Making leaves

Ill health has continued here over the weekend, with a D and V bug.  Oh joy.  Freddie was still under the weather today, so that plus heavy rain kept us in the house.
I've been pinning lots of autumn crafts, so suggested some to Betsy.  We started off by making a leaf window decoration from laminated tissue paper.  There are a few lovely looking stain glass-type decorations on pinterest like this one, but I don't have any crayons in the house (how is that possible?!).  So I asked Betsy to tear up some tissue paper and we arranged it in a laminator pouch.

Betsy drew a leaf shape on an A4 piece of brown card.  I used a craft knife to cut around it and cut the centre out to make a frame.

We put double sided tape on one side of the frame, and stuck it on the laminated tissue paper.

I cut around it, and Betsy stuck it on the window.  It looks gorgeous!

Next, Betsy made a tree with tissue paper leaves, inspired by this blog post.  I drew the tree, we both coloured it in, and she scrunched up the tissue paper and stuck it on.

Freddie roused himself from the sofa and came and joined us.  I cut his out of brown paper (that I hadn't been able to lay my hands on for Betsy's).

Another craft I pinned was leaf pictures using oil pastels.  Freddie liked the look of them, so we found some leaf templates via google. 

Once he'd drawn around them, I rubbed the oil pastels to blur the colour (Freddie didn't want to do it).  Then we peeled the leaves off the paper.  I love how this looks.

Then we got the paints and leaf sponges out.  We have some lovely autumnal paints in copper, orange, gold and brown.

Painting pottery

We went to a pottery painting cafe today (on another damp and miserable day).  We haven't been since Meg was tiny.  I'd forgotten quite how expensive it is, £51 for 3 children to paint one thing each plus a cuppa and some snacks.  Ouch.  Still, the kids enjoyed it.  We'll keep it as a very occasional activity though!
Meg chose a little dog to paint.  She did about half before she wanted to go and play in the toy corner, and I finished it off for her.

Freddie and Betsy both chose to paint a money box.  Betsy wanted a pig, and Freddie opted for a car.  They needed very minimal help from me.

Here are their finished items, ready for glazing and baking in the kiln:

We can collect them on Saturday and the kids are really looking forward to bringing them home.

Footprints

The kids did some painting outside today.  It started off with feet, then eventually they painted their bodies.  I blew up the paddling pool for them to splash around in and clean up a little.  It took ages to fill the pool up (grr hosepipe ban!).

Painting without brushes

I pinned this yesterday, and loved the idea of putting out a load of different tools to paint with.  I thought it was right up Betsy's street.
I set it up once Meg was in bed having a nap (the amount of carnage she would wreak was too much for me!).

Betsy did enjoy it.  She painted two table lengths of wallpaper.  She especially liked printing with the cucumber and the washing up sponge.

I hung it up from the shelves when she'd finished, and she loves having it on display.  

I couldn't entice Freddie away from his new Wii game -  he bought Cars RaceORama and is busy winning races and unlocking additions to his cars.

Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin

Betsy and I made a three little pigs puppet set yesterday, inspired by this blog post at innerchildfun.  I offered her different materials to make the puppets from (card, felt or craft foam).  She liked the feel of the craft foam and chose that.
Betsy cut the straw and the sticks, and drew the bricks.  I helped with the pigs and the wolf, and she drew the eyes and mouths.
The play set turned out really well. We waited till today to play with it, once the glue was dry.
Freddie played the wolf, Betsy the pigs and I worked the houses.  I think we'll make another set, maybe the Billy Goats Gruff.

Freddie's been playing a lot of Dinosaur Strike on the Wii, with a spillover into us all playing fighting dinosaur games.  I have been defeated many many times!


I dug out some games that had been waiting for a moment of boredom.  The kids had a bendy straw building kit for christmas.  Freddie and I made a sort of double wheel with spokes.  It was one of those things that only diverts for 10 minutes, but seems to bring different elements of previous experiences together.


We played 3D snakes and ladders, and made some paper aeroplanes from the book I bought at the weekend.  


Betsy did some painting.  She said it was the best painting ever done in the world!

Our Grow Your Own Potatoes pack arrived last week.  This is our third year of doing it.  Today we put the seed potatoes on the window sill for chitting.

We just need to get some compost for planting them out in a couple of weeks time.  We'd better start thinking about the allotment soon too, growing season is fast approaching!

Busy Betsy

Freddie can't get enough of Skylanders. He's playing it, thinking about it, talking about it, watching youtube vids of it for most of his waking hours. He's planning his next set of figures, musing why shops sold out so quickly, and why it's taking so long to get new stock in.

He's not got much headspace for anything else at the moment!

Betsy likes to keep busy, so while Freddie was playing Skylanders and Meg was asleep, Betsy and I got on with bits and bobs.

First up she did some painting. We're using these pictures to make thank you cards for Christmas presents.

We spent ages doing a set of 4 puzzles. She loves these puzzles but we rarely do them all in one go.

We got the hammering set out.

We collaborated on this tree!

Painting, and numbers

Nearly the end of the week now, and I'm glad of it. I'm still really tired, and getting broken sleep every night.

We've had a relaxed few days. On Tuesday Betsy did lots of painting with some leaf shape sponges. I'm going to use her pictures to make thank you cards for her birthday presents (must get on with it, her birthday was a few weeks ago now eek).









Freddie played a game with a couple of his dinosaurs and the playdough. He started out by comparing their footprints, then got into a dino/volcano/fighting bit. Then he made a nest of dinosaur eggs (pebbels we had collected from the beach on our holiday)


On Wednesday we had our home ed co-op. Annoyingly my phone lead isn't working so I can't get the photos, but the kids made a ziggarut from boxes and blankets.

On the way home Freddie and I had a conversation about time - how many seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, days in a month, days in a year.....He's very interested in numbers at the moment. He explained odd numbers to me the other day, and oftens asks me different questions about numbers.

Today my mum came over. We played, had lunch and then headed out to the woods. It was lovely: no one there, not too cold, beautiful colours. Again, no photos because of the lead grrrrr. And there are some great ones of course! Oh well, if I get the lead sorted I'll add the photos another day.

Chicken pox sucks

Both the girls have chicken pox now. Another week in quarantine. Poor Freddie is restless. He hasn't played with anyone except Jarvis for nearly 3 weeks.

The last couple of days have been tricky, with Betsy and Meg feeling rough. There's been an awful lot of simultaneous crying. We've done a few things to try and keep busy, but it's not easy.

Freddie adorned the windows with dinosaur stickers.


We made a cosy den outside, for lunch and play.



We did some sticking. Freddie made superglittery people (which will turn into thank you cards as soon as I make the time).


Betsy made a couple of chicken pox people!



We did some painting, and playdough. Freddie painted me a rainbow.


It started to rain outside, so the den came in. Betsy made a nest in there.


Freddie wanted 'the best toast ever' made from home made bread. So we made the bread, and he enjoyed the toast (and so did I).

That was all on Monday. Tuesday and today have been pretty much written off. Fred has been so patient, and helped me out so many times. He ran out to get the washing in when it started raining and Betsy was asleep on my lap. He's fetched things for himself, for me, and the girls. I'm so proud of him.

I cannot wait until chicken pox has left this house!

Day 5 in the chicken pox house...

It's been a rubbish couple of days. Tuesday we quarantined ourselves. Freddie did some plaster of paris dinosaur models.


We did some more experiements from the kit he got for his birthday. So lots more volcanos, plus bobbing raisins in fizzy water and food colour 'bombs'. I made Betsy a very cool kitchen with the play frames, her oven, washing machine and play food.

It was the summer solstice, and a clear evening so we got to see the sky darken slowly. I took this photo at 10.15pm.


Then yesterday Freddie felt rotten. He didn't move from the sofa at all, didn't eat, barely drank. He wasn't itching but the spots were very sore. Poor guy. He needed me close, to sit with him, rest his legs on my lap. So Betsy had to wait for almost everything she wanted all day, and Meg was just slotted in somehow.

Thank goodness he woke feeling much better. We're not at the end yet, but at least he's happier.

I'm glad that you can pick up supercheap films from Tescos - Home Alone, Night at the Museum 2 and the box set of Ice Age have made the last two days more bearable for all of us!

Meg's birthday tomorrow. It will be a bit of a damp squib.