Paint, Porches & Pizza

I’ve done a few fun activities with L.J. recently – bathtub painting, water play and making pizza. He really liked each of them, with the painting and water play holding his attention for a half hour or more.

Paint!

I saw a “recipe” on Pinterest for bathtub paint and decided to give it a try. I mixed one cup of shampoo and 8 tablespoons of corn starch in a large bowl, then divided it out into four smaller bowls. Each of the smaller bowls had a different color of food coloring added.

L.J. used a silicone basting brush, rubber spatula and a plastic spoon for his “paintbrushes.” Mommy even got in on the painting fun! Everything washed cleanly down the drain when L.J. was finished painting – the food coloring didn’t stain anything.

(The recipe said to use baby shampoo, but I used up the remains of a regular bottle I didn’t like and it worked fine, sans the too-strong smell.)

Porches!

L.J. has taken to borrowing my baking/cooking utensils for use in his play kitchen, so the other week we went to WalMart and let him pick out his own. He was thrilled about this and carefully chose a half dozen spoons, spatulas and whisks. He also decided he needed a large pink mixing bowl and a 2 qt juice container to round out his collection.

We got home and I started thinking about how we used to play with bowls/cups/spoons on the deck when we were little. My mom would give us a big bucket of water and it would keep the three of us occupied for a long time!

It was a gorgeous day for water play, so after his nap I took L.J. out to the porch with his new things (plus some other found items) and a bunch of water. He poured, swished and dumped for almost an hour! At one point I gave him some uncooked pasta and that just upped the fun ante. What a great activity for him!

Pizza!

One of our favorite easy meals is barbecue chicken pizza. It’s so simple and so tasty. We made it recently and I let L.J. help me with the process. He was quite proud of himself!

First we made the barbecue sauce. L.J. helped measure the ingredients and when it was all mixed up he proceeded to eat his weight in sauce with a spoon. It’s good stuff, what can I say.

After we made the sauce, he helped roll out the dough and assemble the ingredients on top of the pizza. Into the oven it went and then it was enjoyed by all of us!