Playing Along - X Marks the Spot With Our Play!

The girls and I are joining in the play fun over at Childhood 101's We Play today.

My "treasure bug" has become a little unstoppable of late. We've had a brilliant time rummaging through "treasure shops" and shopping at the local school fetes to find new (to us) pre-loved play items. Have you ever gone treasure hunting like this? It's such a buzz to bring home your treasures and set them up for play. These treasures have provided new and very different play opportunities for my girls.

We've read our new books before bed, in the waiting room at the doctors, outside on the blue chair, in the morning on mummy and daddy's bed and wherever or whenever we've liked. Cost 50c - $1.00 a book. $10 for all the books.

We've built tall towers and small buildings, then crashed them down again. Cost - $3 - $5 per set of blocks. Some sets are worth over $50 new.

We've taken turns and laughed as the bees tumble down. Cost - $5

We've joined pieces together and had races as we watched our marbles roll to the bottom. Cost - Fill a bag for $2.

We've repeatedly played dominoes and matching games till mummy says it's time to put them away. Cost - $2 or fill a bag for $2.

We've welcomed Billy the horse into our home. He's pretty easy to keep as he doesn't eat much. Cost - $6 (I think).

We've made patterns and pictures and sorted colours. Cost $2 - $3 a set.

We've had quiet cups of tea and played camping. Cost - $3 for the tent/ play house.

We've set up and interacted and taken our new little friends for a ride. Cost - $25 for dolls house. $3 for bus. $2 for bag of Little People.

We've had lots of play fun!

Some of these toys came in damaged boxes which I just traded for spiffy new ones and some were perfect. It's worth keeping an eye out for educational treasures. You just never know what you're going to come across. All the above toys and books were discovered over the last year or so.

In my past life, before children, I worked in child care (many many moons ago!) and then also as the children's worker at one of Brisbane's bigger churches. Just looking through the educational toy catalogues used to get me excited however the prices never did. Now I pick up the same kinds of play fun for a smidgen of the price.

Do you like to hunt for toy "treasures"? What great toy and book treasures have you found?

Come play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up.

Make Your Own Hamburger Meal

I've mentioned before that we are living in a reno house. The kitchen has been a quarter of the way done since I don't know when. This means no oven or stove so we've been using a two burner electrical stove top. I have to be creative when it comes to cooking.

This was a meal which was able to be made with the appliances we do have and it was a creative activity for the girls as well. My little helper was little Miss H who had a great time being busy mixing mince meat in flour. (So much messy fun!)

Make Your Own Hamburger

We followed this rissole recipe which was perfect for littlies. Next time though I might add a few herbs from the veggie patch to add a bit of extra flavour.

You may also like....

Wholemeal rolls

Tomato or BBQ sauce

Butter/ Margarine

Carrots

Lettuce

Tomato - from our veggie patch

Cheese slices

I sliced up and arranged all the ingredients into separate bowls on the table and we each helped ourselves to what we would like on our own hamburger. This was a great activity to encourage independence, which Miss M is asking for all the time now. It involved spreading butter on the bun, picking up the rissoles with the tongs (this was tricky) and squeezing sauce (always a favourite).

The hamburgers tasted quite delicious and were an easy way to put a bit of fun into our night time meal.

Just talking about food has made me hungry. What's on your dinner menu tonight?

Five For Friday (on a Tuesday) - Five Things That Made Me Smile

We've been experiencing some lovely weeks here so lots to smile about. (Even with sickness hanging around!) Here's my (very late) list of Smiley things to add to the growing list at Aspiring Mum....

Hooked on Sesame Street?

My girls and I share a great love for watching Sesame Street clips on Youtube. I'm sure we could sit for hours if nobody stopped us. We love the singing clips and the funny clips, clips with celebrities in them and the clips I remember quite clearly from my childhood. Sometimes the older the clip, the better! It makes me smile to see my kids singing along. Remember this one? Daggy I know. I love the way the boy in the groovy checked pants breaks into a robot dance. Too cool!

One cool Sesame Street clip leads to another so we keep finding ones that we haven't seen before. Some of our other favs are...

Jason Mraz
Celebrity Lullabies
What's the Name of That Song?
We All Sing With the Same Voice (How weird is this one!)
Mahna Mahna
Pre-school Musical
Adam Sandler
Robin Williams

Somebody please stop me.....I could keep naming them!

Treasure Hunting

Oh the girls and I {heart} a good treasure hunt and we love it more when we find a great treasure. We took some of our own pre-loved goods to the "treasure shop" the other day so we couldn't let the opportunity pass by for us to rummage through to see if there were any treasures for us to take back with us. He he! Daddy came along for the ride too. We found a bag of Fisher Price Little People for $2, a beautiful book called 'Together' in brilliant condition for 50c (we have the first one 'Always') and a hula hoop from Daddy for $3. How excited was Miss M to bring home that hula hoop. It makes me smile just watching her try to use it. Treasure hunting always brings a smile to my face!


Cleaning, Cleaning, Cleaning

I don't know what has come over me but somehow I've managed to keep on top of the cleaning and tidying this past week or two. This is not at all like me. My creative brain usually takes over and the house is filled with projects that cover table tops and other areas of the house. I think it's largely due to the toy rotation I put in place over the last weekend - yippee! Can it last? I hope so. I'll continue to smile while it does!

The Sun Has Got His Hat On

Like Debbie, I have been so thankful for all the beautiful spring-like weather we've been having. The girls and I have loved playing out in the sunshine riding bikes, watering the veggie patch, swinging and fence painting.

Old Times (Really not that long ago!)

We stumbled across some footage of Miss M opening her present for her third birthday last year. I can't believe a year has almost passed. This made me smile as I remembered our little girl who is no longer very little at all. She is nearly four!

What's on your list? Why not head to Aspiring Mum and link up.

Three Words That Helped Make a Change

These three words have changed each and every day for our family.

These three words bring a smile to my face.

These three words are wonderful!

And they are....

Three yummy things

How could you not love these three words?

They tell you that what you're about to eat for morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea should taste delicious.

You don't have to stop at one or two.

And, you can't possibly argue or ask for more because three is enough. More than enough!

Did I tell you that I love these three words?

If I could put them up in lights or write them in the sky I would!

These three words work.

You'll find them written on our fridge.

Spoken from my lips.

And now from the lips of my big girl, Miss M.

No more "more food" discussions.

No more running out of snack foods.

I can keep presenting food in a fun way, which I enjoy doing.

The grocery budget looks better.

And so does the food!

It looks like this.....

Just keep an eye out for my book and DVD.

Just kidding...but seriously, these three words were the change that needed to happen in our house and it's been positive, smooth and yummy too! I can't wait to see how it goes when we are out and about. It's always been tricky to manage the girl's food intake when it's diplayed on the table as one big spread at play dates and parties. They usually can't stop but now there's a new rule in town.

Three cheers for three yummy things I say!

This is our new rule. What do you do to keep the snacks to a minimum and the grocery budget stretching further?

A New Job for Our Bathroom Tiles - Tile Printing

With the rain around in Brissy today we had lots of indoor play time to enjoy. The girls have taken to matching and dominoes games lately. We played them for most of the morning but I really wanted to give tile printing a go. I saw it here and here on one of my favourite blogs, Let the Children Play a little while ago and was keen to try it, especially since I knew we were well stocked up with everything needed to do it.

Living in a reno house means there are lots of goodies lying around under the house which could serve all kinds of purposes. Today we used the off-cuts of the bathroom tiles for some painty fun. I knew it would be a bit messy so the girls put on some plastic bag art aprons and they did one print after the other. It was a great way to spend the morning. Now I just have to figure out what we'll do with all our prints.

Finger painting, then making prints.

Bringing the Library Home

One of our favourite regular places to visit is the library. We usually attend the story sessions once a week but it seems that we miss so many in winter with sickness. It will be really great to return again in spring but for now we will continue to go in and get our usual big pile of books to read. Our local library is a smaller one so there's a wonderful community feeling there.

It doesn't seem to matter if we do skip stories at the library because we love to bring the library to our home. We play our own little game of libraries every once in a while. There's story time with the librarian, singing, craft time (colouring in sheets off the web) and we can borrow any of the books or DVDs which are just the books from the girl's own bookshelf and the DVDs off the main shelf. (The DVDs are used under my careful eye as they are usually not allowed to be played with.) The cash register makes a great book scanner and we carefully use our BBC library cards. It's just like the real thing!

Singing "Twinkle Twinkle" + borrowing books

Our game of libraries yesterday was lovely. We needed something quiet with Miss M not well again and she seeemed happy to suggest the game and direct the fun. Miss H even jumped on the stool and became the librarian. She loves "tories" (stories) so a game of libraries was right up her alley.

Do your kids enjoy playing games about places you go to during the week?

Five for Friday - Five Things That Made Me Smile This Week

I am joining in the Five for Friday fun over at Aspire Mum today. Here's my list of smiley things.....

Baby Love

The next best job to being a mum is definitely being an aunty to my beautiful niece and nephews. At the end of last week SJ, my gorgeous new nephew was welcomed into the world. Seeing all the pictures family have been sending has made me smile. I'm sure I'll smile even more though when I get to meet him in person and give him a squishy cuddle. He is adorable and I am certainly one happy aunty!

The Windy Kindy

2011 will be Miss M's kindy year so we have been attending all the open days for the local kindys we enrolled Miss M in. This week we received a letter asking us if we would like to accept an offer at one of the kindys we were hoping she would attend. She is very excited and I am so pleased it has all worked out. The Open Day for this kindy happened on a very crazy windy Brisbane day but we could see how great the kindy set up was and what a lovely time Miss M will have next year. Yippee! I think she's going to love it which makes me smile just thinking about it.

"Daddy, Are You?"

I think it will always be a little sad when we have to say goodbye to some of the special sentences and words our littlies say when they are learning to speak. Miss H (21 mths) goes around the house saying, "Daddy (or Mummy), are you?", when she is looking for us. Daddy has been in Melbourne for work so early in the morning she has been wandering around the house asking, "Daddy, are you?"

Miss M (3.11) has been saying "tobally" for totally and making up all kinds of intresting songs - hilarious. How can a mummy not smile at these things!

God at Work

Just over a year ago my brother was in a motor accident where his right leg was broken in several places. We had reason to smile this week after hearing that he has been able to move his foot just a little. His leg has been in a metal frame and the bottom half of it was recently removed. Thank you God for this little glimmer of hope. This makes me smile a grateful smile. I've been so proud of my brother. He has shown great patience, determination, strength and faith over the past difficult year. We don't know what lies ahead but we know God is faithful and will look after him.

Painting Day

Today the girls and I have just enjoyed each other's company whilst playing together in the play room. One of the activities included was painting, both easel painting (to clean out our bowls of Cel mix paint from the body painting) and some simple cotton bud painting.

I love days where we can enjoy arty fun together so it was a very positive morning painting away. The girl's bright and colourful artwork drying on the outside line has made me smile ever since.

It's been a special week. What's on your Five for Friday list? Please head over to Aspire Mum to link up.

Painting the Body Beautiful

We were given a huge piece of crisp white paper last week. I was very excited because I've been looking at prices of butcher's paper and large rolls of white paper and they're not cheap. (Remember getting the freebie rolls off the ends of the newpaper runs?) Together Miss M and I decided that the paper would be fantastic for tracing and painting bodies on. This turned out to be super fun but also a very messy activity! (Don't let this put you off doing it!)

First, we stuck the paper to the floor using Blue tac.

Then I traced around the girls bodies. This was the tricky part as they had to keep super still. I traced them one at a time and Miss M went first so Miss H could see what she had to do.

We had bowls of red, blue and yellow Cel mix paint and the girls painted in between the lines. You could also use acrylic or water paints.

Once the bodies were finished we let them dry on the outside painting line. The girls had so much fun painting that the paint was too thick, so it took some time before the masterpieces could come back inside again.

For the last step, I cut around the bodies and hung them up so we could admire just how marvellous they looked. Ta da...

" Moo + Boo" - part of our girl's nicknames

It was straight into a bubble bath once the activity was over. Miss H had paint all over her but thankfully it came off after some serious bath fun!

I remember doing this same activity when Miss M was little. It's a great one for letting kids see just how big they've grown and also to know how special they are. I love my girls!

You could extend this activity by ....

• collaging on the body shape.
• drawing on the body shape.
• reading about the body - DK 'Big Book or the Human Body' is a great one!
• doing this activity again, tracing the body in many different poses.
• adding life sized clothes.
• letting your child trace you - go on, give it a go!
• singing the 'Hokey Pokey' or 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'.
• giving the body a face.

Playing Along - Swing Ball - It's a Hit!

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

A big racquet for a little girl

I really don't know what the real name of this game is. I always wanted one of those swinging tennis games when I was a kid - the ones tied to a long string on a pole. We always knew other kids who owned them so we had a great time using theirs when we were over for play dates.

An easy idea that is quite similar is to put a tennis ball inside a stocking, with a knot at the top of the ball and hang the stocking from the clothes line or a support beam. Ours hangs from our very old Hills Hoyst clothes line which is a perfect spot for it. Just find a racquet (in our case it's Daddy's old squash racquet) and have a go at hitting the ball as it swings around.

I'm still keen to own one of the real swinging ball sets and they are well within budget coming in at under $20 for all that crazy fun. For now though, we will enjoy our swinging stocking ball which still provides my girls with the opportunity to practise using a raquet and aiming for a ball. It's a great hand/ eye co-ordination activity.

You know I think I might keep giving it a hit too. As the story goes, my brother and I used to take tennis lessons on a Saturday morning when we were quite young. Mum and Dad came to watch us one particular morning and were so embarrassed by our efforts that they took us out of lessons. This always gives me a good giggle. Now art or craft classes I may have been able to handle! ; ) And my brother, well, he is a keen basket ball player.

"Come and play at the Childhood 101 We Play Link Up"

Are You Listening?

This activity is a great listening skills activity disguised in fun! Today while we were at one of our favourite parks (George Scarlett Park) I asked Miss M if she would like to do an obstacle course. I got the answer I was ready to hear. Miss M is a huge fan of doing any gross motor activities such as climbing, riding her scooter, running and hopping so of course it was a big YES!

This park has super new playground equipment so I had lots to work with. It was simple. All I did was show Miss M what activities I wanted her to do, one after the other. eg. Climb up the ladder. Go down the slide. Run around the pole. Hop to the flying fox. She had to remember the sequence in her mind and once given the go ahead was off and racing to see how fast she could do the obstacles. I counted while she worked her way through them all.

Miss M did it once but that wasn't enough, she had to do another one. Then came the really fun part when she made up one for me. This mummy isn't so great with gross motor fun but I tried my best! He he!!

Doing an obstacle course proved to be a great activity for practising good listening and following through instructions. It can be made as simple or as difficult as you like to keep up with both the listening and gross motor skills of your kids. Think we'll be revisiting this fun activity. Miss M had so much fun.

"Your turn mummy!"

Five For Friday - Things That Made Me Smile This Week

I am joining in the Five For Friday fun over at Aspire Mum today. I love this blog! Debbie gets me thinking about all kinds of topics and I love to read about the joy that comes from her beautiful family. Here's my list of five things that made me smile this week.....

Sister Love

We decided not to send Miss M to kindy this year for her year of being three. For us it is important for Miss M and Miss H to build a great relationship because it won't be long before each of them will go their separate ways for most of the week. I've never doubted this decision even though at times it has been a bit full on having a big girl who wants to play "big girl games" and a little girl who very much wants to join in the games of her big sister.

This week I have seen some beautiful moments of sister love and have enjoyed watching as they've included each other in their own play. Miss M will be off to kindy next year and things will change. I'm glad my girls can be together now.

Playing horses

On the Move - Making Room

After talking about this for a while now, we decided to move our girls into the same room. It has seemed apparent to us that both the girls needed a little more company. We wondered how this would go and so far so good. Moving Miss H into Miss M's room has freed up Miss H's old room, so for the time being it has become "the quiet room" for quiet games and reading books. (The bookshelf didn't fit in their room!) Miss H LOVES reading books with family members. We read the same books over and over, all day long! She also LOVES to read books by herself so this room has become a great spot for her to enjoy her love of books.

I found her reading there this morning. This made me smile. Just having the new space also makes me smile. It's a happy room.

My Little Girl is Growing Up!

We've had a few weeks of sickness here. It's gone from one family member to another to another (thankfully I didn't really get it!). There had to be an upside to all this staying at home due to illness. Miss H (21mths) decided that she'd like to start toilet training. It has completely taken me by surprise. I hadn't even thought about starting her yet. She asked for the potty to be brought upstairs from under the house two days ago and has been going ever since. Of course this has made me smile from ear to ear.

Too Many Tomatoes

Our veggie patch has been giving us tomatoes on a daily basis. We get big ones and cherry ones so we're pretty excited because tonight's plan is to use them all to make a soft taco meal together. Getting things we've grown from the veggie patch always makes me smile but this makes me giggle just a little bit too. I've never been a huge fan of tomatoes but I'm sure Jamie Oliver would be proud of me as I've been eating them in all kinds of things since we've been growing them.

"I will not ever, never eat a tomato". ~ Lola (Charlie and Lola)

Miss M's People

I get a lot of joy out of seeing the people and other things Miss M draws. She enjoys drawing so much that there are always lots of pictures around the place for me to find. This drawing of Miss M, daddy and Miss H made me smile greatly. What makes me smile most is the stripes on daddy's clothes, their hair and the shoes on the feet. We're starting to see more detail in her drawings this week so for this creative mummy it's a wonderful part of her drawing development.

"Daddy, Miss M and Miss H".

So there you have it - my Five For Friday. It's a great feeling to be able to smile about things in amongst a week of sickness and to be honest a little bit of frustration. Thanks Debbie for encouraging me to do it!

What have you smiled about in your week? Why not head over to Aspire Mum and start your list too.

Threading Fun

Take a look at our easy peasy threading activity from yesterday. We missed out on our Mums on the GO 'Art in the Park' morning due to Miss H still being sick so instead we made a little creative fun of our own at home.

Must be fun, Miss M is giggling.

Threading Bracelets

You will need....

• Pipe cleaners
• Some items to thread .....try small coloured patty pans, cut up straws, threading pom poms (found at Speedy Art Supply - $5.15 for 100), coloured pasta, coloured cardboard.

Follow the threading instructions from here and you'll be set.

Thread away!

Date Night on the Agenda

Sometimes when your days just seem to be all about the kids it's such a blessing to have one night in the week dedicated to being Date Night. No kids, no jobs to do, just you and your partner on a date.

We have always loved Date Night although we haven't always kept up with doing them for one reason or another. Our Date Night is a Tuesday which back before kids would fit in with two for Tuesday deals or cheap night Tuesday for movies, pizza, DVDs etc. For the time being our Date Nights don't include time away from the house and we're ok with this but we still like to keep them on a Tuesday and as regular as possible. Maybe it's just a tradition thing. Having Date Night at home can be just as lovely, although I have to say I do miss going to the movies or having dinner out. Here are five of our ideas to put Date Night on the agenda....

1. Dabble in some Scrabble
2. Fondue for two
3. Yahtzee Party
4. Snuggle up with a movie on the TV
5. Eat a sweet treat and chat on the couch

It doesn't have to be anything too out there or romantic to be a wonderful night. The opportunity to stop and chat can sometimes be the best thing. We love our board games and found ourselves quiet boggled with Boggle for date night recently.

Do you and your partner have Date Nights? What ideas could you share?