Fun in a DIY Teepee

We have loads of toys in our garden (ok, lots of them are from the pound shop, but still loads!) But still they want more, more, more! Every time they look at the Early Learning centre catalogue they spot about 20 things they fancy. But apart from not having an endless money supply, I don't want them growing up spoilt and always needing 'things' to make them happy.

So this weekend, inspired by here come the girls, we made this teepee and it was pretty easy to make. Start with 4 beanpoles and push them into the ground in a sqare shape. How far apart you put them will depend on how big you want your teepee to be.

Then tie the tops together with some string or ribbon if you happen to have some (we didn't so garden twine it was).

Next comes the walls. We used a blanket, which gave the teepee a cozy private feel, but sheet would work well too, and that is what we will be trying next. Wrap the blanket or sheet around the poles and use pegs to hold it in place. Depending on how you peg it and the size of your sheet you could have flaps for a door or leave one side open, or what we have which is half a door leaving a crawl-in entrance.

And that is it, hours of teepee fun created in about 5 minutes and without buying anything new! Perfect for hiding in, curling up with a pile of books, peekaboo or just having some quiet time. And when the girls are not using it, the cat has taken to hiding in it too! 

Monster spray

Princess has stopped sleeping well at night. She says she is scared of monsters. At the moment she is waking up scared around twice a night, on top of the several times a night that Grapie is up, so basically I will give anything a go to get a better night's sleep.

I came across the idea of monster spray on Pintrest, the idea is that Princess will spray her room before bed to prevent any monsters getting in. I'm slightly torn on this idea as part of me feels that this might be agreeing with her that monsters actually do exist. But on the other hand telling her that monsters aren't real isn't working, so if this gives her the confidence to feel comfortable at night then, in the words of Postman Pat, mission accomplished!

It was really simple to make. I used an empty spray bottle, filled it with water, and added a tiny drop of pink food colouring to make it slightly pink tinted. I also added about 10 drops of lavender essential oil, in the hope that it might also be relaxing. A good shake and it was ready.

I found a fantastic printable label over at Easypeasygrandma, she has also made some really cute bedtime monsters. Once that was stuck on, I put it in a box and told Princess that the postman had delivered it!

She carefully sprayed her room before bed tonight, we did the door, window and the ceiling (apparently this is were the monsters are!) So hopefully this will keep the monsters away tonight.

Pompom Blowing Race

It was after dinner. Princess wanted the telly on. I didn't. So we came up with a game which soon took her mind right off it. It was so simple, involving a straw and a craft pompom, but both girls loved it. Pompom racing. We started with a pompom each and a straw each.  The finish line was the kitchen door. We had to move our pompom by blowing it with the straw and the first to cross the finish line was the winner.

Princess is very competitive, so really enjoyed this, and wanted to do it over and over again she kept coming up with different obstacles for the pompom to go through, such as toilet rolls, her rollerskate, tunnels made out of books and lots of others. Grapie didn't quite get the hang of it, although she can blow through a straw when it involves making bubbles in her drink! But she enjoyed watching too.

When we had finished, I gave Princess a winners medal which she loved.

And the telly stayed off. Which I loved. Simple, fun, perfect.

Winter Olympics small world play

Princess loves the Olympics. We took her to see an event at the 2012 Olympics, and she still remembers it even though she was only 2, and she has been enjoying watching the winter Olympics this year.

I made her this little Olympics small world play scene this week out of a cardboard box. It was quite simple to set up, and she has played with it for hours. It has really  sparked her imagination, and she has been making up all sorts of events and games to play with it, both with me and on her own.

I used a box with a lid that opens up to be the ski slope, I used bubble wrap at the top to be the launch platform. Then i used tissues on the alope to make it snowy, but when I tested it with a skier it just wasn't slippery enough, so I added a freezer bag on top of the tissues so the figures could really ski. 

The skier was made by blu-tacking some craft sticks onto the figures feet (we also made some into snowboarders later by using just one craft stick!)

I made a luge run out of a toilet roll cut in half and covered in silver foil and stuck on.

The winners podium was made out of Duplo, with pipe creaner medals.

I used cotton wool in the bottom of the box for snow and made an ice skating rink out of cardboard covered in foil. I sectioned a bit of the box off for the audience, but this has hardly been used as Princess likes alk the figures to be involved! I used stickers to add details like team GB flags on the figures and Olympic flags to decorate the box.

Princess has loved playing with it, she has gone back to it several times since, and I'm planning on covering it with fresh snow (shaving cream) once the novelty wears off, too give it one last lease of life. Which she will love, but we will only be able to do once! 

Pyjama day and den building

Time is precious. And time goes so quickly. Princess goes back to preschool tomorrow, so I wanted her to have a nice last day of holidays (and she's got a little cold) so I let her have a pyjama day today. This is a real treat dor her as she hates getting changed with a passion and we have a daily battle over getting dressed. So when I said she could keep her pyjamas on today she was very impressed!

And she was allowed a biscuit before lunch (which never happens!)

This afternoon we did some den building with the sofa cushions and blankets, and Princess sat inside playing happily for ages, with her torch. She had her snacks in the den. Even the cat got involved!

Poor Grapie didn't quite get it! She didn't want to go in so played with her toys next to the den! And of course when she did decide to go in, Princess had claimed it for her own and didn't want to share. 

We had a lovely last day of the holidays, it feels like time is flying at the moment and P will be at big school before I know it, so I'm really trying to make an effort to make the most of having her at home when I can!

Sand Art kit review

Princess was sent a Sand Art picture kit by the lovely people at Kids Bee Happy. She loves playing with sand and finds it really soothing and calming, so as our kit had a picture of Santa in, I thought the perfect time to try it out was Christmas Eve afternoon, in order to calm her excitement slighty!

She was very impressed when we opened the packet, and loved the sand in little bottles. The kit consisted of 2 pictures, lots of little bottles of sand in different colours, a little yellow stick for pulling back the paper, and some plastic wallets to display the finished art.
Princess chose the Santa picture and some pink sand and we got started. She needed some help peeling off the paper with the little stick but loved sprinkling on the sand. She went for slightly unconventional colour choices of pink beard and Santa suit!

Princess got more and more enthusiastic with her sprinkling as we went on, so it was definitely a good idea to use a tray so that we could just scoop up the excess sand and reuse it. When we had peeled off all the pieces and used all the colours of sand, we put it in the display pocket to protect it and hung it up. This is our finished picture.

Princess is so pleased with the finished product, and she enjoyed doing it a lot (even though her colour choices are slightly unconventional!) and I enjoyed doing it with her. I had been a little bit worried about how messy it might be, but all the mess was contained (mostly) within the tray so there was very little clearing up to do (less than painting!)

These Kids Bee Happy sand art kits are a great idea, really original and lots of fun. I loved the sensory element to it, and as an added bonus, when we had finished the picture, Princess used the sand left in the tray to practice drawing letters. We are looking forward to doing the next picture now!

Disclaimer: we were sent a sand art kit free of charge but all views are my own.

Fun in a box

Today I went shopping for a new set of saucepans. Nothing exciting there. Except that the saucepans came in a box. A big box. Also known as the most fun ever!

It started with Grapie locating a crayon under the sofa and practicing her 'drawing' on the box. I thought this showed a lot of initiative for a 14 month old baby!

Then of course Princess saw what was going on and wanted to be part of it, so she joined her in the box. Then they found the cardboard pieces that had protected the saucepans were perfect crowns, so had fun ' crowning' each other.

Then the box ripped and this became the door, then it became a car. Then Princess fetched her fuzzy felt game and sat in it to play, then made it into a bad. All while I made dinner. I wonder what the box will become tomorrow?

Autumn fun at the park

The weather has really turned cold now, and winter is really here, but we were lucky enough to have a lovely autumn day at the park before the cold weather set in. We are fortunate enough to live walking distance to an excellent park and we do go there most days.

 We had a great time stomping in the fallen leaves, then we found a big pile of acorns that had fallen. We played football with them first (or at least attempted to!), then we made them into the letters in Princesses name.

We then played with sticks, drawing in the ground with them, throwing and fetching, hockey and sword fighting.

After that, Princess fancied playing crazy golf, so we hired a golf club for her and had a go. We have never played it properly before and Princess wasn't too keen on playing by the rules but she did have a lot of fun!

All this time, Grapie was asleep in her pram (which is rare for her!) So Princess and I gor to spend some quality time together. Hopefully we will have lots of days if winter fun to look forward to soon.

Playing with Oobleck

Princess loves messy, sensory play, it really calms her and we have been trying to do more of it so today we made Oobleck for the first time. If you have never tried making it before like us, please please do give it a go, its great!

To make oobleck, you will need:
1-2 cups cornflour (also known as cornstarch)
1/2 cup water
Food colouring

Put the cornflour in a bowl and mix in the water, you can either add the food colouring to the water, or put it straight into the oobleck mixture (or a bit of both like we did as Princess kept asking for more pink!) Add more cornflour or water gradually until it feels ready.

You will know it is ready when it is liquid when you sink your hands in slowly but feels solid when you tap it quickly. Here comes the science bit...... Oobleck is known as a non-Newtonian fluids as changes  pressure can change the properties of it. It feels solid when tapped quickly because the pressure forces the cornflour particles together whereas when you put your hand in slowly the particles have time to move out of the way so the oobleck behaves like a liquid.

I gave Princess a pot with a lid to play with and she had a great time scooping up and grabbing the solid oobleck and letting it drip off her hands into her 'cake', then putting on the lid and shaking it.

Next she decided to make some 'tea' which involved grabbing the oobleck and transferring it to the cup. This entertained her for quite a while as she enjoyed feeling the oobleck drip through her fingers. Grapie and I also had a go, Grapie didn't like the feel of it and wanted her hands washed straightaway, but I loved it and actually once Princess had finished playing with it, I kept it for a few hours and couldn't resist poking it every time I passed!

This is what the floor looked like at the end, but it was so easy (and fun!) to clean up. I scooped most of it up an put it back into the bowl, where it 'melted' back into liquid after seeming to have dried up on the floor. The rest cleaned up with a couple of baby wipes. This is definitely something that we will be doing again, it was just so much fun!

Squirty bug alphabet game

This is a game that I made up to play with Princess, to help her with her letter recognition.Ii drew some bugs on the floor with chalk, just  rcles with legs or wings, and write a different letter in the middle of each one.

Then Princess uses a water sprayer to squirt each bug as I call out each letter. Simple but great fun, this is a game that is requested often! Sometimes we use numbers instead of letters, especially the teen numbers that Princess is less good at recognizing. As a variation, sometimes I draw cars instead of bugs, or clouds, but bugs is definitely most popular! And as an added bonus, all thst squirting is strengthening her hands resdy for lesrning to write!

#BEDN

Pumpkin plate craft for Halloween

Princess and I decorated our kiving room today ready for Halloween, so we made some pumpkins to put up on the wall. Even Grapie had a go, and they look great!

You will need: 

Paper plates

Orange paint

Black paper

Glue

First the girls painted the plates orange (it was Grapie's first ever go at painting!)

While the paint was drying, we made the faces. I drew triangles for the eyes and nose and drew some different pumpkin mouths on black paper, and cut them out. Princess drew her own, insisting that her pumpkin mouth needed proper teeth too! Then once the paint was dry we stuck on the faces. Here are our finished 3 pumpkins.

Once we were all decorated, we had a practice Halloween party which mainly consisded of the three of us dancing round to the Ghostbusters song!

What will you be doing for Halloween with your little ones this year?

Recycled Halloween pumpkin craftt

Halloween is nearly here and the girls have been having fun crafting in preparation for the big night. Today we bring you a pumpkin made out of an empty tin.

This was so easy but Princess had so much fun doing it. We washed out an empty tin and Princess painted it with orange paint.

While it was drying, I cut some triangles out of black paper for the eyes and nose and a smily pumpkin mouth and once the paint was dry, Princess stuck them on. All done!

If you were feeling adventurous you could punch some holes in the tin first so that you could put a tealight inside but we didn't bother an the girls are a bit young for that sort of thing.

Fun Halloween Paper Plate Ghost

Halloween is coming, and princess is getting excited!  She was off preschool today because she has a cold so it was the perfect day for some Halloween crafts. This paper plate ghost looks very cool but was so easy to make that Princess did it (almost) all by herself.

You will need:
White paper plate
Black paper
White toilet paper
Glue and scissors

Cut out two circles for eyes and a bigger circle for the mouth out of the black paper. Alternatively you can draw these on with black marker, but glueing is more fun when you're 3! Have your assistant stick these on (making sure they spill the glue in the process, of course!)

Then take two strips of toilet paper, cut them up the middle almost to the top, and have your assistant stick these on too. Underneath the plate would be great but ontop of the plate like we have done us also good. My assistant also insisted that ghosts have teeth so we stuck on a big white tooth, this is optional, depending on your lovely assistant's views on the matter.

Allow to dry, hang up and enjoy!

Alphabet catch and match

We have been playing lots of letter games recently to help Princess with her letter recognition in a fun way, without her even realising she is learning.

We recently bought some kids chopsticks for Princess after she showed an interest in our adult chopsticks, and they were perfect for this game. They are also great for developing strength in hand muscles, which she will need when she learns to write.

I put some rice into a box, along with some alphabet beads, one of each letter. I printed her off an alphabet scavenger hunt list, in lower case as the beads were upper case. The game is to catch a letter bead and match it to the letter on the sheet.

This requires her to match the upper and lower case letters, and also involves a fair amount of fine motor skills as the beads are small and fiddly. Princess enjoyed playing this game, although it didn't hold her attention for the whole alphabet. When she was finished, I put the rice and beads into an empty jam jar for next time.

Mr Potato Head- Felt travel game

We are huge Toy Story fans in our house. We love the films, and we also have lots of the toys. And as much as we love Woody, Buzz and Jessie, the toy that is the most fun to play with has to be Mr Potato head!  So as we are going on holiday in a few weeks, I thought I would have a go at making a game we could bring with us for the plane, and Mr Potato head (and Mrs of course) was the perfect choice.

I started with the potato shapes out of brown felt, and once they were cut out ,I started drawing the features on paper before cutting them out of the felt. The picture above shows the features I started with from copying the actual toys. Then I had some fun by giving them different accessories, moustaches, and expressions.

These are my favourites, I was going for Mr Angry Eyes, like in the film as Princess find this hilarious in the outtakes, but he just looks a bit melancholy. And I love this moustache!

Here is the complete set, I put some bright green felt in for a background, and used a baby wipes container to keep them in (a dvd case would also work well).  It's a lot of fun to play (I quite like having a turn too) and a big hit with Princess! The felt pieces stick to each other really well, and I think it will easily and quietly pass a bit of time on the plane and beyond!

Quick no cook play dough-A lifesaver!

So, we were having a bit of a grumpy day, everyone was tired due to Grapie's nocturnal antics. Everything I suggested was met with a sulky NO, until I suggested play doh. That got a great response.

Until we got it out and discovered it had gone all yucky. Mini tantrum. No problem, we will make some, hooray! Look up recipie and get out ingredients to discover weare missing one. Cream of Tatar. Not sure what it does and have only ever used it in play dough, but it must have sat in the cupboard long enough to get thrown out. Cue another tantrum and an emergency search on Pintrest for an alternative. Luckily Squidoo had one. So this is what we did.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup hot water
food colouring

Mix the salt and the flour in a bowl. Mix the food colouring with the hot water so the colour disperses better.

Put the liquid into the bowl and mix with a spoon.

Once it is all mixed well, take it out and give it a good knead. Ours was a bit sticky at this point, think my measuring of the water was a bit out, but in my defence I did have a second helper, Grapie, who I was wearing in a sling trying to grab everything! Anyway, we just put some extra flour down on the mat and princess kneaded it for me. Apparently this is good for developing her hand muscles in preparation for writing.

That is it, job done. No cooking needed, a couple of minutes to make and I had a happy girl. Well 2 happy girls, Grapie had fallen asleep in the sling so was happy too! 

Growing Avocados

Avocados. Grapie loves them, princess won't try them, and I must be the only adult in the world to hate them. But the big seed inside is pretty cool and this week, princess decided she would like to plant one.

I had a funny feeling that there might be a specific way to do this, and thanks to the magic of pintrest we discovered that I was right. So this is what we did.

I gave the seed a good wash, to get rid of any flesh clinging to it.

We took 4 cocktail sticks and poked one in each side to look like a cross, about halfway down.

Fill a glass with water and put the seed in, flatter side down, to balance on the cocktail sticks.

Put the glass on a windowsill and wait. I would probably recommend having a few activities lined up while you wait as it might take a month to start growing! Top up the water regularly. Apparently the shell will crack open and the roots will grow downwards into the water, then shoots will grow upwards. Once both of these have happened it is time to plant it in earth. Watch this space, we will let you know how our little seed get on.