Our Exciting New Ever Evolving Dinosaur Garden

Last Sunday was a very rainy day and when I see rain I always think two things 'ooh, my garden will be happy' and 'it's a good time for planting'

In our house, gardening is all about growing food. Out the front we have a little cottage garden with herbs, broccolli, salad greens and a few pretty flowers but out the back, where the children like to play, DH won't even let me have a daisy. "No, it's all got to be food" he says. So on this rainy day, little D and I went on an excursion to the nursery. We had to get a few herbs for some hanging baskets I have up and we thought we'd have a look around at some other plants we don't normally get to look at when 'Mr Only Food' is around.

I have this one little area down the side of the house, near my washing line (where DH doesn't go much) with a few succulents I've been cultivating and spreading. Whenever I'm out doing the washing I always have to tell the boys "Get out of Mamma's garden, you can dig in the sandpit if you want to play with sand" but they'd rather be playing by my side and honestly, I'd rather be keeping an eye on them.

Walking around the nursery we saw a beautiful fern and it so reminded me of a dinosaur playscape I'd recently seen that I said to D "Shall we get this and a few other things and make a dinosaur garden?" The answer of course was a definitive YES!



So with the fern and two other interesting plants in hand, off home we trotted to plant out Our Dinosaur Garden.



Once the plants were in we could add other points of interest like a bowl of water for the dinosaurs to drink from and this rock for them to climb up on and peruse their kingdom



D also wanted to add some cuttlefish and other 'treasures' he had collected a few weeks ago on a beach excursion he went on with DH, big brother L and their cousin Master 8. It made for a great hunting ground for our Allosaurus.



By Monday, Our Dinosaur Garden was already expanding to include some safari animals D and F dragged outside and of course what makes a Stegasaurus happier than bubbles(or a toddler for that matter). There is now a permanent position for our bubble mix in the dinosaur garden.



Yesterday, Nanny K took all the boys, including DH to AQUA and bought them all a treat, of their choice, from the gift shop. Little D's very well thought out decision for himself and little F was a little hatchling turtle each. Of course, they came right home, to pride of place, in Our New, Ever Evolving Dinosaur Garden.

Now when I'm out doing the washing, I'm tripping over little D instead of trying to get him to stay where I can see him. Little F is now happy to play with the animals instead of pulling out my plants and even "Mr Only Food' thinks Our Dinosaur Garden is GREAT. I think I may even have overheard him having a conversation with a Brachiasaurus!

Handmade present for Nanna

For my mother's birthday this week my sisters and I are taking her to see Wicked at The Burswood Theatre (can't wait) but the boys really wanted to give her a present as well. Master 4 decided he wanted to make her a cake (he reads my cake making book at least once a week and has already decided on his birthday cakes for the next five years!).

I know my Mum isn't the biggest cake eater but I remember from my childhood that she always enjoyed a friends walnut cake that was cooked in a tin can. Considering that I didn't have her friends recipe, nor any walnuts for that matter, I decided the kids could make banana bread instead. I haven't bought banana's for months due to the huge price increase after cyclone Yasi but after scrounging through the freezer I found one that I had previously frozen for the kids. I pulled it out to defrost and set about giving some empty cans from the previous nights dinner a thorough cleaning before calling the boys over to measure, pour and stir.

Once they were cooked and cooled I let Master 3 choose some cardstock from my scrapbooking stash (great choice he made too) and we measured, cut and glued it to the cans to dress them up, added a tag and found a gift bag that they fit perfectly in. Master 4 made her a beautiful card (card making being his second favourite activity next to reading my cake book) and "TA DA" - A beautiful homemade gift for a fantastic Nanna!

Treasure hunting in the forest!

The weather left much to be desired this weekend.  With the temp only reaching 13 degrees and the constant drizzle the boys were starting to get cabin fever after being shut up inside for two days.  So my three eldest sons and I thought we'd brave the weather for an hour and drove out to the pine forest for a run and a treasure hunt. 

When I was a child I would venture through these pines with my sisters.  As we've grown we've watched the size of the surrounding bushland and plantations slowly dwindle as they've been torn down to make way for housing.  There is one small patch of trees left and I wanted to take my children before these too became just a memory.

The pine trees offered enough shelter from the light rain for us to stay for an hour without getting wet and the boys got to blow off some energy by running from one end of the plantation to the other.  Along the way we gathered lots of beautiful treasures.  Pine cones and strangely shaped bark featured the most in our treasure basket with the odd stick thrown in (not my idea of treasure but to each their own). 

We came across a stick teepee which the boys gladly played in for a while and Master 8 even added to it a little. 

After filling our basket we headed back towards the car just in time to escape being drenched. 
What luck!  The minute we were safely in the car the heavens opened and it poured down.  With the heater on we were nice and toasty by the time we got home to DH and Master (almost) 10 months. 

After showing DH all our photos he said, 'I want to go there!' so we will all make the trip next time, hopefully when the weather is a little warmer, as it did take a while for me to feel my toes again.

Now what to do with all those pine cones?  That's for another post I think!

Who says boys can't play with dolls?

That's definitely not the case in our house. In fact both my boys are big fans of dramatic play in any form. I am often being served dinosaur soup or train tea out of our play kitchen. Little D makes it with such love and joy it always tastes delicious. Little F can often be found banging pots or stirring the floor and is also a big fan of the home corner.

When it comes to dolls I am a big fan of the anatomically correct variety and have a little girl and boy set for the boys to love and care for. D became very fond of the girl dolly whilst I was pregnant with F. He is often seen fussing over her, dressing her, feeding her, putting her to bed and has even tried to breast feed her on occasion.

So with the boys love of anything wet and the weather getting too cold for the outside water table we set up a dolly washing experience the other day and this is how it went.


First you pour the water in (a great activity for D as it gives him an opportunity to pour something via a more appropriate medium than tipping baskets of toys over his little brother's head.)


Then you have to pour in the soap Ainsley Harriet style. Give it a bit of pizazz.


Next you give the baby a gentle wash down with your flannel.


Then you dry her up and make her nice and warm. Don't forget to upset your brother by stealing the towel he was holding. (Look at that poor little face)


Finally you give your baby a big loving cuddle.
(I love the sense of achievement D expresses here. What joy. )

The Bead Family and the big kid

This is what the children and I came home to today. Me thinks there must be a gnome in the house. Either that or the bead family is a hit with Dadda. I love to see him inspiring the boy's play like this. He is definitely a dedicated follower of learning.
:-)

...... and Rainbows!!!

With the copious amount of rain we've been having of late we have been playing a game when in the car to see who spots the most rainbows. With Master 4 firmly in the lead I decided to make a rainbow of our own. After picking up Master 8 from school we came home to some extra large pieces of butchers paper, seven bottles of paint and one extra large paint brush.

I started with Master 3. I painted one hand red and the other blue and he stamped out lots of handprints. Master 8 was next with handprints of orange and indigo. Master 4 followed with yellow and violet. With their hands covered in paint I set up our water play table in the bathroom full off warm, soapy water, threw in a few toy marine animals and let them play the paint off. Meanwhile, I took Master 9 Months for his turn with the paints and he had great fun squishing green handprints all over the paper.

I returned to the bathroom to find it flooded and the boys completely drenched but all with massive smiles on their faces. Into the bath they all went! I wonder how much longer I'll be able to get away with bathing them all at once. It is a bit crowded when Master 8 joins in.

With all four boys snuggled in their pj's and robes I sat down to cut out the handprints. All
58 of them! We then glued them in a arch in rainbow colour order. All's to do now is to wait for the pot of gold to appear!

Sunshine, Lollypops and (now we have) Rainbows - Everything that's wonderful!

Too busy to blog !!!

I had a conversation with Frogs, Snails and Puppydog's Tail today and she said to me, 'I've done 5 blogs already and you've only done 1', to which I politely replied, 'Sister, I've been too busy doing the things we want to blog about to find time to actually blog about them.' 

So what was keeping me too busy to blog?  It's my boys Great Grandmother's (Gigi) birthday this week so they decided to make her a card.  Master 8 and Master 4 just love making cards, they would make a card for the plumber if I let them.  They don't care who it's for they just want to make them.  Normally the cards have pirates or farm animals on them but this time I asked them to think about the person they were making it for and to choose their supplies based on what that person likes. 

I was surprised by how much consideration they put into the cards.  The cards were pink!  I love it that my boys are not colour predjudice and are happy working with pinks and other colours society depicts as being only for girls.  They decorated their cards with flowers and drew pictures of gardens, knowing that their Gigi loves the garden.  I was very impressed with their end results and I'm sure their Gigi will absolutely love them.

I also whipped up a lounge pant set for Master 8. 

He chose some charcoal corderoy from Spotlight and some cotton fabric that matched nicely for the accents.  I then took a charcoal t shirt we already had and sewed on an applique using the accent fabric.  He wanted a shark so I made up a template, cut it out and using Heat and Bond, I ironed it to the t shirt.  One happy eight year old!  I also made another pair of cute little pants for my 2 months old nephew. 

To top it off, Master 8 had his first school project to complete for presentation at school this week.  He really impressed me with his creativity and his knowledge of Microsoft Word.  He came up with some really clever and artistic ideas for the presentation and spent a lot of time online researching the topic. 

So overall it was a busy Sunday in my house but it ended with me learning just how thoughtful and creative my two eldest boys are.  Love you boys!

Somewhere to put your feet up

Well, Little D asked for a couch and that's what he got. A couple of cardboard boxes, some quilting batting, a couple of minutes stitching on the machine and of course my trusty glue gun and there you have it, a bright, cheerful, comfy place to put your little feet up after a long day playing.

The Bead Family

My hot glue gun has been put to use with a few old beads, some felt and a couple of googly eyes that I found at the bottom of the craft box. My favourite is Mr Blue. I hope the boys love them as much as I do when they wake up in the morning.

Oh yes, they loved them so much that three of them ended up headless within half an hour and had to go back to the desk for repairs. Mr Blue survived though and got to have a play in the ocean with some dolphins and eels and the others are now all playing together on our farm, heads and all.

Now I'm of to do some housework while hubby takes the boys on an excursion to the beach. Maybe I might just sneakily make D a little couch out of some recycled boxes first. He made this himself the other day by pushing them together and sitting on it. All I have to do is make it permanent with my trusty glue gun. Stay tuned for the finished product.

Our Farm

Today, whilst I was cleaning out a few old boxes looking for photo frames (I'm working on framing some of the boy's artwork and getting some photos up on the wall) I came across an old box of jewellery with a not so fashionable and slightly worn old wooden choker. Now being that I hate to throw anything out (which is how the choker managed to still be in a packing box in a house that we have lived in for nearly three years) I thought surely there is some way I can reuse this item so I went collecting bibs and bobs from around the house. I grabbed a couple of treasure out of little F's treaure basket, took the flowers and leaves off the stems of some of our home corner's fake flowers, found some interesting placemats and chopstick holders and a few wooden boxes that some toys had come packaged in. I then collected little D out of his cot because there is no way he was going down for his afternon nap and I just couldn't listen to "Good morning Mamma, you get me up" one more time without feeling a little guilty about keeping him in there. We grabbed the animal basket and got to playing. D decided the set definately needed a rooster, a horse, a pig and a cow so a farm it was. I grabbed my felt box and cut out a little blue pond and turned the jewellery box on it's side to make the hen house and TADA! An easy peasy, quickly prepared farm playscape for a rainy afternoon.

Why I bought a glue gun... And a few other things

I suppose it all started on Mother's day when my lovely family gifted me an android tablet computer. Before then I had never really looked at a blog and rarely used the computer other than to check my emails and have a quick glance at my facebook wall. Around this time, hubby and I had made the decision to become a TV free home and I started finding a few extra minutes here and there to browse the web.

WOW! This just sent me into a whole new world of creativity. The blogs I was visiting were all centered around play based learning and I was in home-made toy heaven. I was so inspired, I re-arranged our living room to include a desk, got rid of the now never watched TV and set about creating some inspiring playscapes for my boys. I was making do collecting materials and stitching them together, my first project was an Antarctic playscape with an igloo and an ocean made of foam offcuts from hubby's surfboard knee pads and some toy penguins and seals that I had picked up on the cheap at Big W. What I really wanted to create was some miniature dolls and animals out of found and recycled materials but how was I going to make sticks and rocks into anything worth playing with using a needle and thread and some PVA glue. That was it, I had to go and brave the toy sales and get to the shopping centre for a hot glue gun and of course I needed it today.

So off I went to find a cheap glue gun and maybe layby a few toys for Chrissy. It won't cost too much, I thought, so I got to the craft department and what a bargain, there on the shelf was a little plug in glue gun with three sticks of glue all ready to go at the bargain price
of $7. Now, I thought, while I'm here I'll just get some acrylic paints and some coloured paper, oh and I will definitely need those new paintbrushes. Then we went down to the toy section to check out some other bargains to add to our lay-by. A couple of storage shelves for the boys clothes, Little F needs a new walker as he's nearly on the move, Oh, I can't layby them, I'll get too much use out of them before Christmas, best pop them in the bottom of the pram for purchase today.

Next I turned the corner and found wooden toy heaven. Oh, Little D definitely
needs that wooden teaching clock and those wooden zoo animals on wheels are only $4 each, bargain. Okay, time to go lay-by out of the catalogue. $115 for Chrissy presents and I'm not allowed to pick them up till December, that's just as well or I'd probably do something silly like give them to the kids in July. OK, time to check out, this won't cost too much. Five minutes and $150 later I walked out of K Mart thinking next time I might just purchase my glue gun online and just pay the extra couple of dollars postage. But, you know $7 really is a bargain.