The Very Hungry Cress Eating Caterpillar

Don’t these look great? These are very easy to make and you can find all the instructions in the wonderful book Garden Crafts for Children. We have made many things from this book but I think this is my favourite, it is so simple yet very effective. The children had so much fun making them and we are going to make some Three Cheese and Cress Muffins with our crop!

All you need to do is paint some egg cartons, fill them with half an egg-shell and then fill the egg shells with cotton wool. We dyed the egg shells pink which makes the caterpillars look even more colourful. Lily loved watching them turn pink as they sat in our bowl of water and food colouring. Just sprinkle the cress seeds onto the top of the cotton wool and keep them watered until they grow. We used pipe cleaners for the legs and stuck on a little smiley face.

A Playmobil Playground for Free!

What started off as a little tube slide (from a wrapping paper cardboard tube) soon developed into a full-blown fairy house and playground.  Before I knew it a couple of hours had gone by and nothing had been done since breakfast! Oh well, sometimes you’ve just got to go with the flow and forget about your to-do list.

We had loads of fun making this.  I used a sharp scalpel to cut out the windows and doors from the plastic cartons and acrylic paints to decorate.  I found PVA glue was the best to stick the sparkly flowers onto the bottles.

Rapunzel Tower and ladder using pipe cleaners

Perfect for playmobil people!

Enjoying a little swing on a sunny day…

No fairy house is complete without an enormous slide

I wrapped crepe paper over the top of the cartons and secured with string to create a roof for the houses. It also hides the opening of the cartons quite nicely.

 

The children both had lots of fun playing with this.  I have a feeling it is going to get lots of bits added to it as time goes on. Lily has already said she wants a see-saw and roundabout so I can see we are going to be busy working on this for some time.  They added a little tupperware pot to the bottom of the slide and filled it with water,  so it now resembles a water park!

Container grown vegetables – the results are in!

We have been enjoying the fruits of our labour the past few weeks! Last night we had a lovely meal and the only thing that didn’t come from our garden was the cold chicken!

In the spring, we purchased a small raised vegetable bed and excitedly filled it with beetroot, carrot and green bean seeds.  I am amazed by how productive it has been. We also had an old water-butt that had a leak in it so we cut that in half and hey-presto we had some fantastic containers for our potatoes. They tasted amazing and the children had great fun digging for them. Just look how pleased they are with their crop!

Lily and Thomas are now expert pea shellers! If you haven’t tried this with children you really should give it a go. It keeps them amazingly quiet! I couldn’t think of any songs about peas but we managed to make up a few funny ones of our own whilst we were doing this.  Lily LOVED eating the peas raw straight from their shells and it really took me back to my childhood when I used to sit at my grannys table helping her to shell the peas.

We’ve also been growing Tomatoes in grow bags and Courgettes and Peas in pots. Despite the growing season being very wet for us here in Devon, everything has done really well and we will definitely be growing our own next year.  I think the most successful thing for us was the runner beans.  We planted these in a half barrel that we picked up at the garden centre a few years back. We lined it with an old compost bag before planting so that it would retain some of the moisture and it worked really well. We were picking runner beans non stop for about a week before growth started to slow down.

The one thing we didn’t have much luck with was Strawberries.  I think this was just due to the amount of rain that we had, they were all mushy inside and very watery.

If you are growing beetroot this year you might want to try this little recipe which I cooked up the other night! It is really yummy and I found it a great way to use up green beans and beetroot (which we seem to have a glut of at the moment!)

Beetroot and Green Beans with Garlic.

Boil your green beans for around 7 minutes.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the green beans and your (pre-boiled) beetroot.

Add a clove or two of fresh garlic and some salt and pepper.

Fry for about 5 minutes tossing the garlic and vegetables around and making sure the garlic does not burn.

Serve it hot or cold, it is very tasty either way!

Seared Green Beans and Beetroot with Garlic

Have you been growing fruit and vegetables this year?  Do you have any tips for container vegetable growing?

Saturday morning at the drive in!

With the weather like it is we thought we would have a day at home! After a huge delivery of nappies this week we had plenty of cardboard boxes to keep the children amused…

We’ve been talking about America lately so decided we would go to a drive-in movie! This caused a great deal of excitement and they had lots of fun with their cars even after the film had finished.

Which way to the drive in?

Snacks delivered by waitress Mummy

A Saturday filled with sunshine, swings and treehouses

Today we went to visit my mum and stepdad and spent the day in their GORGEOUS garden.  We are so lucky that all sets of grandparents have wonderful gardens for us to enjoy.  Our garden is very small in comparison but we do try to make the most of it when it comes to playing outside.

Look at all the fun we had today…

First look at the new Treehouse!

What a cool slide!

I love the lights inside the treehouse…

The new Treehouse is amazing. Lily and Thomas loved it and the slide was a real treat.  We certainly made the most of the sunshine today and spent hours playing outside. Lily also had a chance to test out the new tyre swing from Garden Games Ltd. The company asked us if we were interested in reviewing one of these and we were thrilled to do this.  The tyres are all old car tyres that would have ended up in landfill.  Lily loved the swing and I loved the simple pleasures that she got from messing around on an old tyre!  The swing is put together very safely and I was very confident and happy for the children to play on it. It comes fully assembled and is easy to secure.  My only advice would be to check that you have the space for a tyre swing. You need a lot of space around the swing to ensure that you don’t crash into anything!

Thank you Nanny and ‘Grumpy’ for a lovely day. We can’t wait to come back!

Save £200 by using washable wet wipes

If you use disposable wet wipes, have you thought about changing to washable wet wipes?

They are a totally natural alternative to disposable wipes which contain a variety of chemicals and can cause bad reactions if you have a baby with a sensitive bottom. Using washable wipes can also save you around £200. They are far more practical than cotton wool on newborn babies. A big explosive newborn poo can sometimes take 10 cotton wool balls to get baby clean. A couple of washable wipes will do the job much more efficiently.

Using washable wipes is very easy. You can either purchase ready-made wipes or if you are feeling clever just make your own. Leave them soaking in a pot next to your changing table so that they are ready for each nappy change.

What to put in the water

You don’t need to put anything in the water but if you want to add something you could try a couple of drops of baby oil.  This will give your wipes a silkier texture and a little scent too.  You can also add a drop or two of essential oil to your water. Lavender and Chamomile are safe to use in this way.

You can also use washable wipes when you are out and about. Simply put a few wet ones into a waterproof bag or Tupperware pot and put them in your changing bag. If you are already using cloth nappies then you can just put them into you wet nappy bag when they are dirty.

What do I do with the dirty wipes?

Just put them into your nappy bucket with your nappies and wash when you are ready. It’s as simple as that!

We sell a Cheeky Wipes Kit which gives you everything you need to start using washable wipes. We loved using these on our children and the solutions that you get with the kit smell divine!

 

Fairy birthday party on a budget

When my daughter said she would like a fairy birthday party, I have to admit I was very excited! I did go a little bit over-the-top with the planning  but it is difficult not to when you google ‘fairy party’ and find so many fantastic ideas and beautiful pictures. I mustn’t forget to mention the Disney Family site where I found instructions for making a fairy door and the BEAUTIFUL blog ‘Not my Own’ for lots of fairy inspiration.

I didn’t manage to use all of the ideas that I had, Lily’s party was at the end of a very busy Real Nappy Week and I just ran out of time.  I’m very happy with how it turned out though.

The 'party room' was decorated with balloons, organza and tissue paper pom-poms.

The tissue paper ‘pom-poms’ are really simple to make. You can find instructions on Martha Stewarts site

Papier mache Toadstools

There are lots of pretty expensive handmade wooden fairy doors on the market. They are gorgeous but you can easily make your own out of cardboard.

Apart from a few games of ‘Musical Fairy Statues’ we didn’t have many of the traditional party games, instead we decorated their goody bags with fairy stickers and glitter, decorated some butterfly biscuits and had a ‘Fairy Treasure Hunt’ We decorated their bags first so that they could use them on the treasure hunt.

The children were each given a little scroll wrapped in pink ribbon and inside were the instructions for their treasure hunt.

Then they had great fun running around the garden desperately trying to find everything. It was quite difficult trying to keep track of who had found what but we got there in the end! Here are some pictures of the Treasure Hunt and the things they were searching for.

It is serious stuff this treasure hunting...

Fairy wands were hidden all around the garden with their names on

Pine Cone Fairy. I got my inspiration for these from the lovely blog 'Paint Cut Paste'. Click on the image and it will take you through to her site.

No party is complete without Jelly Beans!

These personalised ‘Fairy Charms’ were handmade by the lovely Bryony at Bjewelled.  I think these are lovely little gifts for a goody bag and it’s nice for them to have something that they can keep to remember the party.

For the biscuit decorating, we used my favourite biscuit recipe which is so simple.  I made the biscuits the night before and we had lots of things to decorate them with. Mini marshmallows, mini smarties, sugar sprinkles and of course lots of lovely pink icing! The girls really loved doing this and I wrapped up their own biscuit to take home in their goody bag.

I ran out of time to ‘theme’ the food but we did have some lovely pink cakes, some with flower fairy toppers and some with mini marshmallows.  I used my favourite cake stand and also splashed out on these adorable flower fairy plates.

 I made the cake myself, it’s a little wonky but I think you can get away with that with a toadstool!

Happy Birthday to my big six year old girl! I love you to the moon and back.....

Vegetable growing with children

No matter what size garden you have, there is always some kind of space you can use to grow things in.   If you have no garden you can use a sunny windowsill, a window box or even a pot outside the door.  Children LOVE to see something grow which they have planted themselves.  It is a good project for teaching them how to look after something and if they forget to water it for a few days it has less scary consequences then forgetting to feed the pet rabbit!

This year we thought we would attempt growing some vegetables with the children.  We wanted them to be able to see the whole process through from sewing the seeds to picking the crops. In an attempt to keep it fairly easy for them and to keep everything in one place, we invested in a raised bed from our local garden centre. It is easy for them to access and just the right height.

Watering in our seeds!

We decided to grow a few easy crops to start off with. Carrots, Beetroot, Lettuce and Green Beans. They are all vegetables that they enjoy eating, and I’m hoping this will help to keep them interested. We’ve also got a couple of half barrels which we have planted up with potatoes.

The following crops are all suitable for growing in pots or grow bags. If using pots then plastic is better than clay as they are less quick to dry out. Just make sure that your pot is deep enough to accommodate the roots and that the vegetables have enough room to grow.

• Tomatoes

• Beans

• Lettuce

• Radish

• Herbs

• Beetroot

• Strawberries

If you have a greenhouse or a very sunny window sill, you could also try peppers or aubergine.

Of course you don’t have to use conventional plant pots, why not reuse other containers. You can use old baskets lined with plastic, old buckets and boxes and hanging baskets. As long as there are suitable drainage holes in the bottom and it will not dry out too quickly, anything goes. I once saw a row of old wellies all planted up with salad leaves – I think we might give this a go too!

I will let you know how we get on later in the year.  Are you growing anything with your children this summer?

 

 

Pressed flower prints – a gift that will last

Preparing flowers to be pressed

Ok, I know Mother’s Day has been and gone but I couldn’t post this before the day as we were giving these as Mother’s Day presents.

A few weeks ago we picked some flowers from the garden and pressed them between some normal sheets of paper, in preparation for this craft idea.  You don’t need a flower press, just pop them between the pages of a heavy book.

Two weeks later and the flowers were ready to use.  I asked Lily to tell me what she loved about her Nanny and her Grandma and we started by writing this in the centre of our card.  Lily had lots of fun arranging the pressed flowers around the words and then decorating it with some flower stems.

She was very proud of the finished gift and Nanny and Grandma loved it too! You could use this idea for any special occasion – or just to say ‘I love you’

One for the mantlepiece!

Brilliance in Blogging Awards

We have entered the Brit Mums Brilliance in Blogging awards, under the category ‘Change’

If you like our blog, we would love it if you would vote for us!  It only takes a couple of minutes and would make our day!

Here is the link *bows gratefully* xx