Spring Flower Craft

I've done this flower petal stain glass window craft with Chloe every Spring (and every Autumn with pressed Autumn leaves) since she was about 2. 

 Of course when Eva was old enough, she joined in too.

 Each year, Chloe's windows get more complex. I love watching her creativity grow!

The original idea can be found here for Spring, and here for Autumn at The Artful Parent. Seriously take some time and have a look around this very clever blog! There are some AWESOME ideas for kids craft on here. One very talented woman indeed!

Do you have any seasonal traditions? I'd love to hear them!

Alfalfa Animals!

A quick, mess free activity the girls and I did after school the other day! Alfalfa seeds in egg shells!

Needed:  Alfalfa Seeds, half eggshells, eggcups, cotton wool and water.

Pop cotton wool in eggshells and water.

Sprinkle seeds on top of cotton wool.

Sprinkle, sprinkle.

Done! Just wait for them to grow. Make sure you keep them moist. When they've grown the kids can even have them with eggs on sandwiches!!

If You go Down to the Woods today....

So we had a (very) little party for Eva this year.

I thought we'd have a Teddy Bear's Picnic theme, one last party before the princess and fairy and pinkness I'm sure she will beg for next year.
I kept it simple

 Home printed birthday banner.

 Teddy bear cupcakes all with natural food colouring, and as many of the lollies as I could with natural colouring, flavors and no preservatives. Bottles of water with home printed labels. Reusable kids plates.

The rest of the food was again as natural and healthy, but still yummy as possible! Fruit, veggies and popcorn.

I made some Teddy Bear Pizzas using English muffins for the base and also some peanut butter and honey sandwiches that got devoured before I took a photo! They were Teddy Bear shaped too. We had the table down low so the kids could all help themselves. I'm so glad we did this, it made it much less stressful for everyone to get their food!

 We set up a little picnic tent with a net we found at bulk collection (and washed very well and aired out in the sun!)

 A teddy bear cake, again as natural ingredients as possible.

Having their picnic.

 For activities everyone brought along a teddy bear. Using scraps I made up some scarves, mittens, skirts and chopped up some ribbon for everyone to dress up their bears for the party!

I also printed out some teddy themed colour pages for everyone to colour in.

 I grabbed some face paint crayons and painted everyone's face. Very amateur! But the kids loved it! You can see the butterfly faces above too.

Mr Teddy Bear!

 The birthday bear!

For some reason I didn't take photos of what was in the party bags! I made the little Teddy Bear ear headbands that Eva's wearing for everyone. I also popped in a sheet of Teddy Bear stickers, an all natural fruit stick and a stamp.

It was such a great afternoon! Very relaxed and simple, but still plenty for the kids to do. We were very lucky to have such beautiful weather too. Eva had a great time!

Flower Power!

We decided to do some flower arranging as a quick after school activity this afternoon.

Enough to brighten anyone's day =)

Leafy Craft

We've been doing some Autumn crafting around here....

 Some leaf crowns.

This one we do every year. I think we started when Chloe was around 2. It's pressed leaves, stuck to clear  contact. Then we stick the contact to the front door. We do it in Spring too , but with pressed flowers. I think I'm going to try and make Chloe a flower pressing kit for her birthday this year!


Are you enjoying some Autumn craft? Or Spring craft?

Lovely Lemony Goodness!

Facebook is a wonderful thing isn't it? I "like" a group on there called Freecycle, and through this page another page was born after a few people were asking about swapping fruit and veggies that are grown in the backyard. This page is called Food Swap Perth. The idea is if you have any surplus of fruit or veggies or herbs from your veggie garden you post on this page what you have and what area you're in. Then others can come along and say "Hey you've got lots of lemons, I've got lots of basil do you want to do a swap?"
BRILLIANT! I think it's such a great thing. I know there are a few things I cannot for the life of me grow (ahem lettuce) and others that just go nuts to the point where I can't possibly use it all!

The reason I'm telling you this (other than if you live locally go and join!!) is the other week I did a swap. It was rather exciting! I gave a huge bunch of basil and some thyme and received a bag of lemons. My poor lemon tree is just not a happy camper and has one lone, very green lemon on it :(

I have all sorts of plans for these lovely lemons. So far I have made lemon and poppy seed muffins, a lemon tart that I took to my mum and dad's house yesterday for morning tea, and used the leftovers to clean my very dirty microwave! Have you ever tried that? Put some lemons that have been juiced, so it's just the scraps, in a bowl with a bit of water. Put the bowl in the microwave for around one minute and leave the door closed for another few minutes when it's finished. When you open the door the lemon steam should have softened all the baked in muck from the sides of your microwave! All you need to do is wipe it out with a damp cloth. Added bonus: lemon scented microwave!

The big lemon tart was devoured before I got a chance to take a pic, this is a little one I made as there was too much mixture for just one! Recipe found here. It was delicious and devoured in a very short period of time!