Fun with the Boys

It seems that lately all I’ve been doing is garden posts. While it is true that the boys and I spend most of our time outside getting plants in the ground, we have also been making time to do some fun activities…especially when it is raining and we are stuck inside.

First up, we made some indoor goop and used cookie cutters, dinosaurs, cars and anything else we could think of to make impressions and watch as they quickly disappeared. The boys did this for about 30 minutes and had a blast.

One day we made mini pizzas out of corn tortillas, taco meat and cheese. We made a giant mess with shredded cheese everywhere, but as you can see…they highly enjoyed their creations.

We had the most fun baking cotton balls. All you need is flour, water and food coloring.

First you mix equal parts flour and water and add food coloring to your liking. We used red.

Then you dip the cotton balls in the mixture and lay them out on a foil lined cookie sheet. 

Joe dumped all of his in the bowl and stirred them up with a spoon like a little chef. I think he thought he would be able to eat them once they were baked. Maybe it was because Jake was trying to eat them. 

Once they come out of the oven, baked at 300 for 45 minutes, they should have a good hard crust…making it fun for smashing. Jake tried a garden rake.

Joe used the garlic press. Once the crust broke, the cotton balls still felt soft inside.

Because I needed to get a lot of seeds in the ground, I built a little dirt pile for the boys to play in. They were entertained for about 10 minutes. Needless to say, I did not get a lot of planting done.

A fun, easy and inexpensive activity: sea monkeys. Joe has been checking them daily. We can’t see anything right now, but in the next few days we should be able to see something.

And then, the ice cream sandwich of fun activities: watching the parachutists at the airport and getting a tour of a little plane.

We stopped out expecting only to watch the jumpers. Then, when a very nice pilot came over and asked Joe if he wanted to sit in the pilot seat of a little jumper plane, he jumped right into the pilot’s arms without even a backwards glance at us. He asked all sorts of questions about the plane, jumping out and when could he “go up in the air”. What an awesome treat!

We built a worm house too, and have been collecting worms for it for the boys to observe. Ray’s mom gave Joe a whole container full of worms that she had found. I’ve asked if Joe wants to feed a few to the chickens and he always replies, “No, he wants to go see his mommy.”