Golf Ball Painting

We had a go at golf ball painting because my husband fished a bunch of balls out of his golf bag for us and it reminded us of this video on youtube we've seen many times. I just set it up like she did, with paint and spoons for each colour in seperate plastic jars. I only had yellow, white and black though as my paint was quite old and I had to throw the other colours out. I didn't make the home-made flour paint for this as I didn't think it would roll as well, its quite sticky and gooey.

Thomas couldn't wait to try the golf-ball painting

The non-toxic paint was easy enough to clean if I didn't let it dry, thankfully the activity was short lived so there wasn't much mess. We only did one golf- ball painting, then I let Thomas do some normal painting on paper with a paint brush using the left over yellow, white and black paint. I think I will need to buy some more non-toxic paint in brighter colours in the very near future! Thomas couldn't wait to try the golf-ball painting, knowing what to do as soon as I handed him the basket! Next time, I will have different colours with golf balls ready to go so it will be easier to do a 2nd golf-ball painting in the one session, I'm thinking 6 colours at least!

Pasta and a Box

I found this simple activity at One Perfect Day, it was something I could quickly whip up while we were waiting the last 10 minutes for daddy to come home from work. I just poked some holes with a pair of scissors into a biscuit box I found in my pantry, and used some macaroni pasta. Thomas enjoyed this activity, being occupied with it for 10 minutes and then going back to it again later to show daddy. Sometimes after he pushed some pasta through he then picked up the box and shook it to hear the sound of the macaroni rattling around inside. Pushing the macaroni pasta through the holes is an excellent fine motor activity for a 2 year old like my son.

pushing macaroni paste through holes poked into a biscuit box

this is an excellent fine motor activity that keeps a toddler busy for 10 minutes

Footprint Ghosts

I tried this craft activity last Tuesday based on a couple of activities on Toddler Approved. I started by tracing out 6 footprints which Thomas enjoyed saying it tickles! Then we talked about some emotions and I drew happy, sad and surprised onto the 3 pairs of footprint ghosts. We then played some matching games with the ghosties for a few minutes, Thomas was able to identify the emotions on the ghosts. We spent a little time ripping up white tissue paper and rolling some into balls, then we went outside to glue the paper onto the ghosts. We also glued on a little of the home-grown cotton, I just need some straws to turn these into puppets!

gluing tissue paper onto footprint ghosties

Coconut Cupcakes

My husband helped me make these cute little coconut cupcakes last weekend, they turned out so nice and were very yummy! I need his help to carry out the electric mixer as its too heavy for me. I found the recipe on taste.com = yummy! As usual, Thomas sat at the kitchen bench on the stool and watched us make them, helping us place the patty pans in the muffin tray. He was a little scared of the mixer though!

these coconut cupcakes turned out to be delicious!

fresh out of the oven still in the patty pans

Removing a Tree Stump

When we moved in 6 months ago, there was a small tree near the edge of the patio and we soon decided it needed to go as it was too close and obscured our view of the garden. We pruned it back and turned it into mulch, but left behind was a very stubborn looking stump! We knew from the start it was going to be a lot of hard work to get it out, but it was a nice surprise when it turned out to be not as difficult as we first imagined.

the offending tree stump was removed by chipping away at the shallow roots with a small axe

Along the surface there were several large thick roots firmly established around the tree stump. I imagined there were many more large thick roots waiting for us underneath the stump. I just couldn't imagine how we were going to chop through the stump to get underneath it to get at the large roots that were obviously waiting for us there. For two days (or two afternoons) we scrapped away the dirt from the roots around the stump. On the second day, we decided to buy a small axe from Bunnings, and continued to chip away at the large roots that had grown along the surface. To complicate matters we discovered the drain pipe underneath the tree stump, we couldn't believe someone would thoughtlessly put a tree on top of a shallow pipe like that.

the stubborn tree stump suddenly gave way

Finally David started kicking the stump and it started to budge. All of a sudden it was really moving and it came out! There were no deep roots underneath at all, the whole thing was shallow rooted, and thank goodness for that! It was a nice surprise to be proven wrong and have the stump come out a lot easier than I imagined. Now its the perfect spot for our herb garden, which I plan to blog about very soon!

the space left will be perfect for a herb garden

Colour Sorting Puzzle

This toddler activity is similar to some you can find on pinterest, this one turned out to be perfect for my son who is nearly 3 years old. I've been finding it very challenging to do most of the activities you can find on the net by the mommy bloggers, but this one wasn't too hard for me. I used an egg carton and found 12 differently coloured pieces of duplo from my son's lego box. They only just fit! Then I found matching coloured pencils from an old collection I've kept from years ago, and using the pencils coloured tiny pieces of white paper and stuck them into the egg carton with craft glue. When I showed the sorting game to my son he loved it, and wanted to do it twice over right away. I'll have to think of other sorting games I can do with him using this set up, its just right for him!

colour sorting game made from lego and an old egg carton

this puzzle was easy to make at home

Thomas playing with the sorting puzzle

this activity is perfect for a nearly 3 year old

he closed it and shook up the pieces to start again

Home-made Pizza

Thomas enjoys sitting on the stool at the kitchen bench watching his daddy cook, here he is watching him make home-made pizza! This is such an important activity for Thomas to be doing, soon he'll be able to help cook. David already gets him to help a little where he can, like patting the dough when it was getting kneaded or placing the pepperoni on the pizza. David used to make special pizza dough in the bread machine and it would take an hour just to rise, until he found this recipe which is quick because it doesn't use yeast, and doesn't use the machine. Its very yummy so we've decided to make pizza like this from now on. I also like to use free range salami, I'm so happy to have found that at Coles online, I try and get free range meat whenever I can, and always get free range eggs!

cooking at home is a very important toddler activity

Two Cotton Bugs

Last weekend we did some gardening and I decided to empty the three pots of now dead cotton I've been growing for about a year. I managed to harvest less than a kilogram of cotton from the three plants, but I haven't done anything with it. I had imagined I would spin it, but I've since realised that will be very time consuming and difficult to produce something that will hold well enough together to make something with. So I've kept it, possibly to use in art and craft activities with Thomas when he's older, its still got the seeds in it. When I went to remove the last of the cotton from the dead plants, I found these two distinctive looking large stink bugs on one cotton boll. They were quite content to stay where they were, not being disturbed by me when I went very close to get these photos. My husband found them on google images, they're called Harlequin cotton bugs, and are also attracted to hibiscus plants which I guess is why they are in the area, as I don't imagine there are many cotton plants around here! There aren't any now that mine are emptied into the compost spot of our garden!

a harlequin cotton bug

these cotton bugs were quite content to stay undisturbed where they were

Cheerios and Pipecleaners

This is just another easy activity which I've done with Thomas a few weeks ago, threading cheerios onto pipe cleaners. I had tried threading cheerios onto string with him to make necklaces, but that failed dismally! He was unable to hold the string while threading on a cheerio. That's why the pipe cleaners are easier, because he can thread it on he doesn't have to hold the pipe cleaner end. This is another idea I found on Pinterest, there are so many ideas on there to be found, but I prefer activities that are easy to throw together with what I already have here and are not too messy. This is a perfect little activity to fill a few spare minutes.

threading cheerios onto pipe cleaners is easier for a toddler than trying to thread it onto string

an easy no mess activity for a nearly 3 year old

Frozen Dinosaurs

Now the weather has warmed up, this activity has proven to be a popular one with Thomas who is nearly 3 years old. We've done this activity 3 times now, with different coloured water each time. Last time I just tipped the whole collection of dinosaurs into the water to freeze, instead of just the 4 I started with. I simply filled a 2 litre ice-cream container with water, some food colouring and the dinosaurs, leaving it in the freezer for at least a day to freeze. This is a very simple activity, Thomas choosing to just play with the ice or playing with other toys while it melts. But I want to document each special activity I do with him, so the days don't run into each other meaninglessly. I've been having trouble with depression lately, and blogging about the worthwhile activities I do with my son really helps. I found this idea on Pinterest where there are heaps of ideas to do with toddlers.

plastic toy dinosaurs frozen in 2 litres of coloured ice