Cosy den book nook fun!

Today was another wet and windy miserable day, our original plans for the afternoon had been cancelled, and Alyssa had her one year jabs in the morning.  So not wanting to drag her out too far just in case she became grouchy, I decided that today called for a nice cosy den and some book reading, so that if a certain little lady decided to sleep she could do so easily.

Arthur was very excited about the den and wanted to eat in it, so I decided to make a fun party picnic style lunch, including some special crisps bought specifically on the way back from the doctors as a treat.

Once lunch was other Arthur was desperate for me to read, I ended up reading "We're going on a bear hunt" about four times as he really enjoyed it, then he finally let me move on to a few more other books.  Alyssa wasn't really interested in the book nook, she was quite happy to crawl in and out and play with her toys, she did finally have a little nap.

At one point Arthur and I were lying in the den pretending to go to sleep, when he noticed that the blanket looked like it had stars on it where the light from the room came through.  I then tried telling him the name of some stars as we pretended to stargaze! I can't wait to sit out with them in the garden looking at the stars and camping, I really need to learn more about star systems!!

Marble painting!

After a long day at nursery we headed over to a friends house for a bit of a play date.  Whilst there The mummy suggested we do some marble painting , it is something I haven't done with Arthur since he was about a year old, and I forgot how wonderful the results are.

It was a little bit hard for Arthur to not try and use the marbles as a paintbrush, so he got a bit covered in paint, but after some perseverance he soon started tipping the tray around and asking for more marbles and paint. 

It's such a simple idea, and works on his coordination as well as being simple and creative, I will definitely remember to do this more often, I don't know why I haven't done it for so long!!

Salt writing

I wanted a quick to prepare activity to keep Arthur amused whilst I packed the change bag and got us ready to go out. So I poured some salt and glitter into the lid of a biscuit tin and gave Arthur a small make up brush to make some marks, and practice his shapes etc.

He really enjoyed it and didn't make a huge amount of mess, however the mini hoover was on hand ready for the clean up.  He really seemed to like effectively rubbing out his marks and starting again, as well as trying to scoop up the salt with the brush.  It's a great activity for working his mark making skill in practice for writing, as well as his imagination, as he kept trying to build a snowman!

Superhero fun!

Arthur had great fun this morning dressing up as Superman and running around saving Alyssa and I and his toys from various things.  He even wore a pair of underpants on top of his trousers and a cape from his dress up box,  made out of an old t-shirt.  Although actual shop bought outfits are wonderful, today just proves that all they need is some imagination.  He even had a cardigan and a pair of funny glasses and pretended to be Clark before taking them off and transforming into superman.

He had great fun saving the toys from bus crashes, derailed trains, dragons, falls and whatever his imagination and toys would provide for him.  He also saved Alyssa from the evil sock monster, and the evil suck monster (the dustbuster hoover!) although it did put up quite a fight!

Poor granny and grandad had to put up with the superhero fun all afternoon as he refused to take the pants off for the rest of the day!

Superman cape!

Flying around saving the day!

"Help us Superman!! Save us from the sock monster!"

"AAAAH!!"

Who needs Superman!

I is for Ice cream!

In Arthur's nursery they have a letter, number and colour of the week, and I have always vaguely tried to know these and mention them at home when I remember.  Well with Alyssa starting there as well now and with the New year, new starts in mind, I decided to try a bit harder at doing this.

This week is the letter 'I' so I drew and ice cream and got Arthur to decorate it using torn tissue paper and glue, as he wanted to do some sticking.  Alyssa enjoyed playing with the tissue paper whilst he did this.

Then I put some small letters into a bowl with some objects beginning with 'I', and we stirred them and fished things out and talked about them, as well as me geting Arthur to look specifically for the letter 'I'.

Then I decided to make the most of the leftover mince pies and clotted cream from Christmas and make some Ice cream!  I used a simple clotted cream ice cream recipe, but just replaced the strawberries with the mince pies crumbled up.  Arthur loved crumbling up the mince pies and squishing the clotted cream to make it easier to mix, such different textures for him to experience and feel, and the almost magical moment of watching all the ingredients combine and change.  And of course, as always, licking the spoon.

 

Alphabet soup

Mixing and scooping

Adding the cream

Ready for the freezer

Taste test!

Bird cake

Looking out the window the other day I noticed that our bird feeder was empty, so not wanting to neglect all those hungry birdies, I decided that we would make a new bird cake.  I looked at various recipes online and made up my own mixture based on the ones I had found. 

Lard
Cheese
raisins
mixed seeds
chopped nuts

I didn't used any specific amounts, I just mixed it until it looked right, it's really easy, just warm the lard to room temperature, squish it with your hands, which Arthur adored doing, feeling it squidge through his fingers.  Then mix in all the other ingredients and pop it in the fridge for half an hour or so to set.

Once we finally put it out, Arthur was very excited to see the birds eating it, so we sat by the window with a bird book to help identify the birds.  He learned to tell the difference between a Crow and a Blackbird by their orange beak, and was overjoyed when a Robin nearly tried his cake, but then he got over excited, shouted, banged on the window and the Robin flew away.

Squidging

mixing

All ready for eating

Hanging it up ready

Bird watching!

Indoor puddle jumping!

I've had a some time off from blogging recently, enjoying some family fun time with daddy on holiday and enjoying watching them exploring all their new toys they have been playing with over the holiday period,  and extended family have also been visiting, so here is my first post of 2014!

This morning before breakfast we went on a family walk, the usual January urge to get fit and healthy has hit mummy and daddy after eating far too much lovely food!  We walked for about an hour around our village, however Arthur did insist on being carried for a bit as he was tired, but loved jumping in lots of puddles caused by the recent rain.

Once home we had a yummy breakfast, and whilst they finished up, inspired by the walk I made some home made 'puddles' for Arthur to jump into and play with.  We made the puddles closer and further apart, made 'splish splash' sounds and hopped from one puddle to the other in a line.  I was a great way of keeping Arthur moving and burning off some off the excitable energy he has accumulated from the past weeks fun.  Also the different textures I used for the puddles, using whatever blue things I had, made a great sensory play activity for Alyssa too, as obviously she can't jump yet, although first unaided steps have been taken, and she is an expert stair climber! 

Hopping in puddles

I can see through this puddle

SPLASH!!

WOW!