Marble painting!

I remember as a kid in year one, doing marble painting. I loved it. I decided to see if Lumpy felt the same.

A pretty cheap and easy activity to set up. Paper, paint, marbles and a container.
I have found that now Lumpy is older, I can set up an activity and then she is happy to finish getting things ready and guessing at what to do.

I rate this activity a great success and one we will be revisiting again and again!

Getting the paper ready.

OH NO!!! the lid is broken!!

Just add marbles - she was confused as to why we were adding the marbles and her first guess was that the paint was gluing them down.

I suggested instead of gluing the marbles with teh paint, what if she moved the container?

On to the next one, she had this down pat!

Beautiful!

You can see in the background some different papers from arts/crafts over the weekend, painting, making caterpillars on paddle pop sticks, colouring in! Our craft supplies have been boosted recently so it's all fun and games exploring them all!

Enjoying our beautiful city

It's good Friday public holiday. It was a warm and sunny day. We decided to head Into southbank and head over to Pancake Manor for lunch! We took a ferry over and then walked back.

So much to see and enjoy when being tourist in your own city. Lots of walking, talking, food and fun. What trip to South bank is complete without a quick swim (fully clothed)?!

Baby bathing practice!

I saw this activity posted on Toddler Approved facebook page. I figured with 10 weeks until my due date I would give Lumpy some training on bathing babies!

Very easy to set up. At 4 years old she absolutely loved this activity!

Tea party

We found a recipe for fairy bites this morning (shortbread with sprinkles, cut into small pieces  link here). Lumpy requested to make them as soon as she saw them! While they were cooking she asked if we could please invite all her friends and have a tea party!
She picked a dress (requested I frock up too!) And set up for her tea party.

I decided to use my 3 tier server and add some sandwich (it was nearly lunch time) and the only other tea partyish food in the house - big tedz!

Quick and easy recipe, quick and easy set up... And an amazing memory made .

Bubble wrap octopus

One of Lumpy's favourite shows at the moment, is Mr Maker. We got her a DVD for her 4th birthday. In oen of the episodes he makes an octopus with a paper plate, bubble wrap, paint and a few other things. Lumpy reallllly wanted to give this a try, paper plates were on sale for 25cents so we had some of those. Pretty easy activity in the end.

Lumpy picked blue paint for the colour of the octopus. She did need my help for cutting the bubble wrap. She remembered her craft apron to attempt to keep her clothes paint free.

Painting the bubble wrap

Painting the paper plate

gluing on the goooogly eyes

Taping on the legs

Draw on the mouth (Mr Mker used cardboard for the eyes and 3 spots on the octopus head)

TADA!

DIY restaurant!

Lumpy wanted to go to a restaurant ( it's been a big week for birthdays and eating out), I had to explain that we can not eat out every day, it's not good for the wallet or the waist. She then decided that she would like to make one instead! - we were headed to food shopping so it was pretty easy to organise.

So she decided on what we would be eating, she asked me to do up a menu and she decorated it.
She grabbed a table cloth and set the table, she helped with meal prep (I did all the cooking and oven work), she showed her 'guest' (daddy) to his seat and took his drink order! And then carried the starters to the table.

It was a pretty a good experience, she loves helping in the kitchen so was thrilled to be taking charge!

Setting the table

Rolling the corn in foil to cook in the oven. - encourages counting "how many corn wobs will we need if it's one each"

Putting out the green triangles (spinach and feta) - again encouraged counting, she decided we needed two each, which makes six, and counted out six.

Placing the cooked garlic bread on her serving tray! 

Such a fun and easy activity to promote confidence and learning (counting, food prep). I wonder how she will go with plain old meat and 3 vege tomorrow night!
Remember they can start "cooking" from an early age example here

Dinosaur world

After doing some Dinosaur colour ins at the library, we decided to make a dinosaur world! A quick shop for some supplies - a their box and the dinosaurs! and then a quick walk to go and pick up some rocks, sticks, leaves, bar.
A very simple and cheap (espeically if you already had dinosaurs) activity and was fun to make and has kept her entertained for a while :)

Collecting rocks

deciding where it shoudl all go.

finding a place for everything.

Playing with teh dinosaur world.