Sensory Fun with Aqua Gems!

Great fun!

When I saw this idea on Play at home mom (http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/) I knew we had to try it. My twins love getting messy and exploring, like any good kids, so I knew there would be good times ahead! I found the Aqua Gems at JoAnn Fabric in the floral department (I paid $4.99); they can also be found on Amazon.

I put them in a plastic bin and used 2 quarts of water for half of the package. The directions said to let them sit for 4 - 6 hours, so I waited overnight. Here are some photos of the Aqua Gems at different time intervals before we started having fun with them.

I wanted the kids to see the beads at the beginning, middle and end. They were so excited about it, of course they wanted to dive in right away.

It was very easy to do and so much fun. These feel so cool! Of course I stayed right with the kiddos and supervised their play with the water beads, just like I would when they play with anything small, so use your best judgment and be safe. Even though these gems are biodegradable and non-toxic, I still don't want them in anyone's mouth!

I put the plastic bin on top of a make-shift light box (upturned plastic bin with Christmas lights underneath!)

They were so excited to try that they dove right in - "very squishy" was a response I got a lot at first. Finley also added, "I sing my favorite yippie song. It's my own song."

And Grey, "It's squishy. Drop. Drop. It's like a raindrop." They loved dropping them from high above the bin and watching them land.

It was great for interaction too. Fin to Grey, "Pick one; pick a color." So funny. I had a great time too don't you know!

"Look mommy!"

Today was the second day of fun with the gems, and they were in it up to their elbows. Again I reminded them that these were just for their hands and did not go in their mouths! The fun had to stop when the gems started spending more time rolling around on the floor than staying in the box, but it sure was fun. Needless to say we will do this again.

For more fun and ideas about water beads be sure and check out TinkerLab (http://tinkerlab.com/2011/11/water-bead-exploration/), The Chocolate Muffin Tree, (http://www.thechocolatemuffintree.com/2011/09/water-bead-fun.html), and Messy Kids, (http://messypreschoolers.blogspot.com/2011/10/creepy-crawly-water-beads.html), More than ABC's and 123's (http://morethanabcand123.blogspot.com/2011/08/sensory-table-aqua-gems.html).

Have fun!

Let's just get going here. Lovely.

I'm so woefully behind and have been busy with life and family and fun that I haven't made time to blog. Lately I've spent a lot of time on Pinterest. But I still want to blog and see where it takes me.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7619046487852450756

Here are some beautiful home, inspirational photos I found on My Paradissi, my favorite new blog to follow. Can't help but love the calming blues. It takes me to the water, which always fills me with a sense of calm and serenity.
Enjoy and happy, blissful day.

Neighbors

My husband and I got a wonderful surprise from our neighbors Tim and David the other day. We were out in the front yard early as the kids slept, me with coffee and the baby monitor, George planting some new plants, when our sweet neighbors from two doors down stopped in front of our house. Tim got out of the truck with a shirt full of something, I couldn't quite tell, until I got closer: beans! They had just been to their garden plot in the neighborhood garden down the street behind the Methodist church. They decided to share their bean goldmine with us. How nice. Tim transfered the beans from his shirt into George's. I wish I had a photo of that!

It just made me feel like part of the neighborhood, kind of the same way I feel when I take the kids walking in the morning and meet someone new or wave to people I know or don't know that well. I like that feeling of belonging. We have lived in our new neighborhood almost a year, and have really enjoyed getting to know it and the people. The kids and I like to see who and what we can see each morning when we walk the hills. Mostly we see birds, flowers, trees, squirrels (including the white one on occasion!), a few cats, some dogs, and lots of neighbors. We've met a family with 6 children and a dog who live around the corner, a lady who gardens a huge yard of flowers, some folks who take great care manicuring their lawns, some more mature neighbors who say we remind them of "the old days" when we pass by their home with children in a stroller, and most recently a retired first grade teacher who has grown twins. It is always an adventure. And of course all this reminds me of our great neighbors and friends we made growing up. We moved a lot, but I remember lots of wonderful neighbors in our neighborhood in Arlington.
But, back to the beans. It is also nice to be given something just because. Our next-door neighbors are great about that as well. We (and our stomachs) have benefitted from some wonderful grilled food and homemade tamales. We have shared homemade goodies as well.

So, what did I do with the beans? Well, they sat in a colander for two days before I cooked them, but we enjoyed them last night with brown butter, balsamic and green onions thanks to Rachael Ray. Yum. However, before the beans made it to the colander, I let the children explore them, count them, and even taste them. Too funny.

I hope you are as lucky as we are to have wonderful neighbors and to be good ones in return.

All of this makes me think of Mr. Rogers, who of course sang about wanting to be your neighbor. I have enjoyed some of his books, and have shared his sage advice with parents for many years.

I found some quotes of his that I will share here:

1. “You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable.”

2. “Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.”

3. “There’s so much more to everyone you will ever meet than will ever meet your eye.”

4. "Well, what is essential about you? And who are those who have helped you become the person that you are? Anyone who has ever graduated from a college, anyone who has ever been able to sustain a good work, has had at least one person and often many who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others."

5. “Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we aren’t perfect.”

6. "The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile."

7. "It's our insides that make us who we are, that allow us to dream and wonder and feel for others. That's what's essential. That's what will always make the biggest difference in our world."

8. ”How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?”

9. "The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self."

10. "If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person."

11. ”Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person."

12. "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?"

Summer Fun

We went to a Memorial Day party last weekend. Our friends hosted a barbeque and had a big (4'x8') blow-up pool for the kids, all 2 1/2 years old and under. It was a blast.

I started thinking about how much fun my brother (and all our friends) and I had growing up with a pool in the backyard.  We moved around a lot when I was young, but settled in our 14th house when I was in 7th grade, and it had a pool. Since we lived in Texas, we could swim almost year round. The smell of chlorine on my skin still takes me back. It was great to jump in and cool off during the day and linger on the stairs or hang on the side as night crept in. Water is so magical.

I also loved how tired I was after a day of swimming; the night after swimming was always a good sleep. Of course as we got older we "hung out" around the pool as much as we swam. I even remember boys jumping off our roof into the pool; that is until my parents stopped them!

I have wonderful memories of spending time in our pool. I don't know if we will build one in our backyard or not, but my children already love the water. It is time for swimming lessons too. Although we don't have a big pool in our backyard,  I think we need to inflate our own little one right away!

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