. I have found all of them in books, from co-workers, online, or in school. I hope you enjoy the last few weeks of summer at your house!

First up: Colored Rice. You can color just about anything with a little liquid food coloring and some rubbing alcohol ... rice, pasta, bird seed, tapioca ... any or all of these are perfect in a sensory table with some spoons and bowls.

We used 2 cups of rice in each zippy and 2 Tablespoons of rubbing alcohol with a little squirt of food coloring. Close up the bag and let your munchkin shake SHAKE shake!

(We added two bags of tapioca after we finished the rice so we would have a few extra colors.)

Once the rice looks "beautiful" as Larkin says, you set it out on a tray and let it dry out. The rubbing alcohol will evaporate and the color will stick. We set ours out in the sun so it would dry a little faster.

(I always mess with my pictures a little before I post them, but I left this one alone so you could see how vibrant the rice can be. It's the rubbing alcohol that makes the colors so bright! Once it evaporates the rice dulls and little.)

Larkin loves to cook so we set her up with lots of bowls and spoons and spatulas to cook up a storm. We poured in all the colors of rice and tapioca into a bucket and let Larkin mix them all together.

Such fun!

Next up on our list of fun things to do ... "clean mud", homemade finger paints, and the Song Can!

... even as He is

I wasn't feeling well this morning. I dozed in bed while my super-human husband fed, clothed, and prepared our daughter for church. Before long I found myself alone in our great big bed in our great big house and felt suddenly very disappointed in myself. "I am better than this." I thought to myself. And then I realized with a measure of sadness that in that moment I wasn't better than anything. To be better I must do better. A talk I heard this last spring came to my mind and I lumbered to my computer to read this. Tears flooded my eyes as I instantly felt the truth of this message and vowed to do better and be better, no matter how my body rebels.

. . . . . .

"May [my] efforts to develop Christlike attributes be successful so that His image may be engraven in [my] countenance and His attributes manifest in [my] behavior. Then, when [my] children or others feel of [my] love and see [my] behavior, it will remind them of the Savior and draw them to Him."

~ Lynn G. Robbins

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ...

sisters and cookies and grandmas and temples ....

These are a few of my favorite things!

My parents and sister came to visit this past weekend. The time went too quickly and was filled with too many favorite moments to pick just one.

I loved watching Aunt Lanette help Larkin make cookies for family home evening ... there was a little extra salt in this batch. All I can say is: Larkin is quick!

Grandma and Grandpa and Lanette visited Fairy Tale Town with us. I loved watching Larkin run around showing them all her favorite things.

Yeehaw!

The purpose for the visit was to go with my little sister to the temple on Tuesday. Larkin has been waiting to visit the temple for weeks now. From the moment she could spy it from the car she was over-the-moon excited. I loved her excitement. When we got out of the car she said, "Look. That my temple."

I loved being in the temple with my family. It was a wonderful way to start a day, and an even better way to end a visit together.

We are expecting!

We should be welcoming baby dos to our family sometime around the 15th of February.

(I try to cite my sources ... I give full credit for this post to my friend Rachel who borrowed the idea from a friend of hers. Thanks for the fun idea ladies! :)

I hEART tAHOE!!!

We headed up to Tahoe this past week to spend some much-needed time relaxing and playing and soaking up some sun ... among other things.

I love Tahoe. It is {hands down} one of my favorite places on the planet! I love the clear cool water, the trees, the animals, the sweet little towns with over-priced food and antiques. It is so quiet and peaceful. It is like a drink for my soul every time we visit!

As soon as we got to the cabin we saw a little bunny in the front yard. He was tiny and instantly nervous when he saw Tucker, but our rabbit sighting was enough for Larkin to dub the cabin "The Rabbit House" for the remainder of our stay.

{an airplane rocking toy at "The Rabbit House" that Larkin loved to play on}

I am a beach girl. I grew up near the Bodega coast and spent my childhood playing and splashing in the icy ocean water. Tahoe water is in it's own league. The water is cool, but shallow and clear and .......... I could rave about the beaches at Tahoe forever, but moving on, I loved sitting and reading while Scot and Larkin collected rocks and built ....

THIS

{Larkin spent more time smashing than building, which makes the end result even more impressive if you think about it}

Our friends, the Mills, came for a few days to play and relax with us. We loved having Ashley and her boys hang out with us. We were very low key most of the week and endured a little rain one day by curling up to watch movies and roast marshmallows. Larkin loved to help roast the mallows but didn't care to eat a single one of them.

Tahoe and "The Rabbit House" were just what we needed to recharge our batteries and make some great memories!

The New House

It has taken a TON of work but we are finally getting settled into our new home.

Larkin has taken it all in stride and has loved every minute of the chaos ... her favorite so far has been all the room to run and run and run! She has run at least 5 miles every day in laps around the house.

(Larkin playing and daddy painting)

In addition to painting we replaced the flooring in the living room, kitchen, and family room. My parents came to help, and put in at least a hundred hours of hard work! We were so grateful for the help!

(Larkin writing some abc's while "helping" to lay the floor with paga)

We are having fun unpacking and discovering treasures we have had in storage for quite a while. Larkin found daddy's cowboy boots and took them for a spin ...

... now if we could just find Tucker's toothbrush and nail clippers ...