Ocean In A Bottle

In an attempt to keep my kids entertained and engaged this summer as well as retain some of my sanity, I'm trying to stick with simple activities and projects that don't take too much time to prep.  This ocean in a bottle experiment completely fascinated my kids and they kept coming back to it throughout the day to shake their bottle up and watch the glitter swirl and the water and oil separate.  It took me less than five minutes to gather the supplies and five minutes more to help each of them create their own ocean in a bottle.

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7 Tips for Hiking with Kids

This last week we went hiking as part of our Memorial Day activities.  We live close to the mountains and there are a lot of canyons and hiking trails to choose from, so we are always finding fun new places to explore.  My kids especially love hiking and it is one of mine and my husband's favorite activities as well so we do a lot of it.  With this being the case, I've learned a few tips along the way that have helped make hiking a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

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8 Colorful Hands On Activities for Kids

If your kids are anything like mine, they are very hands-on.  They love to do whatever I'm doing, whether it's gardening, baking, crafting, building, etc.  This is why I try to come up with activities that they can do most, or all of it, by themselves.  It's exciting for them to create something and it builds autonomy which is an important skill as they get older and need to figure out problems for themselves.  Over the last couple of years since my kids were old enough to appreciate and enjoy it, I've done a handful of really fun and colorful activities.  These are tried and true and my kids ask to do them over and over again.

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Mommy Style Monday: Water Beads

There is something about January that I really dislike.  If my daughter's birthday wasn't during this month, I would be totally fine to just get rid of it all together.  I'm not sure where you live, but here in Utah we tend to get a lot of cold, overcast, snowy, rainy, slushy days in the winter.  My kids live for the outdoors, so wintertime is hard on them (and me).  I am a warm weather, sunshine loving person and can get a little bit of seasonal depression during this time of year.  I've found that staying busy is a big help and trying to rotate through a variety of activities helps my kids from going too stir crazy. *wink*

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Midway Ice Castles {plus a GIVEAWAY!}

I'll be totally honest: winter is definitely not my favorite time of the year in terms of the weather.  I get super jealous of those of you who live in places where it's warmer in the winter and always wish I could just hop on a plane and visit for a weekend and soak up some vitamin D.  I didn't include 'sunshine' as part of my blog's name for nothing! *wink*  That being said, there are some things about winter that I do enjoy because there isn't any other time of year to experience it (at least not where I live).  One of these things are the Ice Castles in Midway, UT.

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Kid Science: Elephant Toothpaste

As much as I love the summertime and the sunshine and letting my kids play outside, there comes a point every day where it's just too hot and we have to come inside and cool off.  I made a commitment to myself that I would try to have a balance between structured time and unstructured time this summer, but I haven't been doing as well on the structured time with my kids as I would like.  So at the beginning of the week, I decided to do a little experiment that I've had on my mind for the last little while, but hadn't gotten around to: elephant toothpaste.

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Bubble Snake

The weather here in Utah has been pretty crazy lately.  It will be sunny and 80 degrees one day and the next will be rainy and 60 degrees.  My poor kids ask me every morning if it's going to be a warm day outside so they can play in the yard.  Thankfully, today the answer was yes and they were outside as much as they could be playing on the swing set, jumping on the trampoline or splashing in the water.

One of their favorite things to do outside is blow bubbles.  We go through more bubbles than almost anything else they play with.  (This could also be due to the fact that they tend to spill the bubbles...)  While my son was napping, my daughter and I made a little contraption that when you blow into it, a stream of bubbles comes out the other end.  We call it a 'bubble snake'.  It's really simple and costs practically nothing to make.

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Kid Science: Growing Seeds In A Bag

A few weeks ago, I thought it would be a good idea to get some starts going for our garden.  I bought some soil and those little biodegradable pots and used some seeds I already had and then planted two of each kind.  I made sure they were watered, got plenty of sunshine during the day and brought them in at night because it was still pretty cold.  This lasted about three days.  One afternoon, we had a crazy windstorm and guess what got left outside.  My little plants.  My daughter discovered them and came running inside with tears streaming down her face: "Mom!  The seeds!  They blew over!"  She was really sad about it.  Sure enough, there was dirt all over the patio and no seeds to be seen.

Since then we've had some snow and rain and sunny days and I haven't attempted to start any more plants, not sure if it was really springtime yet.  One day, I remembered a time in first grade starting seeds in a plastic bag using a wet paper towel to keep the seeds moist, then sticking it in the sun and watching the seeds sprout.  Duh.  Why didn't I think of this before?  (Answer: Probably because even though I've had a garden for the last few years, I'm still an amateur gardener.)  Turns out this is actually a viable way to start seeds for your garden and not just an elementary school experiment.

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Glow in the Dark Bath Paint

You know those glow in the dark stars that every kid growing up in the 80's and 90's had?  I remember wanting them so much that I asked for them for my birthday and was so excited to get them!  I put them up all over my walls and ceiling and would rearrange them into different shapes or the initials of my latest crush.  Now that I have kids of my own, they are just as fascinated by things that glow in the dark.  So when I found a "recipe" for glow in the dark bath paint, I was excited to try it out with them.

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