Snowball fight in Summer

Last weekend Jennifer held her second Frosty Festivities Event on her blog. I love her events as not only are full of inspiration & tutorial but its also all for free!

I made the above layout using several posts for inspiration.
I initially decided to use Elf as my movie inspiration (mentioned in THIS post), and wanted to use it with my summer snowball photos. Jennifer suggested starting with a title (post HERE) so I googled for some buddy the elf snowball quotes & came up with the one I used.

Though I could fit photos on a single layout I went with a double having read THIS post, and began looking for both christmassy & summery papers & embellishments. Having found some christmas wood patterned paper covered in dots which reminded me of snowballs, I cut it into strips (from THIS post) this gave it a look of planks of a fence or a sledge.

The title didnt really make sense without buddy though so I found an image of him & printed it out fairly large (20cms tall) finding inspiration from THIS & THIS post.

The page needed a bit more texture so I added half pearls, buttons & wrapped bakers twine around a photo (inspiration from HERE). I had some old wooden butterflies that I wanted to use but the colour of the wood clashed with the wooden paper panels so I took on THIS suggestion & painted them white.

I finished off by adding the PL cards, & journalling before sticking everything down

Summer Holiday Activities

Honestly it is!!! Or at least its the start of the Summer Holidays.Yet again I've been compiling a list of activities for the kids to do when they're bored. Every weekend I'll give you a breakdown of what I've been upto with them over the previous week. Some weeks will be busier than others as I believe some of the time kids need to do their own thing & think up their own activities, to strengthen their independence and imagination (and lets face it, to give me a break ;)

Kai is 5 and Zack is 13 so there will be some activities they'll do together, some with Zack helping Kai to do, and other times they'll have different activities to suit their age and personalities. We'll also have the odd day out.

To get you started HERE's my list from last year, HERE's my pinterest kids activities board and HERE is any other post involving summer & my kiddies winkles.

A few of you have joined in & know the routine but for those of you who havent ... If you have any blog posts on kids activities, or pinterest board, or just know of any, I would really love it if you could link them up in the comments so that together we can keep our children amused this summer holiday.

How to make Foam Frames.

I spotted a frame making kit at a reduced price & bought it with the thought "I'm sure we can make our own as well". I picked up a pack of foam from poundland as well as some foam shapes. On a day when Kai was getting upset because the big boys were playing big boy games that he couldnt join in I got them out.

Kai started off using the kit, decorating its frame while I cut out frame shaped pieces of foam - I kept to the basic rectangle hole inside a larger rectangle but I'm sure with a bit of time & patience you could cut some really intricate designs out.

While Kai decorated these frames I cut scrap card out, slightly small than the frame and stuck foam sticky pads along the edge, leaving a slight border and a gap at one end.

When Kai was done I stuck this onto the back of the foam

These pads leave a nice gap so a photo or picture can slide nicely in & be changed for another when you want



(Sorry for the blurry picture, my camera refused to focus in on the foam)

Finally I used tape to attach string to the back of the foam so the picture could be hung up

Dyed Rice Pictures

Dying rice is EASY & I can think of a few ideas for it, one of the main ones being to make pictures with.

So, How to Dye Rice...
You will need:-
Rice (well dur!)
Liquid Food Colouring
Sealable food bags
Hand sanitiser (the no water needed, contains alcohol sort)
a tray lined with baking paper.

Put Rice in the food bag, add a squirt of hand sanitiser and a couple of drops of food colouring. Shake it up & squidge it round until all the rice is covered. If the colour isnt deep enough add a bit more food colouring, shake & squidge again. Repeat until you get the colour you want.
Tip out onto the baking paper, spread it out a bit and leave to dry.
When dry run the rice through your fingers just to seperate it all.

I printed out some colouring-in pictures onto card and let the kids loose on them with glue and the rice.

It kept them busy for hours. Kai's were simple pictures with large areas of colour whereas Zacks were a bit more detailed & complex which meant a bit more control and using single grains of rice in places.

Kids stress heads

Take a balloon, stretch it & fill it with play dough (you can find the recipe I use HERE). I find the easiest way to do this is to cut the spout off a cordial / fizzy pop bottle & stretch the end of the balloon over it, this holds it open nicely for you to poke the play dough through.
When its the size you want tie the end (without the cordial spout in) & hand to the kids to decorate.
Decorating can be done with marker pens, or items glued on. REMEMBER, gluing items on can impede the ability to squish the "stress head", or they might just fall off.

Heres what Zack & Kai came up with (Zacks is on the left, Kai's "Daddy alien, because it has a beard & Moustache" is on the right)

A Week to the end of the Summer Holidays

Yes, only a week to go in this house, & my mind is already on the other side, the side that is planning what to do with 6hours kiddie free, even turning towards Christmas ideas :-O But thats a whole other blo post.

So, as I've had a lil break from blogging, how about I spend this week recapping on a few of theactivities I've been doing with the kiddies .... well, more like mainly with Kai as Zacks amused himself a lot of the time by going bowling, playing with friends etc etc

Lets start simple...

We did good ol' painting .... I find a good use for the abundance of charity bags we end up with is to put them over the backs of the chairs - that way, when Kai climbs down to go wash his hands, he doesnt get hand prints on the wood.

Gluing with sequins & confetti .... last year Kai decorated a mini wooden bird house with felt tips & stickers at our local shopping centre; This year he painted it & when dry added sequins & confetti.

I found some kits in Wilkinsons which were paintable plywood jigsaws, they were only £1!!!! bargain I thought. I chose a dinosaur one (Kai is crazy on dinosaurs) thinking Kai could paint the jigsaw pieces & Zack could paint the base. As it happened Zack was busy else where so Kai happily did both.
I'm sure if you are fairly adapt at using a hack saw or a jig saw you could easily make your own.

Summer Holidays Week 1 & 2

The first couple of weeks into the summer hols are usually fairly quiet. Its spent rediscovering toys at the back of draws, at the bottom of tubs and reclaimed from the shed. This way Zack (12) and Kai (4) can normally keep themselves entertained. Of course for something a bit different I'll make a suggestion or grab something from my holiday stock pile to help them out. So what have we been upto?

The first few days of the holiday were spent visiting the grandparents. While at my moms I was helping sort some of our old toys out and decided to take my old My Little Ponies home to alter. They havent reached that point yet as Kai has taken a liking to them.

Kai gave them a bath...

...& drew them....

Before playing with them. So with finding my old toys out we have had 3 activities, washing them, drawing them & playing with them.

I told Zack I wanted him cooking a lunch, tea, & snack/dessert once a week (I think its very important for children to learn how to cook) so a couple of hours were spent scouring through my cook books & typed up recipes looking for ideas.

He has so far made Wesh Rarebit, prawn toast and both children have helped add topping onto a pizza.

One of the favourite "toys" of the fortnight has been playdough. I shall be posting a link to the recipe late today but it truely is fab stuff ... just like the bought stuff. Both children have played with it and a range of cookie cutters, rolling pins and other items to make imprints. Everything I needed to make it was already in the kitchen, and it took a mere 10minutes to make 4 balls, red, blue, green and yellow.

Homemade skittles! I saw this idea on pinterest so started saving up bottles. Due to having a smallish garden I opted for the smaller drinks bottles, peeled the labels off and swilled them out. When we had 12 I filled them all with water, then add red food colouring to 6, & green to the other 6.

I gave Kai a football and set him up with a set.

Over the other side of the garden I gave Zack a tennis ball to make it harder for him. He opted for a throwing motion to knock them down. They have tried this with them altogether and in placing them in different patterns.

My SIL kindly took us upto Carding Mill valley, I recommend taking the kids upto a stream on a warm day for a picnic (you can read more about it HERE)

A lot of shops are selling off their summer stock already at reduced prices. I bought this sandpit for £7.50p (was £15), and a few toys to go in it for £2.20p - I have since seen it sold with toys for £20 :-O
Kai bought himself a simple plastic golf set in a caddy for £2.50p

The sandpit took less than 1 bag of sand, and being spilt in 2 means there are less "he's got my bit of sand" arguements.

I know a lot of people out there arent keen on kids spending time on video games but I think as long as the amount of time they are on them is controlled then they can have a positive effect - obviously games should be age appropriate. It can help with their hand to eye skills, working out strategys, & working as a team.

My two had fun playing on Mario Karts, a firm favourite in this house.

I had previously thought there werent any cheap, local clubs this year for Zack to attend that would appeal to him, they were either sports he didnt enjoy or too young for him .... until my brother invited him to join his son at a Karate club near my Moms. So twice a week Zack is going to Karate. I've read him the riot act that if he uses it against ANYONE except in class then its over, but I think he's mature enough to use it wisely.

Check back later when I will be picking a few items on my long holiday list to explain a bit more &/or leave links to recipes.

How has your summer holiday been going? Been upto anything fun? Leave me a comment telling me all about it, or if you've blogged about it leave a link, I'd love to hear from you.

A fun yet cheap day out at Carding Mill Valley

Altogether my SIL & I have 6 children ranging from age 3 to 12, on average 2 years between each, so during the summer holidays we try & find the odd day out for them that will cater for all age ranges, & wont cost us an absolute bomb.

Last tuesday, when the weather was a tad mixed but still warm we decided to grab a quick picnic & take the kiddie winkles to Carding Mill Valley, which is part of the national trust. We quickly discussed what we'd each got in that could be shared on the picnic & got ready.

It cost £2.00 to park for 2 hours & £4.20 for all day. We parked up by the top car park, along side the stream that runs all the way down the valley. We then walked for literally 2 minutes past the car park, along the stream, which lead to a patch with a couple deeper parts of the stream (when I say deep, I mean only upto a 4year olds knees) and some lovely clear patches of grass along side, with no one around!! I have to admit, I did think people a bit crazy, the stream along side the car park was busy with children & adults yet 2 minutes walk away it was lovely and peaceful .... except for our little ones of course.

The older lads set about building dams to make one of the pools a little deeper. The two youngsters (Kai 4 & layla 3) were happy to paddle & throw stones in to make the water splash. Nik (my Sister In Law aka SIL) & myself busied ourselves laying down blankets, watching the kids & I even went for a paddle myself ..... water was fffffffreezing but I soon got used to it & when the sun came out it was delightful.

Picnic was water to drink, egg mayonnaise sarnies, ham sarnies, crisps, choc bar, frubes & strawberries - all of which we'd just quickly grabbed/made. We were nicely full after it & the kids were happy to play again. The bottles left from the drinks soon became water squirters & a water fight broke out.

When this was banned due to them getting a bit over zealous with squirting each other they explored the surrounding area. Kai found the slopes were perfect to slide down on his bum, he got a good speed up doing it

& was soon joined but not only the other kids but Nik as well.

Jai found a boulder in the water & I jokingly told him to pick it up to put on the dam .... he took me seriously. He & Zack managed to roll it half way up the stream which was no easy task.

We decided to pack up & see if the stream led to Lightspout Waterfall. It was quite a walk ... Zack & Luis being they're usual selves had to do it the hard way by literally walking in the stream to follow it. We followed the path that got a bit thin & rocky at times. Thankfully it did lead to the waterfall, which wasnt much more than a trickle, but we put that heavily down to the dry(ish) weather we've had. It did have a lovely lil pool at the bottom of it , & by this time the weather was roasting.

Along side the waterfall the path continues up rather steeply which the older lads followed before making their way round the back of the waterfall & down the rather jagged, steep descent over the otherside (this was not an official path).

The walk back was easier, once in the car it didnt take my 2 long before falling asleep.

I thoroughly recommend taking a visit to a stream with the kids if you can, on a hot sunny day its the perfect, cheap way to cool down.

Carding Mill Valley ..... a bit more information.
National Trust - Carding Mill Valley
BBC Shropshire, panoramic view.

Fruity, cooling treats

It has been a GLORIOUSLY sunny day, & I think we could all do with a cooling treat.

Here, have a fruity ice lolly that Kai & I made.

We sliced up any soft fruit we had in ..... I'm sure you could use harder fruit such as apples & pears but I find ones that are softer such as strawberries, grapes & oranges are easier to eat in a lolly.
The fruit was popped into a lolly maker, followed by pure orange juice, then frozen. Tada, fruity ice lolly.

Want something a bit more grown up? Try freezing chunks of fruit & then using them instead of ice cubes

As they defrost, some of the fruit such as raspberries, release their juices flavouring your drink.
We tried it in OJ, but I'll be trying it again another time in lemonade.

You could also use it to teach your little ones about sinking & floating .... see the grapes at the bottom?

Summer Hols "To Do" list

Its that time again people, & the mood my lil mans been in lately I am kinda dreading how its going to go, so I am hoping being prepared will help a lot. I've been restocking the paint box, investing in foam shapes as well as picking up any extra bits & bobs I've spotted along the way.

This year, with Zack being older (12) & therefore a lot more independant my list has changed a little from last year & is focusing more on my 4 year old, Kai. Most of the activities Zack will still happily join in with if he's around, even if its "just to help Kai" ;-) *wink wink* of course.

I think this year, as the list is so huge & we probably wont get round to doing it all, saturday I'll let you know what we've been upto & leave links to what others have been upto, & on Sunday I'll explain in more details some of the ideas on the list e.g such as a play dough recipe, or/& explain "fake photos"

Indoor play
-Read a book (eldest can read to youngest or you can read to them)
-Write a story (can be done with pictures like a comic strip)
-Playdough
-Salt Dough models
-Paint Salt Dough (when its been cooked)
-Bake biscuits/cake(s) & decorate
-Make a sock puppet
-Put on a play (maybe with sock puppets)
-Collage picture out of old mags/catalogues
-Decorate clothing/shoes
-Make a suncatcher from black card with tissue paper glued over the cut out holes.
-Make scratch pictures - use crayons on card then paint over with acrylic/poster paint. Leave to dry then scratch in picture
-Make beads from fimo/paper/straws - thread onto string for themselves or as presents.
-Finger print pictures
-Make bread (can create their own shapes with it)
-Make a jigsaw
-Face painting
-Decorate picture frames
-Colouring in pictures
-Sketching
-Pasta necklaces - paint, add glitter, leave to dry & then thread)
-Movie day - make popcorn together, draw the curtains & put on a movie
-Treasure hunt (with clues for Zack)
-Scrapbooking - make a holiday scrapbook
-Straws & tape construction
-Foam door hangers
-Egg cup caterpillar - the egg carton "cups" cut off, painted & threaded together to make a caterpillar
-Toilet paper binoculars
-Mosaic
-Pressed flowers (takes 10 days according to Martha Stewart)
-Paint/crayon on pebbles
-Use hand/foot prints to make other pictures.
-Rainbow rice gardens
-Make a dream catcher
-Make pinwheels
-Make chalks
-Make a sun wheel

Outdoor play
-Paint using hands/feet (& normally the rest of them as well, good outside activity)
-Make bubble paint prints (washing up liquid in watered down paint, blow bubbles with straws then place paper on top)
-Plant some seeds
-Paddling pool
-Decorate plant pots
-Turn a jar into a vase - cover in polyfilla or similar, stick on gems, shells etc
-Paper mache mask &/or hot air balloon
-Potato printing
-Junk Modelling - stick together cereal boxes, tubes, bottles etc to make a "sculpture"
-Mini beast hunt - either see what bugs they can find & identify, or give them a list to find
-Scavanger hunt - give them a list of things to find & bring back
-Photo Scavanger Hunt – give a list of items/ideas to find & take photos of.
-Messy play—make gloop, shaving foam (paint)
-Teach old games e.g Hopscotch
-Chalk piccies on the paving slabs
-Make sand stepping stones
-10pin bowling
-Fake photos
-paint in a bag
-Temporary pebble play

Possible trips out (all depends on transport & cash flow)
-Ice Skating
-Cinema—kids club
-Ironbridge Gorge Museums
-Library
-Beach
-The Wrekin
-Pizza Hut
-Blackberry picking
-Apple scrumping
-Picnic
-Visit Family
-Go to the Park
-Fly a kite
-Feed the Ducks
-Welly Walk - go for a walk after the rain in wellies & old clothes to jump in the mud & puddles.
-Mapped walk—Z can make a route to follow or we can follow an already set route
-Photo walk - the kids get to take their own photos, so you get a kids eye view

I would love it if you could get involved with my posts, if you've done a post on what your children have been upto please let me know in the comments section & I'll add it to next saturdays post.
OR
If you find or write a tutorial/idea for something the kids could do during the hols, again, please let me know in the comments below & I'll add a link to it in next sundays post with recognition that you left the link.

Happy Holidays all, may it be fun & stress free

Summer Holiday Fun...

This time next week my sons will be on their summer holidays ....no school for 6 weeks which is actually quite short compared to the last few summer hols; Its not short when it comes to a childs abilities to amuse themselves so, as many of my long time followers already know, I have a list of activities they can do to keep them busy & having fun. It also helps my sanity, bored kids = annoying kids!

Next saturday I'll share my list with you, and each saturday after that share what we've been upto. I'm sure, with Zack being 12 & spending more time with his friends he wont be in as many photos as last year, but you never know, his friends might want to join in some activities as well.

I'd love it if we could help each other & you guys could share some of your ideas for the summer hols in the comments as well.

To see Summer hols 2010 look HERE

Summer Fun - Week 5

The holidays are now passing fast, but theres still time for lots of fun.

1. Attractions a bit further a field
My brother & his partner kindly took us to Bridgenorth Festival Party for the day. The weather was fabulous and the kids enjoyed the rides (my pocket didnt, everything was soooo expensive). We took a picnic with us which we had while watching some of the performances & waiting for Justin Fletcher (aka Mr Tumble). Unfortuantely the field was too big for 1 man to stand in doing stuff (it was very hard to see him even at the front) and in normal clothes the kids barely recognised him .. so we went off to the rides again. Zack did get to hold a bird of pray & a Tarantula though.
Afterwards we went looking around Bridgenorth, at the very crooked castle, in the gardens, the kids played in the bandstand and Kai made a little friend. They climbed trees, & ate kebabs from the local - very nice - kebab shop. We also went on the Cliff Railway which made me shudder, lol.

2. Scrapbooking

Zack finished off his Scrapbook pages and wants to do more in the future.

3. Off to the city

We took the children to Birmingham to go to the Sealife Centre. This was Kai's first train journey. Though he enjoyed it I think he was a little disappointed that it wasnt like Thomas the Tank Engine.
As it was quite a long journey I packed crayons and a pad for Kai, and a quiz book for Zack which kept both of them quiet.

When we got there it was raining, and we were told that the queue into Sealife was an hour & a half :-O There was no way my 2 would wait patiently to go in, so we went for a bite of warm food and to dry off instead. We had a little look round and got the kids a box of Jelly Bellys each. This kept them busy on the way home trying to guess the flavours.
We have promised to take the kids back later in the year, and arrive MUCH earlier to hopefully beat the crowd.

4. Fabric Painting

While in Brum the kids were given a free cotton bag from Microsoft with colouring goodies in it. I immediately decided the bags would be lovely to draw on.
The next day I put newspaper inside them and set the lads free with some fabric pens and fabric paint. It kept them busy for quite a while, even though the colours they had to use were limited.

So now theres only a week left, what have you been upto?

Blackberry Mess

My apologies for the lack of posts lately, I have been suffering from migraines so have been avoiding monitors as much as possible. But without further ado, my recipe for blackberry mess.

Ingredients
Blackberrys - as many as you want
1 pint double or whipping cream
4tbsp icing sugar
8 meringues (bought or homemade)
4tbsp water

Method
Upto an hour in advance of serving simmer up a small handful of blackberries with the 4tbsp of water until the juices flow and you get a lovely sauce - leave this to cool down.

Whip up the cream into peaks, then whip/stir in the icing sugar.
Crumble the meringues into chunks and stir in. Taste the mixture to see if its sweet enough, if it isnt add a bit more icing sugar & taste again.
Fold in your remaining blackberrys gently, if you stir too much then you wont be able to taste the cream.
When ready serve and pour the sauce over the top.

You can add other fruit as well, or try with totally different fruit.

Summer Fun: week 4

This week has been fairly peaceful with Zack cracking on with painting his room and Kai playing with his trains and farm animals.

1. Blackberry picking

Blackberries are in season at the moment and it doesnt take us much of a walk to find quite a nice lot of them. I told the kids to wear long sleeved T-shirts to prevent them getting stung by nettles or their arms scratched so Zack goes one better & wears a thin polo top.

2. Local Animals / wildlifeWhile picking blackberries we kind of got very distracted by 3 horses in a nearby field. All were very tame and were happy to be fed grass the kids pulled up for them (remembering the "keep you hand flat" rule). Everytime we went back to blackberry picking the horse in the photo would neigh loudly to call us back.

3. Blackberry Mess

Because of being distracted we ended up not picking many blackberries (we shall return another day for more) but there was enough for them to make Blackberry Mess (like Eton mess but with blackberries instead of strawberries). Oh my word it was YUM!! I shall post the recipe on monday for anyone who wants to try it.

4. Chalking Outside

While the weather was dry both children enjoyed using chalks on our slabs (thanks Carmen for the idea), as did I. I found the big chunky chalks lasted a lot longer than normal size ones which lasted about 2 minutes.

5. Trampolining / Photo fun

Most days both Zack and Kai go on the trampoline (even in the rain) but this time I took the camera out and told them to jump after 3, as they jumped I pressed the button to take a photo then showed them the result. We did it lots of times with them jumping in different ways to catch them mid-flight. Some of them look really funny with the faces they pull without knowing when they jump.

6. Carrot cake

We did a bit more cooking, making carrot cake this time. We made one large one & six muffin sized & it was so lovely & light. Kai got upset because he wanted to eat all the raw mix and not cook any of it whereas Zack was surprised you couldnt taste the carrots at all. I explained to Zack that it was an old way of sweetening food that dated back to the greeks but was reintroduced into the British diet with war rationing.

7. Gluing

Kai wanted to do some gluing so I got out some boxes I'd been saving for just such an occassion, along with empty loo rolls, pie tins, sequins and pasta shapes. He made a lovely robot (with a tiny bit of help to make it stick properly) which is drying nicely ready to paint another day.

8. Scrapbooking

While Kai was doing that I got Zack making a scrapbook page we'd talked about for a little while (he didnt want to build anything out of boxes). I showed him a few layouts & talked to him about looking at the photos, stickers, paper etc and jotting ideas down on paper before finalising a page. Also about putting paper etc on top of each other to check the colours go.
He designed a great sketch which you can see the start of his layout above. I got him to hand write the journalling so that when hes older he can see what his handwriting used to be like.

Thanks to Nicky & Carmen again for your wonderful links. Please dont be shy peeps, add your links & let us all see what you've been upto this summer holidays.