Shaving - Just Like Daddy

There's no doubt about it, kids love to imitate the adults around them. Just today, I overheard the girls playing a game of bedtime/ sleeping where I'd set up the beanbag and my tall bedroom lamp. Miss H (2.6) said, "goodnight sweetie-pie", just like daddy says as she switched off the lamp for Miss M to go to bed. Earlier Miss M was telling Miss H to go to bed and stay on her bed, just like mummy + daddy would. Bedtimes with our littlie are a little tricky.

I knew that today was the day to bring out this fun shaving activity which I'd told Miss M about last week. She's been excited about it ever since. We just needed a good day at home to give it a go. To make it happen we had to find some shaving cream in a container, some plain paddle pop sticks, a mirror, water and a cloth/ hand towel to clean up with. The bathroom was the perfect place to do it. Once everything was ready, the girls could pretend to shave, just like daddy.

Put the cream on with hands. It feels soft and goopy.

Scrape off using the paddle pop stick 'till the cream's all gone.

Do you think she enjoyed the activity? YES!

When your kids play, what have you seen them do that's just like you? Let's enjoy a little giggle.

Surprise Playdough

So, there I was sneaking around the kitchen this morning while the girlies played, hoping that they wouldn't catch me preparing this activity. All was good, they were busy in play.

I made one batch of plain play dough and once it was finished I kneaded it. Then, I put the dough into two blobs and prepared it for the big surprise. This IS called "surprise play dough!"

I pressed my fist into the centre of each blob to make a hole and to add the surprise part, I took some coloured powdered paint and sprinkled it in. For this dough I put red and yellow together so the girls could make orange. Once the powder paint was ready, I covered it up again so the dough looked like the original plain blobs with no sign of colour anywhere.

When I took the dough to the girls they seemed very excited to have some new dough to play with. Little did they know the activity would get more exciting than that. Once they started to play and roll and knead the dough, the colours started to come out and mix. This really captured Miss M's(4)interest. She worked at it 'till she had a beautiful orange colour. What a fantastic, fun-filled surprise!

Just Add Water

Find a small bucket.

Fill with water.

Get a paintbrush.

Paint the house!

Playing Along - A Play Treat

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


This isn't exactly the healthiest game idea but boy we had fun playing it! I've been out of action now for a few days with neck, back and head pain and daddy has been taking over the daily role of "director of fun". Today was his first day back at work so I had to resume my role and this is the game we came up with - a cake and lolly shop.

Can you see our teeny tiny cakes, gummy bears (over sized), lolly pops, donuts and our yummy chocolate cake? There's lots for sale in our cake and lolly shop and as I found out, it's all pretty expensive. I payed 50 million dollars for a few lollies and a cake for a birthday party!!

Come and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up!

Our Toys Keep Going Round and Round

A few things have changed around here lately and it's been for the better so I'm loving it. (Look out for that blog post coming soon!) This particular change has come about because I want to keep the girl's activities fresh and interesting. I want them to be able to tidy up easily after play and I want to keep the place tidy as well. I needed to de-clutter and reorganise the toys.

The solution - a toy rotation has been put in to place and it's working a treat.

We've gone from this....(and it could look worse!)

To various combinations!

How is our toy rotation working?

Our cube shelving unit has been attached to the wall of the play room. It has been there for quite some time but it once housed most of the toys and activities. This made it tricky for the girls to get things down without letting other things topple.

Every second Sunday (or so) while the girls are asleep I display a new lot of toys/ activities on the shelves and I pack the other toys away in five coloured boxes. They get stored out of sight. I love to see the girl's faces as they discover what's new in the play room when they wake up.

I try and accommodate both girls in the activities that are put out however Miss H likes to give most of Miss M's activities a go anyway so it doesn't let me off the hook with watching her. I do try to put the more involved or smaller piece activities higher up the shelves so she often asks me (or daddy) if we can "play game" together and we help get one down for her and play. With the rotation in place we are trying to encourage them to choose something to play with, have fun with it, then return it to the place it came from. Toys also get rotated through the different rooms in the house, the play room, the girls room and the "quiet room". (Miss H's old room)

Just secretly, I like to be able put away games into the coloured boxes that Miss H has become obsessed with. We have a break for two weeks and then they reappear for another two weeks of play.

Having a toy rotation has made a great difference to the play in this house and for the most part changed how clean and tidy the house (particularly the toy room!) can be. I can be quite messy (I blame my creative brain) but this toy rotation speaks to my creative side so I find it fun to do.

How do you store the toys and activities in your house? Do you have a toy rotation system in place or something else that works?

Wood Work With Littlies

A few week ago we excitedly purchased two little hammers (from Bunnings), one for each of the girls. We anticipated some hammering fun to happen during that week but it took some time to organise our supplies. As it turns out, leaving our hammering for a few weeks gave us the opportunity to make some lovely gifts for daddy for Father's Day.

Feeling inspired by some blogs I have read recently I wanted to set this activity up with as many unused items we had around the house. This table (kept under the house) was the perfect table for a work bench for the girls and it gave me great joy to see it being used in a different way. Daddy just had to add a few bolts to return it to its once sturdy state. Apparently one of daddy's old housemates owned it and kindly left it behind for him to enjoy. Hmmm....

It was surprising that our reno house didn't have any old bits of timber lying around so I asked friends and family if they had some soft (ish), smooth off-cuts of timber we could collect from them. People are so generous. We picked up a crate full of timber which daddy cut to different lengths for us to use. Thank you Mr Matt and Mrs Susan for the timber!

I figured hammering pieces of wood onto wood might prove to be a bit tricky for my girls at this stage so we started with something very simple. The collage tray was filled with interesting textured items to hammer on to the wood and this seemed to work well to get us started.

Standing up would have helped to put more strength into the hammering.

The hammering was a bit tricky. It took concentration, determination and a fair bit of help from mummy but we got some things onto the wood in the end. Miss M suggested to add painting to their hammering work which seemed to be the perfect idea. Here are the finished products!

You could extend this activity by....

• Singing 'Johnny Works with One Hammer'

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.

Playing Along - Where's Our Little Friend Piglet?

Miss M and I are playing along with everyone over at Childhood 101 We Play this week.

We've been playing a wonderful game that's continued right throughout the holidays. It has involved Miss M, myself and our tiny little friend Piglet. Piglet has cheekily been hiding all over the house for Miss M to find. Once she finds Piglet the game starts all over again. Where, oh where, oh where is Piglet?

Piglet has hidden in many different places such as....

....here....

....here....

...here....

....and here.

The inside of our house has lots of interesting spots for Piglet to be and I think he would also be happy hiding outside, in the car or under the house. We will keep this game going for as long as Miss M's face lights up when she spots her little friend. It doesn't matter if she finds Piglet the same day he is hidden or days (and days) later. It's been fun to play together, just the two of us....er I mean the three of us. (Sorry Piglet!)

Of course this game can be played with anything but the smaller the better for maximum trickiness and maximum fun. Now, where to hide Piglet next? Hmmm... I think the fridge. Shhhh....don't tell Miss M! I've stuck Piglet in a big blob of play dough on the top shelf.

"Pooh!" squeaked the voice.
"It's Piglet!" cried Pooh eagerly. "Where are you?"
"Underneath," said Piglet in an underneath sort of way.
"Underneath what?"
"You," squeaked Piglet. "Get up!"

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

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

Playing Along - Race Track

The girls and I are playing along with We Play again. You'll find lots of brilliant play ideas at www.childhood101.com .

Don't you just love how much the mind of child aged 3+ explodes with endless creativity? We have a steady flow of ideas floating around this house which come from Miss M who likes to make up her own games. Today she created a game of "sisters" where Miss M, Miss H and I became sisters. She would go off to kindy/ school and sleep in her sleeping bag which was really a sack race sack. Miss M doesn't go to kindy in real life but is really looking forward to going next year. It was lovely to see her set up a game which included Miss H as this sometimes seems tricky to do with "big girl fun".

We also enjoyed a tea party with the toys, a coffee shop in my kitchen while morning tea was happening and a concert with play microphones.

It was the game pictured above that interested me the most. You don't often see games with cars happening in this house but we do have some available for the girls to play with whenever they'd like to. Miss M (3.5) tore pages out of an old note book I had given her and placed each page carefully around the little blue table. She then asked Daddy to play the game.

The aim of her game was to race the cars around the track and the first car to get to a break in the track was the winner. Miss M had organised pencils to write the winners name on the paper which had to be put exactly in the place where they had won. Sadly I missed the game as it happened early in the morning but I was super pleased to hear all about it and see the set up left there. Sometimes I wonder what game is coming next! No two days are the same in this house as something new is always being played.

Where have your kids' imaginations taken their play lately? I'd love to hear what they've been up to and I'll especially enjoy looking at all the wonderful ideas in this week's We Play.

Come play over at the Childhood 101 We Play link up

Playing Along - Shop Play

My girls and I are playing along with everyone over at Childhood101 once again. What fun!

Miss M (3.5) has been playing shops a lot lately so I've been thinking for some time about surprising her with a little shop in our play room. She loves to be the "payer". I like the idea of changing the play environment every so often anyway to keep play varied, fresh and interesting.

Each week a lovely delivery of fruit and vegies comes to our door but I think I like the boxes they come in more than the produce! I've been collecting the small and big black boxes for months for something special like this and so they were perfect for joining together with tape to make the shelves to put our shop items on. I did this part before Miss M and I worked together to stack the (recycled) items for the shop. We've been collecting them for art and play activities so they were ready to go.

Miss M, Miss H and I (and the baby dolls) had fun playing together, taking turns to buy, sell and pack the bags but I'm sure we'll see many more shop games happening with just the girls in the next few days. I'll enjoy watching their role playing.

This game has already encouraged....

• language/communication skills
• turn taking/ sharing
• gentle play
• role playing

All great things for this big sister, little sister relationship.

We could extend this activity further by....

• changing the shop to a different type of shop eg: shoes, art, books etc
• making pretend money - we chose not to since Miss H was involved
• putting fruit and vegies in
• talking about healthy teeth food
• making signs

But for now it's just wonderful to watch the girls at play.

Come play at the Childhood101 We Play link up

Going on a Photo Hunt

Since being at our new house we have enjoyed going for walks most days. Just down the end of our street is a parkland with a bike track winding around it which leads into the neighbouring suburbs. We live in an area with beautiful old queenslanders and post war homes as well as striking new modern homes. If you go to the end of our street and take the bike track you'll find yourself walking beside a field with "our" two friendly horses in it. Not that we own them, I think by the amount of visits they get from the community everyone probably thinks they own them! I bet they have lots of different names!

We never have to walk the same way as there are lots of ways to walk and many lovely things to see. Go one way and you'll end up at the train station and shops. Go another and you'll see beautiful tree lined streets. I LOVE where we live so much!

Walking brings a lot of joy to the girls and I and we really only need ourselves, the double pram, walking shoes, hat and sunscreen for us to have a great time. Yesterday however, to add to the fun we did a photo hunt. Miss M (3) packed her camera which is a $20 digital camera we picked up from Target for Christmas and I asked her to take photos of anything interesting she saw along the way. She spent the walk stopping the pram to take many pictures. So here's some of our walk through Miss M's eyes.

If your child doesn't have a kiddy camera you can certainly still do this activity. Take your own camera along and work on taking photos together with your kids. The beauty of photography today is that you can click click click as much as you like and see the photos almost straight away once they've been put on the computer.

To extend this activity you could....

• Print out the photos for a cutting and gluing experience
• Keep a scrapbook with all the photos in it. Collect some each time you go for a walk.
• Ask the child to look for houses, colours, animals, flowers or shapes - be specific and narrow down the hunt.

What interesting things do you and your kids like to see in your neighbourhood?

A "Beary Special" Morning

If you went into the woods (Wendouree Park) yesterday you would have been sure of a big surprise because yesterday was the annual Teddy Bear's Picnic for our mums group. I wish you had been there to see it! Our cute little bunch of kidlets and their teddies (rabbits and dollies too!) came to the park to enjoy a "beary special" morning together.

We had a morning tea filled with "beary yummy" teddy bear treats including the teddy bear cupcakes pictured above. I found this idea in the Woman's Weekly Kids Party Cakes book - how could we not have cupcakes! We did all the favourite bear songs and rhymes like 'Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear', 'Rock-a-bye Your Bear', 'Round and Round the Garden' and 'I Know a Hairy Bear' followed by the "beary scary" story 'Where's My Teddy?'. (It's not really that scary but it's is a favourite in our house!)

Together we all went on a huge bear hunt singing our way round the park to which afterwards one little girl told me that she was scared. It was a lot of fun.....and a little bit scary!

To end our "beary special" morning each teddy who came along went home with a prize and Miss M's "Jessie Teddy" received the Sweetest Smelling Bear award since she smells just like strawberries. I'm sure many little teddies and kidlets went home for a lovely big sleep after their big day out and they may even talk about this "beary fun" morning 'till the next Teddy Bear's Picnic comes around next year! Look out for my blog on Wendouree Park coming up.

Got That Sinking (and Floating) Feeling

I am definitely not a scientist but an experiment in sinking and floating with a 3 year old is something that I can do. It's amazing the way this little theme has come together just at the same time that we happened to borrow the book 'Who Sank the Boat?' from the library. Pamela Allen is a current favourite children's author for Daddy.

Last night in the bath Miss M had some bath characters and was trying to put them in the coloured plastic boats. With the toys added some boats stayed afloat and some sank immediately. This brought about the conversation of sinking and floating which seemed to capture Miss M's little mind. I could see it ticking over so I planned a little something for today's activities to extend that conversation further.

This morning in our play downstairs we had some water play but instead of putting bottles, cups and funnels in the water I asked Miss M to collect some things from around the yard so we could see if they would sink or float. As you can see from the picture we had quite an experiment on our hands. Miss M was able to work out from observation that the heavier items sank while the lighter items floated. She discovered that....

these items floated

• a stick
• a flower
• a blade of grass
• a leaf

and these items sank

• a pebble
• a rock
• a lemon
• a small handful of sand

Our play time outdoors finished with a story time on the mat so we just had to read 'Who Sank the Boat?' by Pamela Allen.