Mum Sit

My snow man, including scarf. I think he's pretty snazzy! 

This morning William fell asleep on the way home from school which is pretty usual for him and usually when he sleeps Charlie does some activities while I'm doing housework close by so I can help out with puzzle piece dramas or peeling stickers and make sure he's not drawing with texta on the walls. This morning Charlie's request was play dough and 'mum sit' 

We have a house inspection on Thursday so I really have a lot of other things to do on top of my usual everyday housework but who can say no to 'mum sit' so I sat and for almost an hour we made things, laughed at each other and generally had a really good time. 

Charlie made me 'nunch' he told me 'it's bake-a-beans'

William actually slept for 2.5 hours. Amazing! We managed to play with play dough then do a few puzzles together before he'd had enough of me and went outside leaving me to clean walls and fans.

 

I made a boat and got a bit creative. 

'Prise mum!' 

Considering he got shoved out of the baby spot in the family then lost his play mate to school a few weeks later he's done pretty well this year. We fight every day. Without fail one of us cracks it but I know there's only a short time when your kids are home before they go to school and you aren't the center of their world anymore so I'll soak up the 'mum sit' while I can.

Cheap kids fun

Well it's been two and a half weeks since Michael and I started our money detox. I haven't blogged about it, but were doing pretty badly. Before we even started this happened. Now because Michael hadn't officially started his job he didn't have any holidays up his sleeve so taking a week off to drive fourteen hours away for one day then drive all the way home means we have been chewing through our savings instead of adding to them. That's why you have saving though right? Anyway we knew Michael wouldn't be getting paid for a few weeks and we'd have to be careful so I've been avoiding the shops as much as possible. The end of year sales are killing me!

It's been school holidays here this week (and next week) so to keep the boys busy and happy I bought some cheap crafty activities and they are loving them.

I got this idea from Pinterest, it was done with plastic eggs but that looked like an expensive pain. James is doing so well with his reading and writing since starting Prep and his teacher suggested letter and word games to keep him busy over the holidays so this is my take on that. Find the upper case and lower case letters and put them together. I love craft stuff that doesn't make a huge mess that the boys can do independently. 

So a 100 packet of paddle pop sticks costed about $3. Cheap right? 

My Charlie needs to be in on whatever is going on so I grabbed some $4 textas and made these real quick. It's simple just put the two sticks together to make the shape. He spent ages at the table doing this and telling me 'mum! circwle!' 

Cheap picture book stuck on paddle pop sticks, wait for it to dry cut the sticks apart and tada! Simple easy puzzle. 

Patterns and colours. awesome right? Ice cube trays were $4 for a pack of 2. Pom poms were $2 a packet and mini tongs were $5 for a pack of 3. 

He's got his concentrating face on. 

I love activities that they can get out and put away themselves, is some what educational, and covers all three age groups. This one has been on high rotation this week. Gotta be happy with that! 

Lolly Wreath Tutorial

I made these last year for Jack's teachers after a lovely lady gave me one, I knew I wanted to give it a go. 

So this year were at a different school and I knew I'd get away with doing it again, so I did. 

I'm not a crafty person, I don't sew or knit, I just don't have the patience to do it properly. I make small people and food but not much else, so this is my first ever tutorial, and really it's basic but I'm still sharing with you in case you haven't organised presents for those who look after your children/pets/clean your house. Whatever really. 

What you will need:

A wire coat hanger

Lollies with a wrapper

Scissors

Tinsel I cut my 4 meters of tinsel so you probably need 2-3 meters.

String (or rope, whatever you can find in the shops) 

About an hour of your time (or less if your not eating a fantale every time I tied one to the string) 

What you need to do:

Bend your coat hanger so it resembles a round shape, don't stress too much about it, it gets covered up.

Cut off a huge piece of string and starting at one end tie the lollies to it, wrap the string around your coat hanger so it resembles the picture below.

Then it's as simple as wrapping your tinsel around the coat hanger as well, try to avoid the lollies so you can see them sticking out. 

Ta-Da! And your done, the tinsel could have been less furry, would have made the lollies stick out a little more, but this is what I had. Jack's teacher was very happy with it and that's what matters in the end isn't it?

Weekend Wonder

We had a good weekend. 

I love a weekend where I can take the boys places they haven't been before or show them things they haven't seen before, this was one of those weekends. 

 Saturday we headed to Artspace which is our art gallery, they have regular 'kidspace' days where you turn up (its free), there is a heap of craft activities set up and older ladies to help you make a huge mess, take home some craft things and someone else cleans it up. Sounds good yeah? It really is.

Well its usually on a weekday but Saturday there was a book signing so it was a special event, poor Jack misses out on a lot of the fun things we do because he's at school so James was very excited about getting to show his big brother something he does that Jack doesn't.

It's funky right?

We came home covered in permanent marker and ink....

....And some fun activities to try at home, like a zine which is just a folded A4 piece of paper which you can stamp then colour in your stamps and make up a story to go with it. Simple but fun, maybe even a Christmas present or two! 

Sunday morning Charlie was off, temperature, cranky, nothing good, so instead of heading to the water park like we'd planned to I drew a very quick race car track around our deck, the boys spent ages colouring it in, making car parks and buildings. 

Then after nap time we headed off to get some culture. 

Really was some culture, singing dancing, international food, fashion parade, markets, stalls. It was amazing. I wish we'd gone earlier. 

The boys always find good money wasters. 

How funny is this photo, Charlie and I trying to take a self portrait. 

Poor Charlie he was actually really enjoying the music and dancing but he was defiantly still under the weather. 

I dragged the boys away to eat, we had vegetable samosas, satay sticks with a seriously good peanut dipping sauce, chick pea curry and freshly made naan, oh my goodness so delicious. 

The big boys loved it. Even eating dinner they were still watching what was going on.

I was feeling far to large to be dancing so I made myself comfy and watched, the band were African and they kept encouraging everyone to get closer and dance, they were so amazing to watch. 

By far the funniest part of the weekend was the amount of people that asked me about the boys and if they were all mine, or commented about me being brave to go out with them by myself. I know people are trying to be nice but it still bugs me, I figure if Naomi can do it I can defiantly do it!

Tennis on the moon?

I love the internet. 

Yesterday morning far to early I was awake with my poor sickly Charlie and after I got him a drink and organised some cartoons I sat checking twitter, I moved on to facebook where The Organised Housewife had some school holiday boredom busters. 

Now it was only the second day of school holiday and were not bored but it's always nice to have something new to do.

This is called moon tennis. Basically what your meant to do is stick a paper plate to a thick paddle pop stick and bat a balloon around with them. 

We decided to personalise our plates, because you know it's way more fun.

I don't know what Jack was making but it ended up just a colourful plate.

James is now writing his name on everything. I was so impressed he got the e right. He's only been writing his name for a few months and he now has the lower case upper case thing sorted. So ready for school!

It was a hit, pardon the pun. I tried to get them to walk like space men on the moon but the balloon was going to quick and they spent the next half an hour giggling and trying not to let it hit the ground.

I gave Charlie his own balloon instead of trying to make a three way game with a toddler who doesn't understand the concept of the game. 

Seriously they were out there til bath time. Loved it. 

If you have small people you should try it out. 

Christmas Holiday Activities Part 2

Blue ice cubes? Yes Please!

Ok so I didn't channel Belinda Graham with this one I out and out stole it. I hope she doesn't mind!

Its defiantly summer and I'm trying to find things to do to cool us down and keep us happy, a little food dye and a water makes frozen crayons!

The boys before they started to look like lost members of the smurf family

I admit it, I joined in!

Jack made the earth, love it.

This was a fun activity that Charlie got to join in with the boys, he's so desperate to be a bit older and join in.

It wasn't even 10am and the ice cubes were melting so quickly there was blue and green liquid running everywhere!

Note to self don't leave the baby with a stack of food dye ice cubes, I couldn't help but laugh and take a photo. Oh brother!

Christmas Holiday Activities Part 1

James gave up using his hands, such class!

I'm channelling Belinda Graham with this one. I was watching old episodes of Jon and Kate + 8 the other day and she made the little kids edible play dough. I knew I wanted to do it straight away, so I did. It worked out pretty good, next time I'll refrigerate it before letting the kids have it. Thanks to the ridiculously hot and humid weather it sort of melted as they were playing it with it. Definatly not for clean freak kids like Jack, he wanted to wash his hands as soon as he touched it.

Jack made a ham and cheese sandwich and wanted me to take a photo of it

So if your interested here's the recipe:

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup honey

1 cup powdered milk

I added about half a cup of flour to make it easier to mould.

I had my two big boy and one extra little girl and this was more than enough to play with and eat.

My big boy with his serious face