Monday, June 30, 2014

Rainbows and Butterflies

...is the theme Katy chose for her party. As we were a little scarred from the freezing conditions at Ella's outdoor party, we decided to play it safe and have this one at home. The only problem being - how do you keep the children entertained. Can't say we are ones for traditional party games (much to the disappointment of one party goers who asked me towards the end of the party when the games were going to start!!) and we've done enough treasure hunts so we thought perhaps some sort of craft….a few hours of surfing the net and we came up with several easy, not too messy and relatively cheap ideas.

It was easy to bring rainbow colours into the food…a rainbow fruit platter and veggie plate with dips, m&m's stacey biscuits plus the obligatory fairy bread. I did over several days make rainbow jelly cups too which went down a treat with the children. Plus the cake designed as per Katy's instructions!



A cracker of a canberra winter day dawned - beautiful blue skies.  However we were unable to take advantage of the sunshine as a very slight breeze sprung up which meant we retreated the craft tables to the garage to prevent paper being blown around.

The crafts were a hit. There were three activities on offer -

Rainbow glue/salt pictures - Ella was very keen to help out during the party so she chose this table. Firstly the children created their own design by drizzling white glue onto black card. Then poured salt over the top and the excess was shaken off. The children moved to the watercolour painting table, where using cotton buds, they coloured in their picture. They found it interesting watching the salt soak up the watercolours.



Flower sun catchers - Some preparation required by halving soft drink bottles; slits were then cut lengthwise to the base and flared out to create the petals. Children painted a layer of glue on the inside of each petal and arranged colourful tissue paper before finishing with another coat of glue. A hole punched in one petal and string attached. Perfect to catch the sunshine through a bedroom window!


Coffee filter / egg carton butterflies - Using watercolours with cotton buds, the children painted their butterflies wings (coffee filters). Once these were dry, they were glued onto the pre cut egg carton bodies. Then goggly eggs and pipe cleaner antennae were added to create the final product!

 





Katy is 5!

Actually 5 and 1 month now….Katy enjoyed her birthday which nicely fell on a Monday (home day) so I was able to spend the day with her. She is the proud owner of her very own CD player. Thus she is able to play and dance to her home made ABBA cd as much as she wants! We had a quiet family dinner with birthday cake as more celebrations were planned for the weekend.







Thursday, June 19, 2014

Life

Sorry to have been a little quiet on the blog front. Life is getting away from me! Some recent happenings…

Ella and Andy went to the theatre to see the 13 Storey Treehouse. Ella received the book for her birthday and really enjoyed it. She coloured in her own monkey and added it to the tree before the play began. Unfortunately she was VERY disappointed with the play and came home in a terrible mood. According to Andy many of the jokes went over her head.


Since we were too late to register for soccer, we are back playing hockey. Katy is now old enough to join in too so she has all the gear and with each passing week is growing in confidence. Our team hasn't yet scored a goal but they are getting closer! It's fun to see Maki and Luca who are there but with another club. Last Saturday was even better when our team didn't have enough people so Ella and Katy got to play in Luca's team!



The loom band craze in our house has seemed to calm down only to be replaced by the Frozen craze! For those of you not in the know, Frozen is a recent disney movie based on Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen. Ella and Katy watched the movie earlier in the year however Ella received the soundtrack on CD (another b'day present) shortly followed by the DVD (thanks Cath!!) The soundtrack has been getting a work out with both girls singing along and thanks to the lyrics in the cover they now sing the songs with the correct worlds! The movie watching has much more stringent boundaries enforced.  Ella in particular has developed a stronge attachment to Frozen. For a week or so, bedtime reading was replaced with learning the 'Let it go' tune on her keyboard.

Oh and then there was another birthday party to organise so Katy and I did some trial craft stuff…watch this space to see how it all turned out…