Happy Half Birthday, Lucy!

Lucy is 18 months old today!

She is such a joy! For such a small person, she has big presence. Doors don't close, they slam. She doesn't take one crayon, she dumps all 64 of them out. She doesn't just pet the cat, she lays down on top of him.

Her absolute favorite thing to do is play with balls. She likes little bouncy balls and big beach balls, glittery balls and bakis (basket)balls, golf balls and baseballs; she likes balls. We have to avoid the big bins of bouncy balls in the store because she gets really excited (legs pumping and yelling, "Ball! Ball! Ball!" ) and then upset if we don't buy one.

She also enjoys balloons (bwoons), shoes, combing her hair ('pitty'), and reading "Moo, Baa, La La La!" by Sandra Boynton. She makes some good funny faces and adores Mollie.

My favorite thing is how she will just walk into the room and squeeze my legs in a hug! Happy 18 months, little Lu!

Printmaking

We were inspired by this post at whip up (linked from A Crafty Crow, a GREAT website for creative kids' projects) to try printmaking using fruits and vegetables today.

Mollie's friend Bella joined us and it was a lot of fun! We tried both acrylic craft paint and washable crayola paint. Both work well, but it was best to thicken them up a little with some flour (to a paste consistency).

The fruits and veggies we used were things I had around the house that were a bit past prime:
garlic
onion
apple
butternut squash
asparagus
lemon (my favorite, by far)
bell pepper

Slice the produce, make the paint paste, dip the produce in, and make prints! It helped to have some sponges to wipe off excess paint; a light coat of paint works best. The girls enjoyed touching the different fruits and veggies and discussing which textures make the best prints.

The produce manager at our grocery store said he would give us some of the expired veggies to use next time. I would love to try a pomegranate, star fruit, and corn on the cob. You don't have to waste the whole fruit/veg either- you can just use a thick slice and eat the rest! If you use non-toxic paints, rinse and throw the produce on your compost pile after painting.