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! 

Christmas!

I know its a bit late, but I realised today that I haven't shared with you any of our Christmas.  And since its been a bit quiet around these parts for the last few days I thought I'd show a picture or two.  So here's Freya in her new Rudolph dress up costume:

And Riley with his toolbox:

To be honest, I'm getting a bit cross at the moment - I can't seem to get any good photos.  Even our Christmas day ones were rubbish.  Grrrrr.  I'm blaming it on the horrible, grey, cloudy weather we've had for weeks.

Rainbow Arches

Aren't they beautiful?  They are by far my favourite toy we have at the moment.  Riley is going through a bit of an arty stage with them - he keeps arranging them in patterns on the floor.

They're so versatile - you can stack them, nest them, use them as fences, use them as caves or houses, make patterns or art with them......  I just love them!!!

Old-fashioned Potato Printing

Riley was back to doing arty stuff today, and as Freya had a nice long nap we did some good old fashioned potato printing!  I cut one potato in half so it was a circle and trimmed 3 more into a triangle, a square and a star.  He chose the paint colours and off we went!

Of course, after the other day, his hands went straight into the paint!

The star was his favourite - he ended up printing for well over half an hour.  He asked for more paper numerous times, and even told me he wanted different paper at one point.  I love that he's started making these conscious decisions when he's creating something!  Finished piece:

On a completely different note, our Portage worker left us the most beautiful building blocks to play with this week. 

They're wonderful - the centres are made from coloured acrylic, and coloured sand, beads and coloured liquid (with added glitter!) trapped between clear acrylic.  We spent ages building bridges for Riley's car to go under.  And these were some Star Trek style sliding doors Riley created for his car to go through!

I can see we're going to have fun with them all week.  Aren't they great?!

Making Music

When I asked Riley if he wanted to do the art project I had planned for today he simply said no.  Oh well - I guess everyone has days when they're just not in the mood.  We did have a brief music session this afternoon though, so I thought I'd show you that. 

These are our instruments - well, most of them.  A certain someone wouldn't let me photograph the castanets(!) and there was an incident with the sleigh bells a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't fixed them, but you get the picture.  We inherited most of them when someone was having a clear out and then we bought the little ukulele for Riley when he decided he liked guitars.  Its so nice to have real instruments, not just plastic-y kiddified ones (though to be honest, we do have a toy electric guitar for when Riley is performing concerts of nursery rhymes and songs from the tv!)  Anyway, our session didn't last long, but it was long enough for me to take a couple of slightly blurry action shots.....

Trains

I'm trying to take a Waldorf style approach to play - natural materials, very open ended, lots of scope for imagination.  I'm by no means an expert, in fact I'm still learning, but I'm really hoping it'll help to develop the creativity and imagination I'm aiming for with both of them.