Homemade Window Clings

I've had this activity on our to-do list for a long time, and we finally got around to trying it. It was so much fun, and so easy. We made homemade window clings using colored glue! It takes a lot of drying time, and some patience, but not much else.

Mix food coloring into school glue. Outline your shape on a piece of transparency. Maybe making a triceratops and a stegosaurus weren't the best ideas. ;) Allow it to dry for a few hours, then fill it in completely with glue. Allow it to dry overnight.
Peel your homemade window clings carefully from the transparency and stick it on the window! I think the glue I used was a little runny, so the outline isn't solid, but the kids enjoy playing with these. We will definitely do this craft again.

Shared at Link & Learn and Sun Scholars.

Big Mess

Dalton dumped an entire container of food color powder in the kitchen this morning. The Indian food color dyes a lot more than the American liquid, but doesn't stain as badly. But, a small amount dyes a lot of water and I had difficulty cleaning it up without paper towels.

Baby foot print.

Ugh.

The soles of my feet are still bright orange, but it washed out of everything else, including Dalton's clothes and the rug. By the time I got it all cleaned up, Dalton had decided he was done with his bath and was running around naked.

Dalton Dictionary

I finally got a decent video of Dalton saying some words. He wandered off at the end, apparently looking for Daddy after I asked him to say that. Once the static starts, you can just turn it off.

Here is the Maggie version at 17 months (Dalton is 19).

Here's a different version. He doesn't say much else, but he is cute, and bonks his head on the bed at the end.

Fun With the Kids

Just a few of the things we did this week.

Fingerpainting with chocolate pudding

Tracing Circles

ABC Scavenger Hunt

Coloring our own stamps.

Maggie drew an Egg or No Eggs picture and quizzed me with it. Of course, I first had to identify the animals. I especially love her lizard with the tongue sticking out (it's climbing up the elephant's trunk) and the lion (it's the rooster-like creature on the bottom left).

Everyday Indian

Just a few pictures of non-ethnic clothes we've bought in India. We've selected the least over-decorated things we could find. A shirt doesn't need words, pictures, zippers, buttons, stripes AND glitter. On the same piece of clothing.

Yep, John is wearing capris! This is a water park, so it's not like it was "in public" but he now has two pairs and they're awesome!I'm very shiny these days. I have a few sequined tops, and four layered skirts like this, some kneelength and some long. Plus, some churidar tops and leggings.
Here is Maggie sporting the "track pants" look, a common style in girls' play clothes. Her shirt says "Bees communicate by dancing" and is the least weird of the "random animal facts" t-shirts I chose from. She also has Disney-licensed fake Crocs.

The only clothes I think we've bought Dalton was this Mickey Mouse outfit. Probably not actually licensed because it's a little "off." (Belle is a sticker, not part of the shirt.) We did just get some hand-me-downs for him and today he is wearing a little Dalton-sized Y shirt.

He's also gone through a few pairs of Indian shoes. Now he is wearing these orange and green ones with a picture of a dog.

Hand Stitching

Here are the embroidery projects I've done since teaching myself embroidery stitches a little while ago. The first is Rachel's birthday present. Looking at it now, far away and several months later, I'm very impressed with myself!

Here is the sampler I made. It's been sitting in my embroidery bag, since I made it, and once again, now that I see it I really like it! I will have to display it somehow.

Then, last night I embroidered this scripture bag for Maggie. The Relief Society made this for the Primary kids and I found an extra under my bed, so I made it for Maggie. She picked out the colors and John did the writing.

Then I put her name on the back.

Continuing the theme of embroidery+stuff from the US, we got some goodies from a co-worker of John's today. Maggie was super excited about it. Here's what we got:
Of all the things you think you'll miss...

Maggie was begging to have "black jelly beans" after dinner. We thought she meant the M&Ms, but she wanted the black beans!

Indoor Hopscotch with a Yoga Mat

The weather is fine for hopscotch outside, but the rest of India is not so accommodating. Even if we could find (or make) chalk, the road inside our complex is kind of cobblestoned and not really great for hopscotch drawing. Also, I'm afraid the new security guards would frown on things like chalk drawings. So we made our own for use indoors!

All you need is a yoga mat (you can find one for around $10), a permanent marker, and a ruler. I just used the ruler to measure out squares - the grid on the yoga mat helps line them all up. The squares are around 8". I marked all the corners with a washable marker, then used the ruler to connect the dots.
I saw a yoga hopscotch mat on another blog after I made this. She taped out her squares and outlined them. I thought of doing that, but had already decided that was too much work when I removed the small amount of masking tape I used and discovered it was peeling part of the mat off with it. So if you use that method, I recommend testing the tape first.

As you can see, I had a guilty little helper add the 10th square while I was doing dishes. Luckily, she used her own markers so it washed off. I drew the 10th spot in a semi-circle by tying a string around the marker and swinging it like a compass in math class. (See the first photo.)

John did the numbering (he is the one with nice handwriting). Apparently, the mat is also great for playing cars on.
I hand-stitched a couple of circular bean bags, but I like the idea of small square bean bags appliquéd with each player's initial.