45/52 - mud kitchens + cardboard box trains

Lily

Lily in her happy place - the outdoor 'mud kitchen'. 

The kids spend most of their time out here these days - enjoying the beautiful weather, and free to create, imagine, play - and make plenty of mess, of course! 

It's a simple set up - not pretty, but functional: a second hand play-kitchen given a new lease of life, a second hand table, and a hodge-podge collection of old kitchen utensils, containers and sand pit toys. They cook with dirt, sand, water, grass, petals, sticks, leaves and whatever else they come across (let's just say it's not a vegetarian kitchen). 

It's good, messy, creative, outdoorsy, unstructured fun. The stuff of childhood.

Chances are if you visit our home, they will beg you to come outside, sit on the garden bench and dine at their restaurant. The prices are erratic (anywhere from 20 cents to 'forty hundred dollars') but the service is meticulously attentive, and the food (though somewhat gritty) is made with dollops of love.

Eli

He worked out how to snap his fingers. 

He was so determined to learn, and practised and practised till he got that all-important 'click'. 

Now all his staff (me?!) can be prompt in their attentions, haha ;)

Miles

The curls are coming.... 

Project 52: A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

More highlights from the week that was...

Mixing up a pie. She has worked out a 'recipe' in which she mixes up a sloppy batter, puts it in the sunshine to dry out/harden/cook, so she can then slice it up. A culinary mud-kitchen master :)

Just needs a couple minutes in the microwave ;)

Somebody mastered the pincer grip. A world of tiny foods now opens up :) Sultanas, frozen peas, puffed corn, etc

Making slice with my little 'taste tester' :)

We were so lucky to have Finn and Harper come for a sleepover! High excitement indeed. Just look at this four!
They are such dear friends. Lily requested home-made pizzas eaten outside for their special dinner, and the alfresco
dinner was enjoyed by all. I was chuckling as they casually chit-chatted away!

Little friends sharing a little food and a lot of laughter.

These two girls snuggled into the guest bed with their array of bed buddies and requested the curtain left open so they
'could enjoy the beautiful sunset'. Sleepover pros, they quietly giggled and chatted together for a couple
hours before drifting off to sleep. Precious little friends!

Another day, another 'box creation'. She comes home from school, sees a few boxes laying around and her creative
brain and hands go into over drive. This is the result - a train with a bracelet front light (because I cruelly didn't let her use Daddy's precious head lamp), doily wheels and a copious amount of blue electrical tape (which is the very best tape). All in a day's work!

Miles got added to the caboose - perfection.

'Being a little brother is so cool, look at all the fun stuff I get to join in on!'

Hanging with friends. He was so fascinated by this strange adventure!

A train full of blessings. It went to another level when Daddy used the broom to push them all around the house!! 

We stole this fun and simple idea from clever Amber - tape some clear contact paper on the window and let the kid's have fun sticking stuff up! I gave them a pile of paper and fabric scraps and an Ikea catalogue and let them go to town. Eli started out with trying to stick the entire catalogue up there!! :) but he soon got the gist of things and they spent a happy half hour cutting and sticking. 

Oh, if you are wondering, all the blue painters tape is because we are in the middle of stripping back, sanding, and
repainting that window frame. Um.... the project was started a year ago so maybe it will get finished in another year?!

 

And then there were four....
Good bye gummy smile, hello little chompy grin :)

'Watch 'dis, Mummy' He undoes his sandwich and takes a bite of
cheese, a bite of lettuce, a bite of ham and a lick of chutney - then chews them all up
together. I don't bother explaining that the whole point of a
sandwich is having all the ingredients together in one convenient package.
He just makes his own wonderful way in this world ;)

After school exhaustion! Bless x