Planning for March

It's been a busy time for us recently, with Boris' birthday followed by Boris and Biscuit's Baptisms last week and the usual hecticness (is that a word?) that is involved with life and two small children so I am slow of the mark with March planning. Things have been stressful at times and I have wished I had more help at home so I could enjoy life more instead of always feeling rushed and like I am always doing chores.  As you know, being on top of things isn't one of my strongest points so although I am trying to be organised, recently things have got a bit overwhelming.  Hopefully you can forgive the tardiness of my March planning but here it is.  (As with February, some of these activities are carried over from last month because we didn't get time to do them.)

1. Post card shapes into a box,

2. Dance to music,

3. Draw with chalk on the patio,

4.Pancake day - Make and eat pancakes,

5.Colour pasta with food colouring and thread onto pipe cleaners,

6. World Book Day - visit library and borrow books,

7. National Doodle Day - Do some doodles!

8. Walk on the beach,

9. Visit Grandpa (or other elderly friend or relative)

10. Have a pillowcase sack race,

11. Make gel colour/glitter bags,

12. World Maths day - do counting activities,

13. Mothering Sunday - Spoil myself!

14. Pi Day - Eat Cherry Pie,

15. Have a daddy/son day,

16. Create an invitation to play with wooden peg people,

17. Play pairs with pairs cards,

18. Make sock puppets,

19. Do scratch board paintings (wax crayon covered with black paint mixed with washing up liquid)

20. World Day of Theatre for Children - do a puppet show,

21. International day of Forests and Trees - Go for a walk in the woods,

22. World water day - Do a water play activity,

23. World meteorological day - Do a weather related activity,

24. Bang on saucepans,

25. National agriculture day - spend time at the allotment, plant potatoes etc.

26. Potato printing,

27. Fly a kits,

28. Make a felt shape board,

29. Earth Hour/Natural baby festival in Oxford,

30. Make stars from tissue paper to stick on the window,

31. Paint a tree. 

So there you have it, there is March, hope you are all having a good one, spring is on it's way!

Valentines Toddler Activity

I was keen to get Boris involved in Valentines day this year so found a fun activity on Pinterest that I thought he would like, it took a bit of forward planning but I was pretty pleased with it.  It's a sort of Valentines heart lucky dip come family identification game.

I got photos of some members of our family printed then cut heart shapes round the faces and stuck them onto pink card.  I then followed the heart shape of the photo leaving about a cm gap all round.

I then cut a few more hearts out of the card with no photos on and chucked them all in a plastic box.

I added some faux rose petals that I bought off ebay and some heart shaped marshmallows for Boris to dig out and we were ready to go.

He had a good time looking through the photos and we went through naming them all and did this a few times on valentines day and the day after.  I then stuck the photos on the wall and my husband and Boris played with them, pulling them off, naming them, sticking them back on then putting them back in the box.

I think it was worth doing because it got Boris involved and was a fun game (although surprisingly he wasn't fussed by the heart shaped marshmallows).  I am trying to think what I can do with all the bits now, might make a little book with all the photos in it for Boris to identify.

I also made a Valentines day cake for my husband:

Our Candlemas Celebration

You may remember me saying at the start of February that we would be celebrating Candlemas by making and eating a candle cake, making an earthen candle and eating a candle lit dinner, amazingly I did actually manage to do all these things on the evening of Candlemas.
In case you don't know Candlemas is a Christian feast day celebrated 40 days after Christmas day to make the day that Mary presented the infant Jesus at the temple, as was the tradition. It is also they day when churches bless the candles, which represent Jesus being the light of the world. Historically the date has been celebrated as the mid-point between the shortest day and the spring equinox, and thus seems an ideal date to celebrate light.

I like cake (a lot) so when I saw this candle cake I decided it would be a great excuse to combine the celebration and my love of baked goods.  It was pretty easy to make, literally covered a Swiss roll with water icing (it makes lots of drippy marks giving it an authentic candle-like feel) and I used a heart shaped marshmallow turned upside down and stuck on a kebab skewer for the flame. If I did this again I would make my own Swiss roll because, no offence, but Asda own brand Swiss roll is a bit minging.

The earthen candle idea came from here,I thought Boris would really like it and he did.  I made mine by melting some paraffin wax in a Bain Marie 

Then I filled Boris' little bucket with soil from the garden and formed a heart shape in it, I suspended a wick in it then poured in the melted wax. I left it o set whilst finishing dinner and laying the table.

And Voila!  Our Candlemas dinner was complete. I apologise for these photos, it was too dark really and no amount of iphone filtration was going to make them look any better!

After dinner we played shadow puppets in the candle light, it was good fun.