Squeeze the life out of old markers

Is there anything more pathetic than trying to draw with a dried up marker? Not according to my three children. And yet interestingly enough that hasn't made any of them (ages 2, 2, and 4) more likely to put the caps on their markers when they're finished with them.

Quite by mistake I discovered a use for these nearly dried up markers that we seem to have in abundance. My favorite part about food coloring was always watching the colorful clouds disperse in the water, so one day I decided to see if I could get the same effect with a marker in my children's water table. Turns out there is a surprising amount of color left in those markers that seem to be nearly dried up. We now use them for fun in the water table, the water-filled sink, or in a clear cups of water.

This is also good for color mixing lessons, which for us really consist of the same amazement that mixing every color together always creates brown.

Do not try this at home

I'm not crafty. But that doesn't keep me from trying. Last week I got the grand idea to dye little pieces of pasta so that the kids could string them into necklaces. Have you ever in your life seen prettier pasta?

Annabella really enjoyed stringing the pasta onto necklaces. While Milo and Huck really enjoyed crunching the pasta with their little fists and then stomping on the pieces until they were very small and very difficult to get out of the carpet.

If I cooked more, I'd probably know that pasta is breakable and when it's been soaked in food coloring it's even more breakable. Even the pieces that made it onto Annabella's necklaces didn't last long.

Where did I go wrong?