March 20, 2012 by Lauren
With Easter fast approaching the shops have been filling up with chocolate eggs, gifts and craft ideas all adorned with cute little chicks and bunnies. The Boys have been doing Easter crafts and Easter themed baking at their Stay and Play group for the past few weeks and are loving it so we were thrilled when Poundworld sent us a huge box of Easter goodies.
Category Reviews | Tags: activities,chicks,chocolate,craft,easter,easter egg hunt,goodies,poundworld | No Comments
October 13, 2011 by Lauren
Last week I wrote “The Craft That Took A Week” about my papier mache hot air balloon that turned into a labour of love. I have lots of unfinished projects in our house that my husband huffs and puffs about. He usually doesn’t say anything until I get a brilliant idea to start something new and then I get a little reminder that I don’t ever finish things that I start.
Well a year ago I was pregnant with Spike and we had finally settled on his name. Lots of my friends were making patchwork quilts and little blankets for their babies and I wanted to join in the trend. I hunted high and low for the perfect fabric and scraped together some money because it couldn’t possibly wait until the next pay day for me to start it. I drew out tons of ideas and finally settled on the perfect one.
My material all arrived and I was raring to go.
Category General | Tags: applique,craft,fleece blanket,Hands Full,making a baby blanket,sewing | 6 Comments
October 2, 2011 by Lauren
Last Monday I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. Spud and I were going to make a Papier Mache hot air balloon to hang in the playroom. He loves hot air balloons and one of my earliest school memories is doing that exact activity.
Category General | Tags: craft,Hands Full,hot air balloon,messy play,papier mache,toddler | 6 Comments
June 30, 2011 by Lauren
Today Spud took his reward chart off the wall and we drove up to Asda to exchange it for something exciting!
We decided that he probably needed to physically hand it over so that we didn’t have tears when we started a new chart and he saw that his stickers had all gone! With a little gentle persuasion from me he chose a Playdoh set.
I am amazed at how much he understands from things that I tell him. I told him what our plan was right from the word go and he clutched his chart and his Playdoh in his hands whilst we got on with the rest of the shopping. When we got to the checkout and the lady asked me for the money he handed over his chart with such an innocent and hopeful look on his face! She played along with us and handed him his Playdoh to which she got the biggest thank you that I have ever heard from him!
I sneakily put the reward chart in my bag so that I could put it in his memories box when we got home and we left with one very happy little boy!
When we got home I told him to tell Daddy why he had been given a treat (not really expecting him to properly understand) and he said proudly “for my dinner nits!” (he uses the word nits instead of stickers and nuts instead of stuck!)
He never ever fails to amaze me.
The Playdoh went down very well. After his nap we got it out and he played with it for over an hour and then ran straight to it after dinner. It also resulted in a truly epic tantrum when it came time to put it away!
He was also very excited to make a new reward chart, so excited that I now have pink felt tip all up my dining room wall!
Category General | Tags: asda,craft,dinner,play doh,reward,reward chart,stickers | 4 Comments
June 27, 2011 by Lauren
I am a woman of impulse. I don’t do much forward planning and if I get something in my head it has to be done right now. As previously mentioned we go to a Craft group rather than do it at home but today whilst Spud was helping me to check my emails I thought it would be fun to draw around his hand. He totally surprised me by holding still so of course I had to take it one step further!
Only 15 minutes before our dinner was going to be served I decided to draw around my two year old son!
He was a little unsure about when I was doing and kept pulling faces but went along with it anyway (much like his Father does when I get something into my head!)
It was a bit of a rush job but we now have a 93cm outline to decorate tomorrow!
Spud decided that it would be a brilliant idea to have a life-sized picture of Spike, I was happy to oblige because it melts my heart when he wants to include his baby brother in things.
Unfortunately now that Spike can roll and because he was very interested in the pencil, it wasn’t a successful task but Spud found it funny none the less.
And of course all baby brothers get annoying after a while so Spud decided that Spike wasn’t allowed to play anymore, much to Spike’s disgust.
Category General | Tags: baby,brothers,craft,impulse,siblings | 1 Comment
June 7, 2011 by Lauren
Today the boys and I went to a group called “Stay and Play.” It’s at the community centre when Spud goes to creche and is basically a craft session where they children require supervision. I love going to this group because there isn’t the usual clichéy group of mothers sat in a corner that look down on you when you walk in and then proceed to ignore you for the agonising 90 minutes that the group lasts. That delightful group of women do go to this group but because it’s so interactive it’s easy to just get on with things and have fun with the children. That aspect also makes it a lot easier to start conversations with mothers near by as when they aren’t all huddled together they are pretty decent people!
Spike slept in his new pram for most of the group, I instantly regretted taking it with me! Why did I take a brand new, shiny, clean pram to a CRAFT group? It was swarmed by sticky, chalky, glitter covered hands all trying to “stroke baby” which in layman’s terms means they were trying to steal his Sophie le Giraffe!
Spud had a ball! We don’t do craft activities at home very often because by the time I’ve set things up he’s gone off the idea and I’m stood there all aproned up ready to get my paint on whilst he’s shouting “NO mummy – gardey/choochoo/car/insert here anything else that may have grabbed his attention!”
As Fathers day is coming up we started by making a card using sticky foam shapes and glitter. We were then given a huge chocolate shaped man to decorate with icing which Spud thought was ridiculous. He wanted to eat it not decorate it! Next came cut out fish shapes, pva glue and coloured sand, some chalk drawings and then what can only be described as a shaving foam fight. This group costs me £2 a time which is fantastic! The amount of materials that we use and the amount of snack that they get given at the end, far exceeds any total that could have been made from the 7 or so mums that go. An added bonus, which is a VERY good one, is that I don’t have to clean up the mess or worry about my carpets/walls/furniture!
Spike is finding new ways of moving every day. He has now learnt that he can spin on his tummy to change his direction and has been trying desperately to push himself forwards with his legs to reach things. I really don’t think he is going to be long at all! Where is my tiny baby going?!
Category General | Tags: baby,cliché,craft,mothers,paint,pram,sticky | No Comments
