lumpy bumpy road playdough - teusday treasure

Ok so i like making play dough for my boys its a good busy thing, today i was inspired by one of our favourite books, roadworks by Sally Sutton pictures by Brian Lovelock.

Its a great book for boys but im sure girls would like it too, flynn knows it off by heart. Lots of diggers and noisy sounds, so i made my usual play dough and added some black lentils to to the very dark blue and some linseed's to the yellow. It was fabulous, the more you move the play dough the lentils kind of bounce out at you. It looks like the speckled road in the book and we had a lovely play together making roads, pathways for pedestrians. We put up peg signs and planted pasta flowers. All in all it was a good time.

Snow in the tropics - tuesday treasure

Late again sassy, tsk tsk, well thats what happens when your living in snotsville, coughing grumpy children are wearisome to the mum.

Ok so my Flynn has been saying that it will be christmas when it snows, poor child has no idea that it really will never snow here. Christmas will be 30 something degrees celcius that about 86 in farenheit. With some christmas's past having 90% humidity....yuk hot and sticky basically were living in warm soup. On tv he has seen that christmas and snow go hand in hand...."grandma, it will be christmas time when its snowing and santa hohoho man will come with presents!"
His heart is set on snow, so i have been thinking about how i could manufacture some snow for him. Whatching a grown up movie, 'i don't know how she does it' this week and seeing the snow fluttering down gave me a nice and easy idea - A Snowy Sticky Contact picture!!

So i Cut the sheet of contact in half, saving one bit for the top. I ripped up lots of white paper into tiny peices, i got out some cotton woll balls and musten't forget the glitter! So you place on peice of cantact on the table, take the paper off it and sprinkle your ripped up paper so it falls like snow, then we took our cotton balls and made little mounds in the corners, to look like snow setteling on the window sill. Then he glittered. Then very carefully i placed the other bit of contact over the top and flynn pressed it together so it stuck well.




Then i put it on his window...magic..he sat back and contemplated his snow. Im going to assume that meant he liked it, hes not as forthcoming with enthusiasm when hes got the flu.
love sassy

moon dough - thinking cap thursday

I'm stealing a friends recipe its fantastic, Its called moon dough, although it reminds me more of sand, or scone mixture when your rubbing in the butter. Check out the post on Alicia's 365 moments of Gratitude. We made this today with plain flour and baby oil and a bit of green glitter, it smells really nice! First Flynn popped some stones in it, and then stomped his dino through it, then drove his cars in it. I clumped together a mountain and he smashed his cars into it, He crumbled some through a cardboard tube. Then after a food interval, called Flynn into my flower garden and we picked a few things, we then made a garden in the moon dough with a road for the cars to drive down, a bridge for the dinosaurs to cross so they could eat the flowers. All in all its great stuff, i put it into an ice cream container and we will play with it again tomorrow. Cheap and fun, my kinda play.

So what is he learning when he plays with moon dough? Its all the same sorts of skills as play dough, they learn about touch, this dough is crumbly and yet it moulds together. Like play dough its a tranquil and soothing activity, where they tend to concentrate really well. Admittedly Flynn really wanted company to play with it today but i can see that just the age hes at. Its a great medium for story telling too. So thanks Alicia we really like it x x love sassy

linked on its playtime & tgif linky party &
 

christmas paper - tuesday treasure (a day late)

Its time for us to post some overseas Christmas goodies and we need some paper, so Flynn and i got busy today with some rollers and blue paint. I know that chrissy paper is cheap, but i think presents to loved ones wrapped in home made paper is a more thoughtful way to give gifts. Also it gives Flynn and opportunity to paint on really big bits of paper and that's always fun. It also makes the lead up to christmas that much more exciting for kids if they are involved in all the steps of gift giving. Flynn has been subjected to many christmas shopping trips lately as i madly try to get it done before the shops get to catastrophic. So he has helped choose presents, now he gets to make the paper, he will also be making cards and i may even employ his elfish little hands to manage the sticky tape at wrapping time. He will have a good understanding this way of the joy of gift giving, and i hope too that he will see christmas is about giving to loved ones not just about what hes getting.

ok so how did we make our christmas paper? We had some paper from flynn's daddy that he no longer needed, we got some silver paint and some blue paint, some little sponge rollers and i cut out some stencils. very basic stencils. I cut out a snowman and a snowflake and this was ok, but i cut them out of paper, big mistake they started to break and rip after the 3rd rollering. I then cut some stars out of a empty cat bikkie box and this worked fantastic. I cut one really big star, flynn really liked this one, and a few small stars. The biggest difference i noticed was he struggled with the first stencils because he was rollering around them, needed lots of help. But with the star stencils he was rollering the inside shape the star itself and this clicked with him so much better, interesting that the negative positive aspect would make a difference but at nearly four i can understand its easier to see what your doing. We quickly filled up two big pieces of paper, the silver paint was not bold enough so we combined the blue with it to get a shiny blue paint. I think the paper has worked out rather pretty, i think the key to stencil paper is to keep the stencils simple.

If your having trouble with the drawing up of a stencil you can always print a basic star from the computer, or just let loose and remember that your kids are very forgiving and will love whatever you do! my stars are a bit wonky x x

sassy

linked on mommy club wednesday linky & Its Playtime & tgif linky party & fun stuff fridays

Kindy Open Day - Only human on humpday

Flynn turns four soon, very soon, and next year he goes to kindy 3 days a week. Until now hes been mine, all the time, hes never been in daycare. I do have a relaxed kid swap with a mate, i take her boy one day a week and another day she has Flynn. But as i said its relaxed and its only for a couple of hours. So kindy seems like a big deal its a real step of Independence for him. I am super excited for him as i know hes a very sociable little fellow (chatterbox) and he need the stimulation for his active mind. I also have the very normal mummy feelings of loss when i think about him going off to kindy, and that from hear on in other people will have some influence over him and his thinking. My house will be eerily devoid of chatter when hes not around, Eli is fairly noisy but is not the questions and chit chat of Flynn. I look forward to giving Eli a bit more 1 on 1 time, but i think hes going to miss his brother too.

I console myself that the kindy I'm sending him too is lovely, really really lovely. It had an open week this week where we could go and hang out and Flynn could get a taste of kindy. He was concerned that i would be leaving him, battles i can see i will face next year, but after a few mins he was lit up inside by the possibilities. So many things to do, so many toys, so many children to play with and class pets too. He painted, played blocks, play dough, watched the fish and spent ages observing the two mice. He ran around the playground the two massive shade trees and took in as much as his little eyes could handle. He loved it, we were only there for 1 hour and a half perhaps 2 hours, he did not want to leave. The teachers are really nice very friendly and went out of their way to go over a few things with us about next year. I think Eli wants to go to kindy too, he was just as busy as Flynn while we were there.

I have a few thoughts jumping around my head about the start of kindy, again its just normal mum stuff...how will i get him there on time, I'm always late for everything these days....i hope we get enough work to pay kindy fees....I have no freaking idea how to handle the lunch box thing, what do i send for my somewhat fussy eater....must make a list of all the kindy supplies he will need....crap what is it going to be like when i have school lists to buy? ..... must get name labels that don't wash off, must ask mummy friends about general label of stuff advise....must go over all kindy info with hubby, must therefore sit down with hubby and talk ! that is very difficult at the moment..... I can't believe hes been here on this earth for four years, what will life bring in the next four year?

I would love to get any tips about how to handle drop offs, i know my son this will be tricky for first few weeks, also lunch box food ideas. and if anyone has starting school, daycare, kindy stories they want to shear I'm totally listening x x x sassy

Birthday Cakes - Friday Finds

yum yum yum

Ok so this week im cruising the net thinking about Flynns 4th birthday thats fast approaching and what kind of cake i should make. I like to make the cakes despite the fact that im just a very average baker. The womans weekly buttercake is a great cake to use as a base for birthdays or if im feeling really lazy i will go and get some sponge cake from the supermarket and pop some jam in the middle and diy the decorating. Its the decorating i enjoy. So im on the look out for an easy but impressive cake for a boy this is the inspiration i have found....i wish i could have all of these cakes, good thing they will have many more birthdays. I ahve included a few girl cakes too, i can dream.

road cake from cakes by caralin 

rainbow cake 1 from kidspot

rainbow cake 2 from baby lifestyles

apple cupcakes from ivillage

 (dream) castle cake from parenting.com

Spider cupcakes from .taste

i think i could do this in spiderman colours and add a spiderman figure

lollipop garden from martha stewart

this is so cool, dinosaur from deshays desserts

Flynn like the car cake, im very open to ideas if you  have a great boy cake ideas please let me know :)
love sassy

Squirt the Flyer - Thinking Cap Thursday

Earlier in the week i had a play date with another almost 4 year old and they both like the angry bird game (grumpy birds Flynn calls it) on the ipad. Thinking about this and wanting to make a game they could play outside that had a similar feel i came up with putting some angry bees on my washing line. I cut them out of cardboard and added some yellow stickers for zing and handed the boys water free water pistols to pretend blast the naught angry bees.

 I left them on the line and today i thought i could turn it into a more exciting and potentially educational game. I cut out some other flying things, birds butterfly's and bats and hung them from the line. All were different colours, with different coloured stickers and I attached them to the line using a pipe cleaner, so they slide a bit in the wind. This time we filled the water pistols with water, and Flynn had to squirt at the ones we called out a colour or an animal. He had to think quick and observe which animals were there what colours they were and what colour spots they had, then co-ordinate that with squirting. He had to count how many were say blue and squirt them all. The more he squirted the more i pretended the bees got angry and i shook the washing line making it harder to squirt them, he giggled and laughed, i got squirted and so did he, it was fun. He had no idea that i was honing his skills of observation, a perfect game for a hot sunny afternoon.

sassy
p.s next time i might add some plastic balls to throw at the flyers.

little monsters

 colour in, cut them out, bend a paper clip stick onto back of monster with tape. hello monster characters, build a little city out of blocks, oh no monsters have taken over the city!! someone help, wait super hero Flynn in here with his super gusting breath power, child blows as if they were blowing out candels. Yay all the nasty monsters have fallen over and been defeated. Repeat, our monsters fell into blue water blocks, off tall buildings. Simple fun, too bad my hot slightly sick boy didn't want to colour in today oh well next time. Hope your little monsters like these monsters.

Obstacle course

Encouraging outside play; Obstacle course.

I read something this week about how little outside time children are getting and thought that now its spring and warmer that we should make more effort to play in the warmer sunny days.

I notice my son eats so much better and sits still to eat if we walk on the beach every day for an hour (we have a Jack Russel X dog so I have a real commitment to his exercise). So over and above our hourly walk I am going to try create more inviting outside time, this is what we did yesterday.

When i was a kid we loved to make obstacle courses with my brother and sisters. Dylan was talking about doing some Digby training and i thought lets build an obstacle course.

I found some off cuts of wood, a couple of chairs, a table cloth, a broom, a tunnel, a pool noodle, some balls, a cart, a cone (or witches hat) and of course a box. (I love box's).

Dylan helped make the course and this is what we came up with. Digby dog was happy to participate in doing the course also. Digby and Dylan continued to play on the course and then spent some time playing in the tunnel with cars while i had wandered off to feed my 6 month old baby.

The next day i gave Dylan a spray bottle with a small squirt of detergent, a sponge and cloth to play with outside and was amused to see he spent an hour washing his obstacle course and the sliding door. we had several refills of the spray bottle. I guess its a really good strength building exercise for his hands too squeezing the trigger of the bottle. Then once finished washing Dylan sat in the box and used a collection of pumice stone and a container and did some 'cooking'.

Today Dylan has made a duplo obstacle course with trucks & cars involving the tunnel too for his duplo people. He has even taken the sponge off a microphone for a sack race for them and has asked if he can have a sack too, so I am off to find him a pillow case.

I have left the course set up on the deck to see what else happens with it this week. :)

x noni

Switching to sassy,

Inspired by my sisters idea I put an obstacle course together today for Flynn, Eli and their friend Ayden. Its really really heated up here in the tropics, so i wanted to use some water in my course. I filled up a clam shell then placed some plastic tub next to it with coloured water in them, put some water toys in. I tied the hose to the beam on the cubby so they had a waterfall into the paddle pool. I got some spare bessa blocks and made stepping stones to a fort that i made using an old sail, some sheets thrown over my washing line..ahh shade we need you! i placed the slide and a painters stand thingy for climbing under and over. I tied some bubble wrap onto the cubby for popping, and placed a bucket and a tub of slime into the course. They worked their way around finding all the different things spending ages together exploring each thing. Heading back to the water all the time to cool off. I noticed their appetite was fantastic at lunch time! We going to head back out there this avo when the mid day heat is gone....what would you put in an obstacle course?

sassy x

this is being shared on milk and cuddles wednesday linky

Mr potato head

 Potato Printing is a classic I remember doing this with my mum. I was chopping up spuds for shepard's pie and i had a lot so I thought why not do some fast spud faces. I used a ball point pen and just kinda jabbed at it then I used the scoopy pointy end of the potato peeler to clear out the pulpy excess. I also cut little handles into the back of the spud so they would be super easy for little tiny boys to use. Results could have been a bit better, activity only lasted 10 mins, but the stamps will keep if you wash them and pop them into a plastic bag and put them in the fridge. The paper makes great wrapping, and an older child could draw bodies for the spuds at a later date. The stamps turn out best if you really slam them into the paper so next time I'm going to encourage some rough stamping and see if I can stretch it out to 20 mins, maybe i need some glitter paint? printing ink would give you the best results for this, but we just used some acrylic paint that we already had. Go see if you have any tato's floating around just asking for a stamping.