Dragon Puppet

This week is Chinese New Year (Feb 3) so I decided to theme our activities around that.  Today we made a paper bag puppet.  I just googled the image for the dragon face and found it here.  Then Rose had some cutting practice with cutting out the 'scales'.  I had pity on her after she did 6 and said her hand hurt, so I cut out the rest and the colored dragon face.  Then she just glued them on and the face - viola -  Dragon Puppet!

The National Building Museum

A hidden treasure in the world of children right here in the Nation's capital.  It is big, open, free (mostly), and has a little kid section.  I would say we spent the majority of our time in the little kid section, since even I felt overwhelmed in the actual displays - they would be great for an architect major!   I will be going back for the kids to get some more play time. 

 Train table that James absolutely loved!

 The strong lil' man.

 Dollhouse fun.

Building (and knocking over) a tower with Daddy. 

Lots of fun for the whole family.  We will most likely go back when our cousins visit sometime this summer as there is a Lego display that my nephew would love.  

It Snowed!

 Our Crepe Myrtle, bent in half.

 Where I got the snow for the snow cream.

 My unsuccessful attempt to capture that red Cardinal I posted about a few weeks ago.  It was coming down really hard at dinner time, so the window was really streaked with water/snow.  This is the best shot.

 Where James stood for a good 10 minutes yesterday before venturing into the snow.

 My new favorite winter activity - freezing water with food color mixed in - then letting Rose build things with them.  The best size was the cupcake tin, followed by the small loaf of bread.  

Snow Cream

It snowed last night!!!  It is that thick, heavy, wet snow that is good for snowmen and such.  I also figured it would be good for snow cream, which I had seen on another blog and kept in reserve for a good snowy day.  I followed her directions, minus the pudding since I didn't have it.  

 Mix 1 C cream (I used heavy)

1/2 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla

6 C fresh, clean snow (I found some on top of our patio table)

 Mix until creamy.

 Cover and stick in the snow for 15 minutes.  

Add 4 more cups of snow and mix until it looks like ice cream. 

ENJOY!!!

Snowflake Snack

Ok, so this one didn't exactly turn out quite like I thought it would.  The idea was to stick pretzels into a large marshmallow with small ones on the end and get it to look like a snowflake.  First the pretzels kept breaking trying to get them into the marshmallow.  Then Rose really really just wanted to eat the little ones, so I gave her a thumbs up for trying (that is mine) and let her eat them.  Oh well, they don't always go as planned.  I saw it somewhere online, and it looked a lot cuter.

Here is Rose trying to do her's....I didn't get the last shot, as I was laughing too hard, but just imagine the marshmallow caving in on itself, making it look very erratic with pretzels all in one direction.  I couldn't stop laughing.

I think the pasta won.

(And yes, I know he needs a haircut.)

Yarn "Snowball" - FAILED!!!

I saw this idea somewhere online in my hunt for snow themed activities.  I think it was supposed to be more paper-mache style, and maybe I blew the balloon up too big, but it really didn't work.  We might try again, with some adjustments.  The idea is to mix glue and water together, run the yarn through it then lay it on the balloon and allow to dry.  Then you pop the ballon and it creates a ball.  If you add glitter it is supposed to look like a snowball.  At any rate, Rose tired of putting the yarn on the balloon, so there are many bare spots.  And I would probably try putting the glitter in the glue mixture rather than sprinkling it on top.  When we popped our balloon it looked really pathetic...

Glue & Glitter

Rose made a winter scene out of glue and glitter.  First draw a winter scene with white crayon on a black paper. Then add a thick line of glue at the top, and hold the paper up so it drips down, creating icicles.  Glue any where else you want 'snow'.  Add glitter, let dry.  Beautiful winter scene.

Snowflake Relief Art

This was a really simple snowflake art project.  First I drew basic snowflakes with a white crayon and cut into four sections.  Then Rose watercolor painted over it, one color per section.  When it dried we put it back together, voila - art.