pet peeves

Do you have any pet peeves? I probably have more than I'm actually aware of! One that's getting to me lately is the kids taking the cushions and squabs of the couch and playing with them on the floor. I admit that it's probably not an issue for many people in fact I have friends who encourage it- but it bugs me.

There's a bit of dust in our house, roadworks outside, wooden floors and an unsealed/ stoney driveway will cause that. I have asthma so I vacuum every day but I still don't like seeing parts of our couch and my new cushions on the floor. We're also not strictly a 'shoes off inside' house because of the already sad state of our flooring ( this will change when we re carpet during our earthquake repairs...one day....sigh...). 

So, since I'd like to encourage their creativity and also save my nicer cushions this Winter, I've bought them some 'play pillows'. They were $1 each from a local op shop. They now have a big pile of ( washable in Summer but mostly very uuuuugly) cushions they can use to make their huts, little beds, cars and boats with. I hope they like them...

and it seems that they do!

macs and stuff

I love my MacBook Pro, the kids don't use imovie, itunes or iphoto on their own yet but they will one day when I show them how. In the meantime they enjoy 20 minutes here and there on some great kids websites I've found. The school M is going to next year use Macs which I'm pleased about, she'll probably get access to an ipad before I ever do too! I don't know heaps about computers but I feel like Macs are easier for kids and they are a bit more child proof, random clicking just seems to open windows but not actually change anything important. I've been through 4 macs- an earthquake took care of my last one but I try not to be too precious about it, the educational and creative potential for them helps me to share : )

Here are the sites they like:

super why

reading eggs  

count us in

miffy 

wiggle time

duplo lego

bunny dress up doll 

I also bought them Kids Paint for $7 from the Mac App store. It's quite cool, they can draw pictures and them email them.

 

 

rocket man

I decided that our boy needed a jet pack so that he could get places even faster (he he). I based it on this tutorialdoodle craft jet pack  but made some changes because of the bottles and paints we had available and the type of boy using it. The straps took a bit of thinking but I decided on using thin rope. I made small holes at the top and bottom of both bottles. On each side I threaded the rope through, knotted it and pulled it back. Our tanks don't look as finished as the spray painted ones in the tutorial either- they're closer to how they might look after lots of exciting adventures! 

 

Home made dress up costumes are the BEST. I'm looking forward to school dress up days when the kids come to me for help with their costume ideas. Here's some pictures of my very gorgeous nephew in the costume my brother in law made, from scratch, for his royal themed dress up day at school. The word clever just doesn't cut it. He ( they) even won a prize!

 

outside blackboard

I get lots of pleasure from 're-using' anything destined for the rubbish tip. My brother is a builder, he worked at a WMC recently and they were throwing these huge blackboards away. I'm really pleased he thought of us as the kids love ours and it will brighten up our block wall.

I'm loving...

Here are some of the things I'm loving this week: 

Looking at the pics of our photo shoot taken in a local forest last weekend

 Watching the kids have their swimming lesson

 

These are so yummy, I eat half a pack at a time!

Chilly but beautiful Christchurch mornings.

 These funny Winter animal hats that my Dad sent the kids

and

knowing that despite all the rumblings and shaking going on underneath us, my family are together and safe.

mr potato head

T loves mixing and matching the parts of his Mr potato head toy so thought he'd like this activity. We used a pile of old gossip mags, scissors, pva and little paint brushes. We've just finished so it was a nice 'while mum gets tea ready' activity. Both characters had arms added but my camera batteries died before I could get those pics. The kids use scissors quite well but I still had to keep an eye on them,  talk about facial features and help with some trickier cutting - in between fits of giggles that is!

scary lol!