Our first week with Elf on the shelf

We have had our first week of the elf on the shelf!  What a fun week we have had! 

On the first morning, we met our elf, Lumpy gave her a name "Hatty". I have had so much fun helping Hatty get up to mischief. Lumpy has loved running around looking for her. After the sElfies, she asked why Hatty had tags. WHOOPS. I said - Maybe she hasn't decided if she will stay here yet. The next morning she asked me to help her look for tags (Hatty was baking and up the back of the bench), the tags were gone. One very excite Lumpy.

A little unsure meeting her elf!

Hatty doing some sElfies!

Hatty making a mess while cooking!

The locals were not impressed with Hatty making a mess

Hatty and Ken got married.  - whiteboard marker does not come off the rougher surface at the back of the car easily.

Hatty and Tinkerbell  having out in the fairy garden.

Playing scrabble with Elsa and Thor! what a great Saturday night.

Corn chips!

Lumpy was looking through a cook book and found a 'recipe' for home made corn chips. Of course this was then followed by - Let's make chips!.
Great idea. As soon as 2.0 went for her nap we go ou corn chip making on.

Things you need -
Corn tortilla
Oil
Salt
Lumpy wanted cheesey ones so we used parmesan on half.

Cut tortilla into triangles. Lay in a single layer on a lined tray.
Brush with oil (our pastry brush is MIA so we used a clean paint brush!)
Salt/flavouring sprinkled on.

Bake at 180° fan forced oven for 10 minutes. We did a little longer and had a crispy darker chip).

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's 330 am on the first of December. I was up feeding 2.0 and getting a little excited about Christmas.  In about 2 hours Lumpy will wake up and check her advent calendar bag and find a cool pair of Christmas socks.  She will then go downstairs to have breakfast and meet the newest member of the family,  our elf on the shelf.

Our tree went up yesterday as today is a Monday and there is work and kindy. Lights and outdoor decor went out yesterday too.

Well, I fell back asleep after 2.0 was back to bed. So I now have photos of Lumpy meeting her elf, who she has named Hatty. She LOVED the Christmas socks and will wear them to kindy today!

Photo memory board

While out shopping today I saw I canvas photo board which looked great. The price tag did not.
I wanted to get one as a Christmas gift for my mum, but the larger the canvas tbh e larger the price. It looked fairly simple so I thought I'd give it a go on a smaller scale.
Supplies
Canvas
String/twine/ribbon
Staple gun
Paint (optional)
Small pegs
Photos, keepsakes, quotes, awards

I painted my trial run blue. I did a few different layouts to see which way and how many rows I wanted.

Remember to make the string a little loose to be able to fit a peg in but not too loose as it will sag and hang.

I found being slightly out with sides being even ok as the string moved to look straight.

Miss Lumpy will be pretty excited in the morning when she sees her photo memory board.

Homemade Christmas decorations

We have bought new tree ornaments for this Christmas, meaning we have a few (or a heap) spare ones. We have spare craft jars, an easy but effective combination. Add a very excited Lumpy and you have a great activity to make a centre piece or hall stand decoration for the festive season.

All you need is -
Jars
Old tree ornaments
An eager child.

Baby sensory board

As you know, I am a lover of sensory play. I also believe children are never too young for sensory play. The more senses engaged in an activity the better.

I made a sensory board for 2.0 today. Lots of colours for sight, textures for touch, some of them made noises for sound (bubble wrap is crinkly and the bumpy  cardboard makes noises when touched), and the feathers were eaten (though taste wasn't a sense I had in mind for the board).

Some children and babies do not cope well with too much stimulus so adjust the amount of items on your board to suit your child.

You can use anything as the base -cardboard (strong), an old tray I used an old tile that was spare.

A hot glue gun to glue it all down

Craft supplies (Sorry Lumpy I owe you a few top ups)

****** Even though the items are glued down, there is a chance they could still come off. Close parental supervision is required

Water & ice baby sensory play

It is getting very hot here in Brisbane. It is only the end of spring. Miss 2.0 is not keen on the heat. A simple and easy sensory activity that also kept her cool was to make a splash tray. Here is all you need to make your own.

A shallow non breakable tray (can you high chair tray instead)
Small amount of water room temperature
Ice.

the ice melted pretty quickly in the heat, it left some nice cold water.

Water & oil

After making another batch of cloud sand on the weekend,  Lumpy asked what else we could mix oil with.
I set up this simple task - water, food colouring and cooking oil.
I asked her what she thought would happen. She was certain there would be an explosion.
She was rather disappointed at first then pretty impressed the oil could stay separate to the water.
Tomorrow we will add dish liquid to it.

Frozen inspired ribbon wind sock

My sister in law planted the seed of a ribbon wind sock in my head a few weeks back. I saw hers this weekend and the blues reminded me of Frozen dress/merchandise colours.
I wanted to make one! My original plan was for Lumpy to make a rainbow one to hang outside for her and 2.0. LThe frozen inspiration part made me decide to do it as a surprise.
Off to the shops I went searching for blues and silver or white ribbon. I looked for a single snowflake Christmas decoration, this was unsuccessful. Is found a back of 6 baubles that were white with silver snowflakes.
I went to a second hand shop and found a bell and some pretty Christmas decorations for 50cents for the lot!

I used - 

* Covered wire (I have also seen people use embroidery hoops)

* 3 lots of ribbon

* Binding 

* Decorations (had to be fairly light as the wire isn't the strongest)- optional

* A ring to hang the finished sock

* Hot glue gun

* something to hang the decorations - like fishing line

Supplies ready to go. I used 3 different ribbons - all blue but different width, colour and patterns/textures. i had a selection of decorations bug only used a couple.

I did two loops of wire, Covered with the binding for strength and glued into place.

I precut my ribbon to the length I wanted. Hot glued them on in single ribbons. You can also twist them on so it's two pieces together.

The ring to hang it from the ceiling

Bell. I didn't want anything too noisy.

Now to pick up Lumpy and see if she notices it hanging from her ceiling!!

DIY light box

I have wanted a light box for Lumpy for a long, long time. The price tag always put me off. I looked up DIY so I could make a light box. However was put off by perspex and wood frame making. Fast forward a year (or 2 or 3), I revisited the DIY light box. I discovered that all I really needed was - a white or clear box, white paper, tape, foil and a light source!! We had an old small camping lantern that we took the casing off. All supplies we have at home, no need to buy anything. Other light source ideas included - christmas light strings, the battery operated tea light candles, small led lights.

I put foil all around the sides and bottom of the box, to project the light upwards. My husband put the foil over the light so it wasn't concentrated in one place and dispersed around the box to bounce off the foil and up. I did use some tape on the foil to hold it in place. Tape white paper to the lid. I used normal printer A4 paper.

A quick test shot.

I put an old sheet and some black fabric over Lumpy's play tent, set up the light box and a few items to put on the lid - water beads, buttons, some craft beads and a few marbles

Prompt to play

playing with the buttons

Marbles!

Waterbeads.