Toddler activity – Day 6: Spray painting

It’s been raining here for what feels like months, so when we woke up this morning and the sun was shining I knew it was going to be a fun day!

I have to admit that I’m a little nervous of hauling out the paints – it always seems to end up with more paint on both my monkey and I, than on the paper, and of course today was no exception!

Anyway, I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and have been wanting to give it a try – today was the day. Easy peasy to do, I just used some paint we normally use (Dala wet paint), chucked some in the spray bottle that I got from our local plastic shop, added water and let the fun begin. It took a few minutes for my monkey to get the spraying part right, but she soon had it and just loved spraying the paint on the paper (and later on the flowers, drive way, cat and wall!!!!!, and the morning ended with her chasing me around the garden.)

I know it’s probably not the most responsible parenting, and  at the time kind of felt I should be telling her off and not letting her chase me trying to cover me in paint, but we were both laughing so much that I let her get away with it! I’m hoping they don’t try this activity at school next year and I have to explain to the teacher why she’s spraying the kids and not the paper 🙂 Just for the record I did draw the line when she decided to add some colour to the wall and to our cat!

 

Public announcement from our cat to yours: Stay clear when toddler is armed with spray paint

 

Running after mom, armed and dangerous!

 

 

Have a fun filled weekend with hopefully heaps of special moments with your kiddies x

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Recording baby’s first year (and my very first give away!)

My little guy is 12 weeks old today. 12 WEEKS, seriously, where has the time gone. I actually don’t want to think about it too much because it makes me a little sad that my tiny newborn is getting big, sometimes I wish I could just freeze time and keep him this little forever. (And then I remember what it’s like to kind of sleep through the night and I get happy again that time does move forward!).

Which brings me to today’s post… different ways to record your baby’s first year. I’ve only woken up now to do this, and I could kick myself that I’ve already lost 12 weeks. Anyway, I’ve set reminders on my phone for the 21st of every month going forward and I WILL capture a photo monthly.

Here are some cute ideas I found…

Love this photoshop tutorial from Young House Love

I also like the idea of placing baby in the same spot throughout the year to see how they are growing in comparison. Love this from Cheap Chic Nursery.

And this idea from Under the Sycamore

And so…. last but not least… I love the idea so much (even if I’m a little behind in my months), I decided to pull some creative director rank in my home and together with my darling graphic designer husband we came up with the following two designs of monthly (vinyl) stickers that you can use to capture those months that go by oh so quick.

Each sticker is 10cm in diameter and can be used a number of times to ensure you get the perfect photo each month. Stick them on their onesies, t-shirts, nappy bums etc, snap away with your camera and in a years time you’ll have some great photo evidence of how your little people have grown throughout the year. A great alternative to the standard gifts of bum cream and bath products at a baby shower  🙂

I’m selling them for R120 for a pack of 12, inclusive of postage. I am going to give a set away – all you need to do is ‘like’ my very very new Facebook page for the stickers. Any tweets will give you additional entries, and we’ll do the draw on Tuesday 13 Nov…

Pop over here if you are interested in buying some

Frozen Yoghurt Dots

Super keen to give this idea a try and thought I’d share it with you. Check out the original post over at the ‘Small Fry Blog‘ for the original post and the ‘recipe’. Enjoy, I’m sure my little monkey is going to!

Day 4 and Day 5 of Toddler Activities: Love Bubbles and Salt Rainbow art

We’ve had such fun with these two activities, thought I’d share them in one post though as I’m not getting to my computer too much at the moment.

Day 4 we did some rainbow salt drawing

that I first saw over at Learning 4 Kids. Mom had fun sticking the coloured paper together and drawing in the salt before handing it over to my monkey for some fun. I used a big paint brush for Layla to draw with and she’s loving it, and such an easy activity! (the trick I think is not to use too much salt otherwise the lines don’t appear so well..)

And next up was growing ‘love bubbles’ which turned into great sensory play for my little monkey. I’m not sure what the official name for ‘love bubbles’ are, but basically you get them from a florist and they are used to decorate vases that you put flowers in. They start off as tiny little balls and after they’ve been in water for an afternoon or so, they grow to be the size of marbles, but are soft, squishy and a little slimey, but so devine to put your hands through, trust me… and my toddler who has carried her bowl of love bubbles around with her for a few days now…

This is what the ‘Love Bubbles’ look like when you buy them… these are red ones obviously and not the clear ones we used below!

 

And this is what they look like once you’ve put them in water and they’ve grown

 

 

And this is what a happy little girl looks like playing with them 🙂

 

 

Have fun xx

Rainbow Carnations

Hands up who remembers doing this experiment back in junior school. I remember it clearly, and it was no where near as awesome as this with all the colours. (I remember the teacher using blue ink that came from the school supply room!)

 

 

And just cause I can… some more rainbow flower prettyness…

(Image Source: Tumblr)

Image Source: Flikr

 

 

A is for Awesome, B is for Bold and C is for Colour

Our little monkey goes to school in January and on one hand I’m so excited and on the other, I know I’ll be a complete wreck when the time comes… It’s going to be an exciting next step in our parenting adventure, made easier also by the lovely school that she’s going to. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about it next year though… but for now I’m wondering what they’ll think I’m one of ‘those’ parents if I send the following pictures through as some suggestions of what they could do at the school. 🙂

Imagine sending your kids to this school, and if this is what the school looks like, can you just imagine the actual learning that goes on inside. Pretty awesome I think…

 

And if you can’t make it happen at a school near you, then why not use some colour to bring a little bit of ‘all year sunshine’ around to a courtyard near you.

 

(Image from Apartment Therapy)

 

Day 3: Ice Ice Baby

Well I certainly don’t win any prizes for being the most consistent here do I, having not posted my day 3 of activies in about two weeks. Family visits, sick babies, reflux, and me generally trying to get this ‘being a mom to two kids’ right, are a few of my excuses…

Monday morning brings a whole new week and a whole new start. The sun was shining beautifully earlier today and we spent most of the morning out in the garden together. The activity for today was my monkey playing with ice, which she loved.

Basically I got some little plastic animals and froze them in ice cubes a few days ago. I added some food colouring in to the water before they froze and today we enjoyed seeing the animals appear as the ice melted. Which kid doesn’t love playing with water on a hot, spring day.

 

 

Enjoy your special time with your little ones today 🙂