Cardboard Robot

Eden recently received a late birthday present from our  lovely friends round the corner, of a Makedo robot making kit. Basically it has all the connectors and hinges as well as a cardboard saw, hole puncher and stickers to transform junk into a wonderful creation!

It works like a cross between a cable ties and a  nut and bolt, but plastic and easy for little fingers to put together and remove with only a little help. 

It was all Eden’s design and he knew what he wanted to do. I helped suggesting how the hinges would work for the arms, and where best to put the holes, but he loved fixing it all together and being a proper workman! 

He was very proud of his creation! It was been up a week now and taken a fair bit of bashing around, being hit behind, being a dance partner and lots more and the fixings have stood up really well. Best think is we can re use all the bits to make something else soon!

Juice Carton Boat!

Head over to http://jovialspondoodles.com/juice-carton-boat/ to see Eden's Pirate ship!

A Day in London

Joplin really wanted to go to London this half term so today was his treat. The plan was to go to the Natural History museum to see the dinosaurs, but the queue was around the building and an estimated 2 hour wait so we got back on the tube again! Strangely enough we bumped into old friends from Clacton on the platform!

With a change of plan we headed to Covent Garden where we had a really lovely meal and catch up with Joplin's Godfather and my gorgeous friend Richie Rich! He treated us to a great meal in Cafe Rouge and it was so nice to see him!

Cotswold Wildlife Park

Eden's big request this half term was to see monkeys! So off we went yesterday to the Cotswold Wildlife Park!
One of the first things we saw when we arrived was the penguins! I think actually these were the biggest hit of the day as we had to see them 3 times in the end! It was great they were so close - the boys loved them and Eden had a good old chat with them!

Valentine's dinner Japanese style!

It was a bit of a Japanese theme this Valentines day! Dan said he would cook so that was fab!
He started by making Japanese Gyoza (Chinese Style Dumplings) from the recipe book our lovely friend Chiyoko bought us when we were in Japan a few years ago.
A mix of pork and shrimp in pastry skins fried then dunked in a dipping sauce. Gorgeous! Dan tweaked the recipe slightly for a prawn only variation which I am hoping he will post!

 Dan then made seared tuna with a wasabi mayonnaise with samphire and lettuce.

 He also bought a bottle of Sake which went down a treat!
My contribution was the bouquet of a dozen strawberry roses in a jar of chocolate buttons (soil!) The instructions 'Melt Me' were attached and the boys joined us for some messy chocolate strawberry dipping fun! Most scrumptious! Eden helped me make them (see post here ).

Eden couldn't help licking out the jar at the end!!

A lovely treat for Valentines with my favourite boys!

Maybe a little OCD!?

I love the way Eden pays such attention to detail and likes things 'just so'!
Here he is eating an orange in his usual way yesterday - lining up the pieces first!

And here is playdough after he had finished playing - each playdough spot to fit the dot on the tablecloth!!

New Look!

I hope you like the new blog look! I thought it was due a makeover!

old look....

 new look....

New web address!!

Jovial Spondoodles is now dot com!!!

I am slowing moving a lot of the posts over to www.jovialspondoodles.com. I will still be posting regularly here for family related posts, but a lot of the tutorials etc will be on the dot com address. Do take a look and let me know what you think! It will be a slow process transferring a lot of the old stuff but hopefully worth it!

Egg box and toothpicks!

I needed a quick activity to keep Eden occupied whilst I cleared out the kitchen cupboard. I found a bog egg tray and a load of cup-cake novelty toothpicks and he had a fabulous half hour totally immersed in popping a pick in each turret. When he was finished I was treated to a lovely rendition of 'Happy Birthday' with his completed 'cake'!