Valentine's crafting

I'm pretty proud of myself that I'm managing to blog this one in the same month as the holiday ;) - unlike my New Year's Eve post!

We did a couple of crafty things for Valentine's Day. We were going to do a few more but time ran away from us. The kids had lots of fun with these though.

Heart pictures

Another loo roll craft :) (you can read about our loo roll fireworks here). This time I folded them into heart shapes and secured the shape with a bit of tape. I made 3 and put out 3 bowls of different coloured paint and away the kids went...

Izzy kept saying "more more" and she was like a painting machine! D had a lovely methodical approach whereas Iz (as usual!) embraced chaos :) 

 

Next year I might cut heart-shapes out if these pictures to make collage cards but for now I can't bear to cut into any of their artwork!!

Heart frame

Iz did this one in her own while D was away having a boys weekend). It was very simple but had a few different elements so she got to have fun with a couple of different crafting mediums.

What you need:

Paper plate

Red or pink paint

Glue

Fake petals (we got a large tub from Poundland)

1. Cut a heart-shapes hole out of the plate

2. Paint the plate with coloured paint and leave to dry

3. Using glue, stick on some petals

4. Once it's dry use it to pose cutely behind :)

 

Did you do anything special for Valentine's Day with your kids?

New Year's Eve

So New Year's Eve is now pretty much a distant memory but I wanted to share how we celebrated it as they'd be pretty cool for any celebration - I'm definitely going to adopt some for birthdays in the future!

Sprinkle-tinis

Instead of a martini, have a sprinkle-tini! These look really cute and the kids loved having their own "special drink". 

Propping up the bar...

All you need is a glass (we used plastic cocktail ones from Poundland), some honey and sprinkles. I wiped a bit of honey around the upper outer rim of the glass and then rolled it in a plate of sprinkles. Leave it to dry for an hour and then add the the drink of choice. Perfect!

I especially loved it when they cheers'd each other :) I initially saw the idea here - check out the link for other nice ideas for child-friendly NYE ideas.

Balloon drop

This was so much fun and will definitely be repeated!! 

All you need is:

2 large pieces of light material (I used tulle as I had some at home - planning to make some skirts for Iz but not quite found the time yet!)

Masking tape

Confetti (I used pompoms and foam shapes)

Balloons (lots of!)

A balloon pump (optional but very handy if you have one)

Then it is as simple as:

- lie the 2 pieces of fabric on the floor and tape them together, just on one side, long edge to long edge

- make a long "tail" of masking tape at one end by looping the tape over itself

- then tape the three sides of the "combined piece" to the ceiling, leaving the fourth side open so you can fill the pouch with balloons/confetti/pompoms

- once it is filled tape up the 4th side so only the tail is left hNging down

- gather your children underneath and instruct a willing volunteer to pull on the tape tail...

Ready for action...

Tada! Homemade balloon drop!! SO much fun and just using things you have around the house :)

Both kids had loads of fun playing with the balloons and pompoms all afternoon. And added bonus - all of it is reusable. Just peel off the masking tape and your fabric is good as new :)

Fireworks painting

What's not to love about loo rolls? They are free, you always have a supply and they are an awesome painting tool!

For this super simple fireworks painting I just cut into the top of a couple and put one in different bowls of paint.

Iz just went for a massive free-for-all whereas D really carefully did one colour and then put another one inside, colour co-ordinating each one so there were matching pairs. 

Easiest Treasure Hunt... Ever!

Looking for a super simple way to amuse the kids that has zero set-up time (and also helps uncover toys they haven't played with in ages so you then get the bonus of new-toy-that's-actually-an-old-toy distraction)? Then read on...

As with most activities we do, there was a mandatory "putting shoes on" break

Steps:

1. Assemble your children

2. Give each of them some kind of container (eg Tupperware, roasting dish, tray)

3. Let each choose a favourite colour (D chose blue and I chose red for Iz - she is not that good at colours as she says everything is yellow. Obviously she looks very clever if you happen to pick a yellow object and ask her what colour it is...)

4. Then ask them to find 10 objects* of that colour that will fit in their box

5. Sit back and put your feet up as they potter round trying to find the requisite items

* I made an additional rule after D tried to put 10 blue paper money notes in his box... Each object has to be different :)

Rifling for blue stuff

Yay she chose the red one (after much deliberation!)

Rediscovering lost toys during the search :)

It was actually really interesting seeing which objects D picked (Iz needed too much help from me to claim she chose any herself!) - I was impressed at his attention to detailing noticing the blue button on the remote control!

D's selection of blue objects

This is a great way to occupy the kids for an afternoon - you can change the number of items they need to find depending on how much time you want to fill, and you can tweak the difficulty (eg for young toddlers give them a single colour, for older toddlers get them to find all the colours of the rainbow and for older children get them to find striped/spotty objects etc). Then sit back and relax with your stilll-hot cup of tea :)

Iz with her haul