Peek a Boo Pegs

I found a photo of a simple clothes peg mechanical toy on Pinterest a while ago. I copied the chick and egg from the original photo, using craft foam, then made my own version using foam hands and a tiny printed photo of girl.

I was quite pleased with the results but although Boy and Girl both liked the Peek a Boo pegs they also wanted to get their hands on them. Since they are too young to work the pegs without giving into touching the (flimsy) foam part, these peek a boo pegs are unlikely to last very long. But this is one activity that I will definitely be coming back to when they are a bit older and can be more involved with the making part. I thought I'd blog about it anyway because I was quite proud of the end result, even if my babies weren't :)

Peggy the Steggy and Kilcornan Walled Garden

The sun is shining hard on the Irish Riviera (but not in our back garden until after lunch) so when Boy asked for "painting" this morning I removed the three of us onto the front driveway with paper, paint, pegs and brushes to make a couple of Peggy the Steggy stegosaur pictures, idea stolen from www.notimeforflashcards.com.

I sketched out a very rough, very non- authentic stegosaur onto yellow card then let Boy and Girl loose with the green paint. Boy immediately began lashing paint onto the ground, stones and he even made sure the whole paint pallet was an even green. Girl focused her efforts on her tights and mouth. I returned the neighbour's Avon lady's sympathetic smile with a smug grin. Check me being arty with my kids and not even having to scrub the floors afterwards. Stick that in your Avon catalogue and sell it.

Anyway Peggy the Steggy managed to catch a few splodges of paint and Boy quite enjoyed painting the clothes pegs though he got a bit frustrated trying to clip them on the dinosaur's back. Then we stuck on googly eyes and a scrap of green paper for a mouth, cut out the dino shape and boom, the dinosaurs are roaming the earth once more.

One of Boy's favourite parts of painting is washing his hands. Honestly. So that kept him busy for a while as I persuaded a rather more reluctant, very green Girl that just a light wash of hands and face wouldn't hurt.

An hour or so later we met some friends at Kilcornan walled garden in Clarinbridge with just a few green spots remaining on our clothes. Fine. And on our arms legs faces and feet. Though I've been to Kilcornan Woods, the swimming pool and surrounding green areas, for some reason I didn't even know of the existence of this really pretty and peaceful spot.

The walled garden reminded me a bit of Brigits Garden, but it is quite a bit smaller. There are paths, plenty of grass, several swinging benches dotted around as well as a lovely quiet spot by a fenced off pond and tinkling fountain complete with carved wood decorations. The highlight for Boy was a little hut which contained, of all things, a drumkit! Complete with two simple twigs for drumsticks. In fact we spent so much time between the drums, the pond and making daisy chains that we did not get to see every corner of the garden, which I feel sure holds several more secret treasures. We will definitely be coming back. Hopefully, next time I will be able to persuade Boy to wear a more manly hat.

Homemade Birthday Cards

We have an abundance of art materials taking up every nook and cranny in the house: pompoms, plasticine, paper, crepe paper, tissue paper, sugar paper, stickers, feathers, glitter...you name it, it's lying around unused in the hope that one day I'll come up with a fantastic idea for it, other than just endlessly and often extravagantly adding to this futile collection.

Well today I realised it is Grunny's birthday soon. Tomorrow actually. My options: last minute ecard from Funky Pigeon or somewhere similar, last minute bunch of flowers from inter flora (working out at approximately 5 euro per leaf) or adorable belated home made card, with love and uniqueness hopefully cancelling out the lateness.

As It happens I would normally go for option 1 or 2 but thought I'd be all thrifty and creative for once and get the kids to make a card. We used coloured card, green art straws and coloured felt and some dots of glue. I cut out the shapes (probably shouldn't admit to that) and Boy stuck them on. I was actually quite impressed that he has progressed from random stick-everything-to-anything-for-30-seconds-before-losing-interest to actually making a recognisable picture, staying focused for a record breaking 7 minutes (approx.). He even clapped himself afterwards and said "wow".

Girl was keen to get in on the fun, so I spent the next ten minutes removing crayons, felt and glue from her mouth while she made a slightly more abstract card for Grumpy, whose birthday happens to be this weekend. It's still pretty cool though. And the art straws I bought last year have finally been opened for an artistic purpose. I think I heard a little squeak of excitement when I opened the box, but it might have come from me.

Stuffing the cards in an envelope and taking them to the post office was, in my mind the icing on the cake of an educational enterprise activity, but for some reason Boy found this part supremely boring. Maybe older and/or wiser children would like that part better.

These cards were so simple and quick to make and I really think they are a lot more personal than online card websites. If only I could smush them into my computer and email them so they'd get to Grunny's in time...

The Messiest Cupboard in the World

Recently I was asked to run arts and crafts at one of the local weekly parent and toddler groups. So this morning, laden down with cereal box cut out hearts, I celebrated a quick weight watchers victory (congratulations! You're back down to the weight you were a month ago - you know, that weight goal you celebrated by eating chips for the next three weeks) and hurried off to the Parent and Toddler group.

This group is held in a soft play centre, so I was surprised when so many little faces appeared in the craft corner just minutes after I arrived. On opening the art cupboard I felt, for the first time ever, an odd sense of smug pride that someone somewhere was indeed capable of maintaining a messier cupboard than I. After raking through shelves and shelves of half finished creations, crunchy paintbrushes and a surprising number of empty crisp packets and raisin boxes (ick) I finally scraped together three Pritt sticks (two of which where completely dried up) two broken red crayons (itched to steal for my collection, but resisted), five tiny scraps of red felt and a few sheets of pink sugar paper. Good enough!

If I do say it myself, the project was a resounding success. So much so that all the decorated hearts and Valentine cards were made and taken away before I got a chance to snap them. (The one below came from Boy, made at crèche). Now let's be clear: we are talking about 2 year olds here. It was a resounding success for about 9 minutes. 11 if you count the kids who showed up after everyone else had finished. But a success nevertheless. Especially considering I was competing with a bouncy castle.

I spent the next half hour clearing out one section of the Messiest Cupboard in the World. Externally I was tutting and shaking my head as any tidy, organised Supermammy should. But inside I was beaming with pride and couldn't help thinking, "imagine if Grunny could see me now?"

Valentine Arts

(That was a play on "hearts", did you get it?)

Decided to try a little craft project with Boy today - a straightforward Valentine's heart shaped collage suggested by http://galway.mykidstime.ie/d/things-do/art-crafts/valentine-craft-children. It took about half an hour to make, though Boy's sole contribution was a very grudging thump on one of the little bits of paper to make sure it was properly stuck down. I don't think he's really into the whole arts and crafts thing - yet - but I will persist and make a little Van Gogh out of him yet. Or someone equally artistic but with fewer tendencies towards self-mutilation. He did enjoy proudly presenting the finished product to Daddy while I swallowed back my feelings of plagiarised creative pride. Girl enjoyed scrunching up the leftover magazine pages and chewing on the cereal box cut-offs. So at least someone got some enjoyment out of it.

I will try this project again on Tuesday at the City Limits mother and toddler group in Oranmore, but will be using much smaller hearts for a quicker result. We will also only glue the collage on one side and write a little "Happy Valentine's Day" message on the other side. If they work, I'll even post a picture.

New Beginnings

(9 Feb 2012)
I have spent the last month trawling blogs for cool things to do with my babies. Found some very cool things, but they often don't quite work out the way I want. Like today, I saw this article about making heart-shaped rainbow crayons for valentines day, using broken crayons and heart shaped silicon baking molds: http://mollymoo.ie/2012/02/for-crayon-out-loud/

I got all excited and started emptying the cupboards looking for a heart-shaped silicon ice cube tray I bought in Ikea ages ago. No luck. I did find the formula dispenser I bought for Boy and couldn't find this time round. I also found a silicon ice cube mold for making little fishy ice cubes. That'll do I thought. So I started hunting down all the boxes of crayons scattered round the house and collecting up the broken bits. I especially look out for bright colours as the instructions suggest. An hour later I have 6 tiny bits of broken crayon. And four of them are navy. Girl is wailing to be fed. Boy has gone to bed. DH suggests I break up some whole crayons to melt down if I'm that desperate. I take the high road. I have decided to start collecting bits of broken crayon in a special tin, and make valentines' crayon fishies next year instead.

Hoping my blog will progress to become a little more inspiring.