Creating Dinosaur Land!

It's the school holidays. Technically this doesn't apply to Rio, but seems as though he starts Nursery in September, I thought we would pack the time full of extra fun days anyway while we have still got the chance. Like most parenting households, we have baskets and cupboards jam packed with toys. Most of which don't get half as much use as they should! So I'm making it my mission to change that.

Today I took a handful of Dinosaurs out of 'the Dinosaur basket', and ventured out into the garden. Rio was clueless to what the hell I was doing as I was also armed with a baking tray! It was then that I showed him a 'Dinosaur Land', example on Pinterest and his eyes lit up. He got to work fetching mud, stones, grass and a coconut shell (for the water hole). I couldn't stop smiling watching him. At one point he even ran back indoors for a toilet roll tube (craft must have!).

Before long he was too eager to create anymore, he wanted to get stuck in and play and that's when I realised that imagination is everything.

"The little one cant reach"..puts on silly voice.."Hop on my back little Dinosaur"

  "Is this one a plant eater?".. Doesn't wait to response.."He must be, nom nom nom"

 He's always loved playing pretend kitchens, doctors, shops, but for me this showed how little toys children actually need. Most of what we used to today was found around the house/garden. His imagination went into over drive. He surprised me so many times as he talked away to himself. I sat there one the grass, with Niall, realising how much Rio has grown up. And how much, despite my fears, he is ready for school!
 

Christmas Craft: Lightbulb edition!

I've been working non stop up to Christmas, so getting in the festive spirit this year has been harder than usual. I use every minute I get with Rio getting him to be excited for Santa, crafting and singing away. So when I was asked if I wanted to enter a Christmas craft competition I thought why not? I'm not really good but every little helps ;)

The task? To decorate a lightbulb!

My first attempt, a reindeer, kind of 'melted' when I dried him with the hairdryer. Oopsie!

So I raided the cupboards for another bulb, the last one, remind me to buy another, and started again with a more 'simple' design.

- First I covered the metal with red tape then added red ribbon.

- I then let Rio splodge some gold glitter glue on and added little pom poms to those areas.

- I then finished off by putting little dots of silver glitter glue to the bulb. And although it doesn't look in the pictures, in real life the clear glass with the little dots actually does like quite pretty.

If like me, you'd like to do some Christmas crafts, or even enter to win £100 John Lewis vouchers last minute. You can read all the details here.

Christmas crafts with Hobbycraft

I hear "want to draw", countless times a day. Rio loves drawing. He'll get out his crayons and his paper and will happily sit and draw circles ("snowmen") endlessly. Recently we've been venturing out into crafts.. leaf art, footprints, painting and what not. So when asked if we'd like to try out Christmas crafts I thought, why not?

Annalise is craft crazy so of course we invited her over to join the fun.

The candy canes, glitter gingerbread men etc given to decorate the tree were so creative and easy to use but the star was a little fiddly to keep balanced.

If you've ever been to Hobbycraft you will know that the list of things to do/create is endless, so there is something for everyone, quite literally! If tree's aren't your thing why not have a go at creating your own wreath?

This kit retails at £5 and is currently included in hobbycrafts 3for2 offer!

Overall they were lots of fun to do, even at Rio's age, and made great personal decorations for the Grandparents!!

This product was sent to me free of charge for review. The content and opinions however are all truthful and my own!