Temporary Tantrum Stopper and Fall with the Furries

When I pick up the girls from preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they are usually whiny and cranky. It is likely from the stimulating 2 1/2 hours of playing and learning. I usually rush them home, quickly feed them lunch and get them down for their nap. Today's crankiness was particularly bad. It started within seconds of leaving the school's playground. By the time we got home, both of them were in full-on melt down mode. I needed to get lunch on the table, but because the double tantrum was so bad, I ended up sitting on the floor of the kitchen. I quickly grabbed the glitter bottles from the windowsill, stopping the tantrums in their tracks. 

I saw this Pin.trest-worthy idea on a blog a while back. The mom had made sparkly time-out bottles for her kids. They looked pretty cool and kind of hypnotic. Other bloggers have called them calming bottles. It is tough to tell from the pictures below, but they are filled with water and sparkle glue. Depending on the water to glue ratio, the sparkles can settle to the bottom in seconds or minutes. I grabbed some water bottles and sparkle glue this weekend and gave them a whirl.

This is what I did:

• Fill a water bottle halfway with HOT water (hot will melt the glue). 
• Add 1/3 of the bottle of sparkle glue (or less - better to start small since you can add but not take away).
• Put top on and shake well.
• Add more hot water and/or sparkle glue depending on how fast/slow you want the sparkles to settle.
• Secure the top of the bottle if your kids are like mine and will try to remove it. 

She loves the sparkles but is equally proud
that she was able to balance it on its cap.

Still proud :)

Someone didn't want me to take a pic of
her bottle!

Riley, Finn, Carlee and I had a great walk in the Brick Works this morning. The fall colours are gorgeous and the temperature was just right for fall. Curious Carlee was off exploring which is why she isn't in the picture below, but you can check out my handsome boys! 

Riley and Finn