We’ve had a quiet week, with lots of sickness and time at home, so I was glad we ended the previous week with lots of ice-cream 🙂 One thing I love about phases like this one is that it forces us to slow down and gives us a chance to really spend time together without the distraction of lots of outings and meet-ups. We’ve been playing lots of board games and doing simple things at home 🙂
I ordered a book I saw in the museum and it arrived 🙂 It’s inspiring and I like that you can do it in short bursts. There are drawing prompts and little windows so it feels achievable in a quick, quiet moment. I sat in the car one day while I was waiting to pick up the kids and it was the perfect place to draw as I found a picture for every section 🙂 I might go on random drives and stop and draw when the girls are back at school. It really quietens your mind 🙂
We still love Activity Village and all their seasonal worksheets 🙂 The girls have been doing lots of Spring and Easter ones. While I was sick, my boyfriend made me breakfast in bed with a little flower 🙂 It was so cute that my daughter wanted one too, so he made her one as well.
We made some homemade playdough and it kept the girls busy for a long time. They made a shop with an overturned cardboard box and worked on their “baking.” 🙂
We finally got time to catch up on the girls’ art boxes. We started with some Inuit art. The girls chose to draw birds and I joined them 🙂 It was therapeutic drawing patterns inside the body of the bird and choosing the combination of colours you wanted. My daughter’s and mine were twins 🙂
I had promised the girls that we could make chocolate buttons, so we did 🙂 It’s so easy – you just break up chocolate, melt it in the microwave on defrost and then spoon it onto baking paper. Before it hardens, you can add whatever toppings you like. The girls got carried away with the sprinkles to the point you couldn’t tell they were chocolate buttons anymore, but they still tasted good 🙂 We ate them in one sitting 🙂
We did some more bird related art. First, we made some birds out of cardboard templates that were included and the girls coloured theirs how they wanted and created patterned paper for them. Then we had to make nests for them to live in 🙂 The two birds ended up having to share a nest because I accidentally burst one of the balloons that was required to build them.
We put the balloon in a bowl to hold it in place and the girls enjoyed plastering it with PVA glue 🙂 They went into the garden in search of natural materials to add to it. They were excited because it was like a treasure hunt of sorts 🙂 Then they covered the balloon in leaves, twigs, strips of paper and feathers. They had to cover it so none of ithe balloon was visible when they had finished. It was left to dry overnight, and then we had to pop the balloon and remove it. The remaining shape became the birds’ nest 🙂 I have a feeling it’s one of those craft projects I will particularly struggle to ever throw away because it’s cute 🙂
The Funky Thrifter 