Fun Times

I'm not the most creative person in the world, but now and then I try to do something fun and different with Joy, to spice up our usual routine of errands and trips to the park. Here are a few things we've done lately.

I got the paper plate fishy idea from a class the kids and I attend each week. You cut a wedge out of one side for the mouth, staple it to the other side for a tail, then color the fishy to your heart's content. Simple, yet fun.

I recently read that you can make s'mores in the microwave, so we decided to try it. We put a few graham crackers on a plate, topped each with a piece of chocolate and a marshmallow, then microwaved them until the marshmallows began to puff up. We then topped them with another graham cracker and munched away.

It was a fun novelty and it spared us the trouble of making a bonfire (which is generally not advisable in an apartment), but the result was pretty messy. The gooey marshmallow and melted chocolate got everywhere (note the face of my lovely assistant). Further experimentation revealed that the s'mores are much less gooey if microwaved for a shorter time (i.e. stop when the marshmallows barely begin to puff, not when they DOUBLE IN SIZE!!).

Thumbprint art was surprisingly LESS messy than microwaving s'mores. Here's Joy displaying her inky thumb and the art created therewith.

I had a lot of fun with it, too. And yes, the design on the left was created with rubber stamps; I don't have a heart-shaped thumb.