Cosmonaut's to the Rescue

These friendly little things are off to Christchurch to help out a friend of a friend.   I made these while I was away at the beach, over a few days where we had rain and were stuck inside. 

You can pop over to Our Creative Spaces to see more creative work.

Cake Smash Photos

I said I would post some!  Thanks so much to Karen from K C Photography for the amazing photos.  Check out her Facebook page here.  She has huge talent and really captured the moment with all the babies involved.  If you live in the Hamilton area I definately recommend you check her out! 

She has posted a series of photos from the day on her Facebook page, but has allowed me to sneak a few up here as well.  Too cute!

52 Reasons Why I Love You

Why reserve gifts of love just for Valentines Day?  I was away over Valentines this year, and although I received the most beautiful gift of roses I have ever had, my poor hubby just received a Happy Valentines text.  So I made this and left it on his pillow for him to find when he had finished work last night.  He loved it. 

This little project has featured on so many blogs its not funny, so if you google 52 Reasons Why I Love You, you will come across a ton of sites offering tutorials.  I originally found it on Pinterest.

Don't save it for Valentines.  Make your hubby one today, he'll love it - a spontaneous gift of love will make his week.

Op Shopping - Books

I popped into our local Habitat for Humanity store after picking up the kids from kindy today and picked myself up a stash of books for $5.  I brought some new book shelves the other week as the boys have run out of room in theirs.  Now I have the fun of filling the new ones up.

Pretty much most of the books my children own are pre-loved.  I love the thought that they have brought other children lots of pleasure, and now its my children's turn with them.  Books are meant to be loved, handled and softened from plenty of reading.  I can certainly say that about our collection!

A Focus on Family Time

Over the last month or so I have really focused on my family time with the children.  I follow a lovely blog called Make It Give It - Let It Shine.  Miriam has been focusing this year on making a more focused effort to spend more quality time with her children, and its inspired me to do the same with mine.  I so easily get caught up in the everyday rush of life - three children under 4, running a house, running a business, faith, being a wife, finding some time to craft and just be me.  More often than I care to think I put the play needs of my children to the bottom of the pile.  Miriam's blog has inspired me to change this, and to rearrange my priorities when it comes to quality time with my children. 

So I am making an effort to focus alot more on quality time with the children.  Dropping the housework when the children want me to come and look at something, finding fun free activities we can do as a family, listening to their needs more and just stopping and cuddling and spending time together.  And I have noticed a major change in Danger Mouse - he has, over the past few weeks, started telling me he loves me, kissing me, and there is a lot less frustration from him.

Its not that I didn't spend lots of quality time with them before, because I did, but I did it when it suited me.  And some days, it never suited....  I found myself frequently telling them "Not right now, Mummy is busy", "In a minute, Mummy just needs to finish this first" - and I hated it.  I think it causes alot of frustration in small children who don't understand the concept of a minute (which often stretches to 20 ..), who easily get distracted so as a parent you miss the moment, and who can easily feel pushed aside when its said to them ALOT!.  Now I have changed this focus, and answer to their needs more when it suits them, and the changes have been awesome.  They still have to wait every now and then, especially when it really doesn't suit - cooking dinner, nasty nappy changes - some things just can't wait!

I can't wait to spend more fun times with my children ... so what if the house is a tip, right?

Some of the activities we have done have been:

A colour treasure hunt.  I printed off some colours on cards and took them down to the Hamilton Gardens.  They were each given a colour and had to find something in the gardens that matched the colour on the card.  This was more to help Danger Mouse learn his colours.  He did fantastically, but both boys had trouble matching their blue colours.

We went on a nature trail around the lake in Cambridge.  We collected leaves, pinecones, sticks and all sorts of random things with different textures.  We talked about trees and how they drop their leaves, how they grow, the ducks in the lake, fish in the lake and what a pinecone is. 

We've had plenty of water fun at the beach, and also lots of waterplay with our new waterplay table.

Family trips to the miniature trains

And there have been countless bike rides, trips to discover new parks around town, lots of car play on the floor, book reading, trampoline bouncing, paddling pool play and way more than I can mention. 

My children are gifts, and I am glad I have rediscovered the joy of parenting everyday, and not just when it suits me.

My Little Superheros

I have three Superheros in my life.  Two are small, imaginative, boisterous, outgoing and gorgeous superheros.  One is a big, strong, handsome and protective superhero.  The big one doesn't need a cape (or want one, more to the point ...), but the two little ones are really into imaginative play, so do!

This was a project I completed while away at the bach.  Yes, I took my sewing machine to the beach on holiday with me.  It really enjoyed the change of scenery and the sea air....  I vaguely followed this tutorial here.  

 Very happy wee superheros.

Cake Smash Cake

The Girl is taking part in a cake smash photo shoot today with her other 1 year old friends to celebrate their 1st birthdays together.  I wish I knew about these when I had the boys!

Here is a sneak at the cake I just iced for her to smash.  I wasn't too concerned about how pretty it looks, as it will get destroyed the minute it is in front of her, but I hope it looks appealing enough to squash her hands into and smear everywhere!

I will post a few pictures of the photos up here once I have them.  Excited much?