A Few Fun Activities

I'm way behind on posting here. We've been so busy with summer stuff! Swim lessons, birthday parties, trips to sister's house, summer school, afternoons at the pool...so far it's been a great summer. I love being busy and I think it does the kids good too. No time for boredom. Well, this week we did have a few evenings of down time when hubby was busy doing guy stuff, and I suffered through had the privilidge of entertaining the children during those special hours I usually have to myself. So, I leafed through my virtual folder (pinterest) for some activies I had bookmarked to keep us busy.

First are these fun little rubbery balls we made from beans & balloons. Here's the how-to. We used beans instead of lentils and we liked the end result, but it was kinda hard stuffing them through the funnel into the balloon when it got almost full. So, we'd like to try it again sometime with lentils. Here's our finished product-
 

They are great for juggling or playing catch and they are just kinda fun to hold & squish.

Next up is a no-mess painting activity using large ziplock bags. You just squeeze a few different colored paints into the bag, make sure there's no air inside then seal it up. Then you can just push around and blend the colors making neat designs.

And finally this stuff is awesome, homemade puffy paint! So simple, just mix 1/4 c flour, 1 t baking powder, 1 t salt, 1/4 c water & food coloring together. Then paint a design on paper (the thicker the better) then microwave it for about 15 seconds and it puffs up! You won't be able to paint intricate designs and it is pretty messy but it's worth it. Both kids thought it was awesome. Hard to get the full 3-D effect in a picture, but here's one of our designs:

Right now we're in the middle of a nasty heatwave. 100+ temps as far as the eye can see :( And next week off from summer school. So, when we're not exploding things in the driveway or spending time at the pool, I'm going to try to come up with some more indoor acitivies like these to keep us entertained.