Spring Cleaning and Butterfly Art

I guess I got bit by a little spring cleaning bug because I spent yesterday morning doing all sorts of cleaning. Dakota and I didn't have anything to do so I thought it'd be a good day to stay home and get things done, luckily Dakota likes to help me do "jobs" and she was all over it!

It was time to clean my yucky ovens so I started them on their clean cycles then jumped on Pinterest to see how to clean the racks. Of course there were lots of pins about it but I just randomly picked one and went with it.

I brought the racks up into my master bathroom tub because it's big enough to hold all four racks at once. I ran some hot water, added half a cup of dish soap and six dryer sheets. Once the water was just above the racks I turned off the water and didn't check on them until about 5 hours had passed.

It's recommended that you leave them longer, overnight even, but I'm not patient enough for that and I needed to use the oven for dinner last night. I pulled each rack out of the water and used the dryer sheets to rub any left over crap off of the bars. I was surprised at how easily most of the crud came off but I won't lie and say they're sparkling clean or anything. Way better than when I put them in, yes. Squeaky clean, no. I wonder if leaving them longer would have made any difference and I may just try it again sometime to see, but I'll wait until they're good and dirty before I worry about that!

While the racks were soaking Dakota and I did all sorts of stuff. We dusted all the bedroom furniture, watered all the houseplants, swept up the kitchen floor, changed all the bed sheets and towels, etc... She was actually very helpful and it's always nice to have an eager helper!

When we'd both had enough cleaning it was time for an art activity. Earlier in the morning I'd found a cute idea for making a big butterfly. I drew some butterfly wings on clear contact paper, then pulled the backing off and hung it up sticky side out. I also cut a simple butterfly body shape, grabbed some googly eyes and a marker and set her up to work. I know she doesn't look excited in the picture but she COULD NOT WAIT to get started!

She started by sticking on the body, then the eyes (she chose one pink, one green) and then drew on a happy face and nose. Once that was done she started sticking on the squares of tissue paper I'd cut for her.

She then felt that the butterfly body was too plain so she used the marker to draw lines down the center of it's body and then added lots more tissue paper to the wings.

Here's the adorable finished product that I forgot to take a picture of until really late at night. She is so proud of it and wanted it in her room so I moved it up there for her to enjoy.