Everyday Play

 

When the weather gets bleak and your tots venture outdoors less regularly, it can become quite a task to keep the days interesting without reverting to activities which eat into your purse; playcentres, shopping centres, movies, cafes... I'm talking to y'all! So to spread some thrifty fun, here are a few things we did last week to keep cabin fever at bay.

Rainy Day Play Series: Pumpkin Exploration

            

Winter is well and truly upon us here in the Land Down Under! Which, roughly translated for our outside-of-Aus friends, means that when it rains, it rains constantly. Con-stant-ly.

For those of us with young kids, this can potentially spell disaster. Unless you have pumpkins. Naturally.

Extra Special Announcement

Drumroll please .....

In February, my husband and I welcomed our third child into the world ... a beautiful little boy, Zachariah!!

One week old

Three months old

He is an absolute joy, and is thoroughly adored by his two big sisters and his besotted parents! :D

Can You Kazoo?

Hands up if your Munchkin hates to make noise. No hands? Didn't think so.
Nothing screams kids like ... well ... kids! One of my daughters favourite things to do is play with their many percussion instruments, guitars and keyboards (yes, keyboardS as in plural; portable, on a stand with a mic and even one of those giant ones you walk on!) and when those aren't sufficient they improvise. Usually all over the furniture.
Enter kazoos. Easy to make, easy to play and lots of fun into the bargain!
All you need is a toilet paper roll, wax paper or baking paper, a rubber band, and bits and bobs to decorate with.

 

Snowmen in Australia? It's Possible!

Is there any play material better than playdough? NOPE! Playdough is the BEST!!!
It's easy to whip up, cheap to make, fun to play with and the themes and varieties are endless.

Around Christmas (yes, it has been that long since I was posting), we made a batch of 'snow playdough'. Translation: it was white. You could just leave your playdough uncoloured, but I think that shade of white is quite watery in appearance. So instead, I made a batch of our regular playdough using this recipe, but substituted cornstarch for flour to make the dough whiter.

The girls experimented with rolling the dough into balls, and I showed them how to stack them to make snowmen. Ava preferred hers laying flat on the table.

    

                                           

It was a hit! They thought it was hilarious (no idea why, but laughter's always good!), and once they had made a few snowman bodies, they dipped into the stash of supplies to decorate them.

Coloured Sand Pictures

Unsure of how to use your new Coloured Sand (see this post for the how-to)? 
We persevered with our planned glitter art, using the coloured sand instead. Eden and I sat down together with Hubby and Ava to make some lovely sandy cards for our family. All you need to do the same is cardstock, a pencil, white glue, a large flat container and your coloured sand.

From DIY Glitter Fail to Coloured Sand

One of my pet peeves when it comes to doing certain crafts with my kiddies is the cost of some of the craft supplies. This does not appear to be as much of a problem for the fortunate folks in America who pick up fabulous deals for a couple of bucks, but here... some things are nearly impossible to get your hands on (wooden blank discs, freezer paper, Lakeshore Learning products, etc), and some are just expensive.
Glitter is one of the latter.
Shopping at The Reject Shop or Sam's Warehouse may cut craft costs in a lot of other ways, but even there two little vials of fine glitter (the size of your thumb) will set you back $3. Considering how much glitter kids like to use, I'd need to buy about half a dozen vials for a single project... that's $9 worth of glitter! You've got to be kidding me!
So, when I saw a post on Pinterest about DIY glitter, I got so excited!!