Mother's Day 2016: Potted Solar Lights

Activity completed April 2016 for Mother's Day, May 7.

One of the projects we did for Mother's Day this year was decorated terracotta pots with solar lights. I had seen this on Pinterest and thought that Tripp would enjoy decorating the pots, and he did. (Ignore the crooked light on the blue pot... I just stuck it in there for the photo.)

We used:

• Medium sized terracotta pots
• Small solar lights (found in Walmart's garden section)
• Acrylic paint
• Masking tape

I painted the pots first and then we decorated them. On one side of each pot we put Tripp's handprint. On the other side I taped masking tape and let Tripp finger paint over it. (Probably next time it would be best to do the handprint last, since I had to protect it from rogue paint.) You can do all sorts of things with the decoration of the pot... fabric, paper, paint, stickers, maybe even a photo.

Then all you have to do is Mod Podge (I used outdoor Mod Podge) to seal and add the solar light.

Some consideration should be taken with the solar light. We brought a pot into Walmart with us and tried different lights - our Walmart actually didn't sell plain terracotta pots so we couldn't just grab some off the shelf. The lights that fit were the smallest. Even so, when Tripp added some paint around the hole in the pot it made it a bit snug for the light. You'll want to consider that when painting and Mod Podge-ing.

Rocket Birdhouse

Activity completed November 2015.

We spotted this wooden rocket birdhouse at Michael's and I knew it would be a lot of fun to paint. Tripp loves rockets and space shuttles. He likes to watch space shuttle launches on YouTube and has a toy space shuttle he pretends to blast off all the time. Naturally, then, he fell in love with this rocket.

First, I painted the rocket white. After it dried he chose some colors of acrylic paint (blue, yellow, and green) and painted it. (He wanted me to paint a "puppy" on one side, which you can sort of see in the picture, but I was able to convince him to paint the rest himself.) We also went over it with glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint and Mod Podge.

The addition of a hook and chain meant we could hang it outside. He loves it and likes to look around for birds to invite into the birdhouse. So far, none have claimed it but I imagine someone will by spring!

A Toddler's Little Garden

A few weeks ago we put together a little garden area for Tripp. We collected a watering can, plant stand, pots, and plants (daisies and peppermint) from Home Depot, plus some solar powered tulip lights from the Dollar Tree. An enjoyable hour was spent in the sun transplanting the plants and putting together the little garden spot.

The garden spot

Each morning we try to remember to water the plants and watch them grow. It's been a bit of a challenge in the Arizona heat and I think we need to rethink our placement or our plant choice, but overall, it was a really fun activity to do.

Planting some solar tulips