Dinosaur garden!

After an exhausting day shopping, visiting family, and watching Button in his first rugby match ( which led to him getting a bloody nose that he was extremely proud of! ) I desperately needed to entertain little bear so I could make a meal! The weather was fine for a change, but he was so tired that he didn't want to play outside. That was until I decided to make a dinosaur garden!

We had visited the library and got Gardening with Children by Kim Wilde ( yes the 80's pop singer). It has some great ideas on how to incorporate children's play into your garden.
We had an empty barrel that the husband had intended to grow lettuce in but never did. After adding pine cones, stones, and shells, along with some twigs of rosemary, we had our dinosaur garden! Little bear played in it until tea time, which was just what I needed.

If the rosemary doesn't take I will plant something more permanent. He really enjoyed placing the stones and twigs in sections then hiding each if his dinosaurs in the make-shift forest! He was so sweet pretending that they were having acorns and conkers for their tea until T-Rex came and ate them up!

Isn't he just too cute?

Autumn walk

What a surprise we had when we found these community project sculptures dotted throughout our favourite walk in Ellsemere!

The Sssh is my favourite. Found in the woodland clearing, it gave us a great opportunity to encourage the boys to listen to the sounds of the woods!

Cloud dough fun!

With all this rain lately we have had to have a lot of indoor playtime! Thankfully I came across an amazing site The Imagination Tree. A wonderful site filled with lots of fantastic sensory play based ideas to do with your babies and toddlers.

We had a go at making and playing with 'Cloud dough'. A quick and simple recipe using just flour and oil. Both boys spent a full 2 and a half hours making and playing with the stuff. Best thing was that it was so easy to clean up!

Camping, cowboys, and Cath Kidston

Just thought I would share this sweet pic of the little bear playing camping in the back garden. He is growing up so fast. No sippy cup for him anymore thanks to Cath Kidston's cowboy mugs!

Here is the link to the Cath Kidston shop if you want to check them out. - Sorry but I think the mugs have sold out :(   They have other enamel camping ware or melamine pieces.  Button and bear love the camping mugs and plates.  We end up using them all the time!

Finally!

My little boy can finally tie his shoe laces! He is 8 and has been practising for 2 years. Funny how I feel both glad and a bit sad at the same time.
Glad, that I don't have to be doing up his shoes as I am running out if the door holding the little one and trying not to mess up my work clothes by kneeling down on the pavement.
Sad, that it feels like the end of an era, like when he was finally potty trained and doesn't need me to help any more :( He is growing up too fast!

Down at the farm!

Despite the weather during these holidays I am determined not to stay in with the boys. I must keep remembering that " there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing"! That's what they say when the boys do Forest Schools anyway. So off we went all wrapped up in our woollies, raincoats and welly boots! With full length rain suits in the car just in case!

We went to the Ford Hall Farm and had a great time on the trail. Then picnic in the shelter.



































Will definitely doing it again this week. I have never known them to be so quiet and sensible. It was because we had to walk through fields with cows in it and Oliver noticed that both of them had red pieces of clothing on. Apparently if you wear red, cows will chase you! ;)

Space boy quick quilt

What a week! Eldest boy got the stomach bug at the beginning of the week, both husband and I had open evenings on separate days and then we had the School Inspectors in my school! This is the first time since last saturday that I've managed to sit down and write. Phew!

I just had to show you this cute little quilt that I made for bear.  I had never attempted to quilt before. I had aways been inspired to, but just couldn't take the plunge.  I think its because quilts are such large projects that I was scared to try.  I had seen this link on Pinterest and thought I would give it a go.  I bought the Michael Miller space boy fabric last year but never ever wanted to cut into it.  Is it just me or does anyone else just like having pretty fabric and wish they could decorate the walls with it or something!  I was so desperate to use this print but keep it as one big piece that I just very nearly framed it!  So this was the ideal project, I didn't have to cut into it and I figured that if I messed up I would just unpick and get my piece back!

The tutorial was easy to follow, but because it was late at night and I just had to do it  (or else it would never happen!) I used a fleece blanket for an alternative to batting that I had got from IKEA.  It worked great too.  I decided to do wavy random lines as the quilting lines, like the space boys zooming all over the place!  I even had a go at mitered corners. One is done wrong, I chopped off too much fabric so had to botch it but you can't tell.

I am pretty proud that I have completed my first quilt, although a simple one. But hey, you have to start somewhere!  My aim is to make 2 patchwork quilts for the little boys for christmas.  There I've said it so I will have to do it now!

Have a great weekend!