Chalks and Peppa Pig!

The other day I let Freya have a go with the chalks - she's so excited every time I give her new art materials!  I gave her black card, which is totally new to her, and coloured chalks, and then she decided to add a few Peppa Pig stickers (which in theory were hers, but Riley used most of them a few days ago when he had an arty moment so there weren't too many left!).  It was all a bit dusty and smudgy, but she had lots of fun.

Finished picture......

I've got a few good ideas up my sleeve for her to try in the coming weeks.  I can't wait to see what she does with them!

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.

Yet another sensory play

I am so into sensory play at the moment.  Its so easy - you tip the stuff into a bowl/tray, let them play with it, then tip it back in the packet and put it away.  Minimal set up and clean up!!!  Until today.  I've had an idea lurking for ages.  I was intending to do it before Christmas as a festive activity, but all the horrible illness got in the way (they both had the nasty nasty virus - did I tell you that?  And were both out of circulation for well over a week at slightly staggered times.  I nearly went crazy.)  The idea is very simple - uncooked, rolled porridge oats and a little bit of glitter.  As is usual now, Riley refused to even look at it.  Freya thought it was wonderful though and had a full on tantrum when I took it away (she was trying to redecorate the kitchen with it in my defence!)

A word of warning though - this is one to do outside.  The oats were really dusty and didn't want to shake off our mat easily, and well, glitter is glitter and goes everywhere at the best of times!  So my plan of virtually no clean up was thwarted today, extra sweeping and wiping - yuck!

Fingerpainting with Freya

Today was Freya's first ever go with paints.  She seems so into art at the moment, I just had to let her loose when Riley wasn't around (I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with the mess 2 of them would make at once!)  I think she liked it.

So those are the cute photos of her painting happily......  And here's one of her after she painted herself:

Aaaaaargh!  She's still got paint in her ear now!!!  I'm not entirely sure how to get it out!  Anyway, here it is - Freya's first ever painting:

Getting back in the swing of things

Isn't it funny how the holidays completely disrupt your routine - or is it just our house?  I'm barely organised still.  Anyway, though I have great plans for the weeks to come (doesn't everyone in the first few weeks of January?!) none were suitable for today, so we did some basic drawing - Freya with crayons and colouring pencils, Riley with felt tip markers.

Apparently colouring pencils are tasty!!!  I'm so pleased - Freya is very into art.  She spent weeks climbing up on to the kitchen table, which drove me absolutely crazy, until I realised she was just trying to get to the crayons, bless her.  How cute is that?  Riley is rather take-it-or-leave-it with art most of the time, so I encourage him as much as I can, and try to provide varied and interesting projects for him, but Freya actually goes looking for art supplies.  (She keeps pointing to the glue on the shelf at the moment - not sure I'm ready for that chaos!)  I hope she continues loving it.  I don't think I've shown you any of Freya's 'finished' scribbles yet, but I thought I would today as in the last few days she's changed from back and forth scribbles to round and round ones.  She's very pleased with herself.  Here it is:

And here's one of Riley's:

More Sensory Play

Today Riley joined in too, for the first time in weeks.  Nothing amazing, our faithful bag of dried beans, this time with an Ikea heart shaped ice cube tray.  Freya had lots of fun trying to spoon the beans into the little holes!

I've got a great idea for a brand new sensory play activity - I'll reveal all soon!

I'm back - but barely!!!

Well that was a longer blogging break than I expected.  I had intended to take a few days off over Christmas, but Riley was ill for the whole run up so I never even made it on to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (hope you all had a good one!).  Freya then caught the virus off Riley, and well, things are just about back to normal now.  I'm afraid I don't have any pictures for you today - everything I've taken in the last few days seems to be blurry or was half a second too late.  I'll be back soon - with photos - I promise!