Water fun.

Last week we woke up to another perfect day, seriously, I don't know how Brisbane is doing this but each day is as gorgeous as the one before.

We were home all day and I had a whiny boy to deal with so we headed straight outside for some fun in the water.  I had used up all the food colouring in the messy playdate of that week but remembered some powdered paint in the back of the cupboard.

Once again I wasn't very adventurous but filled up different containers with the paint, added some bubbles to others and let him have fun filling them up and dumping them out.

 It was an opportunity to discuss how and why the water emptied from different containers.  Otto noticed that the water in the milk bottle came out in spurts, while the flour container poured out seamlessly.  We talked about how the size of the hole might make that difference and the different volumes of solution in each.

We moved this into the bigger baby pool and Otto climbed in for some paddle pool fun, the best part was thanks to the bubble bath I added he was good to go for the rest of the day.  I am so pleased the weather is getting warmer, Otto has always loved water play and we could do it year round in Jakarta, there is nothing like peeling off the layers and jumping right in.

We are off to our playdate tomorrow and I can't wait to see what we do.

Messy playdate Tuesday.

Today I hosted our messy playdate again, and thanks to that sickness that has been sticking around I wasn't feeling particularly adventurous after another horrible nights sleep.

I decided on 'goop', essentially dump a packet of corn flour into a container and mix with water until you get the desired affect.  I made two different bins, one that had a more watery consistency than the other and set them both out with some pipettes, food colouring and scooping utensils for the invitation.

Once our visitors arrived Emma and Otto got right into the activity.  Both of them used the pipettes at first to mix the colours and it was interesting to see the effects on the solution, but once that got a bit tiresome they decided to dump the contents of the food colouring into the bin.  Certainly something for me to remember next time, I now need a bunch more food colouring in this weeks grocery shopping!

Otto worked really hard at scooping out the solution and filling up the empty jars and Emma enjoyed the feeling of trying to pick the goop up and have it slide through her fingers as well as transferring from one container to the other.

I have to say sometimes the simplest play is the way to go, this activity got so much more attention then I thought it would and they both spent a fair amount of time playing with it and using elements in further imaginative play (instead of being ducks like here they were birds this time!).  To continue the play a little longer we filled a plastic clam shell with a bit of water and shaving cream and dumped some of the remaining food colouring in there.  They had a great time stripping off and jumping in and out of it. 

Topped off by a bath and some yummy snacks and it is another successful messy day with friends.

What have you been up to with the kids?

Messy Playdate Tuesday.

I feel like I am living in some kind of amazing dream here in Brisbane at the moment, the weather has been so amazing for late winter I just want to get out there and live every second of it.

On Tuesday we did just that, we all met up again for another messy playdate and had a great time.  There were bubbles, lots of shaving cream, playdoh and well, lots of mess!  

This time food colouring, dishwashing detergent and water were poured onto a foam mat and the kids got to pound, press and rub the foam to feel the bubbles coming out, then a quick run to the slide which was made extra slippery thanks to the shaving cream!

All of them had so much fun running around the yard slipping on the shaving cream and jumping on the bubble foam mat, Otto kept talking about the spongy mat and the slippery slide on the way home and I was so pleased to hear him talk about the different textures.

After exhausting themselves and thoroughly soaking up the sun we headed to the deck where they made their own no-cook playdoh (I don't have the recipe).  Watching them mix the colours together was amusing, brown playdoh seemed to be the end result for a lot of it.

After coming home and having quiet time Otto decided he wanted to paint, I am not sure if he was remembering the playdate from the week before but he really wanted to paint himself.  We compromised and I set it up so that he could paint on a long piece of paper with his hands and feet.

 And before I knew it another Tuesday adventure was over, Otto went to bed that night with blue tinged toes and talking about bubbles under his feet.

It is my turn again next week and I am really looking forward to what they come up with this time!