Project {Bathtub Fingerpaint}

Before this latest cold snap causes my brain to freeze and crystalize, I want to take a moment and remember summer. Remember summer?  When brain freezes were more than likely the result of eating ice cream too quickly?  The days were long, and anything seemed possible? Summer is my "happy place" .  Let's go there . . .

Since this Polar Vortex is sucking the life out of me, and every parent I know. Yet somehow it has the exact opposite effect on the little people (why is that?  discuss . . . )  I thought it would be fun to look back at a happier time and throwback to the summer!

Before this blog came to be, LuCk and Co was still out there playing and having fun with our kids. One hot summer day, I whipped up 6 batches of bathtub fingerpaint. 
Yes, six. 
I didn’t really know how much fingerpaint was needed by 3 toddlers in an inflatable swimming pool and I didn’t want to run out!  In case there is a parent out there searching for the exact phrase "how many batches of bathtub fingerpaint do you need for 3 toddlers" the answer is "3". 

We set-up the inflatable pool in the backyard (it needed a good wash anyways), and with the fingerpaint and a few sponge brushes, we all got painting and scrubbing!  We put kraft paper down in the pool and let the kids get creative. They really got into it once they realized they could paint their feet. The kids had a great time and the cleanup was super easy, all we had to do was get out the hose (aaahhh ... the magic of Summer)

The only recommendation I would have if you are going to use it in your actual bath tub is to be careful of the kind of soap you choose. Lucas used the leftover paint in the tub and ended up with a bit of a rash. Next time, I am going to use his hair/body wash if I make it for him to use in the tub.

Playdate {Music Mayhem}

I'm going to start with a warning: this Playdate is not for the weak of mind or spirit. The kids have been gone for 4 days, and I'm still finding beans in every orifice of this house.  I just stepped on a jingle bell and let out the cry that only the mother-who-has-stepped-on-a-Lego will understand. 

But, part of being a toddler mom means you have to throw all logic out the window, and gleefully embrace their tiny creative minds. 

I may be projecting my restlessness onto my daughter, but this polar vortex has left me with a major case of the winter blahs. Chuck and I have gotten pretty lazy lately. At least one of us has watched a couple too many episodes of "Daniel Tigers Neighborhood". I knew we needed to shake things up this weekend {pun intended}! I needed a plan. 

I collected all kinds of recyclable containers during the week: tin cans, yogurt tubs, fruit packages,

paper rolls, sushi boxes. By Wednesday, I knew we had enough stuff to make "something".  

On Thursday I texted some of our friends, "Do you want to come over on Saturday around 4:00, we're making musical instruments". I must not be the only one out there who has been sucked into the polar vortex, because I received 2 insta-yes's. There was no turning back now. 

On Friday, I walked the dry goods aisle at the grocery store trying to pick beans and rice with a nice tambour. We got black eyed peas, kidney beans, split peas, and Carolina long grain rice.  Some jingle bells and pipe cleaners from the craft store, and I was pretty sure we had the makings of a percussion section.  

On Saturday, during nap, I got everything set up. I rolled a big sheet of paper on the floor, dumped a pile of recyclables, and placed some bowls of beans and rice on top. Once everyone arrived, we set the kids loose. 

This year, I have found myself in a bit of a scramble looking for fun indoor activities.  One of the things I love about outdoor play, is allowing Chuck to simply play and explore.  Although, this playdate took place in my living room, I tried to incorporate a bit of that freedom. With a little guidance, they all got the hang of it. Lucas dumped bowls of rice and beans. Chuck filled and refilled containers. Everyone enjoyed making their own shakers!  Listening to the different noises that all the materials made.  The grown-ups kept tinkering and sharing our musical experiments with our kids.  Watching Chuck discover what noise a jingle bell makes in a tin can made my heart go all mushy. 

After about forty minutes, the kids moved onto something else. The grown-ups were straightening out, when Karen looked at me and said "look, they're doing what we hoped they'd do!" And there they were, bopping around with their instruments and rainbow tambourines singing "ring around the rosy".  It may still be 8• out there and snowing, but for a brief period of time, my home was warm and filled with music.

I knew my friend was bringing her older daughter, so I made a little project especially for her: a Rainbow Tambourine!  Check out how I made it on Instagram @luckct !

{We're Going to the . . . Museum!}

One of the things I love the best about living in this neck of the woods is the high concentration of museums of all shapes and sizes.  We've got aquariums, and children's museums, national parks, and art museums. We are only about 40 miles North of New York City, and although I have plans to one day meander around MoMa with Chuck, thanks to her mid-day nap, we've had to stay a little closer to home. 

The last "museum experience" that Chuck had was checking out a Holiday Train Show at the Fairfield Museum.  I'll leave it at this: we made several alarms go off, and derailed a bunch of trains. Although the docents and curators were more than understanding of my tiny display destructor, I haven't exactly wanted to run back and try it again.

The thing is, art runs through my veins. Growing up, my family spent vacation after vacation, touring museums all over the place.  And some of my earliest work experiences were museum internships. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for exposing the youngest of children to the works of all kinds of artists. I can honestly say, that all this museum patronage impacted the way I view the world. Now that I'm a parent, that's something I'd like for my daughter. Although she's only two, I wasn't going to let one less-than-ideal museum experience stop me.

This weekend, we decided to try out the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn.  The third Saturday of each month they have a program called "Family Art Experiences." According to their website, "From 10 am to 12 noon, children aged two to five are invited to play in the galleries, followed by storytime and art-making. From 1 to 3 pm, children aged six to ten are invited to engage in gallery games and hands-on art projects"  We're always up for an adventure, but honestly, they had me  at "play in the galleries." 

This week, they were focusing on Mexican art with a visiting artist.  When we got there, we got right to work making a piñata. Chuck was most interested in playing with the balloons that were intended to create the piñata's internal structure.  With a little team effort, we were able to cover ours in plaster.  While our balloon dried the staff led us into a gallery featuring the works of James Mollison.  In this gallery, there were larger than life portraits of a concert-goers from different walks of life, from punks to hip-hoppers to Rolling Stone fans.  

It took Chuck a little while to warm up to the gallery space. In her typical toddler style, she clung to me for about 10 minutes. Luckily, the education staff had some really simple, thoughtful, activities to do with the kiddos to get them involved. For example,  they simply spread out a rainbow of construction paper in different shapes on the floor, and asked the kids to go find the colors and shapes in the artwork that surrounded them. 

There are so many things about this activity that I loved!  

• I loved love that it captured the interest of all the children, no matter what developmental stage they are at. Chuck's not at a point yet where she can name the colors, but that didn't really matter.  This activity was great exposure.
• I loved that it was very interactive, and although the kids were gently reminded not to touch the art, at no point were they ever scolded for getting a bit too close.  
• I loved that, it taught the kids, quite simply, to really look at the artwork that surrounded them. 
• I loved that it taught them not to take art so seriously. 

After we were done exploring the gallery, we went back to the workshop, did a little bit of coloring, and decorated our piñata. 
  
After each one of my mommy/daughter adventures, I like to take a moment and think about what just happened.  I find that I can get so busy chasing after Chuck (yes, even though we were in a museum, there was still a fair amount of chasing), that sometimes I don't know if we actually had fun. As we were leaving the workshop, one of the educators asked me how old Chuck was.  Now that she is officially two, I find myself almost apologizing for her age. I was pretty much covered in plaster, had spent the better part of the last 30 minutes praying that my daughter didn't destroy a work of art, and calming a few near melt-downs. I looked up at this lady, and sheepishly said, "two." This kind educator, looked back at us and said "she did very well for two".  And, that's about all I can ask for.  

We will definitely adding  the "Family Art Experience" to our regular activities.  I can't wait to see Chuck grow a little bit each month, and, hopefully, to fall a little bit in love with museums.  

{Upcycled Play Kitchen}

I spent the summer watching Chuck play in the kitchen area of our local Children's Museum.  We went weekly in the morning for "member hours", so the place was basically empty giving her free reign of the kitchen.  She loved opening and closing (and opening and closing, and opening and closing) the oven door.  She loved putting things into the refrigerator.  She loved turning knobs, and pretending she was doing something.  Somewhere around August, I decided I would get her a play kitchen for her Christmas this year.

I did a little bit of searching to see what I could find/afford in the vast world of play kitchens. This play kitchen was - more than likely- going to be front and center in my living room.  What I could afford, I hated (sorry pink plastic play kitchen).  And, what I loved, I couldn't afford.  One sleepless night, I was clicking around on Pinterest and I discovered the bold new world of DIY Nightstand Kitchens. 

This was perfect!   I could do this! I went to Salvation Army, found a nightstand, and drew a diagram of how this magical transformation was going to take place.  It was August, so I had four months to make this happen!

And, I did.

I use the term "I" here loosely.  Really, my '"team"* helped me pull this whole thing together in the week leading up to Christmas. And, by the week leading up to Christmas, I really mean Christmas Eve. Secret crafting with power tools is hard to pull off during nap time.  Stenciling at ten o'clock at night is not something I would recommend.  The good news is Chuck absolutely loves it!  She doesn't see the imperfect cuts or the paint smudges.  And that's why I love her.

Here's How I Did It . . .  
1. Find an old nightstand or two
2. Remove all hardware, and sand it down
3. Paint and prime

Here's the fun part!  You can get creative with how you want your kitchen to look.  I scoured Pinterest and blogs for some inspiration.

I painted some wooden circles black  and glued them onto the top of the nightstand for burners.

What REALLY brought this project to life was this awesome set of stencils I purchased at Michaels from Handmade Charlotte and the little details.  I purchased some kitchen utensils to keep in the drawer, and some towels to place on the hooks.  Chuck's aunt gave her a set of awesome pots and pans for her birthday. I have been working on some felted pasta for her for a while.  I absolutely love watching her stir her little felted pasta in her pot!

This is still a work in progress; I hope to one day add an oven door and some knobs for the burners. Maybe one day, we'll even add another nightstand and make a sink.

The other day, I watched Chuck look at the stencils on the back splash  and say "apple, birthday (aka cupcake) kettle, apple", and it made me feel a fuzziness I can only imagine as pride.

 

*Team Shout-Out
Thank you Tracey for knowing how to paint things.  Even when the paint that I have applied that was supposed to go over EVERYTHING decided to bubble and peel off in giant strips of latexy goo.

Thank you John for all the times you said you were going to come over and help Brian.  I don't know if you really helped, but I thank you for giving me a reason to order pizza. 

Thank you Brian.  Thank you for putting up with my crazy ideas.  Thank you for being Chuck's reluctant Elf this year.  Thank you for constantly reminding me that "this is your idea, why am I doing all the work?"  Thank you for making my little drawing on a scrap of paper come to life.

Thank you mom for telling me the story of the thing your dad made for you that you still remember today (even though, I clearly do not remember what that thing was).  You may not realize this, but your story was just what I needed to re-motivate me to finish Chuck's kitchen.

{Project: Everything Tastes Better with Butter}

Full sensory learning has staying power and what better place in your house to engage all those senses than the kitchen! 

This weekend’s cooking endeavor was pretzels with homemade butter. Lucas has been obsessed with LuCk Dough lately so I thought it would be the perfect time to get those little hands into pretzel dough.  Playing with dough, whether its for play or edible, is a great way to develop those fine motor skills. Pretzel dough is a little tougher than play dough, so it has all those little muscles working extra hard. Cooking in the kitchen is quite the workout for those little ones!

After we popped the pretzels in the oven, we took out the Kitchen Aid to make some fresh butter! Originally my plan was to shake the heavy cream in a jar, but after looking online and realizing it was going to take 15 to 20 minutes of shaking we went with Plan B. Butter in a jar will have to wait until Lucas is a little older and we recruit a bunch of helpers. 

Pro Tip: Make sure you remember to use the splash guard on the Kitchen Aid (unless you want to redecorate your kitchen walls with buttermilk)

Lucas loves to add things to the mixer and turn it on, but he lost interest after the heavy cream turned to whipped cream. It took about 10 minutes to separate into butter and buttermilk. I strained the butter in a cheesecloth and Lucas came back to help squeeze out the excess whey. He was, not surprisingly, way more interested in the end result than he was the butter-making process. 

The fresh butter on the warm pretzels was absolutely divine! Now I am wondering what to do with this leftover buttermilk…

Pretzel Recipe

• Dissolve 1 package of yeast in 1 1/2 cups warm water.
• Add 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbls sugar and 4 cups of flour (we used 2 cups white, 2 cups whole wheat. Next time I may try 3 cups whole wheat, 1 cup white)
• Mix and knead the dough until smooth. 
• We chose to roll our pretzels into snakes and worms but you can make any shape you’d like! 
• Lay the pretzels on a cookie sheet, brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with salt.
• Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown

{Two Sweet}

As if we didn't have enough to celebrate this past month, last weekend we celebrated Chuck's 2nd birthday at my house with four close friends, pizza, and a lot of cupcakes!

Last year, I invited the world to celebrate Chuck's Winter Wonderland birthday celebration. This year, I decided to keep it a bit more simple and do something that I knew the kids would enjoy- decorate cupcakes!  Chuck loves cupcakes!  We don't eat them all that often, but when we do it is absolutely adorable!  

I found this cupcake garland online, and I was completely inspired!  Visions of pom pom cupcake garlands, polkadots, tiny bakers, candy, and tea trays stacked with copious amounts of cupcakes, filled my imagination.  Chuck is way too bright of a personality for soft pastels, so I knew I needed I bright color palette for this party.  The pom pom cupcakes were so easy to make, I may have gone a bit overboard.  

I had some play dough cupcakes and coloring  set up for our mini guests when they arrived, since I knew once they saw the real thing they would dig right in. This short-lived distraction was the perfect thing to keep little hands (and the occasional mouth) entertained while waiting for their cupcakes.

As soon as our guests were seated, the decorating began! Everyone was handed the blank canvas of a vanilla cupcake to work with.  Each child had their own palette of candy cups filled with cupcake decorating materials: sprinkles, sugar stars and eyeballs, and an assortment of small candies.   We don't indulge in candy often in my house (mainly because Chuck's mama can't be trusted with bags of sweets in the house), so watching each kid dig into their own candy buffet was absolute magic.

It was a sweet way to end a season filled with celebrations and start a new year! 

Cupcakes: Delicate Designs 
Decor: Candy Cups, Table Cloth, Cupcake Liners, Cake Stand Shop Sweet Lulu
Chuck's Dress: Winter Water Factory

{Happy Noon Years!}

As a mom of a toddler that doesn’t sleep, the thought of staying up until midnight to ring in the new year sounds like torture. Yet, for fear of being lame I had to do something, thus Noon Years Eve was born.

Now that Lucas and Chuck are old enough to enjoy their mom’s crazy ideas, we decided to put together a little party for them. It ended up being a really small party (thank you flu season!) but it ended up being the perfect size for them. The kids all had a great time, and that’s really all that matters.

The anatomy of a Noon Years Eve party doesn’t really take much. There were a few simple activities planned, a few decorations, some simple yet amazing food and we partied on!

The Decor

I bought a $3.99 roll of black glittery wrapping paper from the craft store, cut out a “Happy Noon Year” sign and used the excess as the backdrop to a big “2014” cut out of kraft paper. Note to moms: Extra Strength glue sticks do not stick to glitter wrapping paper so make sure you use wet glue or a glue gun before you tape the wrapping paper to the wall. Lesson learned.

Luckily, Ally has an unending supply of Kraft paper which I papered a section of the wall and floor for the kids to decorate with dot art, chalk and stickers. It wasn’t a big hit, it provided about 10 minutes of fun but made for a cute backdrop.

The NYE Bling

Thank you Walmart for selling cheesy paper 2014 glasses, 3 for $2.44. How could I resist?

We also have an unending supply of mardi gras beads that they loved putting on! At one point I think Chuck was wearing them all, she even managed to get them around her waist and legs-it was adorable!

The Crafts

What would NYE be without party hats and noisemakers? The kids werent interested in decorating the paper crowns I had cut out, but they loved the noisemakers and they were so simple to make! I cut up some mardi gras beads into short strands and Lucas and Chuck had a great time putting them into tennis ball tubes. The wide mouths of the tubes were the perfect size for little hands to put in (and take out) the colorful beads. I had also bought some sparkle star stickers to decorate the outside, but you really didn’t need them, the beads were so pretty by themselves. Some stars ended up inside the tubes as well and it made for a great effect!

Tasty Treats

Delicious food is a must for any NYE party and just because we were partying at noon didn’t hold us back! I wanted to do something simple, yet amazingly delicious so we had a mac and cheese bar! It was perfect for the kids and adults and as the hostess I loved it because it didn’t take me away from the party. Before the party I put together mac and cheese in the crock pot and prepped all the toppings. Since it was a small party, we only had 4 toppings but the possibilities are endless! Our choices were: chicken, bacon, peas and gouda (for those sophisticated palates). To make it fun, and easy to identify the toppings, I borrowed the chalkboard from Lucas’s room to use as a serving board to easily label each bowl. Unfortunately I did not get a pic of everything all set up- we were all very hungry! For desert, everyone got a midnight kiss!

The Big Countdown!

Supplies needed: plastic drop cloth, painters tape, balloons, balloons, balloons!

For the countdown to noon, I wanted to make it big and exciting with minimal mess. A balloon drop was perfect! For the countdown I made a quick slideshow on iPhoto. Luckily iPhoto makes everything simple, even computer challenged people like myself can figure it out (for clarification, I am Karen. Ally rocks at computers). 

After the countdown we pulled the painters tape off the ceiling and the kids ran around with the balloons for at least 20 minutes. They had the best time! Of course, after his friends left Lucas asked to “put them back up there?” It didn't happen, but the balloons kept him occupied for that evening and part of New years day!

We all had a great time and I am hoping to make this part of our New Years Eve tradition for years to come!