resturants-pretend play

Sickness has AGAIN hit our house... hubbin has a particularly nast case of Chicken Pox. I know, I laughed the first time too... but reality is, its really not funny. Hes really sick and now off work for least a week. So! Im trying to find some things for my cherubs to do so they dont drive him and me crazy ;)

And of course, this afternoon, it rains, AGAIN. So an outdoor, but undercover space was needed.

In our household, pretend play is still the most fun thing to do. Whether it be dress ups, doctors, cats (?) its a game that needs not alot of props but lasts for hours.
The request was for a resturant, so I gave them the play food, a shelf and some simple home corner things ( bowls, plates etc) and left them to it :)

Jumeirah found a foam piece of rubbish in the garage and decided to create an icecream stand. Jared was more content to take orders, Amahli was not content to pretend to take orders so she hunted down some paper and a stapler and I made her a pad to write her orders on which became a HUGE hit with all three of them :)

I pretty much let them take things from the kitchen ( within reason, I did draw the line at the carving knife Amahli tried to nick) to use in play and they had a ball.


Set ups like this dont need to be elaborate. You can simply use items from the pantry to set up a shop, and things from the drawers and cupboards to make a kitchen. As yet, Ive never had any of my kids abuse this freedom, but you will need to set some simple rules ( or dont let them take a packet of flour ;) )

Having this chance to play allows for lots of learning experiences..... turn taking, sharing, working together, and role playing are all experiences that can really encourage kids in their development.

And most of all, even if they are having a ball without you, get involved sometimes! As soon as I sat down I had three people take my orders ( one for drinks, one for dinner and one for dessert and music selection... thanks Jumeirah xx) and all got busy trying to impress me.

Go on, sneak a set up for them to discover in the morning :) Kids from really young to surprisingly older ( about 12 months - 8yrs +)
And if your kids are older, why not wait till the weekend and then set up a REAL resturant for them. They can work out a menu, prepare a simple meal and serve it up!!

reusable nappies

Last week I put the editing aside for a little while and found Id been bitten with the "make something!!" bug. Fabric was calling, the machine was yelling from the cupboard, hauled it out and pondered over something cool to make.... when Amahli walked into the craft room, demanding I put a nappy on big Ted.

Now I have a serious problem with this. Amahli decided about 6 months ago to stop wearing nappies at night, just randomly, and that was it. The trouble was, I had JUST bought a new bag of nappies ( I believe she knew but had plans for nappies and so continued to pretend to need them until that day) and had no use for them. So I packed them away, thinking Id give them away at some point.
From that day until now ( well, pretty much) she comes to me, all dimples and sweet smiles, begging for me to put a nappy on big Ted. Trouble is, big Ted has gone through almost half a 40 piece box of nappies.... and Id had enough of finding them all over the house.

So when she came to me last week, I decided to make her some fabric nappies that would not only be reusable, but something she could put on and off herself!

I found some ideas on Pintrest ( this is my wall for those who need yet another thing to follow!) and liked the idea of this one by Happy Together. I didnt really want to use felt though as velcro tends to make it fray too quick, so I did a double layer with fabric and used velcro in the middle and two side edges.

The first one came together really pretty quickly and easily.... shame about the fact that I stitched the velcro on the wrong parts so its an inside out nappy ( if you know me at all this is a pretty normal first attempt), but the second one is right way out and very cute :)

Apparently now Hello Kitty, little dog and pooh bear all need them too so I shall be whizzing some more up shortly!!

As you can see its currently on Pooh Bear. Big Teds butt is too big and needs to go to the toddler size.... so Im told :)
Have you made something cool lately? Something youre proud of or that your kids loved? Why not share it below in the comments so we can all see!