Playing Along - A "Beary" Happy Birthday

The girls and I are playing along with everyone over at Childhood 101 We Play once again.

Birthdays are so much fun to plan and celebrate, especially when kids are involved! Miss M has been planning her 4th birthday since her 3rd so there's been much discussion going on about what she would like to do. Her birthday happens to be three months away which can seem like such a long time to wait!

"Jessie Bear", her special teddy, seems to be getting older very quickly because Miss M celebrates her birthday often. This was Jessie Bear's 3rd birthday party (pictured below) at the dinner table. She had an ice-cream cake topped with sprinkles and tiny teddies and we all sang happy birthday to her.

"Happy Birthday dear Jessie Bear.

Happy Birthday to you!"

And the birthday fun continues......

Miss M has been baking birthday cakes in the sandpit in recent days. Here is Miss H's birthday cake (her real birthday isn't 'till November) but we enjoyed pretending together. She seemed to think it was a wonderful thing that we sang happy birthday to her. She clapped and smiled and tried to sing along too. The lovely flowers (and weeds) from around the yard made beautiful decorations for a cake and a stick in the middle of the cake became the candle.

"Happy Birthday my little sister!" - Miss M

I'm very sure we'll have many more pretend birthday parties but thankfully Jessie Bear continues to smile as more birthdays come her way. She looks very good for her age don't you think!

Another cake for Jessie Bear. What a lucky bear she is!

Come and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up

Concert Fun at Home

Sometimes I see my own childhood very clearly in the play of my two little girls. My sister and I spent a lot of our play time creating concerts in the lounge room and almost every night before bedtime our girls treat their daddy and I to a very cute concert.

More recently we've had lots of stay and play kinda days at home because of sickness so on this particular day we filled our morning with all kinds of fun. Just before lunch we came up with the idea together that it would be great to do a Playschool Concert. You see we had recently gone to see Playschool in concert and had enjoyed every minute of it.

Miss M immediately realised that she would need a microphone but not the kind of play ones we already had, she would need a "special one" that would attach to her ears and be worn over her face. We worked on a design and came up with a pipe cleaner microphone. It seemed to do the job, at least Miss M was happy with it!

Miss H, who wants to do everything her big sister does had to be involved too, and not just as an audience member. Another plan had to be put in place because there would be no one to watch the show! Miss M lined up all of the dolls and teddies on the couch and before long we had a wonderful audience and the show could begin.

Miss M's room is the perfect dressing room as it leads into the lounge. We have an old sheet that hangs over her doors as the curtain and the lounge room floor then becomes the stage.

We did plenty of fun songs (that the toys really enjoyed) at our Playschool Concert but the highlight was 5 Little Ducks which you will see pictured. I didn't have to be in the performance of this song so finally I could take some photos. It was a fun game and lovely for me to be involved in the performing rather than the watching.

Apple Printing

Here's an activity that might take you back to your own kindy or pre-school days. It is very much a nostalgic art activity for me as I loved my two years at pre-school and I loved doing apple printing when I was there. I was happy to find out last week that my girls also enjoy doing apple printing.

We get our apples delivered in a farmers fresh box each week and lately they haven't been so tasty but they are perfect for apple printing.

Apple Printing

You will need....

• Red or green apples cut in half - cut straight down the core to get the lovely apple shape. Cut halfway down the apple, in the other direction (would be horizontal) and you discover a wonderful star in the middle. (God's designs are wonderful!)


• Paint - use acrylic or an acrylic/Cel Mix mix


• Paint tray - a flat lid off something like a takeaway container works well for this


• Flat kitchen sponges


• Paper - we used white easel paper for ours but you could be creative and use coloured paper, black paper with white paint or brown paper.

Squirt some paint on to the sponges and fold them over to evenly distribute the paint. Open back out and lay the paint filled sponges on to the trays.

Take a cut piece of apple, press it on to the sponge until the white inside is covered in paint.

Print on to the paper and see the beautiful apple shapes appear.

Why not.....

• make wrapping paper to wrap gifts or roll up, tie with ribbon and give away to someone
• make gift cards
• make an apple painting on canvas

Delicious! Well Miss H thought so. He he!! I left the art table for a minute only to come back and find Miss H munching on a painted apple. Not so delicious!

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Have you entered my Busy Brissy Mum Giveaway? You can do it here .

Painting Aprons In the Bag

Would you like to do messy art activities like painting with your kids but don't have aprons to protect their clothing? Here's an idea that is easy to do.

Cut the bottom out of a supermarket bag - that will become the bottom of the apron

Put your child's head through the top end and their arms out the handle holes

There you have it - a plastic art apron!

These bags were a little big on my girls so I used the bit I cut off the bottom to bring the handles together at the back. This made them tighter. Please remember that this idea is using plastic bags so supervision is necessary and try to recycle the bag in another way when finished.

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Have you entered my final Busy Brissy Birthday Giveaway to win the Justine Clarke CD? You can do it here .

Busy Brissy Birthday Giveaway - Week 3

Here is the final giveaway for my Busy Brissy Birthday celebrations. What fun it's been so far! This week's giveaway prize is a fantastic one. It's the latest CD from Justine Clarke - 'Great Big World'. Justine has certainly done it again with a great mix of 15 incredible songs.

Enter this giveaway and you could possibly win the CD for your kids and if so, you too (just like me!) may be found bopping away to the cool tunes and great rhythms. This is one CD I am happy to play over and over in the car!



To enter:

Leave a comment below sharing one of your child/'s favourite outdoor activities.

This giveaway is open to Australian residents and it will run until June 24 @ 9pm, when a winner will be picked at Random.org . Let the last week of birthday fun begin!

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Let's wrap up my Busy Brissy Birthday fun and draw a winner for the last time. Thank you to everyone who entered along the way. Congratulations goes to Hannah, from 'Counting My Blessings' who has won a copy of Justine Clarke's latest CD, 'Great Big World', as picked by the Random Number Generator at Random.org . Please send your postal details to me at pauleastment@bigpond.com so your prize can be posted out to you. Enjoy the terrific tunes!

Busy Brissy Birthday Giveaway - Week 2

Continuing with the birthday celebrations, here is the second Busy Brissy Birthday Giveaway. This time you have the chance to win a copy of the 'Maisy Playtime' DVD. It contains 10 episodes of the usual fun you'd expect from Maisy and her friends Tallulah, Charley, Cyril and Eddie. They'll have fun playing tennis, follow-the-leader and making a band plus a whole lot more playtime fun. We love Maisy for her simple cute stories but the voices really make for viewing and listening fun (for mums and dads too!) as the characters are voiced by the amazing Umbilical Brothers.

To enter:


Please leave a comment below sharing what the name of your child/s favourite TV/DVD character is.


The winner will be picked by Random.org next Thursday, June 17 at 9pm before the final giveaway begins. Too easy? I can't wait to see what answers you have. My girls love Maisy, Elmo, Dorothy, Humpty, Foofa.........(and the list could go on!)

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There have been plenty of great entries in week 2 of the Busy Brissy Birthday Giveaway. It seems my own girls love similar shows to many of the kids out there. There can only be one winner and so CONGRATULATIONS goes to Julie who was picked by the Random Generator at Random.org. A 'Maisy Playtime' DVD is coming your way! Please send your postal details to pauleastment@bigpond.com so you can receive your prize. Happy viewing!

Get ready everyone for the fun to begin again for the third and final time. Week three of the Busy Brissy Mum Giveaway is open NOW!

Playing Along - Look Mum, No Toys!

The girls and I are playing along with everyone over at Childhood 101 for We Play again this week.

We have plenty of toys for our girls to enjoy and most of them were found in what my new friend calls "designer shops" (Op Shops). Some toys were gifts from friends and family and of course we've also given some ourselves as gifts. We have toys that inspire play from construction to role play to problem solving to creative art. I love looking for educational toys at Op Shops for a small price (very small!).

Could my girls survive without all these toys?

Without a doubt my answer is yes! I have seen play come from nothing but the joy of a friendship and the inspiration and imagination each brings to the friendship. When my niece Miss L and my own Miss M get together their imaginations run wild. They have particular strengths in opposite areas of development and yet some are quite similar. To put the two together they can be dynamic in play!

Recently we spent a weekend away with family to see my brother and his family who were up from Melbourne. Actually his visit was an added surprise so it was a wonderful weekend. Miss M and her big cousin Miss L see each other often so they have formed a very special friendship. Miss L talks about Miss M as her "pretend sister" and Miss M talks about Miss L as her "bestie". Cousin love is oh so special and all Miss M's cousins are equally special - Miss L just lives the closest so we see her the most for play dates. With hardly a toy packed (there wasn't any more room left in the car!) these two set to playing together all weekend.

In their play world the stairs become a "big school", a bedroom becomes "a house", a long chair becomes a "bunk bed" and the lounge room becomes "a concert stage". With little or no toys these two can create any play scene they want because they can use each other's imaginations.

There's endless hours of fun and games with that amount of love and friendship!

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing."

Come play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up

Bubbly Fun With a Fly Swat

Take a bucket

Fill it with water

Add a good amount of good quality dish washing detergent

Take a fly swat

Dip the fly swat in the detergent water

Move the fly swat back and forth vigorously through the air

Watch the bubbles float and fly

Beautiful bubbles

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This activity requires good supervision since it involves water in a bucket. You'll be amazed how many bubbles you get - some will be like dish washing water bubbles that land nearby and some will be big round bubbles that float way up into the sky.

Always remember to get the most bubbly fun you need to put the dishwashing detergent in after you've filled the bucket with water. If you put it in before the water, all your bubbles will be in the bucket and you may as well do the dishes!

Busy Brissy Birthday Giveaway

Hip-hip Hooray...

Busy Brissy Mum turns one today! Over the past year I have enjoyed sharing some of the ideas I have up my sleeve with you and I hope you've had as much enjoyment reading them...and maybe doing a few too.

To celebrate my blogaversary Busy Brissy Mum will have a month of giveaways starting and ending each Thursday (although the first one starts today to help the celebrations begin and give you some extra time this week to get your entry into the competition!) There will be three give-aways in total.

This week's prize is an 'ABC for Kids Favourites No 1' CD. We absolutely love this CD at our house. It has 25 fun songs from many of our favourite performers such as The Wiggles, Justine Clarke, Jay Laga'aia and Playschool plus a few others we may not have known so well before but really love to sing along to now.


So, come celebrate with me and join in the giveaway fun. This competition is open to Australian residents. Who knows, you may soon be singing along to this CD just as loudly as we do. I can't wait to see your entries!

To enter:

Leave a comment below sharing who your child/s' favourite singer or singing group is?

A winner will be drawn at random next Thursday, June 10 at 9pm before the fun starts all over again. Stay tuned to find out what the next prize will be.

Have lots of fun!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. We've had a real mixture of entry answers....Colin Buchanan, Bindi, Justine Clarke, Wiggles and I loved the Greater Things answer but CONGRATULATIONS goes to Elise who's name was drawn by the True Random Generator at Random.org . You have won the fantastic 'ABC For Kids Favourites No 1' CD. Please leave your name and postal details at pauleastment@bigpond.com and I'll post it out to you. ENJOY!

Watch out for the next exciting giveaway coming up NOW!

Playing Along - A Trail of Snails

The girls and I are playing along with everyone over at childhood 101 for We Play today.

What beautiful sunshine we've had here this morning for the first day of Winter. We spent the morning playing in the garden so we didn't miss a minute of it. The girls got straight into play making cakes in the sand (Jessie Teddy seems to be having a lot of birthdays this week!), watering the vegies (and me!), jumping on the trampoline together, playing with dough and swinging (we couldn't miss a swing!).

Back inside and Miss M immediately asked for drawing, so the two girls (dressed up like fairies) sat at the table and created. And what did Miss M draw?

A trail of snails.

I couldn't help but smile!

Come play at Childhood 101 We Play link up