Playtime with Morgan

A few Saturdays ago, hubby and I went down to visit our families.  Since our families live so close, he usually drops me off at my family's house and he goes on to visit with his.  On this particular day, my goal was to play more with my 6yo niece Morgan.  Normally when I am down there, we usually do not have much time to play together as we are visiting with other relatives or riding horses.  So most of my time down there that day would be spent with her.  We both got so much joy from it!

For that Saturday, I decided we were going to make rainbow cake and flowers.  Unfortunately I do not have the links anymore were I found these ideas on the internet.  But as they are really easy and I have several pics, you may not need the websites if you want to make these. 

So here we go....

 

 

                                                       Getting ready to make the cake
                                                        It is a box of white cake mix -

      the easy kind where you add only 3 ingredients,

             which makes it wonderful when baking with a 6yo.  haha!  ;-)

                                             

Mixing and mixing

                                    Morgan really enjoyed this part.  I divided the batter (unevenly)
                             in 8 ziplock bags (you can do fewer) then add in your food coloring. 
                               She "smashed" the bags to really mix in the coloring with the batter.

For this, she took one pan and I took the other.  To make -

you cut a small hole in the corner of the bags; start with your first color

and squeeze into the middle of the pan; it will spread out.  Then do the same

with the remaining colors - one color on top of the other. 

Then pop the pans in the oven following the cake box directions.

Morgan's pan is on the right.

As you can see, Morgan decided to be more artsy and abstract when putting

in her 4 bags of colored batter.  She decided against 'staying within the lines'

and followed her creative passions and tendencies.

 

                                             

The finished piece (with one slice missing)!

                                    

    Our very cool, colorful and tasty cake with strawberry icing!!!

      Everyone liked it.  :-)

                                        

Now onto the flowers.  Take toilet paper rolls, fringe both ends

(cut into strips for 'petal's), bend them all outward.  Paint, paint, paint.

Painting is the fun part because who doesn't want colorful hands?  ;-)

                                    

If you can see, Morgan decided to make a big flower with a

paper towel roll.  So after painting the roll, stuff the inside with

matching (or not!) tissue paper, then stick a painted wooden skewer

in it for the stem.  We did not have time to make leaves, but they

would make a nice touch.

This is the flower I made.  Sorry it is not standing up.

I wish I had a few more pics of this whole process and of

Morgan's colorful flowers but my hands were too covered in paint

to go anywhere near the camera once I got started.

 

 

So there you have it - a couple of fun ideas for kids who love baking and crafting.  And also a great way to spend an afternoon with my funny, energetic, imaginative, cool, sweet and awesome niece!!

 

 

And today's pun courtesy of the interwebs -

 

John Deere's manure spreader is the only equipment the company won't stand behind.