Get the experts in to help.

So of course I turned to Zoe.

And this is the tray of fun she put together:

Zoe didn’t have a specific idea in mind for her craft. She just knew what materials she felt like creating with. And here are the results… I know the craft object is a little blurry but I included this photo because of the look of pure enjoyment in Zoe’s eyes.

Here are some clearer photos of what Miss Zoe created… 

The shiny green pom pom creature on the left is a fish; the one with the orange pipe cleaner is a letter holder; the large one on the right is a nose phone and the small one Zoe is holding is a baby called “The Tot“.  Yes I know what you’re thinking and you are right. There is no way I could have ever prepared a craft for Zoe that would turn out this varied. Or maybe you weren’t, maybe you were thinking “Thank God she told me what they were ‘cos I never would have worked that out in a million years”.
Anyone else a little wistful for their childhood imagination?

Hmm, me too

So, what’s up next? Well Mother’s Day is looming here in Australia so I will be featuring some crafts and cards for Mums over the next two weeks. Us Mums love kid-made craft and I am no exception. We also do crafts for the girl’s grandmothers so they will just have to refrain from opening my Mother’s Day posts. I’d hate to spoil the surprise!

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Mr Sunshine is building a chook house with unwanted wood from local building sites – meaning totally free The wood he had gathered was piled high under our patio until Zoe decided to drag some if it out onto the lawn and make her own obstacle course. 

The girls have brainstormed lots of different games and created rules like you wouldn’t believe. Lots of negotiation…and then lots of fun. Their favourite way to play is to create a complete loop and set a target number of laps to complete…whilst setting a maximum number of times you can fall off/touch the ground before you have start all over again.  Once they were out there in complete darkness until bedtime completing a gazillion laps for just one game. 

Zoe is a big fan of “free-range” play on the obstacle course.  And yes, they are in their pajamas! Outside first thing in the morning for some balancing course ACTION… 

Zoe just loved being able to design her own course (which she did on another day – see…different pajamas!). Competence competence competence – something that girls (and boys) thrive on when they get the chance to feel it.

Won’t it be sad when Mr Sunshine finishes the chook house and the balancing fun is gone? We may have to head out to the building sites again and see what we will find (in our pajamas).

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Yes, folks. I’m baaaaaaack

I’ve been busy having a non-guilty break from blogging. My kids have crafted without a mad woman jumping around them with a camera and they have enjoyed that as much as I have.

Now that we have had a mini-break, we are once again ready to share fun things to do in the days and weeks ahead.

So what happened while we were off-line?

A top front tooth was lost… 

An Easter egg hunt was conducted in a real forest next to a beautiful lake. We were so lucky to be there, loved it! Many many eggs were found- so many eggs!  (this is what happens when Mr Sunshine goes shopping for Easter Bunny)

And a most exciting new chapter began for Ebony in the last weeks. Ebony is now a proud member of a local hockey club and has just played her first game. She had lots of fun however she has a tendency to go in hard and not show much fear.  This is what we call “the father gene” around here. I can see a difficult season for me on the sidelines coming up… but fun and great and wonderful all the same And just because I love it I thought I would share this photo I took of my wonderful family while we were away at Easter time. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and I look forward to seeing you back here soon.

The next post will be about a very frugal, very fun outdoor backyard activity that the girls are currently loving TO BITS.

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Both girls started wrapping wool around an egg each whilst concentrating very hard. Wool just wants to slip right off the eggs so the wool had to be tied tight. We also used glue dots for the wool attached to the extremities of the egg.

They were very happy, busy with their glue and their materials.

With the confetti, Zoe just rubbed the glue stick all over the egg and rolled it in the confetti. Such a sticky and satisfying result!

The eggs were appropriately placed in egg cups while the glue dried… 

Then with a satisfying sharp prod with some bamboo skewers and a container or vase, you can instantly create a pretty Easter Bouquet.

Have fun!

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We wanted to create some Easter cards for family using only cardboard tubes. Easter eggs seemed like a good idea but instead we wanted a bit more of a challenge…and after a bit of trial and error (on my part) our cute little Easter Bunny was born!

The credit for turning the two bottom circle prints into cute little rabbit paws goes to Ebony.

I used only a small thumb length tube of acrylic paint for the stamping – with this type of craft a little bit of paint goes a long way.

Both of the girls enjoyed decorating the Easter Bunny and adding an Easter greeting. Ebony liked the “Hoppy Easter” pun, Zoe thought we should be using the traditional “Happy Easter”. Each to their own. For me not to use “Hoppy Easter” would be a waste of perfectly formed pun. But that’s just me

I’ll admit we have used a large amount of black pen. I think we may colour in some of the drawn Easter eggs to add a touch of colour to the front of the cards.

Are you getting into some Easter craft at the moment?

The girls have spent a whole weekend enjoying some Easter printables from Activity Village. Lots of easter crafts and printables on their fabulous website. Don’t forget to check out my Easter pinterest board – even more easter fun for kids.

Thanks so much for dropping by! And of course….Hoppy Easter!!

Here are just three of the huge list that caught my eye …

Easy to cut out table decorations from Skip to my Lou.

Gorgeous little bunny bags from Mr Printables.

And a beautiful set of Easter table prints and cards for a lunch or brunch from The Pretty Blog.

There are so many to choose from – here is the link to the list of 100 printables again. Have fun with it!

{We have been a bit slow on the craft side of things lately. Both girls have been busy with school work, playing with new things they received on their recent birthdays and just plain decompressing. I 100% endorse giving your children space just to “be” so lately I haven’t been organising too much craft for them. 

Not overloading with things to do has been working as they have been getting along well and appreciating the space in their lives. School is tiring them both out at the moment!

However now that we are moving quickly towards Easter the girls will be happy to get into some Easter craft. To that end we have a cute Easter card post coming up on the weekend using materials you will most probably already have to hand. So please check back to see what we come up with!}

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I am also learning so I can teach my lovely little girls how to knit as well.

Big news…this morning I taught Ebony how to cast on.  I was so elated that I was passing on a skill which has such a long and important history. Ebony was elated as well. I have a feeling though that she is expecting to get from casting on to a beautiful long scarf in a matter of minutes…well the reality will be another of one of those essential learning opportunities that we should be letting our kids experience on a regular basis.

So why knitting and why now?

Well Ebony received a lovely little knitting kit for her birthday so that helped with her motivation to start learning. I have been doing some embroidery and mentioned that I wanted to get back into knitting so it seemed to spring from there.

I spent some time looking on YouTube at casting on stitches until I finally found a video with an easy method to learn and copy. The video is presented by a young British woman and is a lovely quirky short video. I highly recommend it!

I hope to repost about Ebony’s knitting some time in the future and show a lovely young lady modelling a fine warm scarf.

I’d love to hear from you dear reader about your knitting experiences. To knit or not to knit? How do you answer that probing question?

Thanks so much for dropping by!

These lovely folk came about one afternoon when the girls were in the mood for a quiet sit down craft.  They started off with one each which quickly turned into five as they had more and more ideas.

Painting these lovely things requires the finest and smallest paint brushes, especially for any detailed bits and bobs.

The girls painted clowns, men, mermaids, a chef, a queen, a spy and themselves. Sorry to any peg person I couldn’t recognise or remember. Your value is not diminished if you don’t get a mention, it’s just that the girls aren’t here as I type this.

The girls used small square glasses to rest their pegs on whilst waiting for them to dry. The glasses also made it easier to finish off painting each peg without having to smudge the wet parts of the peg that were already painted.

This activity kept the girls engaged for much longer than I thought it would. They were creating people for themselves to play with so they spent alot of time thinking about who they wanted to play with and what they should look like. Lots of planning!

Now the wooden peg folk live in their rooms “resting” on the side of jars.  Zoe brings her people alive once she has gone into her room and the door is closed.

Ebony’s are hidden away somewhere secret. Away from little sister’s hands I should think. Doesn’t paint have such transformative powers?

If we didn’t have wooden pegs my next choice would have been plain popsticks or even toilet roll people. Both materials provide a blank canvas and a width to height ratio that easily transforms into bodies with heads, arms and legs.

A great indoor activity and perfect for a rainy day.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

We bought simple IKEA picture frames and made a large picture gallery for the girl’s art. We love their art so why not create a wall display with it? We decided on the area of the wall we wanted to cover and then experimented with frame placement on the ground before creating the real thing on the wall.

We change the pictures every now and then – some are keepers and will never be changed The gallery is next to our kitchen which is part of our living space so everyone sees it when visiting.

The girls just love it. It is so bright and cheerful, it always makes me smile.

Do you display your children’s art? Is your fridge covered with your kids masterpieces too?

And that someone is having their birthday party at the local swimming pool where you can hire a giant inflatable thingy, have exclusive rights over the water slide and have your very own life guard.  Yes it’s Ebony’s birthday and she is incredibly excited.  And rightly so – turning double-figures is no ho-hum affair.

I had seen a few beach ball invitation ideas on pinterest and decided this was the perfect way to invite Ebony’s friends along to the pool party.

We both had a go at the writing. I was too excited to let Ebony do everything

Ebony wanted to put the (deflated) beach balls into brown paper lunch bags which she decorated. The bags were the perfect size for our deflated balls.

We can’t wait for the party. From a grown ups perspective, the best thing about an indoor pool party is no agonising over the weather forecast. Just sit back and watch the girls having fun.

Happy Birthday if you happen to be reading this on your birthday

Thanks for dropping by!!