St Swithin's day

The 15th July is St Swithin's day (or Swithun depending on were you read it!)  Folklore states that if it rains today it will rain for the next forty days, and the same if it's sunny, so apparently this hot weather is here for the next forty days!  Because of this I made today all about Sun and rain.  whilst waiting for the sun to move round a bit and and the garden to, hopefully, cool down a bit, we started the day making a rain stick  out of a kitchen roll tube, toothpicks and dried chick peas.   Arthur wasn't in the mood to colour some paper to decorate it, he was too busy using the pen to stab the paper and rip it, perils of colouring on carpet! So in the end I managed to get him to use his stickers to decorate the rain stick one he had worked on his pincer grip to fill the tube.  I then tried using a coffee filter to create a funky sun using pens and spraying with water, but I think our filter was thicker than the ones I've seen people use, as no ink spread! In the end we had fun with me chasing him around spraying him with water from the spray bottle in a sort of one sided indoor water fight!

Whilst the little ones were asleep I prepared outside for our water fun filled afternoon, I made origami water balloons using some old newspaper, big mistake as they collapsed when the water hit them, must remember to use thicker paper next time.  I also filled a couple of balloons with water for them to squeeze and play with for sensory play which they both enjoyed, and a homemade sprinkler from an old bottle and a hose pipe.  Being conscious of water wastage I put the sprinkler in the pool to fill up the pool at the same time, but unfortunately Arthur woke up in a bad mood wanting daddy, so didn't enjoy the garden at all, he hated the sprinkler and wanted back inside inside practically straight away!! So today was a bit of a wash out, no pun intended, let's hope it doesn't foretell forty days of toddler tantrums!!

Basic idea

All decorated

Adding the peas

Water balloons

Colouring the 'sun'

Glad she doesn't have teeth!

Sprinkler!

Not impressed!