My Monday Making: Valentine's decorations

Hello! Monday is always such a difficult day for me... Its the first day of the week, where I have to prepare for a hard working week as also finishing up some chores left from the weekend. And this weekend was a special one, as we celebrated Valentine's! I decided that this valentine's would be a family event, where we would celebrate the love we feel for each other. So I tried to make it special for everyone, and make it special for the little kiddos particularly. Once again I went all out with decorations and a lot of baking! The kiddoes do enjoy it, and... I think they are starting to expect it, as they are becoming a biiitttt demanding... lol! More on that later....

Our lunch was special , and I baked a hear dessert for it. I followed this recipe here, for a layered Brownie Heart Dessert.

I started by baking two heart shaped brownies:

This is what they looked after baked, quite cute, when removing the brownie from the foil goes well! My second brownie was not that good looking....

I then made the strawberry cream... Look at those gorgeous colours!

And spread it over the brownie.

Then its all about strawberries!

And here goes the second brownie. As you can see it fell apart, but I was able to cover the hole with strawberry cream.

 and it looked good ... and very tasty in the end:

Making the decorations was the fun part. I made a lot of heart banners and also a big heart to hang. For this I used my stash of tissue paper I had. I used different tones of pink to make an Ombre effect. Kiddos started by helping me, but then got bored!

I began by cutting squares of tissue paper, and glue with a regular glue stick.  I chose to use the darker pink tones first, and then ended up with the lighter pink shade.

The brown paper I am using is the rolls of wrapping paper I have around. I am always saving paper for this little experiments. Everything can have a second, third and fourth lives! I also used this paper to wrap the Valentines gifts. I did forget to take pictures! Next time I will remember to take some...

And this is how the heart ended up:

I cut a lot of little hearts to make the bunting. I made 3d heart bunting for this, so very easy to do! I will later share a tutorial. Its does take a lot of hearts to cut out, but that can be a task that you can share with your little guys!

I also made a banner saying 'Be my Valentine'.... And little fan! yes, I have a lot of pink paper around... Not so much now as I used a lot of pink for Valentine's!

And for snacks I also made some cupcakes and merengue... Cupcake toppers were obligatory! 

My oldest when saw the cupcakes asked 'Are this valentine's cupcakes?'...  I answered, 'Yes, honey, they are!' ... and he replies: 'So why are they not heart shaped??' LOL! Very demanding little fellow....!

I hope you enjoyed a lovely Valentine!

xx

My Monday Making: A bird automata!

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds everyone in good health, both mental as physical... and that everyone is keeping themselves safe. Uow, what crazy times we are living, never ever have I imagined that in 2021 posts of mine would start this way. But this is still our covid's reality. 

It has been a long time since I have last published a post about our little makings around the house. Have to say that with lockdown, I have never been so busy and lacking time to do anything. My sewing machine is closed up in a cupboard. And, being completely honest is not as I have the right mind frame be sewing properly . And since I have little people to keep entertained, any makings have to involve tiny hands, and be fun!

I have come across an amazing whale automata when browsing the internet for ideas:

Yes, this at some point will be something for us to make, but.... not in the foreseeable future!

I had to search for something more feasible for us to make. Much easier to do as well! So  more browsing and I found this tutorial at a great website for automata, Rob Ives .

The tutorial I chose to use was this one, for a cork bird. So .... we started to make this little guy!  We begun by gathering all the materials. We have a lot, and I mean a lot of corks in our home (not sure why... do we have someone who really loves red wine??). As I am always printing articles and so on, we have a lot of paper clips. We just had more difficulties finding foam, as it was spread in different places, kiddos love to find new spots to stash their craft materials. You can also use card for the bird body really, but since we had leftovers of foam, we chose that material instead of card.

Cutting the materials for the bird body was easy.  I did made the hole on the cork, which is very straightforward to do. The bit that was really difficult for us (particularly for the big kiddo, although he had fun using mummy's tools) was straight the paper clips, and even more difficult to fold these at the correct angles, as you can see below:

In this image big kiddo is trying to shape the crank. He started shaping the angles, and I finished as the best I could. Not the most easier task even for mummy!

This image shows another step, inserting the legs in the birds body. 

The bird final look! A bit different from what it was suppose to look lol

And here is the bird finally attached to the cork:

But the good part is, even if you get clumsy angles or not straight at all legs, the bird still moves, although in a really funny manner!

It really did not matter if we did not managed a perfect bird, but making this little guy kept us busy, and the kiddos still enjoyed playing with it.

 Let's see if I can start posting more regularly. No promises though, as finding some free time with home-schooling is not easy.  I hope this post gets you some inspiration to spend time at home with kids! Share some ideas below, I would love to hear from you.

xx

My Monday baking: Little buns

Are you struggling with activities to do yourself plus kids? Well what about baking? I know it may not be easier to do with two little guys, but depending the recipes  you are following it can be manageable.

I found this buns recipe online, and it is such an easy one to follow, only two ingredients, not proofing needed and its easy for my little guys to help out... both baking and eating!

Ingredients:

Yogurt

self-raising flour

salt

You just need to keep the proportion 1cup of yogurt to 1 and 1/2 cup of flour and a pinch of salt.... and mix!

Then shape a round ball of dough over a floured counter:

And divide the balls into smaller round dough balls...:

Take it to the oven 10 min 200C:

And that's about it, you'll have little buns ready!

Tasty and quick recipe to make buns ever!

the kids totally loved these, we did eat all the buns!

Hope this inspires you to bake with your little ones and get them occupied for a few min!

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

We went on a BIG ghost hunt!

I hope you are enjoying your half term break and had fun this Halloween! 

During this break I did struggle to have imagination and fill all this week with activities to do with with the kids.  Luckily, around Southampton  ' Go Southampton' is offering a city 'Ghost trail' for families to enjoy around the Old city centre. So, that was one morning sorted with more ghost hunting fun! You can enjoy this activity until the 3rd of November (find more here).

As Ghost hunting, or treasure hunting is indeed something that my kids really enjoy to do, I could not miss a ghost hunt  around Southampton. We packed a quick snack lunch bag and off we went, ghost hunting! Map on hands.... and lets explore the old city centre and find all the lost ghosts...

This Ghost hunting involved searching ghosts in several specific spots, 11 altogether and a mysterious last one. There are many venues collaborating with the trail, as the points where the ghost are hiding.   These are local pubs as the 'Duke of Wellington' and main touristic attractions in the city, as 'Tudor House'. The Tudor House was also the origin from where all the ghosts escaped...

We could easily find many families following this ghost trail.  At any given ghosts point children were searching and locating the  various 'lost ghost'.  These 'lost ghosts' are historical figures, which will not only teach the children interesting facts and also feature a letter which will be key to find a hidden clue that will show you  your final 'ghost point'. 

For the grown ups the trail is may not be as exciting as far as a ghost hunt goes, but it still can provide you with interesting sightseeing while rediscovering the local attractions.

The ghost trail took us all the morning to do and was enjoyable. After my children found the ghosts, all the little pieces of information about fun historical facts  were oddly  remembered! Also, if you love the city and know other facts you can also pitch in and teach them a little more!

At the end of the ghost trail you can also claim a prize. You just need to fill up and return the map in the last spot of the trail, which will be known once you are done collecting all the clues. 

All the search and ghost finding gave the kids a true sense of fulfilment  as they got a prize at the end! These were masks that they had fun scrapping and discovering different colours.

Now, this school break is almost over. Only one more weekend and school will resume. I know that once it starts I will miss the  kids, but not sure I will miss the stress of...what are we doing today???

We had a mini Ghost Hunt!

Half term break is here and that means that parents, me included are on the lookout for activities to do with little ones! Today I created a mini ghost hunt, which I did with my little ones! I hope I inspire you to do your  hunt at home. In the past I did an egg hunt with the kids, and since Halloween is here, I decided to change the theme for a more 'Halloweeny' one, and here is our very own Ghost hunt!

I used materials that I already had in my craft cabinet, so I haven't spent  any money at all in this project.

If you are thinking about making a similar hunt, here are the materials I used in the little felt ghosts:

Felt (colours I used, blue, light and dark grey, cream)

Embroidery thread

Embroidery Needle

...and for the little signalling ghosts:

Card (different colours, for ghosts and arrows)

Duck-tape

Scissors

Black pen

colouring pencils

Wooden skewer

I first started to make my little felt ghosts with different colours:

These took some time to make, but if you google alternatives some paper suggestions come up. I decided to make them in felt  because I hosted my ghost hunt outdoors, so felt seemed more appropriate given the  more humid and cold weather. I also think that with young children having felt ghosts would mean then these would be reusable in the future, either as soft toys (and they were already playing with each one that I finished), or simply as decorations.  If you are having an indoors ghost hunt making paper ghost are much quicker and easy to make. I made 9 felt ghosts altogether and this was the most laboured task of this process. I planed to make more (12 little felt ghosts) but as it was taking me so long to make this, I cut the number short. However, and given how fast the kids found them - it took this hunt around 10 minutes, I would advise for a larger number of ghosts (the initial 12). This is a balance between having a hunt to take some time, but not so much to bore the kids. Also, making the ghosts really difficult to find would not work, the kids would be discouraged, and not forgetting that this was for children of different ages, my little one is only 2! However, if I am considering that the kids were engaged in this whole process, it actually took us the whole morning doing this...

Then I made the signalling ghosts. These were very easy to make and my little ones helped me with the cutting and with the colouring.

These designs where inspired from the internet, and were really simple to make. 

After cutting and colouring, it was time to attach to a skewer using duck-tape. Kids also helped me with these steps.

And here it is, the final look of the signalling ghosts, the only step missing are the little arrows that I also glued over the ghosts:

All ready to stick in the garden (oops, minus the arrows)!

My oldest stick the ghosts in the garden. He was really excited with all, and helping me make these. They were engaged in this little craft project, and I let them help as much as they could. The only thing that I actually did on my own was hiding the ghosts in the garden! Otherwise they would not be having a ghost hunt....

We also made a ghost counting card, were the kids would mark once they found the different ghosts in the garden.

Once the little guys found the different ghosts and capture them, they would tick their card!

The last one to find was the this little yellow ghost...!

Both kids really enjoyed the ghost hunt. They were asking to repeat the ghost hunt tomorrow again! 

Happy hunting!

Swish, Swoosh, Splosh!

Hello!

Last week I shared a few activities that are available in Southampton for young children at my favorite places, City Art Gallery and my Local libraries this Autumn. Today we went to the City Art Gallery to watch 'Swish, swoosh, Splosh!' that I mentioned in that post! 

I am so happy that we went! The day was not inviting at all, as it was really raining,  so it was so much inviting to stay in and just slumber around... However, it is not always that we have an aooportunity to go for free to the theatre, so we gathered the wellies our umbrellas and adventured outside and off we went, to the City Art Gallery! And I am so glad we did! This show was really educational activity besides entertaining. It ticked all the things it advertised it would do, plenty of interaction, makaton, multi sensory play and it really taught the children about the dangers of plastic to the ocean life.

Unfortunately, I was not able to take many pictures of the event, firstly because there were loads of children there... and secondly because my children were inquisitive and  asking for my attention... Still, I was able to get some quick shots:

The decoration was simple but effective, there was not doubt that it represented the sea! Both Kidos quickly made the connection, and were able to follow the story and all that was happening. The was a clear connection of colours used in the set, although subtle. All plastic and human things were orange, while the rest was mostly blue and green. Even the actors when portraying human roles where using the black t-shirts with human splashed in orange... When portraying the animals, not only they were using the puppets as they would dress up in blue and green outfits.

The event started by offering the children little paper fishes for them to colour, that would later on be part of the set:

This was an excellent activity to start the show, as it engaged us, the audience as part of the show preparation!

The story was really simple, the main characters were Olive the turtle, Blue the sting-ray and Dotty the fish, all puppets and really cute puppets! They all lived in the coral reef and attended the coral community centre for several activities!   These activities were all opportunities for the actors to engage with the audience, there was Bingo!, Zumba, and a Quiz. All the children were eager to answer and participate in everything. 

During the show there was loads of music, and if it was cheerful and happy when the main characters were happy, the tone changed to a little more eerie when any form of plastic made an appearance in the coral. Both my children quickly learned that the animals were in really danger when the plastic was around, the could misunderstand it for other animals, and be trapped in the nets. This story shows all this through the use of the puppets. Olive the turtle got caught in the net left by humans...And only humans could help Olive in the end. Children quickly volunteered to help the turtle, and lift the net! They also helped to clean the ocean off the plastic. The actors also used makaton when telling the story, so I was also to pick up some sign language. 

The story was simple, and I know that my children were understand the dangers of plastic. On the way home they were still talking about it! The event also gave the audience several ideas and activities to do with the children re-using plastic, as making little fishes out of plastic bottles, or kites out of plastic bags.

Overall this was a good event! Hoping that the City Art Gallery will be offering more of these!What about you, how did you spent Saturday?