Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies Party

Liv's 4th birthday party was on Sunday and she chose a 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies' theme. Avid fans of Charlie & Lola will know that this is also the name of Lola's favourite library book. So, in keeping with this theme, we sent out invitations made from some fabric I stitched onto card;

I had so many ideas for food for this theme, but decided to keep it really simple.

Chocolate Lady Bugs;

Bumble Bees;

Butterfly Cookies;

[Decorated by the birthday girl herself]

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Spiders;

Drinks were Pink Milk (Charlie & Lola style), of course.

The children were also given bugs antennae (on the left) to wear on their heads.

The inspiration for the cake was taken from the invitations;

And leftover fabric was used to add a bit of colour to the tables;

I also made mini butterfly cakes and chocolate snails...

The birthday girl was very excited about her party and ecstatic to receieve entirely pink gifts, including a pair of rollerblades. (Thank you Mimi and Poppy - Can we send you the hospital bills?!?!)

Nearly every birthday card had butterflies and one creative aunty made her own wrapping paper in the theme (I was so impressed!)

The first game we played was Pass-the-Parcel. Inside each layer was one of these little wind-up toys (in keeping with the beetles, bugs and butterflies theme);

The children then raced their wind-up toy on a giant Lady Bug I painted for the party...

Which was then used for our next game.... A different version of 'Pin-The-Tail-On-The Donkey', we played 'Feed-The-Lady-Bug';

The children were blindfolded and given a green leaf to feed the hungry lady bug;



Then it was on to Sack Races;


And Egg And Spoon Races;

(After all the children had a turn, the parents and grandparents raced each other!)

It was so much fun.

Soon it was time to go inside and sing Happy Birthday and eat the cake!

I used the same fabric as the invitations to make little swing tags for the children's goody bags. Inside were some crafty items in our Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies theme, as well as wooden clips with bugs on them, a party crown and balloons to take the party home!

Thank you to those who came along and shared in celebrating Liv's 4th Birthday!

Chef's Hat #2

What was I thinking?!?!

2 children + 1 chef's hat = unhappy household!

A second one had to be made;

Order has now been restored [sigh of relief].

Children's Chef Hat

Elly (2.5 yrs) has always been pretty vocal. But now that she can talk in full sentences, she can actually tell me what she wants (instead of just making a lot of noise!). Today she was very clear, 'Mama you get your sewing 'chine and make me chefs hat please'. Like most two-year olds, she is obsessed with home play, particularly cooking. She spends all her time arranging and rearranging play food on plates and stealing my pots and pans for use in her little kitchen.

Elly chose the fabrics and handed me the pins, and we made a smaller version of the Chef's Hat Tutorial from the Making it Fun Blog for Michael Miller Fabrics. Instead of an 8' band, I cut 6' and as I didn't have any velcro, I just stitched the band so it would be snug on her head.

Now she has her Chef's hat, I'm sure we'll be seeing lots more of her cake creations!

Play Dough

I thought I would share a recipe for making the absolute best Play Dough ever!

It makes the most lovely, soft and smooth, warm Play Dough (which little hands love on a cold winter's morning) that will keep - as long as you remember to put it in an airtight container!

I have seen and used many recipes for Play Dough - cooked, uncooked and microwaved. The secret to making the best play dough is in using cream of tartar (important so it doesn't dry out) and BOILING water. This is the key to making play dough that has a beautiful consistency!

Play Dough Recipe

2 cups plain flour
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup salt
2 cups of boiling water
food colouring

My favourite part, is adding in essential oils or essence. This is perfect for adding another sensory dimension for children's play. They love the smell of green peppermint-scented play dough or red strawberry-scented playdough. Vanilla essence added to plain white play dough is divine!

In addition to children helping in the making of the play dough (they can help mix everything, except the boiling water);

They can also help choose additional materials to manipulate or embellish the play dough with. Great for fine motor skills. I wish I had taken photos of all the materials we have used. Here are a few ideas...

Toothpicks;

Pasta;



Cocktail Umbrellas;



We've also used: feathers, leaves and twigs, small stones, sand, glitter, felt balls and rice.

However, my girls favour patty pans...

and sprinkles...

and love playing cake shops all afternoon!

Pom Pom

The girls love lacing cards and any sort of threading activity (beads or pasta on string, etc) so I thought they might like to make a pom pom. I thought if we used an arms length of wool a time, we might, someday, with a lot of patience, have something resembling a pom pom (I love activities that keep their little hands and fingers busy, especially something they can come back to again and again).

As expected, Elly was just interested in playing with the wool - great tactile experience - and while Liv was quite good at looping the wool around the cardboard, she changed her mind and wanted to make a kite instead!


Now I'm thinking a garland of these would be pretty for a party...

Painting with String

It was entirely Liv's idea...

Unfortunately we did this at the end of the day and it got a little bit messy;

(They started flicking it at each other and ended up painting their faces with it. I had to put the camera down at this point, to reign them back in!)

Some of the finished works;

A jelly fish and a dinosaur.

Obviously.

What a day!

I received a phone call from my TAFE Teacher last night, asking me if I could do a presentation to a class of year-11 students who are studying Certificate II in Children's Services... today.

So late last night, I dug out my old training folders (from my past life*) and presented my 'First Impressions' and 'Interview Techniques' workshops (which I tailored to the child-care industry) for a small group of 9 girls, aged 16 and 17 years.

(Thanks very much to Mimi and Poppy for looking after the girls at such short notice)

Apart from the initial stress and preparation, it was so much fun to be back in front of a class! I was so impressed with the girls enthusiasm and participation and even their work ethic. In addition to going to school and studying Cert II, they all have casual jobs. One student actually works three jobs - at a toy shop, cafe and movie theatre! They were a pleasure to get to know and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with them.... Enough to think about becoming a High School teacher? I don't know... maybe!

Is there some way I can become both a PreSchool Teacher and a High School Teacher and just alternate days? hehe

(*I have training quals and a Bachelor of Social Science and used to run a Job Search Training program for the unemployed)

Made by Joel posted about it Sgraffito yesterday and I remember how much I loved making these as a kid!


We got out the crayons yesterday and coloured in whole pages, then covered them with black paint. I gave the girls toothpicks to scratch off the paint and they had a lovely time making colourful scribbles while I got dinner ready.

Handmade Cards

After going through my paper stash (to de-clutter and give some away to a friend at College) I cannot believe how much scrapbooking and good quality paper I have accumulated!

I have resolved to never again buy a single greeting card and on Sunday made two cards for birthday parties we attended;

I've always been a big fan of children making their own cards to give to friends (and we LOVE receiving handmade cards too. Especially hand-drawn - they're always so gorgeous!), but it was nice to sit down and make these myself.

Tomorrow I will give my little scizzor-loving girls a big bunch of old birthday cards and we should end up with a nice bundle of images to embellish our cards with.

Glasses

My children adore Charlie and Lola, especially this one;

And sometimes life imitates art, like when my daughter insisted,

'I really absolutely must have glasses!!!'

OK...

They decorated them, themselves.

Liv wouldn't smile for me, because I just couldn't stop laughing!

(Then they wore them to a birthday party yesterday!)

Birthday Invitations

I was feeling quite disorganised about Liv's birthday party, until I made the invitations this week...


The girls were so excited, they rode their bikes to the post box with me. It's a 10-block round trip - a long way for little legs!

And then I realised I sent them with out with the wrong date on them!

(Luckily, it's a small party with family only... They will understand. And just for the record, it's on SUNday!)

Rainbow Party

Here are a few of the other things I made, for our Mother's Group Rainbow Party...

Rainbow Bunting;

Oh, how I love making bunting!

Rainbow Pinwheels...

These were a labour of love for us. I made the pinwheels and Nick hammered the holes into the dowels. And we both spent a lot of time figuring out which type of pin would make it spin the best. Nick laughed when he saw that I actually have a whole BOX full of different types of pins and attachment-y things for crafty pursuits. Then the sad part is that on the day, we forgot to take them!

Rainbow Sacks for the sack races;

(Some of them are pillowslips, others are very quickly-stitched sacks)

And.... Rainbow cupcakes!

But the saddest thing of all is that even your best laid plans can go awry; Liv came down with a fever on the way to the party! We had to drop off all the goodies and come home so she could rest and recover. We were all so sad to have missed the party (but Rachael, your goody bags helped ease the pain! ).

Definitely a disappointment to not be able to celebrate with all our wonderful little children at their Rainbow party... But if motherhood has taught me anything, it is that just when you think you have everything under control, it all comes crashing down around you!

But I take solace in the knowledge there will be plenty of other parties.... In fact, we are having one in a fortnight, for our soon-to-be 4 year old. Hip Hip Hooray!