Happy President’s Day!  We love our founding presidents for sure. We celebrate their day by working on the house and trying to keep the kids from watching movies or playing video games ALL day.   Day time clothes are optional.  Bathrobes and fuzzy pajamas are acceptable for the dress code.  (We talk about patriotism nearly every day, so I imagine it will come up today as well.)

Last night I knew I needed a plan if I wanted this to be a happy day.  Hubs and I each wrote out a “would be nice to accomplish” list.  Knowing that we would probably only get one thing done.  Then I did a quick search for an idea to keep the kids occupied so I could work.  Schedule for the kids: clean rooms; waffles with mom; special activity; play in the snow; board games; electronics after 3pm.

1/4 cup Elmer’s white glue, 1/4 cup cold water and 2 drops of food coloring.

I found a pin from Sugar Bee Crafts written by guest blogger Love and Laundry on making Silly Sludge or Gak. All the ingredients were on my basement shelf, minimal mess, short time involvement for me.  Long time involvement for kids.  Perfection.

After they mixed the glue,water and coloring together.  We dissolved 1/2 tsp borax into 1/4 cup hot water.  And poured that into the glue.  It immediately started a chemical reaction creating a smooth polymer.

Aaak! Mom, I cannot touch this!

Not all of the water absorbed into the Gak right away.  I used a spoon to lift the polymer out of the remaining water and onto a piece of foil. (Wax paper would have worked too, but we were out.) The kids kneaded it and kneaded it until it was smooth ball. Some of the kids opted to work the remaining water into their sludge.  That worked out well.

Their first reactions were mixed.  Heather didn’t want to touch it at all, but soon was enjoying herself with the rest.

Dub’s reaction.

Brandon’s reaction

Grant’s reaction.

It’s kind of a rule around here, that we don’t laugh when someone else is crying.  (It’s only fun when everyone is having fun.)  I broke the rule.

Grant didn’t take it well. The picture is fuzzy, because I’m laughing so hard.

Caleb is our sensitive one.  He went after Grant and brought him back to play on his shoulders.

We’re sorry; want to try again?

Eventually they all had fun. 2 hours of it.

The next two pictures show you a sneak peak of how our kitchen project is going :).  There’s my lovely craigslist range in the background and a few of our cabinets in place.  There’s still a lot left to do, but my heart is pretty happy right now.  Darren is working hard today and I may have a kitchen sink in a month or two.

One of the things I loved about this activity was experimenting with colors.  We used the cheap liquid food colors that come in red, yellow, green and blue.  In order from left to right these are the color combos:

1 drop yellow, 1 drop red (pale orange)

2 drops blue

1 drop blue, 1 drop green (bluegreen)

2 drops green

2 drops red, 1 drop blue (pinky lavender)

1 drop red, 2 drops blue (purple)

For the detailed recipe visit Sugar Bee Crafts.