Dirt Cake

We have been talking about plants, seeds and flowers this week so I saw it only fitting to make a dirt cake. That is how it all starts anyway. It is chocolate pudding (I use sugar free), whip cream, oreo's crushed and gummy worms. It is a great recipe that your child can make with you. She smashed the cookies stirred the pudding and added the whip cream. You just make the pudding according to the pie recipe and add half a small container of whip cream and a bag of crushed oreo's I put some in pudding and the rest on top and add worms.

Painting with flowers

I feel like art should be open ended and not for an outcome that an adult has in mind. I used some flower petals and put them in different colors and let her go she did not have to make anything she just had to create. she mixed colors and explored with pressing two at the same time. it was such a fun experience for her and to see that you don't always have to use a paint brush to paint.



H loved the idea of painting with the flowers, but I think looking for more of a flower print on the paper cause she kept saying "H no make it"

Seeds, Flowers and Plants sensory table

This week we are learning about plants seeds and flowers. So I thought it was only appreciate to have just that in the sensory table. I used soil, kidney beans, fake daisy's, shoves, buckets, and rakes.

Muffin tin Monday: seeds, plants and flowers

Today for muffin tin Monday the theme was seeds, plants and flowers. So all week that is what we are going to be talking about. I used sunflower seeds, raisins, dirt cake with gummy worms, peanut butter and jelly cut into a flower shape, broccoli, and a blueberry juice in a cup with flowers on it. My daughter helped me make the dirt cake she really liked smashing the Oreo's.

Ice paint

OK so it is really hot here! So my daughter likes to play in her pool a lot. So I decided to bring art outside. I took an ice tray and filled up 6 holes with water then added food coloring and a popsicle stick, and let it freeze. We used poster board cause it was thicker and held up to the melting ice. SHE LOVED IT! She started out painting the paper then her hand, then finger paint than she was painting her arms and legs. I love open ended art projects like this because they can do so many things with it and be creative. I put her in her swim suit just in case the food coloring stained her clothes and she went straight from painting to the pool. After a few minutes in the pool most of the food coloring was going.

Muffin tin Monday

So sad we had to cancel our Muffin Tin Monday yesterday. H was sick and only had a couple bites of a watermelon and popsicle all day. Going to the doctor today I think it may be an ear infection but we will see. We may do a delayed on later in the week just because.

Rainbow college

We practiced using scissors cutting tissue paper this weekend. I figured it would be an easy first time cut since it was really thin and could rip easy. She did really good actually for her first time. Then started to get a little frustrated and started just ripping the paper. She really enjoyed just ripping it and gluing her pieces to the paper. She loved how sticky the glue was but it also frustrated her when the tissue paper kept sticking to her hand.

M&M sorting

This was a really fun way to practice with H on her colors and sorting. I just took a poster board and traced the bottom of a can with the different colors of the M&Ms and wrote the color in the circle. I would recommend laminating the poster board before letting the game happen cause little wet fingers and melting M&Ms smeared all over the board. I rule was she couldn't eat the M&Ms till she put them all in the correct colors. She was so proud when she got them all and could eat her snack. (I didn't let her eat all of them I ended up sorting them myself to let two or three of each color and put the rest in the bag.)

Rainbow toast

Yesterday morning for breakfast we made rainbow toast. I took an ice tray and put a little milk in 6 trays and add a drop of food coloring to make it all the colors of the rainbow. And let her paint away. She loved it. She didn't like the toast but then I turned it into french toast and she gobbled it up.

Rainbow hands!!!

Today she was coloring with markers and of course it got all over her hands. She must have been so focused on coloring that she had not noticed. All of a sudden she gasped and shouted "Oh no mommy" what H? "rainbow hands!" she that it was the funniest thing that happened to her she laughed and laughed it was so funny.

What makes a rainbow

This is such a cute book! The little rabbit is out to find out what colors make a rainbow so she ask some of her friends on each page a ribbon of color appears till you have all of them on the last page is a pop up rainbow.

the Letter Y

Yesterday was my husbands birthday so we made him a Happy birthday sign. We have been talking about rainbows so I made it in rainbow colors. As I wrote the letters I said which one it was, most of the time she was drawing on another page waiting for me to finish but I guess she was paying attention. As soon as she got the crayons to color daddy's sign she went right to work and about 15 seconds later she proudly sits back and says, "wow, the letter Y, mommy"

Muffin tin Monday Rainbow lunch

To continue with the rainbow theme. I got a 6 whole muffin pan and for every color of the rainbow filled it with that colored food. Hailey had so much fun eating lunch! It really excited her and she was way more interested in lunch than usual.

Rainbow Art

H has been pointing out and talking about Rainbows a lot the last couple of days. So I decided to expand on that idea and have a rainbow theme this week. H had so much fun doing this project. First you color on a paper towel with marker, the more color the better. Then put into a container and let them squirt with water bottle. The marker will start to fade and make a tie dye look. We used all the colors of the rainbow to make a rainbow tie dye. I also folded the paper towel once to get the color to spread a little.


Color paper towel with marker

Spray with water

Let sit and watch the colors spread out to tie dye paper


She had more fun spraying herself

Homemade Goop

Ingredients: cornstarch, water, and food coloring! yep that is it. For less than two bucks and two minutes of your time, the kids will be occupied for a long time. You can add a squirt bottle and let them add more water to the mix to see what happens. You can ask open ended questions like: What does the corn starch smell like? How does it feel? What is it doing? Young children learn through their five senses,this is how they explore the world around them. When the mixture is in the bucket it is solid and hard but when you pick it up it turns to liquid and slides through your fingers.



H how does it feel on your hands? "Nice"

English Muffin Pizza's

Today H made our lunch for us all by herself. We had English muffin pizza's. All you need is whole grain English muffins, pizza sauce and cheese. All I had in the house at the time was sliced cheese, but I usually use shred mozzarella. It is fun to add different toppings but today was just a cheese day.


Glad this was just for me and her she kept licking the spoon saying, "ummmm yumm mommy"

Sensory Project

Sensory projects are great for kids of all ages. It's a place designed for squishing, sifting, sorting, digging, and pouring, where children can get messy, discover, and play freely. They can vary in styles from water, sand, beans, rice, shaving cream and many other things. For this one i just used lentils, a spoon and two cups. This kept H busy for at least 30 minutes pouring, scooping, and mixing the lentils.

Homemade water colors

I used a cheap ice tray I got at Ikea and just added water and a few drops of Neon food coloring. This was from when she was about 15 months old so it can be used with any age just make sure they are not in good clothes cause food coloring stains.

Dying Easter Eggs

Easter was about a month ago but I thought I would share this anyway. Dying Easter Eggs can be really messy with toddlers! So I put the dye in a Ziploc bag and let all the air out and let her shake it and move the egg around she had a lot of fun and it was very little mess.


She kept picking the egg up and hitting it on the table on accident so some of the eggs were cracked but she had a great time, and really enjoyed mommy and daddy doing it too.

A tutu for her baby

I have a home business making tutus, and my daughter is my biggest fan. She told me one day that her baby wanted a tutu. So now I am making matching tutus for the baby. she was thrilled when she saw the results. If you are interested in tutus email me at haileysbutterflygarden@yahoo.com or check me out on myspace at www.myspace.com/haileysbutterflygarden