plip, plop, drip, drop- rainy day crafts

With the rainy weather coming and going for the last month now, our house has embraced the opportunity of craft time around the theme of rain!! surprise surprise
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needless to say it can be hard at times to entertain little ones and big ones for that matter when outside is wet, wet wet and all one can hear is the pitter patter or gush pour of the ever constant rain :S
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one must muster all their energy into coming up with activities, idea's, opportunities and play, at a time when imagination and

creative spirit may be the only way to avoid going bonkers!!
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I wanted to share some of the crafts we have made

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Plip, Drop, Drip, Drop rain

To go with the rain theme, as well as the obsession my children now seem to have with Umbrella's I came up with this craft activity. .
I gave them both a sheet of white paper with a silhouette outline of 2 children cuddling. Cut out an Umbrella out of patterned patter and put it all together with glue.
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After supplying them with blue paint, paint brushes, chucky glitter shapes, gloopy glue and white cotton wool balls- they had everything to make their very own magic rain creation.
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I found this cute little rhyme to set the scene for them:
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Plip, plop, drip, drop
The rain begins to patter.
Plip, plop, drip, drop

Watch the raindrops spatter. 

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  Plip, plop, drip, drop

  The puddles are shinny and round.

  Plip, plop, drip, drop

  They're scattered all over the ground.

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  It was immensely cute when Declan suggested that the two  

  children where none other than "my cute sister Thalia and

  Declan" -I love that my munchkins have a special little bond

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  Thalia loved playing with the glitter and Declan had a great time making the puddles with paint and glitter combined, even a rainy cloud made an appearance.

The cotton wool clouds just weren't Thalia's thing, typical girl sticking to all things bling!

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Rainy weather man
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Declan and I got our crafty hands together to make our very own weather man and a very stylish weather man is he. Okay so he might be made out of a toilet roll but he is transformed with much imagination and love to become what he is today sitting on a shelf very proudly, he even has his own custom made umbrella :P
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 Here he is in all his pride styled and created for the rainy weather.

Declan had much delight in sprinkling the rain (rice grains) over him to create the pitter patter of rain.

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Obsessions of the heart:

Simply too cute not to share

Firstly Thalia's creation to the left was created after Thalia found this very special bubble picture in our collage box.

Thalia is besotted with all things bubbles at the moment and can relate most things in life back to bubbles :)
So when she found this picture she was very quick to show mummy, a decision was made with Mummy's help to stick the picture on a piece of paper for painting time.
Thalia enjoyed using one of her other favorite items...FOOD  to paint away and create her own apple bubbles.
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 She was so amazed when I cut the apple in twain and said we could use it for painting, my little miss piggy may of been offended at first that I would use precious food in such a way but she soon grew to love the way the apple made shapes on her special paper.:)

 Declan's creation's above also show some of his obsessions of late.

 The painting up the top has been titled by Declan "the fly and the hungry frog"

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 Declan stared his painting by painting a big green blob and asked "what animal is green mummy?" to  which I answered "a frog". Declan quickly made it his task to create a frog crafting his green blob into not just any frog, but 'the hungry frog' from one of his favorite books.

In the book the frog has big googly eyes so Declan told Mummy in good time that he must have some googly eyes for his frog.

Mummy whipped out some plastic crafty eyes from the cupboard and off he went.

Soon he added 4 long legs, a red tounge and the frogs lunch- a fly who also desperately needed googly eyes :P

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It was so cute to see his mind at work, focusing on his special goal to create a much loved character from the pages of a book.

Although the result of the journey is adorable, it was the journey that hit that special spot.

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The painting below shows a one minute painting by Declan which after much consideration he slushed his hand in the blue paint, slapped a little hand print on his paper and exclaimed "my best colour is blue!" :)

He is certainly making it clear  in more than one way lately his love for the colour blue: choosing clothes, pointing out blue objects and having a soft spot for all things blue.

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It's a wonderful thing to see both my children's personalities coming out more and more each day and crafting is one of the many ways in which they can express themselves, we love craft!!!

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So what crafts are you doing today??

too cute sock puppets

Sock Puppets - a fun, creative, imaginative activity that is cheap and affordable and very very much loved!

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Secretly I have a stash of Funky looking socks brought from a cheap store waiting for the perfect day....a day where noses are running, the weather is not so bright and the house is starting to go just that little bit insane....Volla..."come on kids lets make some silly sock puppets, who want's to help mummy" :P

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The munchkins had great delight when Mummy got out some of her special button containers, lots of "ohhh's" and "ahhh's" as they picked out the perfect eyes and nose for their puppets.

It was Declan's idea to use ribbon to make a mouth, so out came the ribbons and the selection was made.

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They were eager to play with their puppets and see the finished result of their faces, off the went to prepare for puppet play, getting excited each time mummy sowed on another button.

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Thalia decided she wanted a "happy" puppet and Declan thought hard before he let me know his puppet was "going to be be crazy".

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Mummy arranged the mouths accordingly to the puppets personalities and no sooner were they taken away to be the objects of play for the afternoon...reading books, sharing kisses and cuddles, picking up things in their mouths, talking in extra special voices with help from little imaginations, introducing themselves to special toys, having tours of the house and so on.

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The puppets now live with our other special toys and both my munchkins take much joy and pride in wearing their special friend on their arm for a play date! :)

Daddy wearing Thalia's happy puppet as Thalia shares her book

kisses x

posing with her puppet

Declan and his crazy friend! :P

Gentle Dragon Boy and the Fiery Fairy Girl

....I may be drinking a glass of red and it may seem as though I'm a tad muddled but I assure you that I have just described my children in a nut shell.
In this circumstance I had to switch the common qualities of Dragons and Fairy's to fit the picture.

Since Thalia was born there have been moments of "ahhh just like Declan used to do :)" but this has been a rare comment. In the last week I have really noticed how much they are such different little personalities with almost opposite qualities.
Now that the Madame has started to crawl around, it had become evident how big the gap of difference is and yet at the same time how grand there love for each other is.

As the title suggests Declan being the older of the two is obsessed with dragons along side death knights (and all things WOW thanks to Daddy), lizards, dinosaurs, trucks, cars and all things manly even to the point of having a imaginary friend that is a Dragon.
Mr Dragon as he is called comes everywhere with us, has his own voice, lives down the bottom of the stairs in our backyard (actually moved houses with us, Declan did the honour of giving him the tour of the new house!), he changes colour every day ....the point is that he is as boyish as it comes yet underneath not fiery as a dragon but ohh so gentle (which is such a blessing when having a second child so close!).
Ever since I can remember he does most things in a delicate manner- eating his first finger foods by carefully pinching between thumb and finger (the same class that is shown in a high tea), a neat freak to the enth degree, running on tip toes, dancing and showing rhythmic qualities at such an early age, oh and the funniest being his reaction when seeing other babies/toddlers eating their food in a manner by which a Cave man might sit and feast on a carcass...his pure shock is priceless (memories of sharing meals with his bestie Austin come to mind..lol).
He is just ohh so gentle (don't get me wrong, he has his moments of strife, brutality and mess) and loves his sister always flooding her with kisses and cuddles.
His latest thing to say .."just Thalia mummy!!!" input sad face and shattered voice here is said when he is playing or just woken up and has realised that Thalia is in bed and he can't play with her- Mummy can try to sway this thought with any activity, food, drink, dvd but all attempts are usually fronted with "just Thalia Mummy!!!"
if you have ever had the privilege of meeting my gentle prince then you will know that at the first meeting he will cry, cling to a parent, run away, lye on the floor face down and be shy as shy until about the half hr mark (or sooner if your a good playmate :D)- once he considers you one of the accepted ones you will be rewarded with a friendly greeting on the next meeting...and perhaps become as obsession for a short time as Uncle Wayne seems to be at the moment.

Then on a very different level of madness is our Princess Thalia- The Fiery Fairy
She came to this world very quickly and mummy didn't even have much time to even think about pushing- stubborn little thing from the start and we were not met with a cuddly baby but a screaming bundle (even so it was love at first sight).
After she had been dressed to the nines and promptly breastfeed and comforted she still didn't see it fit to sleep till a good 6 or so hrs later....don't they tell you newborns are sleepy little things!!!
Thalia from the start does things in her own time and continues too.
As she grew and grew and grew (much bigger baby than the long stick of her brother) she became her own little being and continues to show her true personality.
She is the Cutest of Cute, big blue eyes and white blonde hair like her brother, loves her dolls and fairy's (although she is very fond of all things boyish) and to any outsider would look the picture of a gentle Fairy/angel from a magical place far away- well she does look the part but I think once you have heard the shreaks of displeasure, screams, the repeated sounds of that N.O. word, her demands made clear through speech and sign language, the cry that could break a thousand windows if she put her mind to it ...you might just realise the reality that your former thought is a big fat mistake.
She is The Drama Queen, Madame of all things food, Mistress of all toys and Stubborn is her official 3rd name -according to Thalia anyway.
We love her to bits and she also loves her brother- although he does get the serve with her verbal storms and sometimes gets crawled on and prodded, torchered and poked similar to that that a bird of prey would dish out.
At this point of time it looks as though she will always be the messy one, the leader of mischief, one to push the boundaries (not looking forward to teen yrs!!!), the bubbly extrovert ready for anything and forever a Princess in her morphed world of Madness.
She loves the boobie- has even named them and as Declan speaks to Mr Dragon, Thalia has long conversations with the boobies...laughs at them, pokes them so the milk will flow so she can watch it trickle and when she is ready (and only when she is ready) will she latch on and enjoy the bliss that is Mummy Milk.
Thalia's form of Time has extended to how she physically matures.....at just shy of 1 yr she has No teeth (that's right a big 0 in the teeth department), started the teething saga at 3-4months and no signs to tell of the long and painful tale. Only a couple of weeks ago she decided it was the right time to crawl, before that it was just fun to sit back while Declan fetched the toys for her, sat back while mummy prepared the feasts,listened to daddy melt over her with joy (his little darling) and enjoy the ride whether it be by arm, pram, highchair, trolley,lap she soaked it up.
Now that she can crawl Declan cannot escape her and she is loving it....all in good time mummy!
Just a few days ago she decided she might try to start tugging on nappies and see how they undo :o...mummy now makes sure she has shorts, all in ones or a sleeping bag at bed to prevent the pooing cot blog from appearing...ewwwhhhhh
At a first meeting with Thalia you might expect a cheeky laugh, a poke in the eye or mouth (whichever she sees fit), a kiss, an evil chuckle, a big "NO!!!", a snatch at your food or a sly grin- all of which are never shy but in your face in a package of pure prettiness, she has charm but she's a fiery one....watch out boys, here she comes!!

My children- they are worlds apart and I could type about them for hrs but alas I fear I have lost most of my readers quite a few minutes ago, if you got this far you deserve a medal :D
I love them both dearly, each of them with exquisite features and wants...how very blessed am I!!!