Dress up day for book week

I love helping the kids with dress up costumes. This years school book character day they decided to go as Silky the flying cat and Mr Big nose from the Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Treehouse books. The kids are obsessed with this series, they're fantastic, funny and creative and I can't recommend them enough as a read aloud book. Both have re-read all of the books to themselves since too- it's a great feeling hearing your kids laughing to themselves while reading.

The 65 storey tree house is due out in August- we can't wait!

You can find out more about the author and illustrator here

a stick and wool mobile

It rained when we visited my mum in Wellington recently. I knew T would enjoy this craft as it involved wrapping sticks with lots of different coloured wool- it really is as simple as that. Once they're all done, tie them together, hang a rock or other type of weight on the end and find somewhere to hang it. We've hung ours at the front door. I like how it spins in the breeze and adds a bit of colour. Things are looking a bit dreary in the front garden right now- Winter is coming.

You can see on our mobile that it's unraveling a bit- we probably should've glued the wool ends down when we made it ( we just knotted it instead). I will fix it one day.

leaf fairies

M's idea- similar to the animal idea we tried, have a look here at how we've used leaves before today. Today it was fairies and elves. I though some water colour paints would be good to use too.

Rainbow writing

M found this idea in an old school journal.

1. Draw thick lines of oil pastels on a page
2. Turn that page over onto another blank piece of paper
3. Write on the back
4. Rainbow writing!

milk bottle butterflies

I came across these recently and knew ours would enjoy making them. They're drawn on the sides of milk bottles with vivids. We used magnets on the back but thought eh mobile idea on the link was a good one.

Here's the link : http://alphamom.com/family-fun/crafts/milk-jug-decorative-window-crafts/

cardboard kitten toys

I like these

http://www.moderncat.net/2011/10/19/cardboard-critters-for-kitty-by-paper-matthew/

I wanted to buy some, but as the link to buy them didn't work- I tired making some myself. They're not as easy as you might think! I cut a range of circles to size, threaded them on a ribbon, knotted the ribbon at the nose and tail ends and drew a face