All dressed up

On Friday, we went to my friend Mel's wedding, and we very bravely decided to take both little ones with us. It was hard work, but they were both very well behaved and we had a lovely day!

Harry took a shine to my handbag and was parading around with it.

Harry and Mia didn't last very long in the church so Ram entertained them outside.

A lovely family photo at the reception at Consall Hall Gardens. Harry spent a lot of time running up and down the steps to throw stones into the lake.

Finally big enough...

...to start fitting into some of her lovely dresses!

Spontaneous day out

Sometimes the best days out are those which aren't planned in advance! We had a brilliant day yesterday with two very well behaved little ones, and we nearly came home straight after our weekly shop at Asda!

Instead we braved the traffic and headed into Brighton to see the dinosaurs in Churchill Square Shopping Centre. There was a collection of moving, roaring dinosaurs right in the middle of the shopping centre. Harry wasn't sure at first, but once he settled down he loved it! He was pointing and giggling every time they roared. I tried really hard to get a good photo of Harry looking at the camera, but he wouldn't take his eyes off the dinosaurs! We've seen the one in the middle before at the Natural History Museum, they are all very good.

We had lunch at Pizza Hut, then we headed down to the seafront and Ram took Harry to the Sealife Centre while I sat on the beach and fed Mia. It was such a lovely sunny day.

Then, after a quick return visit to the dinosaurs, we drove down to the Marina and went for a short walk to see the boats.

We were very pleased with ourselves for managing such a long and busy day out, with very little fuss from either little one! Mia spent most of the day in the baby carrier asleep, and Harry was so excited by everything.

Simple things...

We moved this activity onto toy cars when all the marbles had disappeared under the sofa.

Homemade cardboard car wash

Harry loves car washes! Well he's never actually been in one (we're not really ones to wash our car) but he is fascinated by the idea of them. So I made him a simple car wash for his toy cars using a suitably shaped rectangular cardboard box.

The box is a sturdy nappy box that I cut down to size. I cut windows down the sides, and then painted it with white emulsion paint. There is bubblewrap on the bottom of the car wash and at one end I made long strips of felt hanging down. There is a scouring pad cut in half to make sponges down the side and details are added with felt pens.

It was a big hit! Harry recognised immediately what it was and couldn't wait to start pushing his cars through it. 

Next I'm thinking I should try and make a waterproof one out of plastic that he can take in the bath with him!

If you have a toddler that is obsessed with the car wash, find lots of car wash games, activities and crafts over on Toddler Things, my other blog!

Girly weekend

Ram would never have suggested leaving me alone with a 6 week old Harry. Well, in fact he did go away when Harry was younger than that, but I always had support from my Mum. But when he came up with the idea to take Harry away for a couple of days on a trip to Legoland and up to see the Grandparents in Warwick, I actually saw this as an opportunity for a bit of a break! It didn't seem much of a break spending time alone with baby Harry, but now I am wondering what all the fuss was about, as it's much easier to look after a tiny baby than an active toddler!

Yes, there was screaming, and yes, there was plenty of marching about with her tucked over my shoulder trying to get her to calm down and go to sleep. But I also got to spend lots of time playing with her, talking to her and singing to her without a boisterous Harry trying to jump all over her (in an affectionate manner of course). I also had some time to myself while she napped, and I even got some housework done!

The question is though, would it have been quite so easy without the magic swinging seat?

Felt biscuits - Party Rings and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been fascinated by felt play food for ages, there are so many fantastic examples all over the web. Well I recently joined Pinterest and found so much inspiration there that I thought I'd give it a go. I'm not much of a sewer and I don't have a sewing machine, but I do love crafting with felt as it's very easy to work with, so for my first play food project I decided to make some felt Party Rings and cookies.

Inspiration for these biscuits came from this Folksy seller and these cookies. For the Party Rings I cut circles from brightly coloured felt. I cut out thin stripes in the contrasting colours which I first sewed into place, then I sewed around the inside and outside of the circles, using a small amount of stuffing to pad them out.

The cookies were really easy to make. The chocolate chips made from a darker felt are glued on and then secured with a couple of stitches, then the two sides of the biscuit are sewn together and stuffed.

I am so pleased with how they turned out! It has given me the confidence to try out some different types of food and I have all sorts of ideas planned. 

My children love playing with their pretend food! If you like these felt biscuits you might also like my felt sandwich and salt dough and felt pizza. I have also made cardboard play biscuits and realistic laminated play food for toy saucepans.