Halloween window efforts

Pretty pleased with this year's halloween window...

Milk bottle ghosts - just empty plastic milk bottles with the labels peeled off and Sharpie faces.

Retro old school pumpkin - just a sharp knife.

Boo pumpkins - recycling the toddler decorated pumpkins from last week (the poster paint dribbles just washed off under the tap), plus a big pumpkin for the "B". The letters were done with an electric hand drill.

The Jack Skellington decorations are ones I have had for years, and the letters on the window are window gels bought from Poundland last year.

Happy halloween everyone.

Halloween fun

We had lots of fun this week decorating some mini pumpkins. I have a couple of big ones to carve as well, but think that will be one for when Felix is in bed as toddlers and sharp knives are such a poor combination.

Glitter pumpkin

Paint pumpkin liberally with PVA glue (easy for toddlers to help, but you will probably need to paint it on too to get reasonable coverage). Sprinkle/shake on glitter - I wanted to use green and purple but couldn't find it in the moving chaos, so ours is a rather festive red and gold. If you do it on a tray, it's easy to collect the glitter that falls down so it can be reused.

Paint dribble pumpkin

I used ready mixed poster paints. If I was doing it again, I would mix the paint with some PVA glue (in an old ketchup bottle so I could still squirt it), as the poster paint is cracking and peeling a bit. Literally just squirt the paint straight out of the bottle onto the top of the pumpkin, around the stalk, and let it dribble down the sides. Felix held the bottle and I "helped" him direct it. The colours intermingle in a pleasing fashion as they pool on the top of the pumpkin and run down.

Sharpie pumpkin

NB - I am fairly sure that toddlers using Sharpies is not recommended as they smell pretty vile and the lids are a choking hazard. I kept a very close eye on Felix to make sure he didn't put them in his mouth, and I didn't let him have the lids. You could use felt tips but they didn't "stick" very well. I just let him draw on the pumpkin totally freely until he lost interest.

The CoOp has lovely small pumpkins for £1 each - great size for toddler crafts.

The cuteness of cloth

Really think the adorability factor would be enough to make me use cloth even without the other benefits - how sweet do these nappies look stacked outside Felix's door, waiting to restock his nappy drawer in the morning?

Blue sensory box play

Felix had a lovely time this afternoon baking banana bread (visible cooking in the oven in the pictures) and then enjoying some blue-themed sensory play. We filled his blue sensory box with dry rice and a variety of blue objects and he had a lovely time. 

It provided a nice antidote to the irritation of the previous hour when I had decided enough time had probably passed for Felix to no longer be afraid of the hoover, and that I would do some cleaning with him in the rucksack to keep him close and safe. In getting the hoover and rucksack out of the cupboard, Felix managed to knock over my sewing box, neatly dropping all of the cotton reels down behind a cabinet where they are totally unreachable, and I knocked over a pole and broke the door of the same cabinet. Felix managed about two minutes of hoovering before becoming so distressed I had to stop, and the hoover is now stuck halfway up the stairs... maybe we need to get a cleaner.

Thankfully the sensory play was much more fun, although the rice does now need to be hoovered up...

Dry messy play on a wet day...

Despite rain, teething and illness misery, Felix still managed to get about an hour's worth of fun out of the kitchen floor, a tub of rice (I used our dyed rice but I'm sure he would have enjoyed plain just as much), a funnel, some empty jars, a measuring spoon and a bath squirty for blowing on the rice and making it move around. Not too much clearing up and loads of enjoyment. Even I had a great time drawing in the rice on the floor (great contrast with the dark slate kitchen floor), and I'm meant to be a grown up - and it feels lovely to stick your hands in the full rice tub...

Free, effortless and curiously compelling "toy"...

One of Felix's (almost 14 months) favourite toys at the moment is some empty plastic herb containers - he adores taking the lids on and off and smelling the herb smell that clings to the jar. He beams at me every time then brings me the jar to smell too. Apparently endless entertainment for literally no money or effort...

Blackboard table

A lovely day today making a blackboard table for Felix to draw on with chalk. I took an unused table (which Nigel made while he was at school which I thought was sweet), and painted it with some bright blue "blackboard" paint from Homebase. It took two coats and one of the legs is a bit flaky and could do with a sand down and repaint when I find time, but overall it looks fab and Felix seems to love it. I think I'm going to get some MDF cut to the same size as the middle panels of our kitchen cupboards and paint them with the leftover paint then fix them in place so he can draw while I cook.

Belated Valentine's lunch...

Slightly more successful penguin lunch...

Somehow more pleased with this one - wish I'd done the egg as a beak instead of a smile, though...

Space Boy Dream

Space theme today. Ham and cheese sandwiches with cheese decorations, plus a boiled egg, jelly in a silicone cup, and some tomatoes, cucumber and grapes.

Penguin lunch!

I was quite pleased with this, even if the penguins on the sandwiches somehow look a bit like little monsters.

This is:

Cream cheese & salami sandwiches, with some cucumber to pretend they're healthy, decorated with little salami & cucumber penguins/monsters and a little panda pick;

Tomatoes, carrots and cucumber for dipping in the taziki and hummus;

And finally some grapes & raspberries set in raspberry jelly for pudding.

I wish I'd made one for me as well!

Tomorrow's lunch

Not that yummy looking for some reason - some tomato, mackerel and cannellini beans (tastes much better than it looks!), with some carrot and cucumber sticks to eat with the wasabi and pea dip. Fruit (strawberries, grapes and blueberries in a little silicon cup) for pudding.

Cute little snack box

A little snack box for my husband to supplement tomorrow's lunch, as it's going to be a long day for him.

The left half contains a few blueberries, strawberries, grapes and carrot sticks in colour-matched silicon cupcake cases. The right has some oatcakes (snapped in half to make them fit in the box) and some cupcake cases containing hummus and cream cheese to go with the oatcakes - as well as a sneaky chocolate treat to (slightly) make up for the long hours.

Today's lunch accidentally got left in the fridge by my husband in his morning sleepiness - so I ate it and can report that it was delicious!

Today's bento lunch

Pretty pleased with this - sweet little sandwiches (cream cheese and salami) made to look like sushi rolls, along with a pot of pea and wasabi dip and some oatcakes, cherry tomatoes and cucumber sticks for dipping. I made some tiny blueberry skewers to go with the grapes and strawberries for pudding. There's also an Aussie Apple (http://www.anotherlunch.com/2010/09/snack-idea-how-to-make-aussie-apple.html?m=1) for a healthy snack. Quite jealous that my husband gets to eat this for his lunch!

First bento box

My first bento box for my husband's lunch tomorrow - do you think he might get teased by his colleagues!?

The box is a Lock & Lock compartmentalised box.

The sandwich is just cheese & (homemade) fruit chutney, with little cheese hearts on top (cut by hand as my cutters were all too big, hence the wonkiness).

The apple is dipped in lime juice to stop it browning - hope it works or it won't look very appealing by lunchtime tomorrow... hopefully the carrots won't dry out too much either. A little pot of hummus would have been nice for them - next time.

The hard boiled eggs are accompanied by a little egg cup of Cornish sea salt, and the cherry tomatoes and (homegrown) cucumber are sitting on a bed of salad leaves.

Hopefully he'll enjoy it and not get teased too much...