Nest building fun!

This week in nursery the the theme is birds, so to support their learning at home I thought we could have a little nest building fun at home!  As the were a little bit poorly Wednesday (not that you would know it with their energy!!) we decided to have a stay at home pj day nice and relaxed. 

At the weekend Arthur had his birthday, and one of his presents he received was a paddling pool, so I thought this would be a great base for a nest for role play fun and relaxing/napping if they wanted.  So we covered it in old brown curtains for a more natural look, then Arthur grabbed his pillow and duvet and jumped straight in refusing to let anyone else in as it was so comfy, I then build a separate (not so good one!) for Alyssa using blankets, and they soon set about playing their own little game, making bird noises and 'flying' around looking for food. 

after this it was lunch time, and they both seemed very tired, I tried and tried to get Arthur to have a nap but to no avail, Alyssa on the other hand put up a little fight, then slept for three hours!!! So after making Arthur lie on the sofa (so he wouldn't wake Alyssa) with his duvet and watch boring mummy telly for and hour (in the hope of making him fall asleep...honest!!) I gave up on the idea of Arthur napping and sorted the nest craft for the afternoon. 

Daddy had mixed our pva glue with water for DIY purposes, which I think may have been the first hurdle in our nest creation, but we attempted to use it anyway.  Arthur had great fun layering up bits of wool and scraps of paper onto an inflated ballon, whilst he did this we talked about what birds use to make nests and how they use mud to stick the nest together, and was very excited for it to dry and to pop the balloon.

This morning Arthur woke up, and rushed to the kitchen to see how his nest was doing, desperate to pop the balloon and try and put some eggs in it.  Unfortunately when we reached the kitchen, we found the balloon had deflated over night leaving a soggy pile of wool, and a very dissapointed Arthur, so there I was at 630 in the morning, helping him use play dough as 'mud' to create a new nest, using a small bowl for support.  It was worth it though watching his face as he put some toy eggs in, and the excitement of being able to take it to nursery to show everyone.

Nice and cosy nest

Alyssa adding some eggs

Two little birds in a nest

nest building

It's getting bigger!

Almost done!

Nest take two

complete with egg!

Easter holiday round up!!

WOW!!! What a great two weeks they were, such a shame they have to end and the reality of pre-school and work have to bring us all back to reality. 

 So what have we done on our Easter stay-cation??

In the first week we baked Easter bunny rolls, which was great fun, and a chance for the AJ's to practise their scissor skills, then eat the results after with friends. We went on a woodland adventure to build a den in the woods, but instead Arthur found this awesome tree with a space for them to climb into and have their lunch in.  We made some lovely Easter cards and biscuits to give to people, and attempted to make our own chocolate Easter eggs, very hard even with a mold as the chocolate all gathered in the bottom of the molds, but still yummy!! Then in time for Good Friday we made some scrummy Hot cross buns to eat for our breakfast.

On the Saturday we managed to get up and out the door super early to enjoy a lovely wild breakfast by the river, with the rest of the hot cross buns, watching the buzzards fly over head and listening to the sound of the river bubbling away, Arthur wanted to take a picture of me with the camera and managed to take a lovely one of me!

On the big Day itself we played some traditional Easter games, like egg and spoon races, and egg rolling.  Then the main event of the Easter egg hunt to find any eggs left by the Easter bunny, he didn't come until they helped Daddy tidy their room up though!! (well we had to distract them some how whilst the eggs appeared!!)

In the second week we became archaeologists, digging in the back garden for dinosaurs, and in the process we actually found some small bits of pottery which was very cool, and made the kiddies want to dig even more to find the rest of the pieces, but we never did!
We then went on another adventure to a local place, where we enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch, before paddling (and falling in Arthur's case!!) in the river, climbing trees, and finding a lizard, just a shame it was dead.

All this plus some other adventures in between mean that our holiday was over far to soon with still so much fun to be had!! I had planned so many other things that we just never got round to doing, I need more time with them!! Oh well,  I'll just have to save it all for next time.

Scissor practice

Teamwork!

Lunch in a tree

Easter egg making

My favourite photo of me by Arthur

Tree climbing

River paddling

Dinosaur digging

Egg and spoon assault course