easy craft for little people: Make a meal

Jared just comes in from the loungeroom where he is having "rest time" ( or quality spongebob squarepants time really) whilst Amahli is asleep, and says

"Mum, theres a Koala in the tree."

To which I reply, " ok mate I will come and sit with you in a minute".

His response: " No Mum, theres a Koala in the tree"

And what do you know?? There actually is :)

Well I can never be sure with him... yesterday it was a crocodile being chased by a dragon so do you blame me for being a little suspicious???



Today I have a little sick chick. I hate it when they arent well, she just wants to play, then dissolves in tears and curls up on my lap.... and there isnt much I can do....but after a dose of Nurofen she was ok for a bit and so I got out stuff for her to do really quickly.

I had cut up a whole heap of junk mail from Coles of different foods that we eat. I gave them both a paper plate and glue and off them went!






This was such a fun and simple activity. We talked about the foods we eat, what we like, what we dont like, the colours of food, things that go together ( Amahli, the clever thing that she is, found sausages, bread and sauce to glue on her plate) ( I dont recall allowing her to grow up faster than I am ready for!) and things we should try. Jared wanted scissors to trim down his apples which I let him do as well. Amahli did have a go but needs some spring loaded scissors to practise with first..

Amahlis favourite: bread, sausages and sauce. Actually if its got sauce, she'll give anything a go :)


Jared would be happy with noodles and prawns, and kiwi fruit for dessert.



Both of them did about 4 plates of food each and spent ages playing in the cut outs and making meals.
You could use the activity for so many things: cutting practise, counting, colours, pretend play.. its really limitless and loads of fun!

shaving cream painting

Monday.... am suffering the after effects of a shocking migraine today.... feel not quite connected with myself in any way, still have pins and needles in one arm and hand.....

Which is why its so bizarre that I chose today to do shaving cream painting! But I did and it was great :)
Shaving cream is one of those messy craft things that you really need to be prepared for before you start but that is such fun that you cant NOT do it at some point in your kids adventures. I did this awhile ago and had such fun with it that I thought Amahli particularly would enjoy it.



What you need:

shaving cream ( Coles cheap and cheerful works well, dont use shaving gel, it doesnt work at all)
food colouring if you want to ( you can do t his without colour just as well)
A tub of water to wash up in afterwards
a towel

I started by putting Amahli on the chair and squirting an amount of shaving cream in front of her. I encouraged her to put her hands in which she quickly did. This stuff is such fun to play in.. its soft and smooth and very therapeutic. I use a softer voice and words like smooth, spread, round and round, slow and waves to encourage a calmer experience ( big banging hands make lots more mess.)

Amahli wanted me to add the blue food colouring and we blended it in together ( another note: food colouring will stain hands for a day or so :) )
She loved smoothing it out, drawing long lines, wavy lines, spots and even took a few prints on paper. This step you don't really need to do so much as this is much more about the process than an end result.







Jared came out and quickly turned straight back again. I stopped him and showed him some cotton buds he could use instead to draw with. He sat up and actually enjoyed it! He drew lots of things from "Willy Wonka" and showed me each part of his drawing. Hes still not keen on getting his hands in it but he still really loved drawing in this messy play activity.











Try it!! I dare you ;)

rainbow friday: just for me/ big kid craft

How I love this winter weather.. today its an outside, warm enough to sit without a jumper, no breeze, I can actually feel that Vitamin D goodness soaking into me... right to the very core :)

Last week I went to a community trade party, where a woman was selling things that she buys from countries to support local trade. I was fascinated by the stories she told, of lives so different to my sheltered existence, so different from the corner of the world I live in. Lives that know prostitution just to feed their families, children that know hunger like mine will never know. Families affected by drought, famine, and diseases that only two days ago I complained at being immunised against.


I bought myself these little pieces of rainbow... not only to support a community that has now closed all the brothels as they now have a source of income to support themselves, but as reminder to be thankful for the life I have. The group is called Eden Ministry (http://www.edenchina.org/).

Now I can have rainbows whenever I feel like sticking them in my ears :) But I also am praying that for someone else in the world, they will have rainbows too.

This week, I found a sale on ( A SALE! A SALE!) at Lincraft and found the most fantastic activity for Jumeirah to try. Shes been asking me to teach her to knit for sometime now, but seeing as I DONT knit AT ALL, I thought this might satisfy.
Check out the last one!! RAINBOW WOOL :)

Its a weaving kit that makes a scarf. The kit contains a black wool weaving mat and gorgeous coloured wool for her to weave into the mat. They were $2.50 for a kit which is just fantastic! So I got a few to put away, and gave one to her to start.



She really enjoyed doing this as you can see it working straight away.


After two long rows she wanted a break, but its something that she will come back to from time to time until its finished.



I had a short go, but am leaving it for her to complete...

I havent started mine yet but its rainbow wool so its going to look awesome!

Happy Weekend!!

surrprise delivery/ playdough fun

I got quite a surprise this morning when the delivery man knocked on my door.. I wasnt expecting anything which made it even more exciting!



When I opened the door this is the box I was presented with... took me a few seconds to shake the confusion of recieving a Nutrimetics box when I am a Body Shop consultant (I get those boxes every other day and still they excite me.. you can smell the goodness even before you open it!). But when I opened it, it was like Christmas! A wonderful friend ( who was a church friend years ago and is now a Facebook friend. Gotta love Facebook) had sent me the most amazing package of kids crafty things, arty stuff and play things I was absolutely stunned. Its not often things like this happen, probably to any of us really! But I was so touched that she did it for me and my lovelies and the feeling of being loved has stuck with me all day :)


The strangest part of this package ( and really its kinda spun me right out) is this little tube of space play. I went to Wauchope last week and went into the Co Op there. They have some great kids stuff so I wanted to check it out. I found this tube of Space play figures and thought Jared would love it for small world play. I didnt buy it, I was $2 short, but swore I would come back and get it for him.... the box today had THE EXACT SET in it. I have never seen it before last week at Wauchope, and now I have it on my kitchen bench, sent from Sydney. My husband totally didnt get why I squealed, but its been goosebumping me all day :)

Also in this box of delight, I found three pairs of great blade-less scissors and so we had to make some playdough to hone in on those cutting skills.
They had a great time, Jared loves to cut so this was something different for him. Amahli is slowly learning how to use them, her fingers are still a little small and pudgy to hold the properly but she loved squeezing and rolling the dough out, which is great for strengthening those little finger muscles.



I also got out for Jared a proper knife and fork. My kids are still pretty much only using forks and spoons but more often now they want to try with a knife. Practising in playdough is fantastic for refining those skills needed to hold them both properly and manipulating them to work together without the distraction of the basic need to get the food to the mouth :) He really enjoyed this and pretended to cut me some cake to share.


This afternoon, I decided I wanted to help someone else have that feeling of random love. And so I too, am creating a package to send to someone randomly to pay forward the love ( I am also sending some love back but shhhh thats a secret)

I'll show you when its finished...

It doesnt take much to make someone feel loved. This world needs so much more of it. I hope that reading this inspires you to find something of yourself to send, write, or even simply say to someone else, for no reason other than you love them.

Let me know how you go :)

fishing fun

Totally, TOTALLY edible you are :) xx

After the fun of the beach yesterday, Jumeirah perched herself at the bench and got busy on a project.
She drew a whole heap of fish and cut them out, then asked me to cut a fridge magnet up and she stuck it on the back.

Then, with some sticks she collected from the beach, we attached a long piece of wool and another stronger magnet, she set up her new game on the floor. She lay out a blue blanket and asked Amahli and Jared to come and have a look and she taught them her game. It was a bit complex and a few too many rules but once we had that sorted out, she and Jared played for ages in their " fishing lake".

Such a great idea and they loved it. It was great for concentration, hand eye coordination, and they we so encouraging to each other and cheered when one caught a fish.

Love this kid and her creative ideas... shes planning to take over my blog for me ;

beach fun and water periscopes

Caught you... taking in the world... catching the slightest hint of sun on your face.. oblivious to me and my camera... you are an amazing little boy. Id like to freeze you know so you'd be this age forever... xxx


It seems to me that a little bird has been singing my praises in here somewhere... my traffic meter is crap and doesnt actually tell me how many people are on it but it seems I have a few more followers!! Welcome! Please feel free to let me know you've been here, I would love to know!
I have the feeling the little bird is a friend of mine over at Mom Tried It :) This great blog was the first blog that linked my humble little blog to hers and I am so grateful...I was amazed that someone with such a huge following and a great blog found mine to be great as well! Such a nice boost for me. Kim has some awesome ideas for kids as well so go check her out! Her blog was shut down for a bit but its up again now and its really great!


We seem to be fighting off a cold here in our place today... Jumeirah was feeling it yesterday and this morning so I let her have today off school. I thought that maybe a dose of Vitamin D and sea salt would cure what ails us :)

Before we went I wanted to try something out. My kids are always exploring rock pools, finding treasures in little holes, looking for crabs and starfish. Whilst its Winter ( apparently) here, it is a bit cold to venture completely in the water so I wanted to give them something they could view whats under the water without getting soaked!

I found an out of date yoghurt in the fridge ( they are the best kind haha) and washed it out. I cut off the bottom so it was open at both ends.


Using rubber bands I attached a piece of clear plastic ( this is table covering material so its a good thickness but still completely see through) over one end. And one periscope was done! I made another from a Coke bottle but the bottle wasnt heavy enough to support the bands. I then found a juice bottle and left a rim for extra sturdiness and it worked heaps better.

And we set off for the beach!

Unfortunately, ( as I knew would happen) it was really windy and also high tide, which means no rock pools. Jumeirah did have a little go with her periscope and really enjoyed being able to see closer into the underwater world, but we will have to wait until the tide goes down to really enjoy these cool little creations :)

Another of our little beach treasure hunters :)


Jumeirah found this and declared it " daddys dinner".....



Start collecting containers for it now..... or better still, ignore your yoghurt in the fridge ;)