13/31 {the january project} a quiet, creative home day

The school holidays fill up so quickly and can get so busy, I try to slice out a few days for the kids to just chill and potter around at home. 

I woke up with ideas of how we might spend the day, but the kids had their own (even better) ones too! Lily decided she wanted to enter a drawing competition, so after some quick googling I found a cute competition to illustrate a children's storybook. All three kids decided to spend a solid hour drawing.... including Eli taping 11 pages of illustrations together!! It was more than a little delightful. They also made firm plans on how to spend the prize money... though after they were done they totally ceased to remember that it was a competition, haha.

Later, I pulled out the canvases the kids got for Christmas and we did a little 'Resistance Art' using their initials, acrylic paint and some magical Washi tape of course. 

It was a lovely little day, bringing back memories of those days that now seem so long ago, just me at home with my three. 

{the january photo a day project}

Art Party // An Arty Girl's 8th Birthday Party!

My darling daughter Lily was turning eight and was due for a party! 

We don't do parties too often (so far, each of my kid's have had one for their 1st, 5th and now 8th birthdays). Lily's last party was her adorable Princess Tea Party when she was five (check it out here.... my teeny girl!). As we don't have them every year, when we do, I enjoy going all out to celebrate my little munchkins - and boy, do they LOVE a party :) They get to choose the theme too of course - and after running through a hundred theme variations, Lily finally settled decisively on an Art Party - fitting given her firm plans to be 'an artist' one day!

I have to admit I was thrilled with such a fun and creative theme and had an absolute blast pulling this together, with my ideas-filled little assistant planner! This kid had a clear vision and actually I was basically the assistant planner, carrying them all out on her behalf haha! Maybe she will be an event manager like her mama one day :) Lily's original big idea was to hold the party IN an art gallery so she could 'look at all the art with her friends then paint pictures of what we saw and have cake and dancing!'. Amazing, right?! But it was the midst of winter and I couldn't find a gallery that also had a good space for art and food and a horde of giggling little girls... so we decided to bring the art to us instead - with our own little gallery!

We had an absolute ball putting this all together. Homespun, simple, child-led and theme-driven, it was just a joy. I couldn't do this every year but I have to admit I absolutely love throwing parties when the time comes! I'm mostly grateful for the opportunity to make my kids feel cherished with a big celebration. And I was thrilled with Lily's creative choice because the theme just made it so easy and fun for everyone. Lots of art, laughter and food - what could be better?!

Thanks to my lovely friend Amber for taking many of following photos while I was busy flitting around! 

I think most of them speak for themselves so.... enjoy scrolling, if kid's parties are your thing ;)

DIY Art Gallery. It was so fun gathering images of some of our favourite art works. It was amazing how powerful and inspiring they all were displayed on the walls together too. The impact of beautiful art is not to underestimated :)

The Art Table, ready and waiting...

I made this simple little banner for Lily's 1st birthday party (I did the same for the boys too) and we pin them up for every birthday :) 

I made this in Canva - easy and a nice little welcome sign and wall decor.

What's a themed party without coming up with silly matching names?
Pop Art for Popcorn?! Yes, I am a genius. Ha!

'Art Palette' Rainbow Poke Cake! Click here to see how I made it and how it looks inside (clue - colourful!!). It was so easy, fun and delicious!! :) 

My lovely mother-in-law made these adorable art palette cookies

Lily came up with these names and wrote the signs. LOVE :) You can't see them too well but they are layered jelly cups.

Healthy Bliss Balls go rainbow!

Eli (6yrs) bought this little mannequin as a gift for Lily with his own money! *melt* Perfect table accessory!

Who needs table decor when you have art supplies to scatter around!? Colourful, useful and fun!  For art supplies, I had watercolours (both liquid and dry), watercolour paper, charcoal, black fine tip pens and also this fun colourful air-dry clay the kids could use to make mini-models.

An arty rainbow of fruit and veggies

I love open ended arts and crafts for kids, so I simply laid out all the materials and let them do what they liked - painting, drawing, modelling with clay. It was very relaxed and so sweet to see all the girls working away at their art. The drawing prompts on the table and walls helped inspire them when they needed it too.

I was thrilled when I found these cute little art palettes and brush sets at a cheapie shop. It meant each girl could have her own little set to use and take home. I wrote their name on each in gold pen.

'I'm just here for the food'

So, so excited for his sister's big day, my sweet boy xx

Little artists get to work!

I like to come up with (more useful, less sugary) alternatives to party bags where I can :) This time I got a bunch of calico 'library bags' and the kids had a total blast decorating them with puffy paint pens (retro!), fabric stickers and markers. Something to carry home all their art in, and use after the party. The girls were thrilled with this and I think the lollies weren't too missed ;)

Beautiful artworks drying in the afternoon sun. Little clay model animal figurines too!

They were very serious about their library bag decorating!

Lily came up with this game, kinda like 'pin the tail on the donkey' but each
blindfolded girl had to try and draw some clothing on the Lily outline, haha!

Another Lily Idea: Play Arty Musical Statues - we played music and everyone
danced around. When the music stopped, you had to freeze in a pose from one of the
art works on the walls!! It was super cute :) Harper is giving a great pose here!

Dancing up a storm and suddenly looking way too grown up! He was very into the game and had no interest in being 'out' haha

Blissfully happy to be with friends at her very own party :)

The artistes at work!

Miles was very much part of the action :)

The moment arrives... lighting the cake....

Oh my, I love this photo, cuddled up with my stripey little party-planning accomplice
as she joyfully eyes off her cake! I love this girl so much, planning a party for her was
truly a pleasure. What a wonderful young lady she is, I'm simply in awe of her xx

Great memories of a wonderful day...


Happy Birthday, Lily. What a privilege it is to celebrate you xx

story stones

After a fun time 'rock collecting' with my friends at the coast a few weeks ago (feels like a lifetime ago already!), I already had in mind what I wanted to do with some of those beautiful smooth little rocks.... make story stones! I've seen these around a bit on the interwebz, such as on the charming My Little Bookcase blog and love the way they encourage children to create their own stories in a really natural and classic style.

The concept is pretty self-explanatory - (but I will clarify anyway!) - it involves drawing (or gluing if you want to use cut-out pictures) basic story elements on to stones. This allows children to freely create their own tales using the stones as props, guides and inspiration. Such a simple concept but so ripe for creative play. And something about using stones in all their natural glory just makes this little activity full of added tactile, sensory goodness :)

So, the kids and I chose a few stones each and set to work! I had picked up a Sharpie Paint Pen from Bunnings (it's applied really well on the stone). We discussed first what things we thought would make fun elements in a story, before making our rather permanent additions. We drew designs on both sides of the rocks for double the fun ;) It was pretty fun for me too, I must admit, I could have drawn all day!!

I might get some glaze type thing to seal them at some point... mmmm, maybe (eg probably never going to happen!)

Oh, I also used some of the stones for herb markers for our veggie patch - in case you are wondering what role Chives will play in the kid's stories, haha!

Another day, another Story Stone added to the rock pile.  'I'm really good at castles' Lily said with utter confidence!

The response to these simple stones has been amazing, actually. I wasn't sure how much they would truly play and engage with them (one can never tell with these things!), but simply having them set out on the playtable has been invitation enough. Over the past couple of weeks, I often spot them sitting at the table at intervals through the day and overhear little snippets of stories being created... it's wonderful! Creative, simple, child-led goodness :) It is so charming to hear their understanding of 'story structure' emerge... the rapid fire conclusions always make me chuckle the most!

Eli engaged in some very intense story telling...

I will let you discern who drew what!! ;)

It was a fun and simple activity which has resulted in some new props for creative play in our home. Who knows how else they may be used over the years... well, Miles desperately wants to use them as projectiles, but hasn't managed to toss them too far yet ;) 

50/52 - a cosy + crafty kind of christmas

Lily

Sometimes, you just need a cosy home day!

With a number of Christmas events on lately, things were getting busy and the kids were just getting the 'end-of-year tireds'... it's been a big year for Lily in Preschool especially (don't even mention what full-time Kindy will be like next year!!). There was also some fun activities I wanted to do with the kids, but no gaps in our days big enough to do them in a relaxed manner. (I have discovered over time that doing these activities in a wide time window is the key to Mama not stressing out!). 

So, after checking with her teachers that school was winding down and no major activities were going on, I decided to just keep her home last Friday. She had been saying how tired she was and she wanted to stay home, so it just seemed right. Yay for Executive Decisions ;)  So, we designated it a cosy Pyjama Day. Lily nestled herself up under the Christmas tree that morning, reading the growing collection of books from our Christmas Book advent. Later, we all baked gingerbread cookies together while Christmas carols played in the background. 

It was the chilled-out, fun, and creative kinda day we all love, and it felt oh-so-good to enjoy a quiet day all together, just pottering around in the midst of this busy, social season. The longer I get into this SAHM gig, the more I enjoy just nesting at home with my littles, with no other agenda. There was a time when I sometimes felt anxious about how to fill the long days at home, but now it seems to happen easily? It was just one of those 'good days' - nourishing and rather precious, I must say. Perhaps the thought of full-time school next year makes these days seem all the more fleeting! (sniff)

Ahhhhh, can you smell the gingerbread baking?! :)

Eli

Helping Daddy with drilling. 

He is so keen to 'get on the tools' since he helped me make a bedhead, and I let him hold the drill with me. Then at Papa's house a couple weeks ago, Papa let him drill through planks of woods on his own with a full sized drill. (!!!!) Thankfully, I was not there to witness this event!

This drill is a little battery one with the battery mostly dead, it only turns veeeery slowly and no longer even impacts the wood at all. So, I assure you, he is not in harm's way! He was 'pre-drilling' the holes for Dad with great intention. And a few extra holes, just for good measure ;)

Miles

'Just give me an apple and 30 minutes in peace, thanks Mum'

Seriously, hand this kid an apple and he is a happy chappy :) He can devour the whole thing right down to the core (which I then have to prise out of his little paws!).

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

More highlights from the week that was...

Watching the real thing, itching to give it a go.

Not just a handy-man, but a crafty-man too! Making Christmas garlands :)

I am so spoilt being dear friends with an early-childhood teacher!! Amber passed
on her extras from this garland activity and it was a winner :)

The kids (and I!) made salt-dough ornaments for the first time, it was really fun and so easy!!

Would you like an '8' stamped into your salt-dough Christmas ornament? If so, it's your lucky day :)

If I can't find Lily, she is probably here, cosied up under the Christmas tree,
wearing a Santa hat and staring up at the lights... in this case also sucking on
a lemon!!

Practising 'bokeh' :)

Lily's Preschool Christmas Concert. 

A huge night for this little lady. She was so very excited, nervous, serious about it all. The repertoire was kept tighyly under cloak by her until the big night. She took her teacher's missives to be 'sensible' very seriously indeed - she wouldn't even wear her favourite hairclip in case it fell out and distracted her mid-performance!! LOL!

I expected the group of almost 40 preschoolers (two classes) to sing 3 or 4 giggly songs but instead, they all stood and sang for almost 30 minutes - must have been a dozen songs at least! They all did so well! A third were Christmas songs, a third in Japanese, a third various favourites. It was adorable. And perhaps my 'mother ears' are finely tuned, but my daughter's voice seemed to ring clear through the cacophony of voices, as she eagerly and animatedly sang every tune, and did every action with pride and joy. It was gorgeous, and our whole clan (yes, grandparents came along too!) grinned madly and proudly through every minute... along with the family of all the other sweet kids packed in the classroom too!

Afterwards, all the families picnicked together on the school grounds - a lovely way to celebrate a wonderful year of Preschool and see our kiddos off to Kindy...

Lily of course chose her debut concert dress very seriously... then
went through Eli's clothes and asked if he could wear this little shirt and
vest because she wanted him 'to look handsome'. A touch over
dressed but very dapper indeed :)

Can't get enough of his apple munching face!

  

This boy is getting everywhere and into everything. And because I can't always monitor whether he is putting
the laptop cable in his mouth (!!) in this big ol' house, we helped him set 'safe and assuring boundaries' (eg pulled out the old school playpen!).

  

Love finding these happy scenes. The kids reading together, Miles making plans to hijack the tree. Btw, it's really warm
but they have a current obsession with wearing their dressing gowns!

Sharing a book-related giggle..

Gingerbread making together - so fun! I kept it simple by using kits (from Aldi, woohoo!) and the kids loooved decorating.

Oh, Eli!

The end result of some of our activity - gingerbread decorated by Eli and packaged to give to little friends. Um, yes,
a gingerbread man only a mother could love?! ;) So cute! (Lily was in on it too but declined to be photographed!)

We were very happy with our Salt Dough ornaments :) A little twine and a bell finished them off nicely!

After a visit to Harper's house, Lily informed me that our mud kitchen really needed a 'proper sign' like they had. Haha - only five and already keeping up with the Jones' ;) (not their surname!). Well, I had a plank of plywood left from my bedhead making project, so I outlined the letters and Lily and I painted them in together. Mark and Eli hung it up so now we are officially in business ;) She also painted 'restaurant' on another piece of ply, gotta get that up too!
(And as you can see from the chaos of the kitchen area, she is rather a messy cook - even works on the floor!!)