Some messy kid fun.

Otherwise known as my Rainy Day Arsenal.

Not that you need a rainy day to have some good home made fun. We just happen to have a whole lot of them. At least 3 days of rain a week since we've been here.

I accumulated these little time-fillers during the 10 years I got paid to take care of other peoples kids. Unless your child is squeamish with textures, they will love this. And if you're squeamish about making a huge mess I totally understand....but....well.....you might just have to get over that. It'll be fun.

See? Fun.....

(And even more fun if you wear a bathing suit while you play. It's Skylar's favorite item of clothing these days. A bathing suits with or without an apron and tutu to be exact).

First up......

Clean Mud

1 roll of toilet paper
1 bar of soap
1 quart of water

Take the roll of toilet paper and let your kids tear it up into little pieces. Then get a bar of soap and grate it into little bits with a cheese grater on top of the toilet paper. Start adding a little water and stirring it all up. The toilet paper will start to dissolve and get kind of fluffy and moldable. If it gets a little runny, you've added too much water. Better get another roll of toilet paper......

Koolaid Play-doh

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 package of koolaid
3 T oil
1 cup of very hot water

Mix together all the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, and knead it all together. The koolaid smells fruity and dyes it a fun color. Just know that it might smell good enough to eat....and dye the hands a little bit.

Faux Clay

1 cup flour

1 cup warm water

2 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp oil

1/4 cup salt

food coloring

Mix up the dry ingredient, add the wet ingredients, knead it all together and go to town.

Gak

Liquid cornstarch (comes in the big blue bottle in the laundry section)

Elmer's glue (you'll want to get the big old jug of it)

Food coloring

Use equal parts liquid cornstarch and glue. Go ahead and add a few drops of food coloring to the liquid cornstarch and then add the glue to evenly distribute the color. It's going to take a lot of stirring. It'll start out stringy and then come together to form a nice rubbery consistency. I love this stuff!!!

And now for my personal favorite.....

Cornstarch Goopedy Goo

A box of cornstarch

Water

Optional: a drop of extract (vanilla, lemon, mint, whatev) to cover the slightly funky cornstarchy smell

Dump out the cornstarch and start adding water while stirring it up. This will get really hard to do, so you may as well just use your hands and forget about the spoon. You want to keep adding water until it is the desired consistency: when you can make a ball in your hand that melts into a liquid before your very eyes. Magical. Don't forget to let your kids play with it too.

We made the goo today, and it was really cute to watch Skylar ball it up and then wait for the balls to melt in her hands.
When she concentrates really hard she either forgets to swallow and starts drooling (it's special) or does what I call the "Rue lip" where she sticks her bottom lip out.

Micah, his dad, his sister...they all do the Rue lip when they're focused on something. Skylar actually was born with her lip sticking out this way. Kristy was my witness. (Poor Kristy). I guess it took a lot of concentration to get through the birth canal....and I should probably just go ahead and end this post now.

Have fun making a mess with your kids! Or by yourself.