Guest Post - Dirty boys and bathtime fun!

As a mother of boys, there is a copious amount of dirt to be found in hundreds of thousands of places you just wouldn't imagine you'd need to look. Fortunately for me, bath time has always been a favorite and the kids would stay in until they were tiny, shriveled up versions of themselves that could be sucked down the drain hole if we weren't careful to remove them before we removed the stopper. A few years ago my mother in law found these fabulous books:

Take Me Out of the Bathtub & I'm Still Here in the Bathtub 
by Alan Katz

Thanks to a trait I can attribute to my grandfather who would begin a song with vim and gusto but forget all the words two verses in ( if we were lucky!!), I have been making up my own verses to popular tunes ever since we brought John home from the hospital. Of course, my songs usually have to do with bodily functions of some sort and when potty training came for my oldest two, the fun really began in earnest with my song writing skills. So these two outstanding books were clearly right up my ally. They are comprised of all your favorite tunes, with silly, kid-friendly adaptations that are funny enough to make you snort milk up or spew it out of your nose. My personal favorites are Stinky Stinky Diaper Change to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and I'm in my Room and Bored to the tune of the Farmer in the Dell.

Having chosen the book selection, I scoured the internet for a bath appropriate or musical type craft. I was really torn between two options but when Luke woke this morning with a coughing and sputtering and streaming from the nostrils, I chose the lesser of two weevils and went with a homemade bath jelly that we found here at Hands on Crafts for Kids. The recipe is simple enough and requires few ingredients one of which thankfully is soap. Not a bad way to begin a craft! Now having an asthmatic middle child we forewent the smelling oils but did opt to use food coloring since he doesn't have any reactions to those. You can adjust either ingredient without screwing up the recipe for your own little ankle biters to try.

Homemade Bath Jelly

1 mixing bowl and whisk
1 package of unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup of boiling water (we nuked ours)
1/2 cup of clear liquid soap or bath gel (yay soap)
1 small plastic jar (we used an empty nutella container)
1 small bath toy (makes it look purty but not necessary)
Food coloring optional
Fragrance oil optional
Stickers to make a label (we skipped this only because Luke was feeling pretty puney)

1. Pour packet of gelatin into mixing bowl

2. Have a grown up add the water while the kiddo stirs the gelatin and water till the gelatin dissolves.
Slowly add the liquid soap so it doesn't get foamy. (Good luck getting your kids to stir slow because mine doesn't speak that kind of language.)

Break for a cheesy pose. See the foam?

3. Add your food coloring and fragrance (if using) and stir until well dissolved or incorporated.

4. Place your small toy in the jar and pour final product on top.

Voila! You'll need to refrigerate for about 4 hours until the gel sets and then it's ready to use. They grab a scoop full and put it under running bath water to make beautiful suds. We haven't tried out the finished product yet, but I will post into the comment section when we do.

Thank you so much Christianne for the opportunity to give your readers a taste of the boys life I am privileged to enjoy daily. I hope I made ya proud. It has been such an honor!