We Cheered the Olympic Torch!

We weren't able to cheer the torch through our home city as we were celebrating my cousin's 40th Birthday that day so we planned it for the following day. After spending a wonderful afternoon exploring Kenilworth Castle, we set up our picnic rug on the grass outside and sat down to wait - it was really exciting just waiting, with police officers whizzing around on motor bikes and a local radio station roving reporter interviewing people - Eve and my Mum were interviewed about the torch relay as well and my Mum 'bigged up' home ed on the radio!!!!

Here you can see how excited Idris was about this momentous occasion in his little life - exhausted by an afternoon running around the castle chasing balls and frisbees, he slept through the whole thing - never mind!!

There was a whole cavalcade of vehicles that came through - one bus dropping off the next person in the relay, one picking them up, one with spare police officers in from the team escorting the torch, one blacked out bus with goodness knows who in, two cars going ahead and making sure everything was in order.... it went on and on!! Every bus and car had Wenlock the mascot in them and everyone was really friendly, waving at the children!

I was expecting the police to be a bit officious and make us move back but they weren't at all, we all crowded forwards to see the torch come in to the car park at the castle, disappear from view for 'the kiss' where the flame is swapped from runner to runner and then emerge again in the hands of this gentleman (have no idea who he is!). It was a great vantage point as instead of seeing the torch whizz by just once, we saw it twice, once running and once walking - hats off to my Dad who did the research on that one and found us the spec to watch from! In the bus at the back there is a 'torch rack' with all the spare torches in.

This is Eve making her own vantage point on my Dad's shoulders - please take note of the need for tights and fluffy jumpers in JULY - soooooo fed up of this RAIN!!!!!!

This is one of the outlying cars with Wenlock peeping out of the window!!

This was the first runner - don't know his name either!!!

 

It was a momentous occasion and although I'm not entirely sold ('scuse the pun!) on the national cost implications of 8000 torches and the kit and hangers on, I appreciated being able to bring the children to be a part of it - especially as we didn't get ANY of the tickets we asked for in the ballot - but don't get me started on that one........

Idris is 11 months!

 I can't quite believe that my baby boy is eleven months old as of yesterday! He is such an amazing, happy little thing (apart from the tantrum he threw tonight when Daddy left for work!). He is 'such a boy' - if ever a case study was needed to prove nature over nurture then Idris is it. He has access to way more choice than my girls did at his age as I now child mind so have lots of resources to suit all sorts of children. Despite the choices, he wants to be outdoors all the time, preferably hitting, kicking, throwing or generally brutalising whatever he can find..... he has mastered the step to get out and cries if we shut the door!

 He loves pens - and has worked out that the tops come off..... if I give him a bottle, he will spend a little time posting them in and tipping them out.... posting is quite popular right now, as is putting things in and out of boxes and baskets.... Please note the gorgeous dungarees made by the talented seamstress that is my Mum - aren't they adorable?

 He quickly picks up anything new we show him and often has his 'concentrating face' on while he masters it - he is currently concentrating on trying to pull a pair of castanets apart out of the music basket - problem is, give him a few months and I think he'll manage it.... he is babbling away to himself as he does so. He started with bah and dah, then about six weeks ago move up to nah and lah and this week chatters away to us in a lovely little conversational voice and looks at us in an enquiring way as if to ask 'did you get that?' He knows some words - booby (I know, I know - this happened by accident but he does love his breast milk!), Daddy, Poppy (the dog) and ball, more if you add in gesture but he knows these ones in any context!

 This is his birthday swing hung under the covered patio - my parents thought he should have it early and he really enjoys it! He enjoys it as least as much as his favourite food - strawberries - I'm not sure if I dare take him fruit picking this summer - we might get thrown out for eating too many strawberries before we can pay!

He started to walk about six weeks ago, a few steps but three weeks ago really took to it and potters around the place now with very few wobbles! He was fascinated by the rain and I didn't want to disturb him to put his rain suit on - bath time is very satisfying these days as I watch my grubby happy boy become pink and fluffy. He never wears shoes, I'm sure he will have hobbit feet at this rate but it's good for him to have them free and he seems to enjoy the sensations on his feet.

Now on to Idris's biggest love - balls - any ball, any size, any material, just as long as it's a ball - it really amuses me that we take a ball everywhere we go for him! He kicks a big one round the patio, throws a tennis ball for the dog, bowls a wooden one down the hall..... and my oh my he has a powerful overarm for such a little guy! Dewi provided him with his first rugby ball this week, no Welsh boy can live without one apparently - I'm not so sure he's that convinced by it's odd bounce and lack of rolling ability but we'll see!!

We are so enjoying our little bumble bug - he is bold and adventurous and a real tough cookie, he would rather fall asleep under the apple tree than cuddled in my arms, but loves singing 'two little dickie birds' together at bed time, has a wicked sense of humour and an innocent 'who me?' gaze followed by a cheeky grin when caught quietly up to mischief -  we are so glad to have you brightening our lives!!!

Felted Pictures Made with Wool Roving

I have had this wool roving for three years - seriously - and haven't got around to using it until now. Yesterday we went to a breastfeeding week event and the girls made little butterflies from wool roving balls felted down. It reminded me that I had some and we should really use it....... so this afternoon we did, and boy did we need that crafting time! My lovely girls have been revolting for the last 24 hours and it turns out they just needed an intensive hour and a half of crafting with Mummy to reset their moodometers to a rosier level!!!!

Eve made a garden with hers - this is quite a late stage where she was agitating the individual pieces on. We tried two slightly different methods - first of all, we made the base then added the 'picture pieces' on top and re felted it. After that we tried putting it all together in one go and felting it under a criss cross cookie sheet. Both methods worked and had different advantages - the first one meant that the felt base was wet and putting the small details on top was easier as they stuck, but the second method felted together more securely. The girls loved doing it and I think we will develop our method as we carry on experimenting!

 This is the first step - make the pieces wispy and spread them out into a shallow tray, dish oven pan etc etc.....

 Make up three layers, placing every new layer at right angles to the previous layer...

 This was the first base felted into a lovely neat round.....

 These are some of the tools that we used to add the detail into the picture - just from the kitchen drawer!! The bubbles are from washing up liquid, as far as I know, any soap will do!!

 We agitated the smaller details by hand - it feels wonderful, all slippy and silky!

 When we thought they were felted enough, we rinsed them under cold water and squeezed the excess out with a tea towel - this is Faith's bucket and spade!

Faith showed Idris how to do some felting - he enjoyed having a go!

Jubilee Fun

Accordian Book Photo Albums

 We just came home from our holiday in Lyme Regis - a fabulous week playing on the beach and the girls have many happy memories. I promised them we would print out some pictures for them to have but I couldn't think of a good way for them to display them. I was browsing around the blogs I follow when I got home and came across an e-zine called Alphabet Glue and there was an idea about making travel books using this accordion technique. How perfect for little photo albums I thought - and here they are!!

 We used some pretty scrapbooking paper for the covers and the zig zag, and plain coloured card for the pages....

 Eve spent a long time concentrating at the laptop writing captions for her photographs. When she began to get frustrated I sat with her and introduced her to the idea of funny little captions instead of tedious long sentences for her to write. For example, instead of The waves were big and washed our castle away, we wrote 'Tidal Wave!'. Eve enjoyed writing the punchy captions more and I'll wait and see if the idea translates into other things she writes!

Faith made some wax rubbings of the ammonite biscuits that she found on the beach and added them to her album - we still need to write her captions but the children's Grandparents arrived before we could do it!

Mark Making with Driftwood

This was a spin off activity from exploring the box of driftwood that arrived. The girls had been using some lovely descriptive words to describe the markings in the wood and I thought they would enjoy exploring the textures further by making some marks in clay with them.

Rolling the balls of clay into smooth balls provided a challenge for the younger ones!

They were all spoilt for choice with the wide array of textures to choose from! and found creative ways of using the markings (see below).

Faith particularly enjoyed this - I remember one year we made prints this way using flowers from the garden. Faith made a dandelion montage - every time she went for a flower, she brought a dandelion in various stages of growth! It made for a really lovely keepsake of her toddler interests - I still have them now!

I particularly liked the one in the top middle row, and the wormwood ones turned out really prettily also!

Black and White Sensory Play for Babies

I set this up for Idris using what was in the recycling box and a packet of pudding rice that was in the cupboard (Tip - never use dried beans for babies and toddlers to play with as some are toxic if eaten!!). He was fascinated with it and sat in it happily for about half an hour.

He watched us pour the rice and put his fingers out to feel the rice fall and to try and catch some - he picked it up himself and dropped it. he wriggled his feet in it and made it swoosh around.

He watched Faith fill up a cup and then tried to do it for himself with some success.

He used his pincer grip to pick up some individual pieces, then he bashed the tray hard and watched them fly all over the place then laughed and laughed!

He tried a piece then spat it out again!

And then he discovered how to tip it OUT of the box all over the floor - and we have been sweeping them up ever since!!!

We have pulled this out on and off over the last couple of weeks and watched how Idris's play has developed with experience. He is now very proficient at filling the cups and tipping them. He has learned to throw so now throws handfuls of rice out of the box across the laminate and watches as they scatter away. We tried some new resources such as a ball to roll in them and a pastry brush but he isn't interested in those so we took them back out. His interest in it is waning now so time to change the set-up and see what he does next I think!!