posted by Cara
The kids' school end of the year show is this Sunday and another mom and I made a dinosaur costume for her little boy who is in Juliet's class. Pop was a character than followed her class throughout the year and now he'll be in their show with them :)
Here's Juliet modeling it for me :D Sorry for the terrible photos but it's been pouring down rain all day. And FYI, mathcing stripes is a pain in the butt!
posted by Helen
Ok, so most boy projects are pretty devoid of flowers and frills, but when you're four and a half, glittery shiny jewels have universal appeal!
A couple of weeks back Cara and I took some well earned kid-free time to make a fab calendar project from LollyChops with Live at Prima Here's a quick sneak at mine, as it IS relevant (honest!)
Poor Tom was so sad that I was going to make mine without him, that I had to promise we'd make his own version with any left-overs I had.
Tom LOVED the image transfer technique - as far as he was concerned that was really magic. The drawing and cutting was started with enthusiasm, but after a couple of months that was left mainly to mummy, but with the insistance that Tom was still chief jewel sticker!!
So here it is, slightly less flowery, but still pretty sparkly, and still managing to be 100% boy. The hi-lights of Tom's calendar 2011...
Mummy's paisley fish:
... and Yellow submarine:
Tommy's racing car with flames coming out of the exhaust:
... and his favourite dinosaur (Ruby from Land Before Time!)
a sparkly whale:
and Mummy's alien planet:
posted by Helen
Tom LOVES getting any kind of post, especially parcels and even more so parcels from Nana. The last one certainly lived to expectations.
I knew my Mum had mentioned a while back that she'd bought Tom a pack of three t-shirts, one of which had dinosaurs on it and the other two were plain. So when there were t-shirts in the parcel I did my usual distracted Mummy 'oh yes, that's nice dear' and it was only later when I looked more closely that I saw all three had dinosaurs on, and even then only when i noticed the hand embroidery that I realised these were unique customised Tees.
Goodness only knows where she found the time but Nana had made two dinosaur appliqué patches - one a stegasaurus, the other a parasaurolophus (which I can only identify thanks to my four year-old nephew, Dan!). Unsurprisingly, they've been in pretty much constant use ever since, my next challenge will be to prise them off Tom long enough to wash, dry and pack them for our trip to England for Christmas.
Thanks Mum, you're a star! xx
Posted by Helen and Tommy
I’m not really complaining, but being away on holiday then having the kids around all day hasn’t left me with much time to make things for myself. Instead I’ve had an extra pair of hands to ‘help’. So this week I’ve decided to share a few of my favourite projects made by Mummy and Tommy. Not all are original ideas, 'Mister Maker' is a big favourite in our house, but where they are ‘Mummy Maker’ I’ve included brief explanations.
Space alien city
Relief Giraffe
Draw outline on black /brown paper then rip up small pieces of masking tape into ‘spots’ and stick on. Paint all over in yellow / orange. When dry, remove tape and draw on features.
Concertina Bee
Cut two ovals at the same time- one from yellow and one from black.
Draw curved lines on the yellow at approx 1cm spacings leaving more at either end.
Cut along the lines.
Separate into two sets of alternate stripes and stick one set on either side of the black.
For the wings, make a long and thin concertina from tracing paper. Cut a slot in the top of body and poke wings through. Fold in half and stick top edges together.
posted by Helen
It took Tom a while this year to decide what he wanted for his birthday cake, but finally he chose a dinosaur. (Previous years it was a fish (rather obviously) and a bee (!)) As this has been his first year at school, I also decided to hold a party for some of his friends, despite the fact that having a house full of French speaking 3-6 year olds filled me with terror!!
I kept things simple based around the dinosaur theme. For the invites I cut out a pile of dinosaur shapes in various bright colours, then stuck them onto contrasting paper (with the necessary information printed on the back) and added a few pen details.
I also used some of the cut-outs to make straw markers – two stuck either side of the straw with a couple of photo tabs and then with the appropriate name written on. (although make sure it’s quite high up on the straw so it doesn’t get wet and you can’t tell Eve from Eva…)
I love the fact that paper table cloths are common here – a plain white one just asks to be drawn on… so we had two dinosaur outlines to colour and embellish. I opted for buying a couple of packs of cheap felt tips for the occasion, as I couldn’t cope with the prospect of convincing Tom he had to share his, and split them into bundles with the same 5 colours in each (so there was no “ but I want pink and so-and-so’s got it…) all tied up with yet another dinosaur.
I also had the idea of making little marzipan dinosaurs to decorate the fairy cakes with… then remembered I was dealing with small children, so we all had bowls of icing and sugar sprinkles instead. A bit on the sticky side, but lots of fun!
PS.... Make sure you visit us on Monday to find out about our next giveaway....