Saturday 28 March 2015

chirp chirp....

Truth be told trying to get Lenny to do any craft at the moment is like pulling teeth. He is all about superheros or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and anything else is borrrring. So, this is quite a quick and simple but super cute Easter card. Well it's quick and simple as you do most of the work then the little ones come in last minute laden with glue, feathers and glitter and make it their own! Slightly older children will manage on their own I reckon.....
step 1 - draw around a bowl on some card and cut it out


step 2 - fold the circle in half and make a 90 degree cut half way up the folded side

step 3 - fold each side of the cut at a 90 degree angle to make a triangle. Fold both ways to make the crease quite strong

step 4 - unfold the circle and push your fingers through the cut to make a beak shape


step 5 - stick in to the inside of a card

step 6 - decorate!




we cut out some egg shapes to cover in glitter and stick on the front of the card




Tuesday 24 March 2015

Bonza Book

This book is our current go to read. Although my 3 and 1 year olds are clearly genius' (uch um) they obviously do not get most of the biology in it but as big fans natural history they pour over the pictures and different creatures with relish. It is beautiful. Each page is set out like a museum exhibit with stunning illustrations - in fact it is as good for adults as the smalls.....







Thursday 19 March 2015

Snapshots

We have been in a crazy, beautiful, manic, surreal and magical bubble for the last few weeks. There have been an equal amount of tears to smiles and every emotion has seemed very extreme probably as we are living off minimal (VERY minimal) amounts of sleep! I had forgotten how OBSESSED with sleep, or the lack there of, you become with a newborn - it consumes you and apologies to my friends as I talk of precious little else - very dull indeed. I do feel however that we are beginning to re-engage with life and so I plan to pick up the blog again starting with the enormous backlog of snapshots I have - there are rather too many portraits which will probably be very boring to anyone other than us but they were hard to edit and I want to have them to look back on so just skip through! We have been hanging out at home a lot loving the new house and trying to shut our eyes to the 1,000,000 boxes we have stacked up around the place ready to unpack. I plan to do a before/ after post with pics but frankly the only rooms finished are the kitchen, dining room and playroom so I may well have to do it in drips and drabs over the next year or 5 as we work our way around the others. I am feeling very lucky though as it is a lovely space and really feels like a warm, happy home. We are also taking steps in the garden, digging the veggie patch and trying to clear the junk left from the build that is scattered over the lawn. We have a washing machine, bathroom suite and 3 enormous bags of sand on the front lawn and it looks like a tip (literally) but I guess we will get round to it eventually..... for now it's about survival with 3 under 3.5 and sleep..... did I mention sleep?!
me and my crew
I think we can safely say Hope hated her 1st bath

bravery

pin the maggot on the apple

cheeky
me time

so close to smiling but for now an owl stare

bear bath

grrrrrr

Maurice will not watch TV for more than 2 minutes so I am putting him in training - bad parenting?!

that face


mountains to climb

on a health kick ( well 80% of the time!) these are a winner with all - coconut energy balls

Daddy's girl 
costume for Andy's Dinosaur Adventures

run run run

birthday gathering for Wilf

my little red wren

Mum..... help......

finally registered her birth with 4 days to spare and chose her middle name - Hope Wren Haines

jousting

kung phu fighter

ah.... there is rather a lot of pictures of my kids watching TV?!

the morning light in the dining room is lovely

looking for lochness monster

blue eyes

what lunchtime looks like around here

shake shake

beauty

mothers days spoils
a Wassail for Wilf's birthday - you sing and play instruments in the apple orchard to scare away spirits and ensure a good cider harvest for the next year. 

mulled cider

my boys

pork and scratching

this is why I have a playpen for Hope - her own sanctuary!

checking if the rain has stopped

hideout

big bro

cosy

6.30am

higher

tired.... yep.... me too......

visiting Dad in his office......

scaring away those spirits