Awesome Playdough!

We made playdough yesterday, to take with on our holiday.
This is an awesome recipe!

Beautiful, pink, smells divine and feels wonderful!  Think mommy is going to have more fun playing with this than the kids!
xx

Our ladybird golf balls!

We had so much fun doing these!

Living on a golf estate, means we get quite a lot of stray golf balls landing up in our garden...  we decided to put them to some good use and create cute little garden ornaments!

We first spray-painted the golf balls with primer.

Then we painted them red with acrylic craft paint.  For the black bits, we used nail polish!  Worked so well.  Then the white eyes and black dots on top.  So easy and cute.

When it was all dry, I did a layer of varnish.

They look super cute in the garden, and make such cute lil gifts for the grannies and aunties!

Hopefully they'll last quite long in wind and rain.
xx

List of Toddler Activities

Toddler Development, Stimulation and Activities (Mostly suited for 1 – 3 years)

Gross Motor Development

• Play ball games.  Throwing, kicking, bouncing, rolling!
• Toss bean bags
• Dance to music together!
• Climb in, over, under and through things!
• Make an obstacle course using cushions and pillows
• Hold your toddler on a gym ball and do movements
• Play ‘ball’ with a balloon
• Let them balance – walking on a plank, or on big tractor tyres, or along little garden walls (always support them!)
• Give your toddler colourful scrap paper and a small hole puncher.  Show them how to use it.
•  Make tents with furniture and big sheets to climb into
• Make tunnels with chairs for them to climb through
•  Jungle gyms, swings, sandpits 

Fine Motor Development

• Fill a few small containers with different textured things, like popcorn, rice-krispies and raisins.  Let your toddler empty the container, and then pick up the small individual snacks and put them back again.  (Munching along the way!)  This encourages picking small objects up, and can help with sorting too.
•  Stacking rings and cups, or building blocks
•  Jigzaw puzzles, or wooden shape puzzles
• Stringing macaroni onto a string
•  Stick stickers on a paperplate or surface, and let them pick the stickers off
•  Scribble with crayons
•  Tickle with feather dusters
• Play with cellophane
• Put grains of rice inside a deflated balloon
• Bury plastic animals in a bowl of sand, or a bowl of material etc, and let the toddler find the animals
• Give the toddler containers with lids and screw tops and show them how to open and close them
• Play with fridge magnets on the fridge or on a tin tray

Language Skills

• Talk, talk, talk to your toddler.  Tell them what you’re doing.  Tell them what colour things are.  Count things.  Explain shapes.  Use descriptive words, and let them participate / feel / experience:  “feel the cement is hot” “feel the tiles are cold” “feel the rain is wet” “touch the soft blanket” “taste the sweet grapes”
• Copy sounds that your toddler is making, and then encourage them to make sounds that you make
• Using a doll or another person, point out body parts
•  Show pictures of facial expressions and point out happy, sad, etc
• Show them photographs of loved ones and talk about them
•  Let your toddler learn words and say them – don’t let them get used to just pointing out what they want, ask them “what”
• Play word games with your toddler, like pointing at an object, starting to say the word, and letting them complete it
•  Read books!  Read lots!

 Social and Emotional Development

•  Arrange playdates with other toddlers
• Put words to their facial expressions or actions: “oh you got a fright at the loud noise!” “are you upset that you have to put the toys away”, “wow, isn’t that so pretty!”
•  Give them time and space when interacting with other toddlers
•  Teach them to share – when eating finger snacks, ask for a bite, thank them for sharing.  Set an example by sharing with them.
•  Talk about feelings – tell them you love them often, tell them how you feel when you are tired, irritated, happy, excited.
• Massage your toddler
•  Teach your toddler respect for people and animals by setting the best example

Messy Play

• Messy play gives kids lots of opportunities to learn and develop. 
• Painting: finger paints, hand or foot prints, big paintbrushes, using cut up sponges or materials to paint with
• Playdough
•  Maizena mixed with water
•  Custard
•  Jelly
•  Shaving foam
•  Baby powder
• Glitter
• Cooked spaghetti
•  Rice, cereals
• Shredded paper
• Decorate marie biscuits
• Make ‘slime’ (using grated soap and water!)
• Make iced marie biscuits
•  Oats & syrup
•  Smash (instant mashed potato)
•  Sand
• Make fruit kebabs
• Bark chips
• Water bowls with small containers, cups and utensils in to pour water in and out of

Creative Activities

• Do lots of hand print and foot print art!  These are great fun for little ones, and make such great keepsakes!
•  Let your toddler scribble with crayons on paper
• Let your toddler make birthday, Christmas, I-Love-You cards for loved ones
• Play scavenger hunt with your toddler, with themes such as shapes, opposites or textures.
• Let toddlers taste different tastes and explain to them what they are tasting
•  Create a home-made band out of pots and spoons!
• Encourage your toddler to sniff at things, tell them what they are smelling
• Peg-a-box:  Put clothes pegs around an icecream container or similar, and let the toddler remove them.  Show them how to put them back again.
• Have two buckets – put them some distance away from each other.  Fill one bucket with objects, such as socks, and let toddler transfer all of them into the empty bucket.  And back again.
• Play with dried leaves – make piles, jump through them.  Stick them on a paper with a tree drawn on it.
• Bake cookies – involve the toddler in the process and the decorations afterwards
• Play memory games like hide and seek – hiding objects in the same place in a room
•  Dance with scarves or ribbons

Outdoors / Outings

• Go for a walk.  Take a basket or container with, let your toddler collect little items along the way – stones, leaves, sticks.  Talk about them.  Ask questions, “how does it feel”, “what colour is it”
•  Let your toddler do “people-watching”.  Whether it’s people riding bicycles, shopping, exercising, playing games – the movement really stimulates these little brains.
• Blow bubbles – let your toddler catch them, and let your toddler try and blow bubbles by themselves
•  Let them walk in the rain – with raincoats, boots and umbrellas
•  Let them walk on grass and in sand, tell them about the texture
• Point out flowers, trees, birds – make them aware and appreciative of nature
•  Lie on the grass and point out clouds
• Run and chase each other!

Car trips

• Pack a ‘goodie bag’ – a drawstring type bag, filled with small toys like cars, shapes, Purity lids, different textures, ribbons with bells on, etc.  This provides entertainment by unpacking and examining each object.
• Offer snacks that take time to eat – like a container of cheerios, or biltong sticks
• In-car DVD player
• Books
• Nursery rhyme CD’s

Edible Paint and Soap Slime fun!

Mia's on school holiday this week, and we've had a playdate with friends here at home, we've been for icecream at the dairy farm and we've made iced marie biscuits for my grandfather.

Today I didn't have any clients booked, and decided to just do some arts & crafts stuff at home.  I came across a whole lot of ideas, and thought we'd see how far we get with doing as many as possible today.  Ha!  We only did two:

Edible Paint:
 - 2 tablespoons of sugar
 - 1/2 cup of cornflour
 - 3 cups cold water
 - food colouring

Stir sugar and cornflour together, then slowly add water and heat over medium heat until mixture thickens.  It will thicken further when it cools.  Divide into four containers and add food colouring.  Paint with brushes or fingers!

This takes quite long to prepare - it took about 10 minutes to mix and cook, and then about 20 minutes to cool down.  While cooling, we prepped the next activity:

Soap Slime:

 - half a grated Lux soap
 - 3 cups of boiling water
 - food colouring

Mix boiling water and grated soap together to melt it - we used the electric mixer.  Add in food colouring. 

It went all soapy and bubbly - and then it also needed to be left alone to thicken and cool and become slimy.

The girlies enjoyed the painting - however, the "edible" part was actually wasted, as neither of them wanted to eat any of it!  Surprisingly, even Ella didn't like it when I tried to give her a lick.  I'm actually relieved - this means we can start moving on to regular painting with Ella - no need to worry that she'll want to put the paintbrush in her mouth!  However, she did not want to stick to painting only her paper, she painted Mia's paper (much to Mia's horror), she painted the newspaper and the table, and even tried to go outside with her paintbrush...

The soap-slime took quite a while to cool down and become slimy - Mia was super impressed and "dug" right in.  Ella, on the other hand, was not keen on the texture at all and preferred to dig into it with her spade, flinging bits of the slime all over the place!

Both of these activities took quite some time in preparing them - and the painting kept them busy for maybe 10 minutes, and the slime for less than 5...  Felt like so much effort for such a short time of "fun" - but nonetheless, it was an experience for all of us and nice to do something different than the usual daily activities and play.

Another painting activity I found that looks super cool, but didn't have the energy for today, is this salt, glue and watercolour art...  Perhaps tomorrow! ;-)

xx

Countdown to Mia's 5th Birthday!

Mia turns 5 in a week!

I made a birthday countdown for her.  She chose a Barbie theme for her party this year, so I cut out a couple of the Barbie silhouette pictures and wrote the number of days left, in the middle of it.  Then I stuck them to decorated pegs and put them on a round cardboard.  Easy peasy and Mia was so happy with it!  It's the first thing she does every morning, take a peg off.

We started the countdown at 15 sleeps to go.

Today, only 6 sleeps to go!

Party planning is in full swing, for the weekend after her birthday.  Really excited about the pink and black colour scheme, think it's going to look so pretty.

My sister designed the beautiful invitation:

What fun, yay!
xx

Rainy weekend play-dough fun

It's been a rainy, overcast and chilly weekend.  Mia's not impressed at having to wear winter clothes again, or at having to be indoors all the time!

We made some play-dough, using a tried-and-tested recipe that I posted about a while ago - it really is a perfect playdough texture - it's a little bit of a schlep to make, but definitely worth it.

The girlies loved it - Ella wasn't too keen on the texture at first, but after a while was happily picking pieces off and presenting them to me. Mia also made me lots of "pasta" and "biscuits".

We played with this both days of the weekend, a fun activity for all - mommy included! ;-)

We made cloud dough!

A couple of times, Mia and I have made "moon sand" - see my post about it here.  Then I recently came across a slightly different version of it, this time called "cloud dough" - mostly the same ingredients as the moon sand, but then I specifically liked this recipe, Calming Lavender Cloud Dough - the idea to add some colour using crushed chalk, and lavender essential oil really appealed to me!

I only made a quarter of the recipe as mentioned, I didn't have enough flour.  Crushing the coloured chalk was quite a mission, I used our pestle & mortar, but was well worth the effort!

This was such an awesome sensory play for both girls - the soft texture, the pretty colour, the divine smell.  Ella did try and have a taste but realised it's not tasty, haha!

Both girls slept really well last night - could it be the lavender? Maybe!

xx

Mia's winter holiday fun!

School started again yesterday.  Half of me is sad, two weeks went by so quickly - but the other half of me is glad to get back into routine again.

We had a fun-filled winter holiday, for sure!  I really made an effort that each day, there was some kind of special activity.  Whether it be something big like going to the movies or to the Spur for a meal, or just something at home like making play-dough or taking her to my salon.

I'll let the photos tell the story.

Mani time, playing in mommy's salon

Colouring in

Lots of walks on their bikes

Cupcakes!

Movie time! Really enjoyed this super cute movie

Milkshake outing!

Playdate with her friend, Talia, and they made iced marie biscuits

Painting!

Cutie-pie rainbow sisters, relaxing and playing together

A facial in mommy's salon!

Another mani

Morning at the hairdresser!

Last cupcake outing, just Mia and mommy 

Helper girl, sporting her beautiful new haircut

Playing with face-paints - plus 3rd mani for the holiday!

What a happy, lucky little girl! ♥
xx

Easter 2015

We had a special long weekend at home. I was so relieved that we didn't have to go anywhere and be on the roads.  The inlaws came here, and it was nice to have them here longer than a usual weekend, because things were less rushed - always trying to fit the most into a weekend.  They arrived on Thursday afternoon, just in time to come and watch Mia's swimming lesson, they loved that, and Mia was in her element too!

The rest of the weekend was spent eating yummy food and copious amounts of chocolate, lots of vino, and both girlies spoilt us by sleeping well!  We went to church on Friday, and on Saturday Wyn and I went to the movies, so much fun. Watched "Ballade vir 'n Enkeling", it was brilliant, really enjoyed it!

This was our little Easter table decoration display that my MIL and I made:

Sunday's Easter Egg Hunt remains a highlight of the year!  Loved Mia's anticipation and excitement.

 

Mom's lil chocolate piggies ♥

 

We did a couple of Easter crafts.  This handprint one is an idea I saw on Pinterest ages ago - so glad I managed to convince Wyn to let me paint his hand, haha!  Want to frame this. ♥

Mia painted some polystyrene eggies and made a nest

For Easter cards, I let Mia colour one picture in, she traced the words, and then I made photocopies.  Much better than her having to colour a picture in ten times!

♥

xx

Christmas crafts, holiday fun, special memories!

We've been very busy making memories!

Mia baked cookies, we used this recipe from Alton Brown. They came out really nicely! Packaged some of them for gifts.


Ella is 8 months old today, and such a happy baby.  Shame, about two weeks ago we went through a very rough phase, she had a virus that caused terrible fever blisters in her mouth, on her tongue and her chin, poor body didn't eat or drink very well for a few days. Luckily she's all better now, the horrible fever blister on her chin has just left a mark, hope it will clear up in time.

She's getting very keen to become mobile, gets quite frustrated at not being able to move to where she wants to go. She adores the walking ring and moves really fast in it, I giggle so much at how her lil leggies go!

She's a precious lil thing, she gets a million kisses a day.

Eating litchis - ultimate summer holiday snack!

Lots of fun putting up our Christmas tree - Mia did most of it herself! Such a special tradition. I loved the way she was so gentle with the ornaments, carefully hanging them, chatting about them, choosing her favourites. So special!

We made clay decorations again, this time using a different recipe from the previous two years - we tried this one this time - it came out quite nicely!

We made Christmas cards - again - Mia did a lot of the work herself! Such a big girl.

Summer fun - hubby thought he'd water the grass, Mia thought she'd get sopping wet!

A fun lunch at a restaurant with my special people. Oh I love my two girls to the moon and back!

Easter Craft

Mia made Easter cards for everyone in the family this week.

I got the idea off this blog from Pinterest - to paint with earbuds.  It made a nice change from the usual kind of painting!

I helped a lil bit. ;-)

Mia really enjoyed it, such a fun Easter craft to do.  She's so pleased and proud, handing them out to everyone. ♥

xx

My Valentine's Princess

Mia makes my day, every day!

 

For Valentine's Day, we made cards for the grandparents and godparents:

 

 

 

I woke her up this morning with a heart choccie, and singing "I wish you a happy Valentine's Day" to which she sang back, "I wish you a merry Christmas!" ;-)

 

Her school requested that all the kids dress in, pink, red, and/or white, so she was super pleased that she could wear a beautiful party dress to school today.

 

 

She insisted on making two cards for her two teachers too. ♥

 

 

Beautiful person of mine ♥

 

 

When we got to school, her teacher gave her a card and present that she had made this week for mommy and pappa.  She never said a word, lil secret keeper!  So special.

(Giggled at my preggy bump photo-bombing this pic!!)

 

 

Inside the card she drew a picture, and the teacher wrote what's what.  This brought a tear to my eye!

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

xx