Tips for busy moms: colorful weekend

Tired of always planning activities and entertainment for your children on the weekends? Here I give you 4 colorful activities to enjoy with your little ones, including two easy and delicious recipes.

Colorful popsicles, a refreshing and fun-filled snack

Colorful popsicles:

Taking advantage of the warmer days here is a recipe to make your own colorful ice popsicles.

The materials we will need are:

• One lime or an orange to make lemonade (add water depending on the quantity of popsicles you’ll make, about a 1 1/2 cups work for small molds, and sugar to taste)

• Molds for popsicles. If you don't have any, you can use small disposable cups.

• Wooden sticks

• Food coloring

Procedure:

1. Depending on the size of your popsicle molds calculate the amount of water you’ll need. Make lemonade or orange infused water by adding sugar to your liking and divide into 4 samol bowls to paint the water with edible food coloring (red, yellow, green and blue).

2. Add a drop of coloring to each bowl so now you have 4 bowls with different colors and mix.

3. Add a thin layer of water with the first color to each one of the molds and freeze (depending on the size of the molds it will take between 30 minutes to an hour).

4. In order to freeze the popsicles like a rainbow easily we will use wooden popsicle sticks in lieu of the plastic ones that come with the molds. Once the first color is frozen, put a wooden stick in each mold so it freezes along with the next layers (if they are very long you can cut them in half). Add the colors until you complete the popsicles in a rainbow fashion. Once completely frozen unmold and enjoy.

Create your pet rock of your favorite animal, you just need some materials such as paintings, paper cutouts and your imagination

Pet rock:

Make the best of this activity and go on a nice walk and get the perfect rock (of a good size and preferably smooth).

If necessary, wash it. Paint the stone in the color of your choice. Once dry add elements to make your little animal: you can paint eyes, nose and mouth with a market, add plastic gummy eyes, a tail or whiskers made with pipe cleaners or string and cut and paste paper ears and hair too. In short, use your imagination! You can dress your rock as your little ones' favorite animal.

Then play with your pet rock! Build it a bed or even a pet house out of cardboard boxes.

Make your jello with your own combination of colors and flavors, a fresh and colorful snack

Rainbow jello:

A colorful snack and so fun to make. You will need:

• Jello of different flavors (and colors) to make our rainbow. I chose strawberry, orange, pineapple, lemon and grape. You will only use a little of each, about one tablespoon is more than enough.

• Depending on the number of colors you want for your jello, mix one tablespoon of each with a cup of hot water in individual bowls.

• Use a mold for the shape you want your jello to have. Add a thin layer of the first color. Put it in the fridge and wait for it to set (it must still be a little soft when adding the next color so that they stick together). Repeat this step until you complete all the colors.

• Once it’s ready unmold and enjoy!

You can make a large volcano or several small ones of different colors. Use the lava to do art and make mixtures of colors

Colorful volcanoes:

You can make one bigger more realistic volcano with paper or use small containers for different colors of lava. Today we made small individual volcanoes or milkshakes. The materials you will need are:

• A large baking tray

• 4 small plastic cups

• Vinegar (about 3 cups)

• Sodium bicarbonate (about 4 tablespoons)

• Dish liquid soap

• Food coloring

Procedure:

1. Add a tablespoon of baking soda, one teaspoon of liquid soap and a drop of food coloring of different colors to each cup

2. Place the cups on the baking tray and, when you are ready, add half a cup of vinegar to each cup and see them effervesce. When the foam decreases add more vinegar and give them a little mix to continue enjoying the eruption of colors.

3. Once you are finished you can use the colored vinegar to create art with brushes on a piece of cardboard or paper or mix the color directly on the tray and have fun creating color patterns and figures.

4. Clean and dispose of (this mixture will help you clean the drain of your kitchen sink, just pour it down it).

And that's it! Here are 4 activities to do with the little ones. I did these in the kitchen at different times when I needed an activity that did not require much supervision to be able to cook and clean.

Remember that you can modify these activities to better suit your needs or make a different version. These are just a few ideas, maybe you'll come up with more!