A very merry unbirthday

Or half birthday.

We went back home to celebrate the Llama's half birthday with Family. It was a great trip, but tiring, we really enjoyed being able to visit with our families, and the Llama had a great time visiting with everybody, and fell in love with himself in the hotel mirror.

The day of the party we decided to visit the Zoo as well we had a great time, but the Llama missed most of it as he promptly fell asleep:




Oh well, at least we was well rested for the party!

There was playing with family,






And in puddles





And possibly the worst decorated cake ever (outside of cakewrecks) I haven't done any decorating since the Llama was born, and I didn't have time to practice before finishing it. Also it was so hot and humid that day that the icing was literally melting off as fast as I could get it on (you can seem my crumb coat was a total fail). oh well, he didn't know the difference, and everybody seemed to enjoy it, it is alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla cake.

the stages of a Llama tantrum:

the stages of a Llama tantrum:

1) refuse to nap, get super tired
2) drop a block and freak out, wander around whining/crying
3) ignore/flail at mommy when she tries to comfort you
4) freak out and throw yourself around when she tries to nurse you
5) finally calm down enough to nurse, but occasionally kick and/or hit mommy in the face to stay awake
6) melt down when she puts you down for knocking her glasses off
‎7) ask for wrap, but freak out again when mommy gets it out
8) flail and scream when mommy puts you on her back
9) calm down when she puts the wrap over you, but fuss when she takes too long to get it tied
10) calm, occasional sniffle or hiccup
11) laugh maniacally when mommy picks up your toys from your quilt
12) fall asleep while she is emptying the dishwasher

Fingerpaints!

My quest for all food safe, home made art supplies for the Llama brings me to finger paints today.



There are two types of home made finger paint recipes out there, both are cornstarch based, one has you fully cooking the mixture on the stove, the other simply adding boiling water.



We first tried the fully cooked method, it came out mostly clear, so the colors were really bright in the jar, but it was very goopy, and gloppy, more like jelly, it fell apart when he smooshed it around and didn't leave much color on the paper.



Today I tried the other method, and it worked beautifully! It's more opaque, so the colors weren’t as jewel toned as the previous try, but it was creamy and malleable, and much more paint like!



Here it is:

2 C corn starch
1 C cold water
4 1/2 C boiling water
food coloring

stir together the cold water and corn starch
Whisk in the boiling water.
Separate into individual containers and add food coloring. Mix well
Let cool and paint!



I did a 1/4 recipe, since I didn't need a lot, and only wanted to make three colors for today's session. I split it into thirds and added about 10 -15 drops of color. I think when I do this again I would double the amount of cold water, it was very difficult to mix when I first started adding the boiling water, also the paint came out a bit thicker than I would have liked and I ended up adding a splash more water to thin it out.



It took the Llama a little bit to get into it, but once he did, he had a blast! Clean up was super easy, we did end up with a faint tint to our skin where the paint rested for a while, but I think that will wear off after another wash or so.