Bucket List #4 and a pinteresty sort of day...

It was another Saturday with Ben working and the clouds threatening to ruin our chances of a pool day.  The rain is so necessary at this point that we decided to do some fun crafty things instead, which is something that is hard for me to get into.  I struggle with getting messy, I had to silently remind myself multiple times, that everything can be cleaned up, let the kids be kids...

I loved this idea on Pinterest of putting the names of the kids in tape on canvases and letting them paint.  I had to canvases in the closet waiting for some color to explode on them.  So we jumped right in.  They had a blast.  Ella told me this was the best day of her life (side note: 20 minutes before this we were at Target and she was being denied a toy that was $17 and it was in fact at that moment the worst day of her life; how quickly that can change!) They turned out super cute.

Another Pinterest idea was on a site showing sensory activities.  I found these water beads at Walmart and have yet to do anything with them.  We finally put them in a large Rubbermaid storage bin and are currently waiting for them to grow to the full potential.  They should be the size of marbles.  The kids can step on them, fill up cups and pour them, and squish them in their fingers. 

And last but not least, BUCKET LIST #4! Bake cookies and share them with our friends.  One of the first pins I ever pinned to my fabulous virtual bulletin board was homemade oatmeal cream pies.  For the recipe click here.  Today we tried them out.  So, the kids put on their cooking shirts and helped me get the cookies made.  They didn't quite work out how I expected, so I had to improvise.  These cookies spread...BIG TIME.  And the first tray ended up being one large sheet of oatmeal cookies.  So I let them cool and cut them with a cookie cutter.  I tried again twice and still never quite got the cookies right.  But they tasted amazing.  So we went with it.  Then Ella and I made the icing and right away we both agreed that it tasted too much like butter, so we added more powdered sugar and whipping cream until we had it just right.  They don't look exactly like the pinterest idea, but they taste awesome!  Dropping a few off to our friends tonight.