The Great Bash-up

My little man loves his toy hammer

(he loves Dad's hammer even more!)

Even though he has a toolset, complete with nails ,screws and pieces of pretend wood, he still prefers hammering cupboard doors, windowsills and under-counter pipes!

Today, he got to 'fix' stuff in a great, messy bash-up!!!

Equipment :

 * baked cotton balls

 * water beads

 * jelly-filled eggs

 * safety glasses

 * a hammer

****** Try to do this activity outdoors or cover the floor with a plastic sheet. Messy with a Capital M!!!

Water Beads

 I soaked a packet of water beads a few days before our bash-up 
so they were really large and plump.

Next, I filled a ziploc baggy with the water beads and let Ethan at them.

I'm so glad that the water beads were safely packed into the baggy.

I didn't want water beads shooting off all over the floor - major safety hazard, especially when you have 2 left feet!

Jelly-Filled Eggs

These need to be prepared the night before your bash-up so the jelly has plenty of time to set.

Step 1 : Cook Spanish Omelets for breakfast..... :D  Basically, you need empty egg-shells.

Step 2 : Carefully paint egg-shells. Allow to dry. 'Is it Easter Egg time, Mommy?' asks Ethan.

Step 3 : Prepare jelly and allow to cool slightly.

Step 4 : Pour jelly into egg-shells. The Butterballs loved using the funnel and toy teapot to fill up the eggs.

Step 5 : Refrigerate until set. I placed the eggs back into the egg box - made it easier to store.

                ****Place eggs on a tray before smashing - 
                      things are about to get REALLY messy!!

Ethan LOVED smashing through the crunchy egg-shell into the squishy jelly. He couldn't resist digging through the crunchy slime with both hands!!!

Baked Cotton Balls

I got this idea from http://www.makingboysmen.com/2012/04/bashing-baked-cotton-balls-goggles.html

The Butterballs had fun preparing these cotton balls.

How to :Mix a cup of flour with a cup of water. Stir until it forms a smooth paste. Mix in a few drops of food colouring. Dip cottonballs into the paste and place on a lined cookie tray. Bake for 15minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Allow the cotton balls to cool before smashing.

The baked cottonballs are simply cotton balls with a colourful, hard shell. Nothing special to an adult but sheer magic to a two year old!

 Ethan had the time of his life...he would have happily spent hours 'fixing' cotton balls and jello eggs at his messy workstation.

Even Tamlyn got in on the action!

Just one more activity left on Ethan's Birthday Bucket List now!

Valentine Sensory Play

The Butterballs love playing with shaving foam.

Cos it's been so hot lately, I decided to combine the shaving foam with a fun 'keep-cool' element

...frozen paint!!! 

Valentine coloured, heart-shaped, frozen paint!!!!

I poured paint into a silicone heart-shaped muffin tray and added a few drops of strawberry essence to each heart.

(panda paints worked beautifully and created a stunning marble effect)

I popped it into the freezer for a few hours.

After covering the Butterballs table with plastic, I squirted a huge, fluffy mound of shaving foam onto it.

I stored the can of shaving foam in the fridge so it was super cold...just perfect for our hot summer afternoons!

I dropped in a few frozen strawberry-scented paint hearts and left the Butterballs to it...

They loved squashing, rubbing and mixing the paint into the shaving foam.

Because of the heat, the paint-hearts melted really rapidly and the Butterballs ooohed and aaahed over the beautiful coloured shaving foam!!

The cool, fluffy, shaving foam felt, looked and smelt awesome!!

A feast for the senses!!!

The yummy strawberry scent had us all craving a bowl of fresh strawberries so after a quick shower, off to Woolies we went, on our next mission... strawberry hunting!! ;)

Sensory Play - Rainbow Pasta

For today's activity the ButterBalls got to play with spaghetti...rainbow colored spaghetti!!!

'We get to play with our food???  Yeeeeaahh!!!'

Coloured spaghetti is pretty simple to make:

Boil pasta as normal and when cooked, divide the pasta equally into 4 (or 100) ziploc bags - depends on how many different colors of pasta you want.

Add a few drops of food colouring to each bag and mix well by shaking the bag

(perfect, no stained fingertips!!) Adding a few drops of oil prevents the pasta from sticking together.

Serve rainbow pasta in a deep bowl/bin/container (its bound to get messy!!).

Also try to do this activity outside (easier to clean up)

I gave the ButterBalls a few kitchen utensils...tongs, spoons etc ... then stood back and watched the pasta fly!!!

At first the ButterBalls refused to use their hands, they preferred to work with their 'tools'.

Ethan trying to figure out how to use the tongs!

Lots of fine Motor Skill practice going on here.

The ButterBalls eventually succumbed to the temptation of slimy pasta squishing!

Their descriptions were priceless, ranging from : sticky, yucky, cold and floppy to... 'Ewwww! it feels like slugs!!' (this from Tamlyn of course!)

Lots of messy fun...

Now, what do you do with smooshed left-over rainbow pasta?

Ice Monster - Sensory Play

I saw this amazing activity on howtogrowajeweledrose and simply had to try it.

Its the perfect opportunity to :

•  use up the leftover rainbow spaghetti.
• engage in more sensory play.
• cool off!!! It's midsummer in Durban.

All you do is fill an assortment of containers with water. Toss in the rainbow pasta and float a few googly eyes on the surface of the water. Pop the containers into the freezer and in a few hours you will have icy, scary, MONSTERS!!!!

The colouring from the rainbow pasta coloured the water creating realistic Ice Monsters - the ButterBalls loved it!!!

Frozen past feels totally different and undergoes various texture changes as it thaws out.

The ButterBalls had fun cracking the ice to 'rescue' the pasta.

Creating their own Mega-Monster!!!

The ButterBalls messed around for a while, returning to play with the Ice Monsters every so often. Surprisingly, the Ice Monsters lasted about 2 hours despite the heat, leaving me with a large puddle, twenty cold fingers and two very broad grins!!!

Snow Day Sensory Play

After reading so many stories about snowmen, the ButterBalls wanted to play with real snow (top of their holiday wish-list). Real snow? That's a little hard to come by in Durban (where it NEVER EVER snows).
So after much research (Thank God for Pinterest!!), I decided a Snow Day Celebration would be the perfect solution.

Squeals of surprise and joy greeted the Snow Day breakfast table.

Breakfast menu: a snowman pancake with chocolate drop eyes and mouth, sitting on a 'hill' of scrambled eggs, wearing a bacon scarf.

The White Hot Chocolate was a hit! And very easy to make: Heat milk in saucepan and add pieces of white chocolate and a drop of vanilla extract. Heat through, till chocolate has melted. Pour into mugs, top with whipped cream and a pinch of blue sprinkles. Yum!!
The mugs were ordinary glass mugs that had the features drawn on with Sharpies (thanks Linda!). Baking them in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15min ensured that the drawings stayed put.

Next, the Butterballs built snowcastles. Their eyes positively glowed as they dug into the snow.
Snow in Durban? Why yes....thanks to Snow-in-Seconds. Just a tablespoon of this powder makes about 1 cup of  realistic snow. All you do is add water and the powder puffs up absorbing the liquid, leaving you with fluffy 'snow' that won't melt. I used ice-water which upped the real factor. The powder is also reusable. Perfect for squashing, squeezing, kneading, rolling into snowballs and pressing into sandcastle molds!!!

The ButterBalls cooled off in their very own Melting Snowmen Pool... shaving foam snowmen with craft foam features...and a few sparkly snowflakes. They adored the silky softness of the shaving foam as well as the fresh, fruity scent! I got this amazing idea from bathactivitiesforkids. Will definitely try this one again, maybe in the tub this time.

While they splashed about, I whipped up a batch of frosting and set up the next snow-based work station. Snowman Cupcake decorating!!!

The ButterBalls loved decorating their snowman cupcakes. Ethan did more eating than decorating (as usual!).







To burn up the extra sugar, our next activity was....an Indoor snowball fight. What a blast! Luckily, the only casualty was Dad's coffee mug.

The ButterBalls ended the day with a mug of Snowman Hot Chocolate, before snuggling up to listen to their bedtime story- Frosty the Snowman.
The perfect ending to a Snowy Day!!!