Open Ended Art - Tissue Paper

This is the first week that we joined in for Open Ended Art, if you would like to find out more about Open Ended Art please visit Growing and Learning by Leaps and Bounds.

I was not sure what to expect, as Little Mouse is only 15 months old and not able to cut and paste all on her own at this stage. The mere thought of working with tissue paper also had me a bit unnerved, I could see how she tore everything to bits! :)

I took a coloured scrapbook paper as a background and cut out some flowers and leaves out of tissue paper. In stead of normal glue I stuck some pieces of rolled up packaging tape at the back of the tissue paper shapes, this way she could handle it without it getting stuck to her little hands or fingers. She actually amazed me by sticking the pieces on the scrapbook paper all by herself! The tissue paper was a bit crumpled and smudged and the scrapbook paper background was also a bit crinkled, but in the end I think, it turned out pretty well!

I was really proud of Little Mouse and her artwork! I took the finished artwork and applied a layer of varnish to seal it - this I want to keep forever!

Muffin Tin Monday - No theme

There was no theme today for Muffin Tin Monday, a weekly Blog Carnival on Her Cup Overfloweth, I went with some of Little Mouse's favourite foods at this stage.

Flapjacks, Cucumber, Rooibos Tea, Marshmellow, Marie Biscuits and Boiled Egg. She is on a "I don't want any protein" phase, but she is still enjoying the eggs!

If you want to see some more Muffin Tin Meals visit Michelle's Blog.

I just thought that I should share this pic, Little Mouse is not the only one in the family enjoying MTM - our two German Shepards just cannot wait for something to be passed on to them!

Tot School

Little Mouse is 15 Months old

We really enjoyed Tot School this week! Little Mouse really enjoys all the creative goodies we are doing and I can see that it is making a huge difference to her.

We did some finger painting again, but this time I gave her a brush and I drew some horsies on the page, she took the brush and dipped it in the paint, very lady like, and then she squashed it on the paper! She really enjoyed this. I could not believe how clean she was, because she used the brush and the looked so cute holding it - I got up to get my camera and within seconds she painted her face, her hands, everything!! :) As if she just waited for mommy to get up....
I also love walking in her her doing something special - a while ago I bought her these cute little ocean animal sitckers that you can stick on a ocean scene and then peel to use again. Little Mouse just loved this and by now the stickers does not even want to stick anymore, but early last week I found her sitting by her Tot desk enjoying the last life the stickers had to offer!Mouse is really starting to enjoy her stacking rings, and she is starting to play with it regulary. This week I want to really focus on sizes and also on colours and I am planning to do a Tot Book on colours for her.

Alex Toys has the most cutest toys ever, I bought the Alex Draw in the Tub Crayons for her and she just cannot wait till bath time, she loves drawing and making a mess, so this is the perfect combo for the bath!
We also spend some time playing with the Shape Sorter, she is starting to get the hang of it, every time she puts a shape in successfully she says: "yeeah!" so cute!Hope that all the mommies have a blessed Tot Shcool week!

God Bless!

Alex Draw in the Tub Crayons

Wow, what an amazing product! I bought this for Little Mouse on Wednesday and she just loves the Draw in the Tub Crayons! Little hands can easily hold them and they are super easy to wipe off from the bath surface. Little Mouse is absolutely allergic to all Baby Products and bath products and she can only use organic goodies, but these crayons did not cause any eczema flair ups!! We love it!

Bath Paint

I found this great link on ABC and 123 for Bath Paint! We all know how much kiddies enjoys painting and with this method you only have half of the mess! Visit Quirky Momma's Blog to view the recipe! Have fun!

Muffin Tin Monday - Children's Book

These past two days were so hectic, I had to go out on the road to collect stock, see suppliers and to post parcels. To top it all I had the wrong theme yesterday, by the time I got home and started to make Mouse's MTM I realized that something was wrong, I check Michelle's Blog and yes, the theme was Children's Literature and not All about myself, as I thought. The result was of course that MTM is a day late at our house!

She just LOVES animal books, she absolutely adores them. I decided to take one of her Animal Books - Animals and their babies - and do a theme around that.
We had some boiled egg (from chickens), a piece of toast in the shape of a horse -yes, that is supposed to be a horse!! :) , Rooibos Tea, Yoghurt (from cow's milk), a Zoo Cookie, Marshmellow piggies.

I used some red food colouring to draw in piggy faces on the marshmellows. She loved them!

Have a blessed day!

Tot School - First Week!

Little Mouse is 15 Months old

Little Mouse had her first official week of Tot School!


I decided to keep building on the aquarium theme as we visited the aquarium last sunday.
I downloaded some Ocean Animal Colouring pages for her to colour in form Colouring - Kids.com
She really enjoys colouring in and drawing and we ended up colouring in 3 pictures.

I also decided to make a "memory book" for her, in stead of a normal lapbook, as she is still a bit to young for all the activities in a normal lapbook.

I made a pocket in the folder for her drawings and I also attached the tickets to the aquarium. I also wrote a little note on the weather, etc. I then printed some items from Tot Books - thank you Carisa for giving me permission to translate the goodies to Afrikaans! I also gave her some stickers that she stuck in the folder. I also tried to draw a penguin which she coloured in and she stuck some stickers on the penguin as well - that she really enjoyed!

She also played with her stacking rings and we read loads of books. Mouse really loves reading, she will choose the book that she wants to read and bring it to me to read to her. Her favourite book at this stage is a Bible Story Book. She can sit and look at the beautiful illustrations for hours!
We also built a box car on Silly Billy day, she absolutely loves this "car" and keeps asking to be pushed around in it!Mouse also enjoyed the finger painting, she made a huge mess and loved it!
Now it is a new week filled with fun and learning! Have an awesome week with your little ones!

God Bless

Family Sunday - Tulbach

After a very busy weekend we decided to take today S.L.O.W, well that was the idea when we woke up this morning. We eventually ended up in Tulbach, about a 100km from Cape Town. What a beautiful little town! We had a light lunch at a cosy little restaurant that overlooks a playpark for the kiddies, the staff were so helpful and the restaurant was kiddy friendly, which I loved! Definately worth a visit if you are in the area! If you would like their details please feel free to email me. Little Mouse really enjoyed the drive!
We then came back to Cape Town via Riebeeck Kasteel, another amazing little town close to Malmesbury. Some stunning restaurants and coffee shops that we scheduled in for future Family Sundays. I will keep you posted!

We truly live in a beautiful country, South Africa has so many hidden gems!

Severly Sleep Deprived!

Little Mouse decided that it was time to cut some teeth - eight of them to be exact! YES 8 TEETH AT ONCE!!!! This of course means that mommy has not been sleeping at all, she kept me up for almost a week now till about 4h00 in the morning. The creative juices just does not want to flow due to the lack of sleep and this of course resulted in Silly Billy day....

We made a box car, she enjoyed it so much, even though it is such a Silly Billy idea! We actually started with Tot School this week, but I just did not have the energy or creative ideas to do anything Tot School related yesterday, so hence the box car!

Little Mouse woke up from her nap (yes, one of the perks of being the baby, you can play till 4 in the morning and then sleep during the day!) and we started on her car.

First we took a old box and then I simply drew in some windows, number plates and doors!
Daddy suggested we add some wheels, which I will do a little later!

The number plate says " Klein Muis " - Little Mouse in Afrikaans! She just had a piece of toast before I took this pic, that's why the little face looks a bit dirty!

Loads of back breaking fun!

Any advice on teething pains? I seriously need some sleep....

Muffin Tin Monday

Muffin Tin Monday is a weekly blog carnival at http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com (aka Her Cup Overfloweth) where mommies get together and share the muffin tin meals they made for their kids each week! What is a Muffin TIn Meal? It's pretty simple..A meal in a muffin tin! Sometimes there is a theme (see her sidebar for upcoming themes) and sometimes there isn't. For more info about Muffin Tin Monday, be sure to check out the Muffin Tin Monday FAQ .

This weeks theme was apples, but because we visited the Aquarium yesterday I decided to mix the two themes a bit.
In the Muffin Tin from top left: Rice " apples" , Starfish Apple shapes, Octopus Apple Shapes, Apple Wedges, Yoghurt, Tamato " apples" Then the Bath books about the ocean and some ocean bath toys.

Little Mouse really enjoyed this meal, while learning about the ocean!

We just LOVE Muffin Tin Monday!

Family Sunday - Two Oceans Aquarium

Welcome to my very first post! We visited the Two Oceans Aquarium today in the V & A Waterfront, Cape Town. Well worth the visit! Kiddies under 4 can visit for free and Little Mouse had a really good time! She enjoyed all the tanks with the fishies, escpecially the Clown Fish!

You can also purchase a year ticket, which pays itself in just over 2 visits. We are considering it as she really enjoyed this òuting and it was hugely educational, for both Little Mouse and myself!

I love the "Touch Tank" were the kiddies can actually touch and feel different shells and sea plants!

We will definately visit soon!

Hope that you also had a great Family Sunday!