Yellow Duck Themed Bath

I have come to the themed-bath-party rather late - perhaps because my son used to HATE bathtime, and perhaps because I always felt slightly uncomfortable about using photos of him in the bath for this blog. HOWEVER - I finally took the plunge (ho, ho) this week and created a yellow duck themed bath for F.

I cut out some duck shapes from craft foam, dipped them briefly in water and stuck them to the side of the bath.

I made some yellow bath paint. Yes, this is where it got a little crazy. For me, anyway! Crystal from Bath Activities for Kids has the absolute best resources for bathtime fun. See here for a collection of paint recipes.  I used shaving foam and yellow food dye.

I got out all the bath duck toys and hid everything else. I did consider dying the water yellow but I thought that might look odd. 

I created this as a surprise for F and at first I could see him looking for his usual bath toys. Then he noticed the bath paint and he was very happy! He spent ages applying the paint carefully to the side of the bath. He also liked the craft foam ducks and spent a while rearranging them.

I was pretty pleased with how this turned out and it has inspired me to do many more special baths - and be more adventurous!

Oh What a HAPPY Day Link Party!

I am so excited to be co-hosting a link party with Holly from Not Done Growing! Please post your blog links below and tell us what has made you smile this week.

Welcome to the Oh What a HAPPY Day Link Party!

Time to celebrate what is giving us JOY and making us HAPPY this week.  It is so easy to get bogged down and lost in the negative.  Let's take a moment and celebrate the positive.

The rules are pretty simple:  Have fun, say HI to my lovely co-host, and HI to as many other party goers as possible.  :)  If you would like to spread the word, please grab a button and put it on your blog.  

<a href="http://notdonegrowing.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2eajsGaU8xI/URE_Tyu5cII/AAAAAAAAEGc/ZOl486xNrRs/s512/buttons-004.jpg"/></a>

Frozen Banana Treats

This is a great idea from Mummy Musings and Mayhem.

I used:
Bananas
Banana flavour yogurt 
Cheerios (Original type, so not very sweet)
Popsicle (lollypop) sticks

I cut up the bananas into large chunks and inserted a popsicle stick into each piece. I put the Cheerios into a Ziploc bag, sealed it, and gave them a good bash. Of course you could get the kids to help you with this it, but I found it rather satisfying!

Then I rolled the banana in the yogurt, then the Cheerio crumbs. 

I put them in Ziploc bags and put them in the freezer.

F wasn't sure at first - this was his first time eating anything frozen AND his first time eating something from a stick. The banana seemed completely rock hard straight out of the freezer, but F found them more manageable if I took them out half an hour in advance.

Perfect for the summer!

Sunflower Craft

Well the sun is finally shining here, and it's Mother's Day! A few days ago I decided that we should celebrate the sunshine by making a sunflower from tissue paper balls. 

First I drew an outline of a sunflower onto card, then cut up lots of tissue paper squares. 

We started with the leaves and stem. I spread glue onto the relevant areas and showed my son how to screw the tissue paper up into little balls then stick them on. 

After we had finished the green F had had enough so I decided to continued another day. Also at this point I realised that I didn't have any brown tissue paper for the flower's centre, so I glued on some dark brown felt instead. 

A couple of days later we resumed the project and glued on the yellow tissue paper. This was definitely a joint effort and he did need help finishing the flower. But he's only just turned 2, so an older child would be able to do more unaided.

I like the textural contrast that the screwed up paper gives to the finished piece.