Arts and Crafts Thursday

It’s Thursday!!  Which thankfully means tomorrow is Friday and the weeks almost over.  I love the weekends!!!  But the end of the week is also about the time we start getting stir crazy around my house.  It seems most of our standing plans are in the beginning of the week.  As I was online searching for some new things to add to our week I found an art class offered locally for toddlers.  It was $20/mo for an hour of art and craft time.  Um…that’s a little silly for me.  I have a closet full of craft supplies and between being reasonably creative myself and my obsession with Pinterest…there is no need to do that.  Instead, I instituted Arts and Crafts Thursdays into our weekly routine.  I didn’t really have any great ideas today, I just started pulling things out of the closet and trying to make some fun creative time for Em.

My first intention was to make Penne noodle necklaces on yarn.  But when I opened my pantry I was strangely out of Penne!  Not normal in my house since my child eats noodles at least twice a week.  I did have other noodles but nothing I could string onto yarn.  I looked down a shelf and saw Fruit Loops.  That will work!!  But I decided that yarn was going to be awfully difficult for my two year old to string onto and grabbed pipe cleaners instead.  It was a hit!!

She ate them almost as quickly as we could string them together, but she enjoyed doing it.  It was good for encouraging work on her fine motor skills, we discussed the colors, we were creative using something she knew, Fruit Loops, and making something new, the bracelet, and it was yummy!!  Win win!

I also had a stack of foam animals I’d picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby a while back. We had fun putting those together as well.  I need to be sure to wander past things like this more often because she really enjoyed it!

Since we were already on a roll and she was having fun we decided to try out a new play-dough recipe I’d found on Pinterest.  A while back we made the kool-aid play-dough and it was awesome.  It was the perfect consistency, it smelled amazing, and it lasted a long time before I felt it needed to be tossed.  You can find it here.  I should have stuck to the one I knew worked but I’d found another one using Jello that claimed to be “the best”.  We tried it…we had fun making it but it just didn’t get a good consistency and smelled funky.  I realize I have preggo nose, but it smelled so “off” that I ended up throwing it away and we didn’t even play with it.  Which was really fine because by that time Em was wearing out and ready to go play independently for a bit.  But despite the Pinterest fail…she loved making it!

She felt very big standing up on the chair to help me.  It was a fun afternoon for both of us. Finally at dinner because I was just in the mood I decided to spice things up.  She’d asked for noodles (shock), so I asked her what color noodles.  At first she looked at me like I was crazy and then decided to play along.  She said…”um…blue”.  Your wish is my command darling!

They turned out more turquoise than blue and she was calling them green, but she liked it!  She ate every bite (I was a little worried the color would make them less appetizing, but apparently not).

I think Mommy enjoyed Arts and Crafts Thursday as much as she did!  It was fun to sit with her and watch the wheels turn.  Next Thursday is Valentine’s Day so we’ll have to do lots of Valentine’s themed crafts!  My wheels are turning already!!