"The building city"

It's wet outside, a storm is due to arrive with big hail this afternoon, our family is not 100%, bit tired, snuffle and coughs haven't cleared completely yet...what to do...what to do.

With jackets and gum boots on we excitedly went outside looking for muddy puddles to jump in....as we live on a hill and have drainage not many puddles were found. Only one puddle which was "too small" according to Little man. So with disappointed faces and sluggish steps inside we went.

I had remembered back to yesterday, Declan had brought one of his eye spy scholastic books to me, fave page opened (a pic of a city made with blocks with HEAPS of cars) and asked in a very serious tone "Mummy, can I play with my cars just like this?" *insert puppy dog eyes*

Over an hour ago, I suggested we get out our alphabet blocks to make a city and asked if Declan would like to bring his car rug from his room into the lounge room.....an instant hit with both munchkins.
Soon enough we were bringing out the scholastic books for inspiration and scenery for our own city.

After lots of building and collecting different items, our boring inside day just turned into a lot of creative fun!!!!

Declan has now named our city "The building city"....lets hope he is willing to pack it away until next time sometime today! :D

welcome to "The building city"..

Little man's fave section of the city.

"Mummy, those babies playing ball need an adult to watch them to keep them safe"
(placing a little people lady with mobile with babies) :D

Did I mention that I love block play!

....oh and the munchkins do too..LOL

Personalised Eye-Spy Rice Bottles

A couple of months ago, the munchkins and I set out to make our own eye spy rice bottles after being inspired by a blog post from Pink and Green Mama, which you can read HERE

Since making our eye spy bottles, apart from the great making experience they have been used and loved a lot! Eye spy games, letter recognition, colour recognition, a musical instrument (shaker), a fascinating toy for babies that visit (lid glued on tight for safety)...my munchkins are proud of their bottles and display them in the book corner on the shelf.

It was such a great experience that I feel the need to share.

So this is how it happened......

Little man loves blue

 while

Little miss loves pink,

after they both chose a second colour

we went about making four small batches of coloured rice

BLUE, GREEN, PINK AND YELLOW

To make the colored rice,

we mixed white rice with

liquid food coloring and a few pumps

of alcohol-based hand sanitizer

in some zip-lock bags.

To get nice strong colors, we used

A LOT of food coloring!

After getting our rice nice and bright I placed the rice on some paper towel,

spread it out and placed it in the sun to dry.

 

While our rice was drying we went hunting for little things

for each of the munchkins bottles.

Little things that they liked

or meant something to their personality.

 

Little man's little things

a small plastic dinosaur, letter's of his name, buttons of his choice,
shells from the beach, a plastic leaf, spiderweb ribbon, old train and bike stamps,
foam mini shapes (bus, train, racing car and Ute), coloured beads,Lego racing flag etc

and things for Little Miss



bits of ribbon and lace, small shells from the beach, a very small plastic babushka,
buttons and bling, teeny tinny baby's plastic rattle, fake leaf, gum nut from the park,
letter's of her name,transport foam shapes, old koala stamps, coloured beads etc

Please note when you are looking for things to put in the bottle make
sure they fit in the bottles opening!

both munchkins had fun helping to put all their treasure in the bottles



with much concentration

and laughter :P

Once everything was inside the bottles,

we simply placed some glue around the top of the bottles and screwed the lids on nice and tight.

The finished result....

not the best photo but you get the idea

I've been thinking of making some more bottled art but with other mediums

such as water, glitter and little sea life creatures

or sand and natural shells...

the choices are endless.

so be it for an activity for your toddler/older child,

a toy to make for your baby

or a gift to give

why not try it too!

coloured rice is also great for sensory boxes too.