pasta dyeing/ simple collage

Today my gorgeous nephew, my mum and sister came to visit :) My kids are totally in love with this little guy and the feeling is mutual, with many a random hug or kiss shared throughout the day... so cute to watch. Jumeirah, a little relunctantly, went to school, so I wanted to give these three something fun and crafty to do. I set them up with a simple collage that was done on Chinese container lids. It looks cool and almost manages to keep them more contained (all bar Amahli whos all " dont fence me in" as her lifes catch cry). I gave them coloured craft glue and lots of different things to glue on.

Fine motor, hand eye coordination and choice are all things that get a good work out with a craft like this. Little fingers need to work harder to choose a particular button, pincher grip gets used to sprinkle on stars and coloured rice.

They turned out beautifully, including Amahlis belly :)

I also tried out dyeing pasta the same way I dyed rice for rainbow rice. Using food colouring ( its awesome, bright, cheap and just awesome) and hand sanitiser, its quick to make and dries fast too. Ive been wondering about getting some real watercolour ink but it looks expensive... any thoughts on that??

The kids had an absolute ball in the dyed pasta. Scooping, pouring, eyes soaking up the gorgeous colours... They even managed to only spill about 20 shells of pasta which I thought, between a 2 yr old, a 2.5 yr old and a 4 yr old, was an amazing effort :)

Arent cousins fantastic??