Painting for the non messy child

YAY! Im back! Well, sort of :)
I have a temporary modem and no access to my photo drive but I managed to somehow work out a way to save them elsewhere so... Im back :)
Thankyou to all you lovelies who thought of us last week in our little flood drama... the beautiful bushland where I took a photo I took a few weeks ago with Amahli and Jared is almost completely destroyed and will take years to recover and the wet washing and sheets I have are in a pile I dont think I will ever conquer.. but all is good :)

I have been busy here over the weekend... getting ready for school holidays!!!! Only three more weeks of Term One to go. I have been gathering some awesome ideas so Im pretty excited :)

Today though, after taking Jared to the doctors, I got out something painty and yet unpainty for him to do. We've done it before. Ive probably even blogged it before. but sometimes its fun to do something like this again :)

Its painting for the Anally Retentive child who dosent like to get messy. But its also great for colour mixing and learning about how some colours mixed together make new colours.

Start with a plastic sealable bag.

Squirt a small amount of two colours into it and them close it up. Press gently to get rid of any air, then tape each side with sticky tape to prevent blow outs :) ( and yep they do happen :) )

Then I gave it to him to smoosh around, mxing colours, finding out that mixed together they made green. I also gave him a cotton bud to draw on top of the bag as the paint in the bag allows you to draw in it. Pretty cool effect :)

Closer look to try and slowly mix the green, carefully getting each section mixed was a very precise job.

And he actually really enjoyed it :)

Simple, unmessy fun :)

Thankful

This afternoon, we were hit with torrential rain, to the point where we watched "rivers" and then "waterfalls" flow past the car we were sitting in. The roads around us were flooding within minutes, and I was starting to panic slightly. It got so bad that I carried my three children together and tried to get to higher and drier ground. Coming home once the waters had subsided, I was met with a terrified dog, a flooded garage, and two main rooms whose windows I hadn't closed. But we are safe. We are all together. And yes, we have a big clean up, but we are unharmed.

Tonight I am very thankful. That my kids are safe in bed, that lights and power is back on. And although I am typing this on my iPhone and we think our modem may be blown up which means I have nothing to show you today, Im thankful that in the grand scheme of things, all is ok.
Tonight I'm praying for Japan. For mums and dads who can't tuck their kids into their beds, for kids who have lost everything. For families who've lost family, for those waiting for news on missing loved ones. For crews of amazing volunteers, random strangers trying their best to help.
And now I'm off to kiss my kids an extra time...
(Sorry it's short but it's taken me nearly 40 minutes to type this much :) )

colour mixing

Tuesday.... gosh is it really only Tuesday??
It feels so much later in the week than that... Amahli is going through some crazy horrible 2 yr old thing at the moment and is swinging incessantly between being the most loving and helpful little angel to having complete melt downs and screaming at me.
Id like to blame teeth but I have a bad feeling that its a third kid thing too ;)
She and Jared argued constantly all the way to school and home again that to sort them out I put them both in his room and closed the door.

Figured a few rounds locked in together someone should come out a winner and it will all be over.... so imagine my shock when it goes quiet....

And I walk in to find two children happily playing in a self constructed submarine/boat/bus/car mobile and both are completely in love with each other and this perfect pretend play. ( I had taken the top of his Thomas train table to vacuum under and hadnt put it back :)This is what they are actually sitting in.)

I was asked to leave. Actually I was TOLD to leave. So I did :)

Half hour later, the explorers are hungry and so I set them up with food whilst I got a painty activity ready. It is precisely at this point I realise that my camera is flat and I cannot find my charger ( to be honest I had a little cry.. I love my charger and have a big kid moment happening on Friday and I NEED my charger... sob)

So I grabbed my iPhone and clicked away on that.

So you will have to excuse the photos from here on it today :)

Jared was happy to watch whilst I set up Amahli with some finger painting that also involved simple primary colour mixing "magic". I used to do this alot with Jumeirah and havent done nearly enough with the other two. I told Jared I could make green just using blue and yellow.... I squirted it out on the table, she carefully ( to start with) mixed it around and VOILA! GREEN!

careful at first..
oh! its GREEN!

And then he left cos he could see she was getting more "into" (literally) the paint. She had a ball, spreading, drawing, banging ( just the once before I stopped that one) using a cotton bud to draw a face, enjoying the texture and sensation of ooey gooey hands.

And my lovely girl returned to me... for a while anyway :) I didnt even flinch when she showed me how pretty it looked on the freshly cleaned mirror.... cos she smiled while she did it.

simplest of racing tracks

Weekends are mad, busy,crazy, tiring. Today all I want to do is sit.

Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum had other ideas of wanting me to make cubbies and tents and all sorts of crazy stuff but luckily I had something new hiding up my sleeve....

For weeks, Amahli has been in love with this simple mat I made from stiff felt. Its been a base for play with so much lately and its been great as I can change whats on top from people to animals, to blocks and stones, and the play has changed without the need of a new style of mat or a heap of different props.

Gee I love toys like that :)

At the end of last week I decided to make Jared a play mat too that could be used for "small world" play as well, and so we bought more stiff felt.

Today I showed it to him and asked him if he would like to help me make a car track. And so he sat on my lap and hand pressed the foot pedal on the machine ( note to self : this wasnt the greatest idea... its like driving a car with someone elses foot on the excelerator... but I was sitting so my legs were thanking me) and we whizzed up this REALLY simple car track.

Now I had all sorts of grand plans for pit stops and trees and even just some simple track markings but he was having none of that. He just wanted to test it out.

And as simple as it is, he LOVED it. Speeding cars around the track, trying to avoid the ineveitable kitty cat that tried to cross from the other play mat ( thanks Amahli) totally engrossed with a few mini cars and a cute piece of felt :)



I am planning on making some more wiht more detail to sell in my currently empty Etsy shop. Such a fun and easy toy that would be great for a plane trip, or tucked away for a doctors surgery or hospital visit... and according to the toy testers:

"Its just wonderful!"

sticky tape resist painting/cleaning with kids

I got Jumeirah some cardstock at the craft shop yesterday for a project she wants to do, but I also got a few spare so today I used sticky tape to make out an "A" for Amahli to paint over to hang in her room. Both the others have already done this beautiful craft but she hasnt.

I gave her three colours of food colouring to paint with and she had a lovely time painting all over the page. It doesnt matter how they paint, as the tape will hold fast and keep that part of the cardstock dry.

ONCE COMPLETELY DRY ( please dont be like me and pull it off too early! It rips the paper) you can carefully remove the sticky tape to reveal a gorgeous letter. Cardstock is the best thing to use for this craft. Normal paper seems to rip too easily and the tape doesnt come off cleanly.

Now all I need to do is find a frame :)

Then it was time for yet another project of cleaning... this time it was to wash the car. I wasnt quite sure how this was going to go, its not a super hot day and I knew they would want to get soaked so I was hesitant to let them help me.

We started by cleaning out the car, and with two children, thats a very quick and perfect thing to do.

They are the exact right size to climb all through our big car and pick up all the things they are forever dropping and hiding in all the crevices and were more than happy to be helping. I am somewhat taller and am forever whacking my head on the roof just doing seatbelts up so I played the happy role today as the "Encourager" :).

Once that was done and I vacuumed whilst they squealed and tried to avoid me sucking them up, we backed the car down the "roller coaster" (driveway) and hosed it down.

At this point, Jared took over the role of the "Encourager" and Amahli was keen to get right in there. I cut up a sponge so it would be easier for her to manage, and she got right to task and scrubbed the front number plate and the wheels of the car.

I was actually quite surprised that she took it so seriously and didnt get as wet as *ahem* I did. She was totally focussed on cleaning each section of every wheel and did a great job.

Once cleaned, we rode back up the rollercoaster and went inside for a well deserved ice block :)

Happy Weekend!!

another use for toilet rolls

Yesterday was a busy day... I seem to be finding my groove the last few days and have been successful ( for the most part) in keeping my kids happy AND getting a spot of cleaning done in the off chances.

Todays cleaning agenda was to clean some outside blocks that have been sitting there staring at me for MONTHS. Amahli has asked to play with them often but I cant let her as I know they will be filled with spiders and other nasties. But today, they were my only big job to do. So I settled down with a bucket of water, an old toothbrush and the blocks and began.

I made a commitment to myself that just ONE cleaning thing will get done each day. With that in mind, I seem to find more purpose in doing it instead of kinda half doing it before finding something else that needs doing and then wondering why nothing ever looks finished. It means that I have to finish it before I go to bed. And for this week, its working :)
Because I was outside, Amahli and Jared were keen to show me all their tricks and clever stuff on the outdoor equipment. So I watched and commented on how much they had practised and how clever they were whilst I scrubbed and cleaned blocks. How very therapeutic :)

A few nasties later...

Amahli wanted to come and help me and so I gave her a toothbrush and we chatted about our days, the weather, what she wanted for tea tonight... such a lovely little girl to be with today :)
And soon, all the blocks were clean and ready to play with. One more thing off the never ending list.

In the afternoon, Jumeirah wanted something to do so I told her to collect all the rogue multiplying toilet rolls and we would make something with them.

I dont know about you, but SOMETHING in our house makes them breed and we always seem to have about 15 in each bathroom.....

I found this little craft years ago but have never really done much with it but it was perfect for Jumeirah today.

Each toilet roll was squashed slightly in the middle, then at each end you fold in the sides to make to flaps. It makes the cutest little pillow and looks like a great idea for party favours! She is going to make some bracelets to give to her friends to put inside them.

Once we had constructed about 10 little cases, she wanted to paint them purple.

And as I sat with her and painted too ( also very therapeutic) , I got to chatting about her day and what she wanted for dinner and how school was going and what she thought of the world.... and just enjoyed spending some time with another lovely little girl. Because the drive to achieve everything and clean everything everyday was gone ( well, dulled a bit anyway) I was able to enjoy just creating and making without thinking of the thousand other things I needed to do :)

For just a week ( to start maybe) I totally recommend doing this. For yourself, for your kids, for your sanity :)

project 52: week 9

Jared: " Mum! Come and see this! I never seed this before!"


Me: "Hang on mate. I'll be there in a second! Im just doing..."

Jared: " No MUM NOW! You'll miss it!"


And so I ran out to find him ( camera in hand just in case) eye level with the out of control veggie patch... and this amazing bright yellow lady bug.

They are rare around here.. red ones I see often but not yellow.
He was so pleased with showing me this little amazing creature.



And I totally cant remember what I almost missed this for ;)

What have your kids shown you today??



linked to love that shot :)