On the Farm

Friday was Riley's Nursery trip to the Farm - we had such a good time (though we did have a couple of meltdowns from sheer exhaustion!)

So here's Riley looking like a hiker with a sheep....

And Freya chasing the chickens around the chicken coop....

Valentines Sensory Play

Oh, we had fun today!  This was so up Freya's street it was unbelievable - and Riley really liked it too.  The other day I dyed some rice with a bit of pink food colouring (approx 500g of rice and 1/2tsp of food colouring if anyone's interested in the 'recipe'!!!) and left it to dry.  Then today, I put it in the tub with half a pack of cheap table confetti.  Pink and sparkly - very Valentines-ish.  And very Freya!  So here they are...

Aw - so pretty!

Formula 1 in Glitter Glue!!!!!!

Today, Riley and I were sat at the kitchen table when he asked to do glitter glue.  Never one to miss an opportunity for art, I happily got the supplies out and just let him go for it. 

He started off blobbing different colours on to his page like he usually does, but after he'd done 7 or 8 different colours he started tracing his finger around the page.  To start with he went in between the blobs really carefully, then he started making car sounds to go with his tracing.

After a while he started going through the blobs of glitter glue, mixing them all together and leaving void marks with his fingers, and then he suddenly announced 'Its Formula 1!'  He was at it for ages, driving his finger around, making a track.  It was wonderful - totally process led.  And what made him think of formula 1, I have no idea (we follow it, but the season ended months ago.)

So anyway, here is Riley's interpretation of Formula 1, in the medium of glitter glue.....

Crazy Soap Sensory Play

I think I've said before - I love this stuff!  Just like shaving foam, but without the mess. 

That being said, there was a bit of mess - Riley decided he liked splatting it to make tiny, tiny bits fly everywhere!  Aaaaargh!

Miss F having a paint!

It was her first go with a paintbrush - she's turning into quite the little artist!  She's just fascinated with everything creative (hooray, hooray, hooray!!!!!).  It was just a splat and daub session today, so no finished piece pictures, just a note that, as ever, she had SO much fun.

Btw, the bleeding tissue paper art that I did with Riley was half success, half disaster.  When we peeled the dried tissue paper off the first one the next day it wasn't as good as we'd hoped.  In fact, it looked better before the tissue paper came off, so we left the other two with the tissue paper on!  My advice to anyone wanting to try it is to use different colours (eg. red and blue, or green and purple) rather than shades of the same colour so it stands out.  Or do a monochromatic scheme but use it for a background and stick something else over the top of it.  Have fun!!!

Freya the Mermaid!

Freya is very into clothes and dressing up, which I am so enjoying as Riley couldn't care less about either!  The other day she started trying to 'wear' one of our rainbow arches as a belt, (needless to say it didn't work!) so I quickly transformed her into a rainbow mermaid using them all.

I had to take photos of her to show her as she couldn't really go and admire herself in the hallway mirror - she was very happy with the result! 

Bleeding Tissue Paper Valentines Art

Today Riley and I did some bleeding tissue paper art.  I've seen it done a couple of times, but I've never done it so it was a bit of an experiment!  And at this time of year, what else could we do but a pink, heart-y creation.  I cut out some little hearts and strips of tissue paper in different pinks and reds as Riley still can't use scissors.  Then he used a sponge to wet his piece of paper - this was apparently the best bit!

Once its nice and wet you place the tissue paper on it - it doesn't have to be neat, in fact when I've seen it done if its a bit messy and crumply the finished result looks better - and then you dab more water over it.

Riley thought it was great, and its minimal mess too - just mopping up splashed water.  We've left them to dry overnight.  In theory we'll take the tissue paper off tomorrow and it'll have left a colourful print.  I'll post photos of the finished result.  For now though, here's the pieces drying - so pretty!  (And can you believe he did 3?!  That's what splashing about with water does!!)