mommyfabulist: Two Quick & Cheap Boredom Busters

The weather has been pretty crappy here, so I'm ~~trapped~~ staying inside with my daughter. We also recently bought a house, ~~so my husband has hidden all the money spending devices from me and threatened divorce if I so much as take a step into Target~~ so we're on a budget. Needless to say, we are both going a little bonkers. I am on a diet (BLECH!) so I can't consume near as much wine, meaning that my creativity is down. Hello pinterest! Yay! I searched through my pinboard with all the crap on it for my kiddo, looking for something entertaining, easy, quick, and cheap. A lot of things claim to be that, but really most things I attempt turn out looking a little like this:

Score! SOOOOO... I found two things that I'm pretty sure someone wearing mittens couldn't mess up. Both of these activities could be done with older kids, also. My daughter is a year and a half, and she did awesome.

#1: Colored vinegar and water

This was seriously amazing. My 19 month old daughter was busy with this for like, an hour. Not even exaggerating. Do you know how much ~~time I wasted on the internet~~ cleaning I got done? I found the idea on Pinterest (of course) but the original post is here. Seriously all I did was dump some baking soda in a plastic container, pour some vinegar into cups, put food coloring into the vinegar, and give it to my kid. Ta-da! Mommy free time!

First attempts were mine- had to show her what happened, then she went to town. I gave her a dropper at first.

Already tried to eat the vinegar and spit it out (as seen on her belly, along with pretty marker drawings.)

Next, I gave her a couple of spoons. The dropper just wasn't hacking it. She would dump some baking soda into the cups of vinegar, and that was REALLY exciting.

Let the mess/insanity begin.

Oh happy day. And yes, that is my Christmas tree is in my dining room. I didn't want those bastard needles on my nice carpet. Don't judge me.

#2: Homemade Ooblick/Goop

I LOVED ooblick as a kid. My nieces and nephews LOVE ooblick/goop. I tried it on my daughter a couple months ago and it did not go over well. I thought it was time to try again. My sister-in-law gave me the recipe, and I have it pinned about six times somewhere. Ooblick is mind blowing. It's solid, then it's liquid, then kinda liquidy, then solid again. Roll it up into a ball in your hands and it just oozes out. I We played with this stuff for a solid hour. I added food coloring, but be careful- we had aqua colored hands for a solid 2 days after. This stuff is seriously AMAZING. All you need is cornstarch and water. To start, I mix it two parts cornstarch to one part water (usually 1 cup of cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water) and then add more water as needed.

The first taste was pretty nasty. Not going to eat the ooblick. Or lick the fingers. I know it just looks like I dumped milk on her tray- but it's the ooblick! And that is SOLID up there. CRA-ZY.

This is mixing food coloring in, after ooblick already made. BAD idea. It's like mixing up concrete. Mix food coloring with water, then add to cornstarch.