How to Dye Dry Pasta

My son's teacher called me one afternoon and wanted to know if I could dye pasta for the class.  She had planned for them to make necklaces but was running out of time and needed some help.  She had no clue I was a blogger and things like this were so much fun for me to do and share about. I accepted the job of dying pasta and looked forward to trying it out.  I have dyed cooked noodles before, dry rice, dry beans, but never dry noodles.  I could not wait to try it out. 

Pumpkin Spice Clean Mud- Fall Sensory Table

Here is this weeks Fall Sensory Table for you with a fun Pumpkin Spice theme.  I have been dying to make "clean mud" with the boys forever.  So now was a great time to try it.  It was a perfect hands on sensory play material for one of our 4 fall sensory tables.

Pumpkin Investigation and Sensory Play with Cinnamon Sprinkle Goop

I love fall time.  The weather, the associated scents of pumpkin and cinnamon, the holidays, and our family adventure traditions. 

One family tradition is going to the Farm each year to pick pumpkins. This family adventure is one of my favorites.  It has corn mazes, corn cannons,  pig races, and a corn house for the kids, just to name a few activities we can do while there.  It is such a joy to watch the kids take it all in each year.  And we always come home with way too many pumpkins, or so I think once we get home. 

This year we decorated with a few plain pumpkins and we then did pour paint tape resistant art with one, and glitter glue and googly eyes with one.  Now we had a few more pumpkins that needed to be put to good use. I set out to let the boys investigate  the inside of a pumpkin for the FIRST time this year (we never carve the pumpkins since the boys are still so young).  And of course we couldn't just cut the pumpkin up for some scientific examination, we had to play with it too.

Sand playdough recipe with construction play theme

Recently there has been a lot of sand playdough posts on pinterest... It looked like so much fun.  My 3 yr loves sand and playdough.  So this play recipe should be a hit with him.  I can not wait to see what he thinks about it.

Frozen Skull Paints for Halloween

I have been wanting to try frozen paint with the kids for some time now.  After seeing Debs Paintsicles. Frozen paint cubes for creative fun. on Learn with Play at Home, I knew the kids would love it.

We tried frozen DIY Apple Scented "paints" but they were not paint.  So today we finally tried freezing paints.  With Halloween coming up, we made Frozen Skull Paints.

Halloween Frozen Goop

We first tried goop in 2012 and the kids loved it.  See it here How to Make Goop.  Ever since, we have only played with "goop" a few more times.  Our sweet potato ooey gooey fall table was fun last year.  I even got in on playing in that one, lol.  With Halloween coming up I set out to come up with a few sensory play ideas I knew my kids would enjoy.  This Halloween, Frozen Goop was a big hit with the kids!  

Halloween Playdough Recipes in 3 fun Scents

It's no secret, if you follow my blog, that we LOVE playdough.  I love making it and setting up invitations to play for the kids.  The kids love playing with it and are always happy to sit down for PLAYDOUGH.  I must admit I love to play in it as much as they do. However, I don't always get to.  Often playdough is my go to activity for the older boys because they can play with it own their own while I clean, cook, try to eat a snack, lol.  With Halloween fast approaching and having been a while, it was time to make some new fun playdough for the kids.

Apple Clean Mud Fall Sensory Play for Kids

If you know me then you probably knew it was only a matter of time before we made Apple Scented Clean Mud.  Clean Mud is easy and cheap to make and a lot of fun to play with.  I made the kids a batch of apple berry scented clean mud in red, yellow, and green.  They could not wait to start playing.  The scent was amazing. 

Gingerbread Playdough Recipe

YAY, for Playdough Day.  One of the best days of the year! To celebrate here is a great holiday playdough recipe that can be fun anytime of the year.

It seems to have become a yearly tradition to make a batch of Gingerbread Playdough for the kids at Christmas time.  I made it last year for them to make a few Playdough Turkeys and they loved it.  I never got around to sharing the recipe.  This year the kids just had to have gingerbread playdough again.  I foresee many more Christmas's with homemade holiday playdough.  Since my kids have enjoyed it so much, I have decided to find the time to write out the recipe so maybe others can enjoy it too.

Sunflower Scented Rice Invitation to Play

We made Sunflower Playdough in the spring and I had hoped to set up a few more activities for the kids with the same scent.  Time got away from me and we never got around to it.  However, this day was the day to make it happen.  I made them some Sunflower Scented Rice and set them up an invitation to play.  

Pumpkin Pie No Cook Playdough

I love the scents of Fall.  Pumpkin is just one of many I love.  While baking one afternoon with the kids, I decided to make them their own pumpkin pie playdough to play with after the baking was over.  They continued pretend play baking with their new, no cook playdough I made them.

                        

Apple Sparkle Slime

For the love of Apples!  I can not stop thinking up apple play ideas, lol.  Now that it is finally September, maybe I will get hit with another theme for inspiration. 

Apple slime is quick, easy, and low cost to make and play with.  It can get messy so play if you dare.

DIY Apple Scented Frozen Glitter Paints

We recently made Apple Scented Soda Dough and had left over ingredients. My gears were turning to think of what else we could do that was apple scented and fun!  The idea for DIY Apple Scented Frozen Paints came to mind.  I could not wait to see how, and if, this experiment would turn out. 

How To Make Apple Scented Soda Dough

We love making and playing with different play recipes.  Today we used a fun recipe to make Apple Scented Soda Dough.   This one is a green apple scent so, a little different from our other scented play over the last few weeks.  I love it just as much as the kids do.  We had fun exploring and playing with the apple soda dough.

How to Make Apple Scented Cloud Dough

My oldest loves cloud dough. A fun, fluffy, and yet moldable play material you can make at home. We have been playing in it for years. He never gets tired of it. I recently asked him if he could have anything he wanted with an apple scent for playtime what would it be.  His answer CLOUD DOUGH.  So I set out to make Apple Scented and Colored Cloud Dough for playtime.

Apple Scented Glitter Glue and Apple Craft

I bought apple scent one year when we made apple scented soaps. Every fall now I get excited to get the apple scent out and see what playtime fun we can have with it.  My son was looking for something to do and I started brainstorming apple, fall, sensory, crafts, hummm what to do.  Then Apple Scented Glitter Glue came to mind.  We whipped up a batch of scented glitter glue and starting painting!

Tie Dye Foam Bath Paint

We love to add a little extra fun to bath time at my house.  We often take messy play to the tub before bath so we can just wash it away.  That is exactly what we did this night.  I made the kids some Tie Dye Foam Paints for playtime in the tub.  They had fun playing and I loved that clean up was easy.

DIY Colored Glitter Glue

I keep seeing that bright cheerful colored glitter glue in the big glue bottles at the stores and always think I need to buy us some of that.  I always get sidetracked and never come home with any.  Maybe its a good thing, one less craft supply to add to my ever growing supply closet.  But the other day inspiration hit and I really wanted a big bottle of colored glitter glue for a Halloween project I had wanted to try with the kids.  It was a simple idea I had but it needed a little sparkle and glitter glue would give it just that.  I set out to make our own colored glitter glue.

Easy Homemade Scented Watercolors

I love making homemade art supplies and sensory play materials. So it was no surprise that when I needed watercolors for an art project with the kids and did not have any store bought on hand that I would just make some.  I also have a habit of not reading recipes but just doing what I think will work, lol.  I often get lucky and they do work out, but there is the occasional fail.  When they fail, I modify or start over.  I am glad that I got lucky with the homemade scented watercolors and they worked.  Art project was still on for the day.

FROZEN Inspired Ice Chalk

Once Disney's FROZEN came out to DVD we bought it to see what all the fuss was about.  I still love watching Disney movies until this day.  Having kids is a good reason to keep up with all the new movies coming out.  We give the movie 2 thumbs up.  

The other day while in the kitchen (where most inspiration seems to hit) I thought Frozen inspired ice chalk would be a fun activity for the kids.  I saw frozen chalk on Reading Confetti last year and have wanted to try it since then.  This seemed like the perfect time.  I could not wait to see how the kids would react.