Painting with eyedroppers

We'd had a few wet, rainy days and too much indoors time.
So some food colouring diluted in water, eyedroppers, and paper towels = FUN! We experimented with mixing colours (yellow + blue = GREEN) and discovered that mixing all three colours leaves us with 3 shades of brown.
Jambin loved this activity - he spent probaby 45 mins doing this while I sat at the table with him, knitting and nursing a lovely cup of hot coffee. Last night I sticky-taped them up on his bedroom wall in the shape of bunting. They match his red sheets perfectly.

Apple Prints

:Tape a piece of butchers paper to the table:
:Cut an apple in half, cut notches so that little hands can get a good grip:
:Squirt some red paint onto a sponge:
:Press the apple half into the sponge:
:Make apple prints all over the butchers paper:
:Press a thumb or index finger into a sponge moistened with green paint:
:Add leaves to your apples by fingerprinting:
:Voila! Beautiful apple prints. Perfect for wrapping paper:

Baking in the New Year

What better way to start 2011 than afternoon tea in the backyard? A melt'n'mix butter cake with butter cream frosting (both recipes courtesty of Donna Hay) and a flat white made with the coffee machine that Santa brought me.

Christmas Sensory Tub

Slightly more sophisticated than my lentil and rice box, I present the Christmas sensory tub!! Equally as messy, seasonal, and adored by both my little elves. I must admit that even though the lentil and rice box idea was mine, I borrowed the idea of sensory tubs from Mari-Ann on her Counting Coconuts blog.

In the tub, I placed:

* jasmine rice, dyed green with food colouring

* plastic candy canes

* sparky pom-poms

* bells

* plastic containers for scooping

I had plans to wrap up matchboxes like little gifts, but ran a bit short of time. Next year, maybe.

Icecream

You know the weather is warming up when ice blocks make an appearance. Jambin finished his so fast I couldn't grab a photo of him.

Planting strawberries

I have a bit of a brown thumb. No really, once I killed a cactus. Several aloe veras, African violets, and a silver queen indoor plant arrived in the great Plant Heaven after receiving my careful ministrations.

So it seems somewhat strange that I have decided that I need to start growing my own food. I have delusions visions of a lush paradise in my own backyard, verdant and healthy, in which I can wander through picking fresh, yummy, organic produce straight off the vine and popping it into my mouth.

And the first step to fulfilling this wonderful vision was the planting of 2 strawberry plants of the Nellie Kelly" variety (purchased at the advice of a random employee from Bunnings). Hopefully I can keep them alive long enough for the army of snails in our backyard to sample some of the fruit when it appears. Wish me luck!

Adventures on a Tuesday

We started the morning by making a fresh batch of bright green playdough:


We poked it:

And rolled it:


And cut it:



Then we did some cutting and sticking (aka wrapping up shoelaces in brown paper):




Then we went to see the ducks at Sydney Park:





And then went to play in the sandpit: