Spin art!

Arthur woke up in a strange mood, not wanting to eat and not wanting to to change out of his pajamas, he did however want to paint! 

I was hoping to give him a quiet activity that was minimal mess with the aid of a salad spinner, however Alyssa had other ideas!  Arthur managed to enjoy the spin art for about ten minutes, pouring his chosen paints in, spinning the top with my help  as it was a bit tough, and being surprised at the outcome which was different every time!  Then he decided he just wanted to lie down on the sofa under a duvet and watch tv, poor little thing.  Alyssa on the other hand was full of beans, so I let her loose finger painting with some paints and at one point gave her a picture to colour in, her face however was much more appealing than the paper!! Both my children seem to enjoy covering themselves in paint, maybe they are going to be performance artists when they grow up or just covered in tattoos!  This is however a cleaner way of painting, which as the one who always has to clean up after, is always good, but some glitter is definitely called for next time.

Spinning his art!

"How do I look?"

Looking a bit cleaner!

Beautiful!

So original!

Ball drop game

After looking at my collection of saved ideas on Pinterest I found inspiration for Monday morning's fun from Child Central Station to make a ball drop game! I simply took our washing basket to catch the balls from our ball pool, and some card, and having cut holes in the card laid it over the basket for the Aj's to post the balls through.  Alyssa found this a lot more fun and interesting than Arthur, but he was in a very hyper mood and just wanted to run around and throw the balls everywhere!

Alyssa seemed delighted in the idea of the balls appearing in the basket after having dropped them in the holes, we also started introducing colours, naming each ball as she picked it up so she can start getting use to the idea of colours.  Another way to make this game a bit more interesting for older children might be to put colours around the holes so that you can match the ball to the hole, but I didn't really have time for that.

We then popped out to the garden to fill the bird feeders up, before heading to preschool, which having been away with a poorly Alyssa the other week, I didn't realise it was closed for training, so we had an unexpected trip around the village, spotting horses, chickens and sheep (the joys of country living!) Before stopping off at the park, where I suddenly became a dragon chasing after Arthur the Knight on his horse Galahad, whilst Alyssa had a nap in the buggy before having a go on the swings!

Sometimes the most unexpected events can be the most fun!!

Playing nicely together!

Taking turns!

Arthur got bored!!

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A lesson in car maintenance!

Everyday things can be amazingly fun and interesting to children, as everything is so new to them!  I had to wash the car and check the oil, tires etc, so I thought I would make this monotonous task a little bit more interesting, by adding kids!

As soon as I put the bucket down, Arthur reached in to grab a cloth and start cleaning, having done it before, and Alyssa instantly copied, they had great fun cleaning the hub caps and lower part of the car for me, whilst I cleaned all the higher bits.

Once we had scrubbed and rinsed the car it was time to look under the bonnet, Grandad showed how to check the oil, and where the water was stored, Arthur thought the engine was amazing.  So many new words to learn as well.  Then Grandad checked the tyre pressures and used a little machine to pump them up a bit, Alyssa found this intriguing and 'helped' him press the button to make the machine work.  The button she was pressing didn't do anything, but it was very sweet watching her imitate grandad and try and help!

Scrubbing hard!

Who knew pumping tires was so interesting!!

"I'll help you Grandad!!"

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'Gruffalo crumble'

It has been a very busy day for the Aj's today, Alyssa had a little play date in the morning, and Arthur had a bit of a damp run around in the park in the rain with some friends after.  Once finished there we popped to the Library to pick up some new books.  They were both so tired that they fell asleep in the car on the way home, so it was time for a little rest with a hot choc.  After that we started reading some of the new books, and Arthur also requested to read our copy of  'The Gruffalo' again.  Whilst reading it I thought about our tea of Macaroni cheese, and how it's real comfort food on a wet and dreary day like today, and the thought of 'Gruffalo crumble' reminded me of apple crumble, so I told Arthur we could make 'Gruffalo crumble.' to find there is an actual

I did have a little look on the internet for a recipe just in case there was one, as was surprised to find there is actually one.  However the recipe was for a savoury dish, and I was looking for a sweet one, so I decided on a normal apple crumble, I told Arthur the apple chunks we had prepped in the freezer were the Gruffalo's turned out toes, and the sultana's were the poisonous warts on the end of his nose.  I also told him that the ground Cinnamon that was put in the crumble topping was ground up Gruffalo, and let him smell and taste it, which he did.

After it was all made and ready for the oven we settled down to watch the Gruffalo (repeatedly!!!) before dinner, and then during dinner Arthur recited odd parts of the the book over and over, saying I was the roasted fox.  So our dinner conversation revolved around the likes of "where are you going to little brown mouse?" to him saying the mouse parts! and repeatedly saying "I'm off!" as well!

Mix mix mix!

Tasting ground Gruffalo

Spreading out the mixture

"Reading" 'The Gruffalo' to his little sister!

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Volcanoes and dinosaurs

This morning I thought it would be fun for us all to experience a homemade volcano!  I first off showed Arthur some video clips of erupting volcanoes, and talked about how they were exploding out hot lava.  Then using a volcano 'recipe' I mixed together the the 'dry' ingredients in a cup and covered in some tin foilto create a volcano like shape, and then I showed the Aj's, I then let Arthur help me pour the vinegar in, but it didn't do very much, so I added more soda.  Eventually the volcano, very slowly, erupted, but not really looking very lava like! I think next time I will make sure the components are all mixed for a hopefully better effect.

I then gave the Aj's the play dough and some toy dinosaurs, we made more volcano eruptions with a little play dough volcano we have.  Arthur had fun saying the dinosaurs were eating the lava, Alyssa started to learn not to eat the dough, and started to roll it on the table saying 'ro' 'ro' 'ro' with me.  We also made dinosaur eggs for them to protect from other dinosaurs, and fossils, by printing the side of a dinosaurs, as well as printing foot prints.

I think they both really enjoyed the different experiences and texture today, it's just a shame I didn't get the volcano right!

Volcano eruption!

Not quite Lava coloured

Play dough volcano

RAAAH!

Dinosaur eggs

'Ro' 'Ro' 'Ro'

Indoor Camping

During a break from the storms, we experienced a day of sun!!
So we headed out for a lovely family walk along the river, we were aiming to got to a new part that we had never been to before, but unfortunately the storms had blown down a very large tree right at the point that we had previously walked to. 

Once home we filled our tummies, then as I was expecting a bit more rain in the afternoon, so inspired by a thought I had during the power cut we experienced the night before,  I decided to put a tent up in the front room so we could go 'camping!'

I have to say putting a tent up with a toddler was a little frustrating, pulling bits out that you just put in etc, but we soon got it up and it was like it was the best thing in the world!  Arthur enjoyed zipping it up and down again and climbing in and out over and over.  I also brought down a couple of toy plates and kettle and things, and made a 'fire' out of toilet rolls.  And using a lovely wooden fishing game we have, I created a pond to fish for tea.

Alyssa set straight to making and drinking multiple cups of tea, her favorite thing to do at the moment, and Arthur went fishing.  We then talked about staring up at the stars, and pretended to sleep under them, and sleep in the tent.  It was such a fun afternoon, and Arthur enjoyed really getting into the imaginative play side of things, telling me the tent was filled with bugs,  and other funny little ideas he came up with.  I am looking forward to actually taking the Aj's camping when it gets warmer, even if it ends up just being in the back garden!

Road Block

The river from the bridge

 

 

Cleaning the puddle! Bless!

Cooking by the camp fire!

Fishing

Threading and 'sewing'

I've started taking the children to a craft cafe on a Thursday morning, a little adult time for me mainly and a chance for me to get a bit creative and try new crafts.  But at the same time it allows the children to experience a different setting and be surrounded by different types of people than they normally would, there are some other mums there with their children, but also older people.  I hope that the experiences with expose them to lots of different crafts ideas and inspiration as they grow up, and give them great social skills.

Arthur has shown an interest in seeing me sewing, and watching the other ladies crochet, it has been great fun watching him wrap wool around a crochet hook in his attempt to have a go.  So when I took him today I decided to try and let him feel more involved and made some simple 'sewing' cards from an old cereal box, a hole punch, wool and a pipe cleaner.  I made a 'needle' using a pipe cleaner folded in half with a small loop at the bottom, which I tied the wool to, Arthur enjoyed attempting to sew, but could quite grasp the idea of going in and out the holes like sewing.  I will definitely get these out again and sit down with him, and see if I can get him to bit by bit concentrate for longer as i think it would be a great quiet activity as he gets older.

I also packed so uncooked pasta for him to thread onto the wool to make a necklace,  which he also only did a couple of times before running around showing everyone.  But it's great practice for all those lovely necklaces he will make for me in the future!

'Sewing'

Concentrating hard!

Almost got the 'needle' in!

Bubbleprint Valentine's day card!

With Valentine's day fast approaching, I thought it would be nice to get a bit artistic and make daddy a valentine's card.  I had a brainwave and thought it would be fun to bubble paint on some paper.  So I mixed together some paint, water and washing up liquid in a bowl and gave Arthur some straws, I also put a straw and a little bowl of just water in front of Alyssa so she could copy Arthur without risking sucking up paint! She just tipped the bowl straight over so I got out some stamps for her to play with. 

Once we had printed the bubbles of various pieces of paper and left them to dry, whilst Arthur continued to just blow bubbles in the mix for fun.  Once dry I cut out a heart shape from the best one and stuck it to some card for Arthur, then drew a couple of smaller hearts, then let him colour and decorate a bit more for a more personal touch, I then made another card for daddy from just me!  The final results were not as bright as I had imagined they would be, I may have got the quantities a bit wrong, but fun was had all round and that's all that matters.

Alyssa playing

BUUUBBBBBBLLLLLEEEEEESSSS!!!!

Blow!!!

Stamping

Daddy's card!

Lemon Drizzle cake!

I wanted to try and make something food related for the Sochi Olympic theme we are currently doing, after much research, I found a traditional Russian pastry dish called Lymmonyk.  But I couldn't find a recipe for it, so in the end, seeing as we had some lemons that needed to be used up anyway, I decided to make Lemon drizzle cake with Arthur, Alyssa is poorly with conjunctivitis and a bad cold, so I decided it would be best to keep her away, so she shat happily playing with pots and pans in the playpen.

I did include her though as I let her feel the lemon when Arthur did, and told her what we were doing, i've heard just talking to babies and toddlers whilst doing general mundane tasks really helps their language development.   Arthur enjoyed smelling the lemon, and pulled a funny face when he tasted the juice, which was very funny!  After mixing together the butter and sugar, he had a go at zesting a lemon, but it was quite hard so I had to take over.  Whilst it was in the oven, I juiced the lemon as we don't have a juicer that would be easy for him to use, and he tasted the drizzle mix, but still thought it tasted funny.  I also decided to try and keep the lemon seeds to see if we could make them germinate and try and grow some lemon trees, so they are nicely tucked up in some wet kitchen towel in a tub.  Once the cake was out of the oven I helped him pour the drizzle over the top and then we left it to set whilst we ate our tea, and everyone enjoyed it very much for their dessert.

Sniffing!

Mixing!

Zesting!

Drizzling!

Investigating!

YUMMMMMMMMMM!!

Indoor snowy mountian range

Still inspired by the Olympics in Sochi, I decided to do a bit of an mountain landscape with shaving foam and some cornflour for some sensory fun for Alyssa and a new way to play with toys for Arthur!

I created the mountain scene using some stacking cup covered in tin foil to keep them clean, then sprayed liberally all over with shaving foam, before adding a mixture of shaving foam and corn flour for a more powdery snow.  I then took two of Arthur's action figures and attatched foam lollipop shapes to their feet to create both skii's and a snowboard, I was intending to use actual lollipop sticks, but I didn't have any so this is the best I could do!

Alyssa had great fun squishing the foam, and tasting it!! (Yuck!!!) and Arthur managed to get a figure down the slopes once before generally just covering him in the snow! He also enjoyed pretending to was his hands in the snow!  It was all very messy fun, and Alyssa managed to flick the foam about a bit as she waved her hands around excitedly, but I luckily had covered the area with an old curtain that I could just throw in the wash! It is definitely amazing how much fun children can have with just shaving foam though! I'm quite glad it just costs 23p for and own brand range at my local supermarket, I may have to invest in more!

Star wars and snow!!

Whizzing down the slopes

Getting stuck in!

Getting messy!!

Homemade Poi for Waitangi Day!

Today in New Zealand it is Waitangi Day, a public holiday commemorating the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, their founding document.  Whilst looking at Activity village, for some inspiration for and activity, I found a video of the All Blacks ruby team doing their famous Haka, Arthur was in awe and we had to watch it multiple times, and then he wanted more.  I then noticed a mention of Poi, an ancient dance using balls on a string. After looking at a video I realised it was the same thing I used to do when I was younger, and I still had the Poi easily to hand in the house.  So I showed Arthur the video, then showed him mine.  I then decided to make him some mini ones so he could have a go too, using a ball pool ball, as it is soft and wont hurt if he hit himself, and a sock!

Both Arthur and Alyssa had great fun dancing around the front room to various Maori songs whilst playing with the sock Poi, imitating the Hakaand sticking our tongues out, it's amazing how much fun can be had with a ball and a sock!  I think next time it would be better if I had more colourful socks though! 

Preparing for the Winter Olympics

The Olympics start on Friday in Russia, and seeing as I like trying to keep my two fit and active, it's a great opportunity to show them different sports and get them interested in exercise.  So I used the wonder of Youtube to show them various winter based sports, such as Bobsledding and Skiing.  Then using some ribbon and glittery gold card, I made two gold medals for the Aj's then we had some races up and down the front room, we would of gone outside, but are in the middle of a terrible storm! Alyssa isn't really able to run yet as she is only just walking, so I lifted her off the ground slightly and ran with her whilst we raced Arthur.  It was wonderful hearing her giggle, and Arthur shouting "Ready, Go!"  We also used the washing basket as a pretend bobsled and slid around the front room and practised learning into the curves like a proper bobsledder, which they both seemed to enjoy! My poor back didn't though, I think I may need to hide the washing basket from now on!

The Gold medals

"We are the Bailey Bobsled team!"

Testing if it's real!

Action running shot!