alphabet mat/ orbs of delight

I found this little fairy this morning.... doing quiet jobs for me. She cleaned up Jareds room, she set all the dolls house in order. She even entertained a small munchkin who was intrigued by her wings. She was wonderful :) I think I may just keep her.

Lately in my slump, I havent really felt like doing a whole lot of crafty things, its acutally quite annoying and I am working at getting back out of this rut. But for today, I am still in it. But this morning I found something new and fun to do that wasnt messy but would challenge my littles and also be a fun game.
For christmas, Ma made this little alphabet quilt.

I think its actually a wall hanging but it hasnt quite gotten there yet. I set it up on the table and Jared and I talked about all that we could see on it. Amahli was also in on this action, pointing out the animals she knew. I showed them the letters of the alphabet and told them we were going to have a treasure hunt. Jared loves treasure hunts so he was really keen.
The aim was to find things that began with the letters we could see on the quilt. Now he isnt quite up to doing this on his own, so we did it as a team. I raced through the house, finding little things. I over emphasised the beginning letter of items ( ccccc car or rrrrr remote!) and he started to work out some of the beginning sounds. Then we raced them back to the quilt to place the item on the letter. Although he wasnt really able to tell me many of the letters, its something that we will repeat alot which will help him in identifying letters and sounds. It was also something he really enjoyed and got us all involved. We didnt do all the letters but he did quite a few and really had fun.

Over the weekend, we took a day trip to Laurieton. Its not that far, but theres also not much there.. normally. On sunday though, we stumbled upon the most amazing markets! Unfortunately I didnt take the camera as the sights were great, smells and sounds were amazing. Next time...
But I did find these little treasures. I am ALWAYS on the lookout for tactile experiences as tow of my kids are not overly keen on touching things or getting messy ( the other makes up for all of them and another 50 untactile children). These little orbs were used for flowers in vases and give great colour to a room but also they retain a heck of amount of water. They had a little sample bowl of them and all three kids went for it, rolling their hands in these pretty things. So I bought some of our own to put into a container for play :)

What I didnt realise was quite how fascinating they would be! Jumeirah wasnt sure that they would work so we set to finding out. I put only a few in a container of water and waited to see what happened....



















It took hours to get to the full size, and we just HAD to check what they felt like at each stage. For the past 4 days, these orbs have been played in, bounced, had ocean animals added to it, squashed ( yeah you cant really do that too much, they crumble into a billion pieces) and thoroughly enjoyed. No one can walk past them without touching them. Apparently they will last for years ( although at our squeeze rate they wont) and will become hydrated again in 6 months if we leave them out of water. Not only were they fun to play in, I found them totally therapeutic as well.. something about pretty, glass looking balls was totally relaxing to run your fingers through... I reckon I could get in a whole bath of these :)





Pretty good for $5 a the local fair, hey?? Going to get some more next month at the next market! Anybody else want some??



They finally got to live out there intended use :) For today :) Tomorrow they will be back in action.