A change of scenery, a change of mood!

A busy morning of food shopping, hyper children who had already eating the toast for breakfast that was meant to distract them and occupy them, and wanted to pick up EVERYTHING on the shelves!! Followed by the dreaded unpacking once home, two loads of washing that needed to be caught up on as we had run out of washing liquid during the week, and the previous days dishes still sitting by the sink, I was not in the best of moods for small children that were not listening and constantly squabbling. 

 So in an attempt to change the mood a bit, I used the power of Youtube to show the children some bagpipes and Scottish music, as in Scotland this weekend celebrations for Burn's night were occuring, so I thought it would be a fun topic.  Whilst they watched this I found a way to make a Bagpipe using a rubber glove, then we attempted to have a go, but I only had a toilet roll tube, so it didn't actually work very well, so then I used balloons and let the air out very slowly so they squeeked to show the basic idea of how bagpipes work.

they were fairly amused by this for all of five minutes, so it was time for lunch, (and squabbles, and stress) "mummy Alyssa is touching me!!" from Arthur and constant pleas from me to just sit down and eat, meant yet again my bad mood was elevating, add to this a husband desperately trying to get some work done, whilst constantly being interupted, who was also getting annoyed!

SO I CHANGED THE SCENERY!!!

I decided that was it, time to get out and give daddy some peace, and time to let the two of them run free and wild and burn off some energy!  One I had fought with them to actually get wellies and coats on that is!!

When we arrived on the hill I took a football into the large flat grassy area at the summit, and we chased around a football and kicked it to each other, and immediately my mood lifted.  The children started to listen again and we were all smiling and laughing, and then Arthur decided it was time to explore.  It was a great chance to try and get Arthur to listen and stay close in order to stay safe, as there were huge dips and drops here and there all over so I explained this to him, and once or twice when he did run a bit to far ahead, I explained that we needed to be together as a group and look after each other, and wait for Alyssa who was smaller and slower.  It worked well giving him that bit of responsibility and he enjoyed going back and helping Alyssa up tricky parts of the trail. 

When we reached the mine part of the trail, there was a small dip, which they both enjoyed climbing up and sliding down, and we were care free and stayed there for a good ten minutes whilst they did this.  That and their style climbing fun, just goes to show that you don't need a soft play area for kids to use different muscles and climb.  We finally made our way back to the top and played with the ball a bit more, feeling like the wide open space made the stresses and strains of the day seem insignificant, the view reaches far from where we were so it made everything seem so small! We waved to Nanna in one direction, and to other landmark ares shown on the stones at the top, then after our two hour adventure headed back for hot chocolate and snuggles during our weekly saturday night movie night!

It just goes to show a change of scenery really does mean a change of mood!! :D

Our failed bagpies

Admiring the view

Cheeky monkeys!!

Off on an adventure

Stunning!

Trusting Arthur to climb unaided!!

Then Alyssa!! EEEK!!

Hill sliding

Helping his little sister! 

Bird food fun!

This weekend is the RSPB big garden bird watch so in preparation for this we made sure the birds have plenty of food to eat by making some yummy treats for them. 

First we did the usual 'lard cakes' by getting the AJ's to squidge and smoosh half a packet of lard each into bowls, then we mixed in, with hands and spoons, some bird seed that I managed to get at a pound store, and some chopped up dried apple.  We then shaped them, Arthur made a rectangle shape to go in the feeder, whilst I got Alyssa to create a simple sausage shape, that I then pushed some string through so we had a way of hanging it, then both were popped in the fridge to set.

After that, using some paintbrushes, they painted some pine cones with some warmed up peanut butter, making sure to gt down deep as much as the could.  Then they rolled, shook and sprinkled some more of the seeds all over.

Because they had been at nursery all day, I didn't want them to have an activity that was too complicated or involved as they are usually a bit tired, so this one seemed perfect.  The only downside was the amount of seeds on the floor and lard smeared in the table, but they had fun.  The textures must have been great fun to experiment with as they both really enjoyed manipulating the lard in their hands, and even more so when mixing the seeds and fruit in.

It was getting quite dark by the time we had finished and the lard ones were not completly set, so this morning I popped outside quickly and hung all the food, and the AJ's excitedly looked out the window waiting for the birds to taste, we have already had a few Robins!!

Mixing away

Squidging and moulding

Painting the pine cones

Rolling the cone in the seeds

Looking Yummy! (if your a bird that is!!)

 

 

 

Watching for birds

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Sometimes you just have to let them play....

I need to start this post off with an apology!!

I'm sorry for not blogging so much recently, I'm sorry for not scheduling organised activities for my little ones, or for doing things but not writing about them. There are many reasons for this, an illness for me recently that has left me very tired in the evenings, a week stay in hospital, and various hospital appointments and tests that have eaten into our play time.  Plus the usual Christmas chaos of running around visiting various family members and spending the big day away with family.  Then the onset of the New Year brought on chicken pox for the two AJ's.  Then finally of course is the excitement of new toys for Christmas making it impossible for the children to want to put them down to do anything else, but sometimes you just have to let them play!!

Arthur recieved lots of Lego, and Alyssa lots of Mega blocks/Duplo sets, so often now when I ask what the children would like to do, I am either met with cries of "can you play Lego with me?" or walk in the room to find them quietly amusing themselves building or just playing with the ready made up vehicles etc.  This brought me to a New Years Resolution of making sure I listen to Arthur when he tells me about what he's into or building and learning more about how to build Lego or role play Spiderman etc, rather than just saying "daddy will play Lego with you!" Because right now, things like Lego and Spiderman are huge things to him, and one day it with be relationships or problems at school, and I don't want him to feel that I'm not interested in what is important to him.

Because of all this I haven't planned much in the way of activities, or if I have, if they are not interested and want to play something else we wont do them, as I want them to be able to make decisions about what they want to do so that as they get older they don't constantly say they are bored, as they are use to making up their own entertainment.  I'm hoping the magical days of listening/watching them say "what would you like?" whilst playing shop keepers together, or "i've made you a hot coffee!" during a tea party, will lead to even more self sufficient play as they grow!  I don't want to say, "No you can't play Lego as mummy wants you to play with this or make that!" I don't want to squash their imagination.  I recently found a Poster online that I found very inspirational, and if they ever struggle with boredom may be tempted to re-create, but i'm hoping I wont have to.

That's not to say that we haven't done anything at all, as you can see we had a wonderful dress up day on Three Kings day, where they pretended to deliver presents to baby Jesus, as well as making our own crowns with card and sweet wrappers.  We have had plenty of Play dough marathons, one in particular lasting 2 hours, play dates, woodland walks, and a train themed day of role play and train making, as well as painting sessions last week in particular Alyssa experimented with sponge painting and stencils, and this week she tried string painting. I thought i'd share them all in one big post seeing as I have missed so many, and hopefully my future blogs will be more consistant, dependant on what the children want to do, even it they end up being all about Alyssa whilst I let Arthur play Lego. 

Sponge painting

Sweet wrapper crowns (great excuse for xmas chocs!)

She loves Yellow!!

Play dough chaos!

Testing the temperature of the river

Admiring the view

Train role play

Our cardboard train making!

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