Edible Painting Time

Toddler ages: 22 months, 22 months, 3.5 years

Materials you'll need:
-corn starch
-sugar
-food coloring
-various small containers
-paper
-paintbrushes

I swear, the more I use the internet, the more I fall in love with it. In my search for an edible paint recipe, I found a site that not only offered one, but four different food-based recipes. It's HERE, so feel free to go and find the one that's just right for you.

Here's the one that was just right for me...

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of cornstarch
• ¼ cup of sugar
• 2 cups cold water
• Food coloring

Directions:

"This simple finger paint recipe may not be the tastiest if your toddler eats it, but it is made up of completely non-toxic, edible ingredients so you don't have to worry about any chemicals touching your toddler's skin.

"Mix the cornstarch and sugar together. Slowly stir in the water and mix well. Put the mixture in a pot on the stove over medium heat and heat for about 5 minutes or until the mixture develops a gel-like texture. Separate the mixture into several smaller containers and add a few drops of food coloring to each container."

Because I only had two different colors of food coloring, green and yellow, we went with pine green, grass green, orange and yellow. I mixed one set of colors for the twins and one set for the 3-year-old, as I knew he wouldn't want them mixing up his colors.



We set up our activity in the bright light, near the replacement windows, and got off to a great start...




...with Twin A even trying both is hands at painting...



Soon Twin B realized it was just as fun, if not more fun, to paint his hand...




The 3-year-old boy agreed...



When the twins grew weary of painting, they manipulated the contents of the paint containers in various ways...



At one point, however, Twin B became angry with Twin A for an unknown offense...



...but Twin A expressed his anger in return by painting Twin B's head...



Okay, so it's better than biting.

Things got messier and messier from this point on...




...but the 3 three and under had a great time and lots of lovely green artwork to show for their efforts...



Four hours later, I had lovely green artwork to show for my laudable efforts as a mother as well.



This dye is still on my hands as I type this, so if you have a special occasion to attend, perhaps this activity would be better saved for another time.

Thanks for listening!