Balloon bracelet

I have accumulated a lot of balloon scraps from my balloon modelling with Come To My Party over the last few weeks so I thought I'd make myself a little bracelet with the ends!
So here it is! Just elastic and balloon ends!

Cooking!

I had Eden to myself yesterday morning so we thought we'd do a little baking! We washed hands and got into aprons - Eden loved putting on his apron and thought he really looked the part!

 The butter was straight from the fridge so I thought it was a good chance to let Eden do some chopping to soften it up a bit - he loves a chance to chop!

After putting it in a bowl it was time to cream together the butter and sugar - we tried with the spoon but the butter was still a little stiff....

 .... so I let him get his hands in and give it a good old squish!

A bit more stirring and then after Eden had put in the cases he spooned in the mixture. 

 The best bit was licking out the bowl of course though!

 They were yummy when cooked too! Well done Eden!

Drawings

Joplin's has really taken an interest in drawing again and he has lots of inspiration for new things to draw which is great. He said he was going to draw our house and I expected a box with a door, window and roof - perhaps a tree. Instead he presented me with this......

...a full floor plan of our house! I love the way his mind works!

He also drew his family - Mummy emptying the dishwasher, him and Eden watching television and Daddy calling us all on the phone from work!!

 And today he drew the train station! It was continued on 2 more sheets up to platform 14 and then asked for more paper! He does like to continue a theme!

Finally here is what he came up with when I was teaching and gave him a pen and paper to amuse himself the other week.... numbers 1 - 100 (he got a bit confused after that and went into 1001 instead of 101!)

The cousins come to stay, and a day at the farm park.

We've just had a lovely couple of days with my sister and her girls staying. The cousins all had a blast today at Hatton Farm Park despite the cold!

They loved seeing the newborn lambs

 and Eden and Heidi had a fun play on the sand pit diggers!

 Last job of the day - watching Lottie milk the cow!

Banana and Peanut butter 'Sushi'

I found these child friendly chopsticks and couldn't wait to try them out! We made peanut butter and banana 'sushi' for tea. We rolled out a piece of bread, spread it with peanut butter then laid on top a whole banana. We then rolled it up and cut it sushi style! The boys loved something new for their tea and it was a great spin on a normal peanut butter sandwich! Great motor skills practice too! The chopsticks are really user friendly - the sticks slot easily into the rubber hello kitty and move really well. I had fun using them too!

Drums and maths - number sequences

I posted a couple of weeks ago about Dan and Joplin's drums and twos game and Dan took it further today with 10s, 5s and then 4s.
Basically you take it in turns to go up the number sequence - 5, 10, 15 etc banging the drum each time you give an answer. They got as far as 200 for 2s, 4s, 5s and 10s ! Joplin had to count on his fingers for the 4s but he took his time and then his face just lit up as he reached the answer and banged the drum! The physical aspect really emphases the answer and I really think it is helping Joplin's mathematical thinking. He loves it anyway and Dan is great at gently helping if needed and knowing when to wait for Joplin to work it out for himself.

Valentine's Starter

This was the starter Dan made for our Valentines dinner this evening! The soup was pea and watercress and so delicious! The asparagus went so well too. He has promised to give me the recipe to post so watch this space!

My blog in a magazine!

I am so excited to be featured on page 14 of Cloth Magazine this issue with my smashed plate earrings! The earrings are also featured on their blog page here.

Cloth arrived on my doorstep today and looks like a great magazine with lots of inspiration for projects!

My full tutorial the feature refers to is on my blog here

It was a double day to be in print actually with the local Banbury Guardian posting a photo of me with my balloon modelling at the charity event at the weekend! Here it is on page 13. 

Foam paint bath

Lots of fun at bath time tonight with a foam painting bath! I spied a 24p shaving foam at Tesco today and had to buy a couple of cans. We have played with bath foam a lot in our baths and I have usually avoided shaving foam due to the smell, but at 24p I had to give it a go and actually the smell was very mild.
I colour coded the containers as to what colour they would be and then filled the cups with foam. I then added a few drops of colouring to each cup ......

....then gave them a stir!

Here they are all ready for the bath!

 Joplin made a face with his first attempt

 Eden favoured the larger art!

 They definitely had lots of fun and the foam paint worked really well with paintbrushes - the brushes brought a new dynamic to painting in the bath as previously they had just used their hands.

 Joplin ended by exploring mixing of the colours in his hands and seeing what new colours he could come up with.

Bowling

Our local bowling club does a great school holiday deal where the kids play for just £1! We tried it out today with some friends and they had a great time!

Eden loved feeling strong and lifting the balls! The biggest excitement though was when the balls came back up through the ball return system! He rushed to it as soon as the ball had left his hands to wait for it to come back - wasn't interested at all in watching it hit the skittles! Joplin was very excited when he got a spare and all the skittles were knocked down! And I was very pleased with a strike on my first bowl (my only! - beginners luck I'm afraid!)