aid for my cool

on the favorites tab of my computer you'll find a folder marked "things to do with kids".

inside said folder you will find links to sundry exciting, messy, educational, cheap, enjoyable, bonding, ingenious activites i marked. i marked these with full intentions of doing one or two of these projects each week through the summer.

my children return to school in less than 2 weeks.

i just did the first craft.

although, in my defense, it was such a rip-roarin' good time, i'm not sure they really need any more crafts to make it through the summer. i think i can pretty much rest on my laurels from this point on.

"you're bored? yeah, but remember last week, when i let you guys PAINT? huh, huh? 'member that? yeah. so zip it."

anyway, what we did was Kool-Aid Painting.
basically, you mix the powder with a bit of water to create a thin watercolor paint. and boy does it smell good--even when it's dry. which is the beauty of this project.

it's "scratch and sniff painting".

they had so much fun. and i bought the 'off-brand' fake kool-aid**--it was about 100 packs for somewhere around 17 cents, give or take. whatever, it was a cheap project. that may be the actual beauty of the project.

and by the end of the day we had myriads of lovely paintings drying in the sunlight outside, and my house smelled like a tropical beachside bar.

even the littlest googie got in on the action. nothing toxic about this. you know, except for all the dyes and chemicals and additives. okay, maybe it's not really that much different than actual watercolors.

you like that hair, right? clearly she was going through a violent red period, a la de Kooning. i wasn't about to get between her and her canvas. there's something crazy in those eyes, am i right?

it was a lot of fun. i really should have done it sooner. there's a few more projects i'd like to try and squeeze in before the end of summer, particularly
hot rock painting
Color coded scavenger hunt
corn syrup painting

Kim over at A Girl and A Glue Gun had a great list up at the beginning of summer, check it out for more ideas!

**okay, so what exactly is the "fake" kool-aid? i mean, kool-aid isn't exactly natural right? and you know how when something isn't actually made from what it's supposed to be they just kind of change the spelling? like you're some kind of idiot who can't spell so will fall for their advertising and just buy it, no questions asked? like "jooce" or "cheeze" or "hey, let's get these here 'hot dawgs', they're a LOT cheaper than those other ones" but you know what it actually means is "don't be fooled--this is not actually made from juice or cheese or dogs but some chemicals and glitter and unicorn poo". so Kool-Aid? huh? i guess it's Cool-Aid? Cool Ade? it's supposed to 'cool' you, but not really because it's a 'k' so it just makes you sugared up and hyperactive so you won't notice that now you're sweating bright red because it's oozing out your pores?
umm, yeah.
sheepishly stepping off the soapbox.

uh, hey, Mr. Kool-Aid, if you're looking to sponsor a blog (waving hand like a phone) call me!