Egg box craft.... gone slightly wrong!

We have been saving egg boxes for weeks, ever since watching Mr Maker Chester is obsessed with collecting anything that could be used in anyway for making something!! Whilst I admire his determination to source as many things as possible, it is now starting to make the craft draws in my kitchen look like a small storage station in a room specifically for crafts! So I decided that enough was enough and we would make a start with the egg boxes.

I google and pinterest searched egg box crafts and got lots of ideas. The one that Chester seemed to love the most was the many variations of an egg box caterpillar  so we decided to give it a go. Chester chose 6 different coloured paints whilst I cut out the egg boxes. I have discovered that I am pretty useless at this seeing as our egg boxes looked nothing like the beautiful ones I had seen on pinterest!!

The kids started to paint them anyhow...

 

As you can see Millie thought it was better to eat the paint then her caterpillar! It was hard to get Chester to paint without mixing colours, but he managed it and was very proud of himself!

Now in an ideal world the next part should of been easy. But no, not in Sammies world. Oh no. The egg boxes then needed to be stuck together with good old pva glue. Sadly the boxes were all irregular sizes/shapes so they did not quite fit so I had to modify them to make them stick together! By the time I had managed it Millie had fallen asleep and Chester had wandered into the living room to play Ben 10!!

 So as you can see they are a bit higgledy piggledy but I think that gives the caterpillar real character! We were also meant to stick on a face and some pipe cleaner legs but Chester had gone off of that idea by then! So we now have a faceless/legless caterpillar proudly on display in our kitchen!

Can someone please put me out of my misery and tell me where I am going wrong with cutting the egg boxes?!!

What do you do with old clothes?

A really good question, I think. Firstly, before I start, I will tell you that this is actually a sponsored post. Although the subject has really interested me so if you are someone who like me, has far too many clothes in their wardrobe then read on!

Millie's changes

Millie is now 16 months old and her character is really coming out. She is proving to be just as cheeky as her brother if not more so!

She is starting to really 'play' with Chester and is showing an interest in everything he is doing. Most of the time she can be found following him around. This is great for Chester too because he loves having someone to play with. He takes his responsibilities as a big brother very seriously and always involves her with play now. Their favourite game is to play tag, which can be a bit much at 8 0'clock in the morning! I am not sure that Millie quite understands the rules but she just loves copying her brother!

Best of friends!

Another change I have noticed in Millie over the last couple of weeks is her ability to understand instruction. I was actually amazed at this at first when I asked her to put her toys back in the box. But soon realised that she really was understanding what I was asking her to do! I have asked her to put her food back on her plate, which she did. I asked her to put the bowls back where they came from, she did. I then asked her to get a plate out for her and one out for Chester, again, she did. I have also asked her to go get her shoes or go get your wipes, or go find dolly. Basically everything I have asked her to do she has understood and done it correctly!

I am amazed! Its such a shame though that she does not understand, or maybe its that she doesn't want to listen to something I have to say to her daily, sometimes hourly. Millie, Stop pulling Chester's hair!! When I ask her to stop doing this she just giggles at me! I feel so sorry for Chester, I know he can be a bit rough and tough but he knows when to stop! Millie on the other hand just carries on! I have been trying the naughty step out with her, but again, she just giggles the whole time she is on it. Because we use the butterfly system with Chester I have been following this through with Millie too but of course she does not really understand the concept of being put to bed 10 minutes early!

Playing camp outs!

Millie has also been speaking a lot more, she still speaks her really cute baby babble and as a typical girl she speaks this babble most of her day! But she is now matching objects to sounds and words. For instance if I ask her what Ariel (The Little Mermaid) says she will sing 'Ah ah ah, ah ah ah' or if I ask her what noise a tiger makes she will say 'ragh'. However if I ask her what noise a snail makes she will also say 'ragh' so she is just associating that animals make a sound. Which I still think it pretty clever. She will say 'cat' if she sees a cat, she will also say dog, baby, cakey if she sees those things! She copies you if you say 'Ta' or 'please'. She has also told her favourite doll 'love you'. I am annoyed at myself for not remembering when Chester started to say all of these things, I am sure it is probably on my facebook somewhere so I will have to search back and see.

As most of you know Millie's favourite movie is Disney's Tangled and she can mimic the tune of most of the songs in that, saying some of the end words too! Chester has taught her to dance to some of the songs, and singing and dancing have become her favourite things to do!

So as you can see Millie has had quite a full on couple of weeks of learning! It seems to be that she is saying/doing something new everyday, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly they grow and learn!

Playfoam review

We were recently sent some Playfoam to review, this is what we thought...

As soon as I knew we were to review Playfoam I was excited, I had read up about it and knew that Chester would think it was great!

We were sent the combo pack with 8 colours...

It was very bright and some were even glittery. Chester was very excited to get it out of the pack so we all sat down at the table whilst Millie was napping and got the Playfoam out.

It is advertised as being completely mess free, it does not stick to hands clothes or carpet. Plus it never dries out. I can say that after playing with it for a good couple of weeks that all of the above is correct. However it does stick to hair! Not a cool look! It is great that it does not dry out, nothing worse than having to throw something away because the kiddies have forgotten to put the airtight lid back on!

Chester has had a great deal of fun with the Play Foam. He has been able to use his imagination and mould some great creations. I will admit that I did freak out just a little bit when he mixed all of the colours together but I soon realised that he was having lots of fun so it was best to let him get on with it.

So overall Chester said he would give the Play foam 10/10. I on the other hand, would not. As much as I loved it for its non drying out and endless creativity ideas I disliked it for its fading and the fact I have got nowhere to store this big mass of foam!

By fading what I mean is, Chester has played with it lots. But probably just as much as any other 4 year old would, so not over played with. Yet all of the colours have started to fade. Some of the balls have even gone almost white. So before long he is just going to have a mass of white which I should imagine he will not be impressed with.

The RRP including VAT is £9.00, would I be happy to pay that price... I do not think I would. Chester really does love it so in spite of it flaws I think I would be happy to pay £5.

If you would like to try some Playfoam out for yourself then Learning Resources have currently got a giveaway over on their facebook page.

In-home Safety Tips

If you’re like most new mummies, you've had every device imaginable installed to protect your child from certain household dangers. From the moment your wee one began moving about your home, you've locked away every appliance and plugged up anything with a hole in it. You may have even stayed up some nights worrying about some minor safety detail when your child was an infant, however, now that they're a little older and you've experienced the panic that comes along with your child's exploration, so you’re not as scared as you used to be. Although those fears have dissipated, you must still be cautious and diligent about keeping your growing and curious children safe in your home

More Disney Planning... Luggage

Beware! The obsessive planner in me is coming out again!

With now less that 6 months until our Walt Disney World trip my thoughts are really turning to the journey. Having never taken two young children on an airplane before I am starting to get a little panicked about it all. Having read up on the Virgin Atlantic website I can see that we are all entitled to a suitcase each, even Millie who is a lap passenger (not looking forward to that).

I know that we will be buying a few souvenirs  especially the children but I am not sure that even then we will need a case each? That would mean 6 cases to fit in the hire car?! Craig and I have a suitcase each but I really need to get them out of the loft and measure them as I am certain that the baggage allowance has changed since we last went abroad (funnily enough to Walt Disney World for our Honeymoon).

Cute Cute hair clip holder review!

Everyone knows that I love to put a clip into Millie's hair. To be honest I am really surprised that she actually keeps them in her hair! But I suppose as she is already showing signs of being a really girly girl at the age of 16 months its to be expected.

The problem with this of course is that she has many clips, she probably would have many more but I seem to misplace them regularly. Our window sills are littered with clips I have even taken to clipping them onto the childrens bedroom curtains!