Christmas Play dough

Today I decided, was the ideal day to try and get festive with play dough, our stocks of dough are currently a giant multicoloured mess thanks to our Halloween party, and we are waiting to see what Santa brings.  So I quickly rustled up some microwavable play dough and dyed it red, green, yellow and glittery gold,  however the gold didn't show up well.  I then let Arthur loose with some Christmas cookie cutters, ribbons, mini baubles, sparkly pipe cleaners and confetti stars.

He had great fun, and admittedly so did I!! Alyssa explored the dough and the cutters and started attempting to use some of the tools available, and also attempted to eat the dough too so a close eye was needed.  We made Christmas trees and mini presents, and Arthur also made Santa's sleigh amongst other things, he was having so much fun he didn't even want to stop for lunch!  It was great fun listening to Christmas music whilst we played and talking about different Christmas related things baubles, tinsels etc it really broadened Arthur's vocabulary, and in some ways Alyssa's too she seems to love 'deck the halls' and goes 'La la la'.  I just have to try and get Arthur to stop singing 'Jingle bells, batman smells!!' thanks to daddy!

Mummy's tree attempt 1!

Arthur making a tree

Using the cutters

Making a sleigh!

Oooh Squishy stuff!

Rolling

Just stick that in there and tada!

What does this do??

Mummys' tree number 2!

Being creative from a height!

A windy walk and a Christmas log!

After a busy morning of Christmas food shopping and mummy cleaning, it was time for something a bit more fun!  So off to the woods we headed to scavenge for some foliage to decorate our Christmas log!  I love the idea of bringing the outside indoors to decorate, hand picked field fresh flowers, sprigs of holly, and Christmas provides the perfect opportunity.

 It was quite windy on our walk, but the sound of the wind through the trees was very relaxing, and it was great fun trying to get Arthur to sound like the wind as well.  He was soon able to pick out Holly trees all over the wood, and found some little pine cones.  He also found lots of sticks that he wanted to use to build a fire like at home so we could all sit around it and stay warm, which I thought was lovely.  He also saw a Rose hip tree and wanted to make jam with the two berries he had picked after daddy said you couldn't eat them raw, but could make jam with them!

Once home Arthur chose a log from our fire wood and we settled down with our finds and a pot of icing sugar, which proved to be Arthur's favourite part of the day, both the sifting and the eating!

A carpet of leaves

Always the same view of these two!!

Rosehip picking!

Alyssa and the Ivy...la lala la la la

Adding the foliage

SNNNNOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW!

Hang on... it's SUGAR!!!

Pride of place in the fire plae!

Crackers for Christmas!

Today we made a visit to Auntie Jay at her Orchard learning studios, where she showed us how to make special individual Christmas crackers for the two Aj's to open after Christmas dinner.  Sometimes I find that cracker prizes are unsuitable for young children, and I didn't think it would be worth buying a special pack of crackers just for the two of them, so this seemed a perfect idea.  For inside I chose a chocolate coin, a crayon and a small toy, and the usual hats and jokes included too!

I was quite surprised as I thought homemade would involve toilet roll tubes, but there were none in sight.  Arthur's first job was to pick the paper for both his and Alyssa's, which was then perforated to make sure it tore easily.  Then he helped lay the hats and jokes on top before it was rolled up around a plastic tube and Jay glued it shut.  Next he had to help Jay pull the string to create the crinkled end parts of the crackers, which he greatly enjoyed.  Jay then used the the glue gun to add some special decorative touches that Arthur helped choose.

I feel inspired to make more next year with the children as it was so easy and can be personalised however you like, I was also giving the idea to hide treasure hunt clues in them, and idea for Easter maybe?

"Elfie"

Ready to roll!

Ooooh glue gun!

PUUUUUULLLLLLLLL!!!

Ready for the final touches!

Ready for Christmas day!

There's no fun like Snow fun!!

To be honest the chances of there being any snow where we live between now and Christmas is slim to none, so not wanting the two Aj's to miss out on the fun of building a snowman I decided to make my own snow!  I used a recipe I found on The Imagination Tree and added a couple of raisins to be used for buttons etc. 

Arthur was very excited, but the snowman making soon changed into fun with his toy polar bear, digging for food, building tunnels and putting him to bed.  Alyssa enjoyed watching it 'snow' as I picked it up and sprinkled it, she really enjoyed trying to catch it. 

I was very surprised that Arthur played with it for over an hour, and when asked if it could be tidied away for dinner he said, "no me still playing!"   Very unusual for Arthur, but he was having fun telling me the bear was hunting, digging etc, and making up his own little stories,  so it all worked on his vocabulary.

The front room is a complete mess now though even with a blanket and a bit of plastic underneath! But fun was had and snowmen made so that is the most important bit!


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Building a snowman

Playing together in the snow!

Arthur's snowman

Digging for food

Sparkly pretty snow!

Christmas dress up fun!

The idea for today's activity came to me suddenly whilst arranging a totally different one, originally I was going to get Arthur to practice glueing and make a Father Christmas beard with cotton wool.  next thing I know i'm drawing buttons on an old white t-shirt to make a snow man outfit and raiding my wardrobe and the fancy dress box for other items.  Once we had been for our usual after nursery walk, which no longer includes any work in the tunnel house due to the early dark evenings, we arrived home to find the outfits laid down in  the front room.  Arthur got very excited about dressing up as a snowman and Father Christmas, but had no interest in being a shepard or elf.  Alyssa however was drawn to the jingling bells on the elf hat, but not overly keen on dressing up!  I love dressing up, its great for the imagination, Arthur has had great fun pretending to be Santa, riding in his sleigh and delivering presents and I can see him returning to these outfits over and over during the next couple of weeks.

Ready for playing

The snowman

Ready to delivery presents

My little Elf!

Christmas biscuits

I decided it was about time we got the house smelling cosy and Christmassy, so today's advent activity was baking Christmas biscuits.  Tomorrow is Arthur's last day of nursery  before the New year so I thought it would be a lovely idea if he made the biscuits as a present for the staff and other children.

We used a basic shortbread recipe that I regularly use, and to add a bit of a Christmas touch we added some mixed spice, a lot of the time I add some vanilla extract, but I thought this would be more appropriate.

Arthur loved weighing out the ingredients and trying to taste them as always, but by far the most fun part for him was cutting out the seasonal shapes.   It reminded me a lot of play dough and how I really should make some seasonal scented ones for him to play with!  The next best bit was having the house smell warm and cosy as the smell of the spices slowly spread through the house, well that and the obvious taste test!

Poor Alyssa has been very poorly with an upset tummy so I thought it would be best to keep her away from the baking, so I gave her a little bit of flour and sugar in a saucepan to mix and play with, which she loved stirring around and making a mess with!

Mixing!

Rolling!

Yummy festive biscuits ready for baking!

Fun with flour!

Ice mobiles and baubles

This morning Chili was found sliding down the bannister, this again raised a laugh with Arthur and a cry of "What's Chilli doing there!?"

This morning we were making Ice baubles and mobiles, Chilli was kept a safe distant away as he doesn't really like getting wet.  Which was lucky as at one point Arthur didn't wait for me and poured a load of water into a tub and it overflowed everywhere!!

 Using our items we scavenged yesterday we place them in tubs, and little round ramekins (thank you GU puddings for your free glassware with every purchase!!) and laid string in each one so we have something to hang them with.  Then came the fun part, the glitter and confetti, warning do not let children loose with an entire pot of glitter as the whole lot will definitely go in!!  The confetti was funny though as Arthur has wet hands and it all stuck to him, but worked his motor skills getting it off!

Once done they were popped in the freezer to finish off, as although it is cold outside, it's not that cold!

"WEEEEEE"

Yesterday's bounty

Adding the leaves

An entire pot of glitter!!

Twinkly stars

Ready to freeze

This confetti is tricky!!!

Baubles ready to freeze!

Unfortunately the ice molds were not frozen properly in time, so we will have to hang them tomorrow!

Day Four of Advent Activities - A Christmas scavenger hunt!

Today Chilli really helped, Arthur woke up a screaming, crying inconsolable mess, then we entered the front room and he burst into a fit of laughter at the sight of Chilli abseiling down the curtains on some tinsel!

After a grouchy morning, some fresh air and exercise was needed by all, so we meet up with some friends and went on a Christmas scavenger hunt for some bits to make Ice baubles with tomorrow morning.

On Arthur's list was items like:

Some sticks that look like Reindeer antler's
Something soft and tickly like Father Christmas' beard
Some berries as red as Rudolph's nose, but don't pick them!! (Although Arthur did!! OOPS!)
Some pine cones
Some Spiky shiny Holly
Some pretty Ivy

It was such a simple fun activity, and Arthur had his binoculars and magnifying glass with him as well in case he wanted to look at anything, then it was time for a quick play in the park before home for hot chocolate and marshmallows!

Abseiling or tinseling??

Keeping cosy with Alyssa!

Rope climbing

"All this exercise is tyre-ing!!

Tree climbing

The bounty!!