kids market day

We had a garage sale earlier this month and M had asked if she could set up her own table to sell some of her things. She made a little money box to collect her takings in and had a great time, both kids stayed with me chatting to our 'customers' from 8.30 until it finished at 2.

I knew she'd love being involved with the market at school so with her permission I signed her ( us) up to run a stall in the kid's market section.

Here's some pictures of the 'treat for the birds' kits we've made up to sell. You can see in the picture what they have in them ( the little pottle will have peanut butter in it).

It's everything you need to make a hanging pine cone bird feeder. M has helped me all the way, collecting pine cones, shopping for pottles and bags, writing and photocopying the instructions. She also helped me bag up the seeds and put all of the kits together.

After the market I'll post some pics of our stall : )

my new light shades

I was sitting on the loo at school a few weeks ago and I looked up.  I know, a little too much information but I'm going somewhere with this! Anyway, I noticed that the girl's toilets at my school had very cool industrial type lightshades- and the boy's loo did too. Our school is being demolished this year to make way for a fancy new one in 2014. Well, after asking our Principal for them (and having him admit was one of the strangest requests he's had) I replaced the lightshades with plastic ones and bought these babies home.

I thought they were beige, turns out they were a lovely brushed silver covered in 20 years of dust. I love them : )

Joining in with Max, it's not op shopping but I'm showing off anyway!

Family time

We went to Auckland last weekend. It's been years since I was there. I loved it, especially the warmth : ) We went for my husband's Nana's 90th birthday party. We stayed with our extended family at a place with a pool and spa ( fun!) went to the zoo ( awesome) and the museum ( beautiful). The best thing about our holiday however was being together but not in the breakfast- dressed-Oscar- pre school- work- Oscar- preschool- dinner- shower- stories- bed, everyday cycle. T cried when we had to leave. I would've too if I didn't have to be a grown up!

crochet

I'm trying to teach myself how to crochet, I've been watching these You tube videos over and over. I'll get there but I'm pretty bad at it at this stage.

Mum has said she'll teach me when she's here in November. I really want to make a big continuous granny square rug for snuggling under. My goal is to have one made by next Winter.

Like this but blues and greys

this girl I love

Daylight savings has always been a bit tricky for M, even with very thick curtains in her bedroom. She's ready for bed at 6.30, but like her dad she likes it dark when she's trying to get to sleep. Even the bedside light coming from T's room across the hall bothers her. She would call out to us asking when T was going to be finished reading books so that she could get to sleep. We found a solution recently when she discovered these in our garage sale pile.

She's worn them every night since, with firm instructions that later at night dad sneak in to her room, take them off her and hang them on her bed head.

She calls them "eye sleepers".

hehehhehhe

I love her so much.

this boy I love

Walking home from M's school drop off the last week of term T stopped to pick a dandelion seed head. He blows on them to make wishes- doesn't everyone?

When he'd finished puffing away at it he saw that there were seeds still attached.

I watched him carefully put it back down on the grass.

Me " Why did you do that Thomas?"

T " There's some left, if I leave it here someone else can find it and blow their wishes"

aaaaawwwwwwww

I love him so much.

Mobilo

Every school holidays families are encouraged to take something home from Kindy to clean. These holidays we were lucky enough to get the box of Mobilo. This stuff is fun! There's different sized wheels that easily click together to make all kinds of transport .... and beyond.

It's pretty expensive but if you're ever in a position to suggest purchases for a school or kindy I would recommend this. It would make a special present for little kids really keen on construction too.

Mobilo Starter Pack Bucket

Here's what we made

bunk beds : )

a tree house

the tooth fairy

The tooth fairy is going to visit us for the first time soon. M is busy eating gingernut biscuits and crunching on apples trying to get her wiggly ones to come out. I sent her to a friend's for a play recently with a wee purse in case it came out while she was there!

It has me thinking about what our tooth fairy traditions will be. We already have special little containers to leave teeth in. T's little elephant tin was my nana's and M's cute ceramic one belonged to a dear friend of my mums. 

 

I like the idea of a new toothbrush from time to time and a note from the tooth fairy but I'd like to hear what other people do. I know it's traditional but I don't really want to leave them money,  I'd prefer to spark their imaginations and have a bit of fun with it.. 

I'm feeling like I want to keep their first lost tooth- is that kind of gross??

What are your tooth fairy traditions?

I like this tiny letter idea

and this idea, I could probably do something similar on picmonkey...

ice block stick puppets

This is a great way to use fabric offcuts. I stuck two white round stickers on the top of the ice cream stick for the kids to draw faces. We ended up with a king, a queen, a snowman and a very special little puppet stage. 

Dad is in for a treat tonight when they put on their show for him x

she looks surprised!