Toddler and preschool pumpkin play

This morning we used another of our pumpkins to explore what's inside, and for an excuse for a bit of messy play outside in the tuff spot on a drizzley day.

First Eden and I put some seeds from last week into a ziplock bag to dye them - the results looked very pretty in the bag, but I then went and burnt them in the oven ooops! I'm sure we'll still find something to do with the crispy brown seeds that resulted! 

We then picked our smallest pumpkin to explore what's inside. Eden gave it a wash, then I used a sharp knife to take the top off. I love the kids' reactions when they looked inside! 

Eden had seen this before with Luke last week, but I don't think Asher had been involved in that, so this was a new experience for him:

The kids had a turn at scooping out the seeds and gunk side, then we took that outside to the tuff spot for the kids to have a play, with spoons and bowls. 

It wasn't long before we were pottering in the garden - earlier this week we spent an hour or so pulling up the massively overgrown nasturtiums that had taken over all of our borders, dropping their seeds everywhere in the process - problems next year anticipated! After reclaiming the soil in our 5 'Olympic ring' tyres from the nasturtiums, today we moved two roses into their new positions. The kids both wanted to help dig too which was lovely as a family activity, putting the roses into their new homes

Eden found a worm! She asked me if she could hold it!! I must admit I was a little surprised, but seized the moment of her enthusiasm! She held it gently, named it 'caterpillar worm', showed Asher, and remained focused on it for quite a few minutes, bless her :) 

All in all, a fabulous morning was had! 

Pumpkins!

A couple of weeks ago we harvested our pumpkins from the allotment. When we planted them, we added a special growing ingredient in an effort to be the winners of our family pumpkin growing competition - well that ingredient certainly did the trick! We had 8 pumpkins altogether, the largest weighed 4 stone! The two smallest were a stone each! 

Here's Asher proudly perched, on the day of harvesting them:

Last week, Luke carved the largest into a fairy house for Eden, and Eden had a go at carving too

We had A LOT of pumpkin to eat just from carving this one pumpkin! So far we've made pumpkin risotto, pumpkin bread, pumpkin and carrot soup, and pumpkin and apple soup, plus freezing some pumpkin purée for future. Next on the list is pumpkin curry, which we'll have later this week.

Oh and if you're interested in what the special ingredient was that we added at the growing stage......

Pigeon poo! 

Squash Painting

We have a glut of winter squash which sadly didn't ripen on our allotment this year. I'm not quite sure why, maybe we got them in the ground too late, or we didn't have a long enough period of warm weather. They're all white, when the should have turned green, and on tasting they're very bitter sadly. On the plus side, their colour lends itself very well to being painted! Yesterday we sat down with the kids and had a fun squash painting session. Even Asher, who normally is too occupied with climbing or his cars to sit still to paint, wanted a go! He picked his own squash from those freshly washed, brought it over to his chair, and used the pointy end of a paintbrush to make his own squash masterpiece. I'm a very proud mummy that he showed such an interest! Here's the results! The colours are so vibrant!

This one's mine!

Fairy Butterfly House

Eden's favourite things this summer are fairies and butterflies. Last year we bought 4 butterfly houses in the sale, 3 of them were painted with butterflies and given as Christmas presents to cousins. The forth one was put away in the workshop last winter, and we kind of forgot about it. This week Eden remembered and asked if we could make it into a fairy house. 

First I created some fairy stencils, using a Stanley knife. 

Then we taped them to the Butterfly house and used our easy painters (like Bingo Dobbers) to paint, using a 'dotting' motion particularly around the edges, as my stencils were just made from ordinary printer paper so weren't the most robust, but did the job! 

Eden was able to have a go too after I'd shown her how to 'dot' rather than brush.

Next we looked up some fairy phrases and Eden 'wrote' some of her own fairy messages on the back.

It needs a layer of varnish to make the colours pop, and Eden then wants to keep it in her room to house her fairies. Next year we'll hang it in the garden for the butterflies to enjoy.

A play day in the rain

Today we got very wet at a local park play day. But these 2 still had great fun, particularly on the mini road that had been set up, complete with a selection of Ride Ons, stop signs, zebra crossing and traffic lights (no pic as my phone was in the car at that point with it being so wet!) 

Julia Donaldson exhibition

Woke up this morning with nothing in the diary, so to avoid a very long day at home, I made a last minute decision to take the kids into Birmingham. The fact that I wanted to visit the Rag Market may have helped sway the decision too! 

It's been a lovely day, we also got to have lunch with Daddy, and see his office which was a bonus for the kids. Eden especially liked waving to him at hisoffice window   from Victoria Square.

The exhibition itself was perhaps a little pricey to get in, but worth every penny if you have toddlers (free) and preschoolers . There's loads of activities geared at preschoolers, and the whole exhibition is very interactive and fun. We spent nearly 3 hours there (just in the exhibition, we didn't go to the rest if the museum today), and if it hadn't been planned so last minute and I'd been more prepared I think we would've stayed longer. Eden loved the 'Squash and a squeeze' house, and Asher liked all the colourful displays, and the boulders to build with from cave babies. 

Here's just a few of the many photos I took today: 

Petal Perfume

Eden loves the 'Princess Poppy' book series at the moment, and over the last few weeks she's been playing at making petal perfume (a reference from one of the books). So I thought she'd love it if we made our own petal perfume, using flowers from the garden and a kettle of very hot water. 

First we picked our petals:

We collected them in a jar:

When we had nearly a full jar, I poured some hot water in, and we stirred it, and left for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

Then we used a sieve to strain off the petals, leaving the fragranced water in a clean jar below

Having a smell afterwards

We decorated the jar to finish

Then Eden very sweetly said she wanted it to be a present for Daddy

Cuteness, both miles away in a world of their own, yet enjoying the closeness

gNappies' gTea

I'm a huge fan of gNappies! Regular readers will know that we've cloth nappied both our children full-time right from the newborn stage - there are so many benefits to cloth nappies, and modern cloth nappies are so misunderstood, which makes me sad, but that's a whole other blog post...

For over a year now, Asher has been in gNappies full-time, I love them so much I sold 99% of the rest of my stash (only keeping newborn, prefolds, and 4 pretty fitteds that I can't bring myself to part with (yet) despite Asher never wearing them! 

gNappies are super-cool and stylish. They're slim and will fit under normal trousers, unlike other cloth nappies which tend to be bulky. I LOVE that they're breathable and I notice such a difference in Asher's skin - the rare times he may get nappy rash (teething related) it clears up within 24 hours with no treatment required other than keeping it clean with plain water, and regular nappy changes. gNappies have a waistband that looks so comfy around little tummies, and an added bonus is that they do up at the back - so this is great as toddlers can't undo their nappy (!!) and also, young babies first learning to sit have nothing digging in around their middle. gNappies are a hybrid nappy - you can buy cloth inserts to wash, or gRefills that are disposable, and compostable if you have a home composter. These are just a few of my favourite reasons for using gNappies. 

Anyway... last Friday we attended a special 'gTea' event - organised by gNappies. It was a chance to chat with other like-minded gMums and gDads, for the little ones to have some fun outside and an excuse for a picnic! My daughter Eden loved the gCakes that had been specially made! 

gCakes!

gNappies were filming footage for their first UK video, so all the gBabies got a chance to star as they took their turn on the catwalk. 

Asher in his gNappies outfit, loving running around barefoot!

I was chuffed to win a gKanteen in the raffle - these aren't available in the UK, but much saught after (thanks gNappies - I love it). There were also some previously released gPant prints available to buy from the past, brought out from the vault :)

It was supposedly meant to be the hottest day of the year so far with lots of sunshine... well being British weather - it rained most of the time!! Fortunately we stayed dry setting up the picnic blankets under the trees, and the damp weather didn't dampen our spirits. 

It was such a fun day and so lovely to meet and chat to other gMums and gDads.

Eden and Asher playing bubbles together

And finally... if you're interested in using cloth nappies - please give gNappies a try - we've tried most other brands of cloth nappies in the 3.5 years we've been cloth nappying, and gNappies win hands down!

(This isn't a sponsored post - all the views expressed are my own, and written purely because I genuinely love gNappies!)
   

Rainy day splashy fun

Eden and Asher's new 'rain suits' were tested out today. It was Eden's idea - I was much less enthusiastic about a trip to the park in the pouring rain, but even Grandma and Grandad came along! And we all had a fab time splashing in puddles. As it turned out, I'm so glad we went! 

Microwaved Salt Dough Stars

We had fun making some salt dough stars today. I had some leftover salt dough sitting in the fridge, so while the kiddies were finishing breakfast I quickly made some stars in the microwave - I love how speedy this method is! 

After breakfast we painted the stars, I loved that Asher joined in too, albeit only briefly before he wanted to get out of the high chair and run around! 

Eden decorated her painted salt dough stars with lots of PVA glue to make it shine, and extra sparkly stars. I left Asher's plain, just adding a layer of glue for a nice finish all over. 

Once dry, we hung them up in the bedrooms, I think they make a lovely addition to the rooms. 

Afternoon in the garden

We've spent a lovely afternoon altogether in the garden today. We started with a picnic lunch after church, which Eden was especially excited about. Then we had a play with the sand, dinosaurs and chalks on the decking, and slide and car on the grass. Asher is so strong he was pushing Eden around in the car from a standstill, as Eden giggled away inside. She also learnt today to pedal her bike properly, very proud of her. Asher had a little nosey in Luke's workshop, while he was building a gate to make the decking steps Asher-proof, they're a bit of a hazard for our inquisitive, fearless v nearly 14 month old.