Decorating Biscuits

Alright I cheated,my eldest had a friend over today and I thought it would be a great idea if they had something creative to do so I got them some ginger bread men to have fun decorating.

My daughter has always loved to bake, I guess she gets that from me. Again this is something I should probably do more of with her. Paige loves to tuck into a cake or biscuit that she has decorated her self and has always loved creative activities (the nursery child in her).

We made these after tea and they were eaten immediately for pudding. Paige loved covering the gingerbread men from head to toe in icing and sprinkles , and yes I did get to eat some. . . . a leg!

What do you enjoy cooking at home with your children? or even as a child yourself?

musical pots

This week I thought I would set aside a whole morning to just play! No washing up, no ironing, just mummy and Jack.

Today I emptied my cupboards of all pots, pans, sieves and spoons and put these on the floor with Jack ELC musical instruments. Something else I put out was jack's pasta and pulses bottles. I made these for him when he was just starting to sit up and ended up having to make my 5 year old daughter some too, otherwise jack would not get a look in. Simply fill plastic bottles of any size with dried food from the kitchen and secure tightly.

As soon as Jack woke up I placed him down on the floor and he crawled over to them as quickly as he could. Jack loved hitting the pans with the spoon but soon realised hitting two pans together would make much more noise!

Jack has always loved music and we love to encourage this, looks like we have a drummer in the making!

Above there is a few examples of what you could use. If you want to have a go at your own musical bottles you need to make sure they are secure, pulses are toxic if uncooked.

Have fun playing!

Hand painting

Jack is nearly 1 year old now and its definately time he got involved in lots of messy play. Hand painting has always been one of my favourites I love to watch the children's faces when they first dip their hands in. Hand painting allows them to really get mucked in and it can be as little or big as you like.

At nursery I used to roll out wall paper for them to crawl over and decorate, this would get very messy and is always best done in just a nappy! I thought we would go a bit smaller this time and just used the paper we have at home.

Jack seemed shocked at first when I put the paint down, he looked at me like I had completely lost it. When he first slid his hands in Jack looked up at me and gave me a huge grin, this of course made me well up. I let Jack play with the paint for about ten minutes and changed the paper each time it was thrown my way. I used Crayola paint and it will probably be the last time I do both me and Jack ended up covered from head to toe and stayed that way for two days!

More ideas: In case you dont have paint at home try flour, water and a little bit of food colouring. Careful it may stain if you overdo the food colouring but the flour will give the picture some texture.

Why not share your painting fun on our facebook page or add your painting ideas on here?