Wading Pool + Paint + Textured Balls = Art

NOTE: Oh, dear. It seems I've had a Picasa snafu and all my pictures have disappeared. I'll have that remedied in the next few days. Please check back.


My friends, it is so hot, my brain is completely fried. Rather than continue putting off writing a post until said friedness is cured (which should probably be sometime in November...), I'll go ahead and wing this one with pictures and a few captions if it's all the same to you. This is an activity we've been doing for years with sponges, but this time we added a twist inspired by Growing a Jeweled Rose.

wading pool with squirts of tempera paint

textured squishy balls from Target's Dollar Spot
poster board

roll balls around in paint

toss balls at poster board for fabulous splotchy floral-esque art

After Meg pronounced the poster complete, she got to work painting the pool with the balls.

After the art:

We filled the pool up with water to rinse everything off, and Meg ran to the back yard to get some sponges from her toy cabinet to help clean up!

At this point, James woke up and joined us for some wading.

Margaret couldn't resist sticking her toes in the cool water, either.

Before I knew it, she had stripped down in the front yard, hollering, "Bath! Bath!"

After a quick wardrobe change, she added some pie tins and spoons from her outdoor kitchen to the play.

And some bubbles.

She didn't seem to mind that all those toys in a baby pool made things a bit squishy.

She did acquiesce to tossing a few toys out to share some space with her brother.

And the two of them spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the cool, shady water.