Pipe Cleaner Rings

I saw these fun rings awhile back and thought the girls would LOVE to make these.....figured the boys wouldn't be too interested, but I was wrong.....they were interested.  They said they were their spiderman web shooters.

All you need is some pipe cleaners, hot glue, and some gems or buttons.  I found these at Wal-Mart.....they have an adhesive on the back side.  Wasn't sure how well they would stick, so used hot glue to stick them on.

Start by wrapping the pipe cleaner around your child's finger to get the right size, then slide off and twist around and make a spiral.....sorry I don't have very detailed pictures....trying to help them and take pictures doesn't always work too well, but check out the website above she has some great pictures of the process of wrapping the pipe cleaner. 

Then hot glue a stone to the top.  So easy and the kids loved them!

Check them out.....they all wanted them on their index finger!

Cooper wanted 2 different colors.....I think it turned out pretty cool!

Oobleck and Sprinkler Fun

We have made oobleck in the past many times......I wrote about it here.  The kids love this stuff.....well this time they put their suits on and we headed outside.  I think we ended up using about 5 or 6 boxes of cornstarch......I asked if they wanted to color it or leave it white and they decided on green! 

When doing this outside, it's inevitable that they are going to make a mess......on each other! So, we had a homemade sprinkler ready to go......making one is super easy, just take an empty 2 liter pop bottle, rinse it out, poke holes in the sides, and hook it up to a hose.....I had an adaptor from our pvc sprinkler to use to connect the hose with the pop bottle.  I threw the hose and bottle over a tree branch and turned the water on......it worked great!  The way the holes were punched made kind of a shower effect which was perfect for cleaning off the oobleck, but may try punching the holes differently next time and see what happens.  I love this sprinkler, cause you don't have to worry about the kids tripping over the ones that set on the ground.

Foil River

We play outside every morning.....our front yard is pretty shaded til about noon, so we usually play out front.  So I try and find things for them to create or play with instead of just riding toys, bikes, and sidewalk chalk. 

So, one day we used foil (a lot of foil) to make a little river or stream.   I used the heavy duty foil so it was a little sturdier.  Roll out your foil as long as you like and flatten out the middle and scrunch up the sides.  Make sure you place your foil somewhere that has a bit of a slope down for the "boats" to float down easier.  Once your foil is ready, turn the hose on a little and the kids will come running!   

We used lids for our boats.....we actually tried this a few weeks ago and the boats had cute little sails on them (used a toothpick and paper sails stuck in clay on the lid), but it was way to windy and our foil was flying away.  The lids float down pretty good, but all the kids were trying to "help" them along a little!

The girls actually played with this longer than the boys.......maybe next time, we will get out other items to float down our river.  Cheap entertainment for the morning!

Exploding Bags

Remember I told you I would share with you about making exploding bags.....well here it is.  Super easy and kids thought it was fun!

All you need is water, vinegar, baking soda, paper towels, and ziploc baggies.

Cut your paper towel into a 5x5 inch square......you can get 4 out of 1 paper towel.....cut in half and then in half again.  Put 1 1/2 tablespoons of baking soda in the middle of the paper towel and fold the corners in to make a little packet. 

Pour into your baggy 1/2 cup of vinegar and 1/4 cup of warm water.

Now you need to drop the packet of baking soda into the vinegar and zip the bag closed before the fizzing gets out of control.  You can zip the bag halfway closed, then stuff the packet in and zip the bag closed the rest of the way in a hurry or you can put the packet into the mouth of the bag and hold it up out of the vinegar by pinching the sides of the bag.  Zip the bag closed and then let the packet drop into the vinegar.  One way or another, get the packet in the vinegar and zip the bag closed.

Shake the bag a little, place it on the ground and stand back.  The bag will puff up dramatically and then give a loud pop!  The kids thought it was pretty exciting stuff......they thought it sounded like a firecracker!  Make sure you have plenty of supplies to do this more than once, because trust me, your kids will want to do it over and over again.

The first time we did it, we had a very tiny leak so it puffed up but never popped.  So I stomped on it and they thought that was pretty cool.....much louder too!

After this little experiment, I was asked if we could make a volcano.....gonna have to add that to the list yet this summer!

Waterbed

I have been wanting to make this waterbed all summer and finally got to it......we have been so busy lately that I feel like summer is slipping away and I have so much stuff I want to do yet.

All you need is some plastic sheeting (comes in a roll, it's used for weatherproofing windows or when remodeling)......any size.....ours was 10X25 and folded it in half.  Then duct tape around the 3 sides (leave an opening for the water hose)......you may want to reinforce it with more tape as well......just to prevent leaks.

Once you have it all taped up, lay it on a flat surface and start filling it with water.  You can fill it as much or as little as you want.  I also was going to add food coloring, glitter or even some soft objects that the kids could look for.  But I figured since this was the first time, they would just want to play on it and wouldn't care too much about what was inside it.  Then tape the opening and let your kids go crazy.....cause they definitely will.

And then we turned the sprayer on!

 This was a summersault if you couldn't tell!

A did a LOT of diving! 

Man, was this fun.....if it wouldn't have been wet, I would have totally rolled all over this thing.....maybe next time!  Hopefully it lasts for awhile cause I have some big plans for it for the rest of the summer, so stay tuned.