Birthday Traditions

Princess turned 4 this week, and this year I was keen to start some birthday traditions that we will continue on the girls birthdays throughout their childhoods. I want their birthdays to be a special day when we celebrate them and not just an influx of toys (especially as Princess's birthday is 3 weeks after Christmas so she has just had an influx of toys!)

These are the things we did this year to make her day special, that we hope to continue each birthday:

• One of her presents is a special outing, just her and mummy and daddy- this year it will be to the cinema and out for pizza, but for each birthday it will be a special treat that is just about the birthday girl

• Cake for breakfast, served on a special birthday plate! - I made some breakfast muffins and decorated them (as 4 year olds are excited enough on their birthdays without being pumped with sugar at 7.30) so she could blow out her candles in the morning too! 

• Gift wrap her lunch! Princess went to preschool on her birthday so to make sure she felt special all day I wrapped her lunch up in birthday wrapping paper! She loved this and was so surprised! (As were her teachers! Not sure what they made of it!)

• Birthday bath- I love this idea from Growing a Jeweled Rose about turning bath time into a little party! Ours involved a banner and balloons and Princess chose a bath bomb to go in it

Do you have any birthday traditions in your family? Or ways to make your child feel extra special on their big day? I would love to hear about them.

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!

Word of the week

The Reading Residence has a fab new linky called Word of the Week and I am linking up this week with my word of the week

Happy

For a few reasons, firstly, Grapie has learned to say happy this week (well, appeeee) and it's so cute! Secondly, as the new year has just started, we seemed to spend all week wishing everyone a happy new year (including an extra excuse to get G to say 'appeeee'!)

Lastly, it seems like a nice positive way to start the year, and hopefully we will continue to be happy throughout the year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New year to you all! This new year, I have decided not to even attempt to stay up until midnight, so the closest I will get to seeing the new year in will be comforting the kids at midnight if the fireworks wake them up! A few years ago this would have been unthinkable, but then sleep deprivation kicked in!

I have made some new years resolutions, which are:

1. Eat mor fruit and less chocolate
2. Shout less
3. Stress less
4. Learn how to do DIY so I can get things done around the house (and not rely on other half to NOT do it!)

Have you made any resolutions this year and do you ever stick to them?

Hope you have a good one xx

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.

Elf Antics

Our elf Jingles has been with us for 2 weeks now and has been mainly good so far this year,  has brought a few gifts, but has still managed to get up to a few cheeky antics!

On her first morning she turned the milk pink (slightly more appealing on my porridge than last year when she turned it green!)

She set up an invitation to play with Christmas cloud dough one morning, which was lots of fun!

She brought Princess a countdown to Christmas advent calendar so that she can practice her bigger numbers

One morning we found Jingles had brought a new Christmas book and was reading it to the other toys

She brought everyone a Christmas jumper and hid in a basket with them for everyone to find

And she had another naughty night when she got out a packet of sweets from the kitchen cupboard and left a trail of wrappers round the house!

She has some fun planned for next week, especially as Princess will be finished in preschool for the holidays in a few days so the build up to Christmas can really begin!

Christmas snow cloud dough

This week we had some cloud dough as an invitation to play (it was actually left by our christmas elf, Jingles). It was peppermint scented and glittery, and it was almost like it had snowed inside by the time it had been sprinkled all over the floor! And the best part was that Grapie could join in and play too!

What you need
7 parts flour
1 part vegetable oil
Peppermint food flavour
Glitter (optional)

Put the flour in a bowl and stir in the oil and a few drops of the peppermint. I found it was best to start off using a spoon to stir then use my fingers to break up any lumps. Then mix in the glitter if using. I took a batch out for Grapie first before adfing glitter so it was safe for her.

I laid it out on a Christmas tray along with some Christmas shaped cookie cutters and some Christmas craft shapes. Princess was amazed when she saw it (especially as Jingles the elf made it herself!) Grapie was very pleased to be allowed to play with it too! We put the tray on the floor and let them get on with it.

Princess scooped the cloud dough out onto the floor, squashed it down and made shapes with the cookie cutters and decorated them first, then she discovered thst the cloud dough can be moulded into shape and made snowballs. That's when things got very messy as she started throwing them in the kitchen!

This was the state of the kitchen when they had finished, which of course Princess insisted on trying to clean up herself!

Grapie did exactly what I thought she would do to start, which was to put it in her mouth! (That's why hers had no glitter!) But she soon got the hang of it and tried making shapes and decorating it just like her sister!

Once we were finished playing, I scooped up most of the cloud dough and put it in a box to play with again, the rest just swept up easily (as soon as I was back in control of the broom!)