playing shops

I thought I'd share an easy peasy little activity I'd been saving for a rainy day and we've had lots lately. We've been collecting empty food boxes and pricing them with a sheet of 'prices' I found at the 123 mart. T has been very cute- as soon as a box of something was empty ( like raisins)  he'd tape it up, price it and put it in our 'shop box'. I made coins from cut circles of card for the kids to spend too.

We set up a shelf on the couch and a counter using a little table. This kept both kids amused for ages, I've said it before and I'm saying it again- so much better than t.v.

Since we have close to zero storage space at our house the boxes will go to Kindy when we've finished. I'll keep the coins and in a few weeks time will start collecting food boxes again for next time.

Excuse the bad photos- it must've been sale time as this shop was VERY busy!

T's bird friends

T has always liked birds, seagulls at the beach ( might be because he saw one fly and steal a chip from my hand once), the cockatiel called Sam at Willowbank (maybe because he's heard him say hello and 'wanna cracker' ) and the birds at home that he sees eating from the feeder we put in 'his' tree together.

He likes watching them and is the sort of kid that really pays attention to things that interest him. A few days ago on a long car ride he yelled out that he'd spotted a group of birds making a Y in the sky as they flew- it was cute how excited he was.

A few days ago he reminded me that we hadn't filled our bird feeder for a while. He'd made a pine cone bird feeder at pre school and told me about it when he found a pine cone in Hagley park yesterday. It's pouring with rain today so we thought we'd make one.

We used:

peanut butter

mixed wild bird seed

cornflakes

pine cone

strong string

a spatula

a plate

Tie the string to the top pf the cone. We chose to tie it this way up as I thought the smaller birds could sit on it more easily while they ate.

Spread the peanut butter on with the spatula and push some into the gaps of the pinecone. You don't need to use heaps of peanut butter- we used about 2  tablespoons.

Roll the cone in the bird seed so it sticks to the peanut butter. We pushed some cornflakes into the holes- you don't need these but T thought they might like them and I agreed.

Hang it in a tree and look out the window.  You won't be waiting to see the birds snacking- ours was gone in a day : )

a birthday card from magazine pages

I have lots of old magazines. I find it especially difficult to put my copies of Your Home and Garden in the recycling. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be a good way for the kids to make a birthday card and to use up one of my older mags......I have to let them go sometime or I'll end up in that hoarders tv show lol.

It's a very simple idea but lots of learning and discussion of letters and their sounds went on around it. As I cut each of the letters out we talked about that sound and the letter name as we glued them on, it was gorgeous hearing our big school girl teaching her little brother too.

T's bed do up

T wanted a yellow bed. I knew a test pot of paint wouldn't cover the whole bed head so I decided on stripes. The pics say it all really, mask, paint, let it dry, pull the masking tape off, give it a touch up and you're done. 

The paint colour is Resene Wild Thing- kinda appropriate!

T loves it and I'm really looking forward to seeing it back in his newly repaired and re- painted room.

another goooooorgeous giveaway

Stella of the Golden Adventures of a very dark horse is having another AWESOME giveaway here: http://verydarkhorse.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/a-giveaway-for-mamas.html

Here's the details of the prizes copied from Stella's blog...if you won you could keep them all for yourself, keep some and gift some. I LOVE the fox dress and the lovely cloud  pillow it's pretty exciting thinking that someone who reads this might win : )

 

 

1. Brass Drop Necklace - by Sly Fox (valued at $35 nzd)

2. Organic Cloud Pillow - by Juniper Wilde (valued at $22 usd)

3.  "Whip It Good" Recipe Cards (brand new product!!!) - by iDear (valued at $18 nzd)

4. "Tin Can" Notecard pack (6 cards + env - brand new product!!!) - by iDear (valued at $14 nz)

5. "Just Beat It" Recipe Cards (brand new product!!!) - by iDear (valued at $18 nzd)

6. Fox Print Minky Baby Blanket - by The Buttercup Boutique (valued at $35 usd)

7. A pair of baby shoes - by Miss Molly Coddle (valued at $20-$25 nzd)

8. Fox Brooch - by Poofy Dove (valued at $12 usd)

9. Woman's Tribal Tee - by elephant + bird (valued at $20 usd)

10. Child's Pug Tee - by elephant + bird (valued at $20 usd)

11. Hot Air Balloon Kit - by Craft Schmaft (valued at $65 usd)

12. Fox Dress - by Wild Things Dresses (valued at $60 usd)

So there you are, you now need to go follow Stellas's blog and enter- as M says "easy peasy lemon squeezy".

black ball point pen and watercolours

Blah- it's still raining. Luckily for us both kids love to paint, watercolours don't make much mess and our kitchen table was bought for just this sort of thing.

The teacher in me was very excited to find a big forgotten stash of black and blue ball point pens the other day- perfect timing for starting my new job share position in a few weeks time. I don't know where pens go in work places... kind of like socks in homes!

I like to set the kids up with paints, a cup of water and a cup of brushes. I change the water for them when it gets murky.

Such a simple idea but sometimes it those that are the most satisfying.