Crafty Monday

Happy October!!

Another beautiful Autumn day and as is becoming our routine we headed straight out for a walk.

After some fresh air we headed home and Little 'A' headed off for a sleep and I could have a sneaky cuppa. I have a new starter Little 'O' who arrived after lunch and we had a bit of quiet play time with animals and cars. Once 'A' had woken up and had some late lunch we decided to finish off some of the crafty bits we started last week.

I don't often do organised 'Arts and Crafts' with very young children as it's so easy to get caught up in making something to send home. Which is of course a lovely thing for families to have, but it becomes an exercise in leading children to make something you want rather than what they want to do. Which is often simply exploring the media, feeling textures with their hands and just practicing control with various tools.

At the end of last week however I did do a bit of painting with Little 'A', took a print of his hand and arm and he also painted a couple of empty toilet rolls brown

Something Little 'A' is really enjoying at the moment is making sticker pictures. I put a bowl of stickers down on the floor and 'A' sits and picks out the sticker he wants and then puts it on the picture.

I then have to pick it back up again and tell him "peal the back" and then hold it out for him and say "stick" for him to place it back where he wants it. He hasn't yet started trying to get the backing off himself, but I'm sure that will come in time!

A lovely Autumn tree!

Next we finished off our toilet rolls, the idea was to make some owls so I drew on some marks for wings and then asked Little 'A' to put on some googly eyes (more sticking!) and then gave him a pen so he could do some more 'detailing' for the owl.

Little 'O' had said he didn't want to join in any of this so far and was happy playing by himself. He has only been here a few days and has had a lot of changes to his routine in the last couple of weeks so we're taking things nice and slow. He had however come over to the kitchen gate by this point and had started watching with a bit more interest so I asked again if he wanted to join in. He said yes but he didn't want to make owls, but did want to make a monkey and an elephant instead!

So I gave 'A' some paints and a brush to play around with and a quick improvise, (and a google search) we found some paper in the right colours and started cutting out arms, legs, trunks, tusks and tails and 'O' stuck them all on with some more googly eyes and even drew on some banana's for the monkey!

'A' had a lovely time with the paint, using the brush and then watching the marks his fingers make and then wiping with his whole hand. I took a couple of prints in some lovely autumn colours

After all this crafting there was just enough time for the boys to help me set up the Guinea Pig cage again. We got a bit covered in hay but it was good fun!

Our previous baby boys went to their forever home about a week ago so we've been waiting for our next foster piggies to arrive which I am off to collect tonight. We are having a pregnant mum this time so that will be lovely for the boys to see mum alone and then a few new ones 'appear'!! We don't know exactly when the babies will arrive as mum came to the rehoming place just pregnant so some time in the next 10 days is the estimate but we shall see....

New Arrivals!!

Oh I'm so excited about this, not a new child but some more new animals!!

A pair of baby Guinea Pigs!!

Over the last couple of weeks my partner Georgia has been getting to know a lady through facebook who runs a small animals rehoming center which it turns out is literally just around the corner from us at the lady's house! I had said to Georgia a few times about getting piggies, but she had never been really all that keen on them. However her mum then got a couple through another rehoming center run by my sister in law (this one however only really takes rabbits hence my mother-in-law ending up taking the Guinea Pigs!) and Georgia began warming to them. So after a bit of thinking, we decided to do some fostering!

And they are so lovely!! They are approximately 3 weeks old which sounds awfully young to be separated, but male piggies are fully mature at 3 weeks and so there is a chance they can get mum pregnant again which is not what a rehoming center is about at all!

They do love a bit of kale!

These two are not brothers but came from 2 litters born around the same time and the center managed to get them into bonded pairs for rehoming. Small animals can't really go to a forever home until around 8 weeks so we have these two cheeky boys for the next 5 weeks at least. Lots of handling and getting used to noise (which there isn't a shortage of during the day here) and people and hopefully they will be found a nice home soon!

Proving popular with the kids already!

A Lovely Monday!

Baby 'A' and I had a lovely morning together, we popped out to our local library to get some new books!

He really loves the 'That's not my....' series and always goes straight to where the texture is, even if he's never seen the book before!
We went home with four new books to look at and I'm sure they will be coming out a lot this week!

The librarian also gave baby 'A' a bookstart bear club pack, so each time we go to the library he gets a stamp in is passport, and every six visits he will receive a certificate. He really does love looking at books so I think we will make good use of this!

Then little 'C' arrived after lunch and we headed off for an afternoon of fun with http://wormseye-view.blogspot.com/.

She had a lovely St Patrick's Day treasure basket to explore, baby 'A' spent lots of time looking at all the different things.

Little 'C' joined in exploring the sensory box and found this lovely hair band and rainbow!

Next up was some lovely colourful hand prints....

....which magically turned into.....

LEPRECHAUNS!!!!

I do try not to do too many 'adult focused' activities, especially with very young ones. It's so easy to get caught up in having something to send home for parents. The focus really should be on the process not the product, but sometimes these things are just too cute not to do!! I've got another product focused idea to do this week but it is mother's day so I think I'll get away with it!!

The weather then started to warm up a bit so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in the garden

Having a look at new surroundings

Learning how to get around a new environment safely

Playing with Pippa's fantastic outdoor music wall!!

And meeting Pippa's lovely chickens Matilda and Gertrude.....oh mind your fingers!!

Such a lovely start to the week and great to get the kids in the garden! I can't wait for summer to arrive!

A Bit of "Spare" Time

I call it spare time completely tongue in cheek as it was time I really should have been hovering or doing some form of paperwork but the urge to do some knitting just grabbed me! I wont pretend to be a knitter, as I'm really not, but I do like to pick it up occasionally and see what I can put together.

The problem I have with knitting is, as I am a total novice, it just goes so slowly!! I'm quite an impatient person and I never seem to get anywhere fast with any pattern I try so I usually end up getting a bit bored and move onto something else. But on this particular Sunday the urge just grabbed me and didn't let go all day, and I have to say it was a day well spent!

I made this cute little basket. I made it up as I went along really but it turned out quite nicely! Then on our evening walk with the dog we picked up conkers, acorns (which arent quite ready but I like to show the children different stages up close) and some pine cones.

This was the other little thing I made. I got the pattern from 'Creative Play for your baby'. It's suposed to be a sheep, but the ears are a little out of proportion so I think it looks more like a pig really! But he is still quite cute if I do say so myself!

I also just wanted to take this opportunity to properly introduce Popcorn!

We've had him for about 2 weeks now, we were told he is a Mini Lop but we think he's more of a Dwarf Lop. He is about 17 weeks old now. He's inquisitive, full of energy, and has a bit of attitude! We are keeping him as an indoor and outdoor rabbit. His main run is in the garden but he also has an indoor cage and loves to come in for cuddles and run around the house for a bit!

As you can imagin the children all LOVE him! I have one little boy who only recently started comming to me, and is a recent crawler but Popcorn is one big incentive to get him moving!

He is settling in very nicely, our dog (J) was a little unsure of Popcorn at first but they are becoming great friends gradually!

Next up I want to try my hand at some crochet... I found a book at the library last week full of patterns to make 'Crobots' = crochet robots!!!! They are amazing and I really want to make some for my nephews for Christmas, they will love them!