Tamlyn's 5th Birthday Bucket List

I can't believe that it is September already!

August ended in a whirl of hospital visits...I am so thankful that the Butterballs are feeling better.

September is Tamlyn's birthday month 

so we kicked off the celebrations by finalizing her ever changing Birthday Bucket List.

1. A Slumber Party

2. Create a pretend Candy Shop

3. Decorate cupcakes (read: smother cupcakes in frosting and coat with sprinkles)

4. A spa day (like Mom)

5. A real Tea Party

Whew, what a list!

Next on the Birthday Tradition Page was her mini photoshoot.

Tamlyn is into all things girly, a real little princess!

I decided to create a mini bride-themed photo shoot

...after all, that's the day every woman gets to feel like a real princess!!

This was really easy to set up.

All I did was dust off my wedding gown,

find my gloves, veil, tiara, and wedding jewellery, 

and we were ready!!!

Tamlyn's eyes positively glowed 

as she stood in front of the mirror staring at herself dressed in a cloud of white!

Wish I had taken a photo of her reaction!!!

 

My beautiful little girl!!

Textured color-in craft - Horses

 The Butterballs absolutely loved their pony ride at the Flag Farm.

When they got home, Ethan pretended to be the horse

 (named Sparky-after Sheriff Callie's horse - Disney Junior)

and Tamlyn rode about on his back.

So when I suggested a horse-themed activity - they were rearing to go!

Supplies: horse color-in page, sandpaper, crayons, googly eyes, glue and yarn

How to:
     Place the coloring page on top of the sandpaper and color in using the crayons. The rougher the sandpaper, the better the pattern on the horse.

Next apply glue to the neck - to create a mane and squeeze a blob of glue to stick on the eyes.

Finally, stick on the yarn and allow to dry.

All done!!!

Capturing Childhood - At the Hospital

Last week, the Butterballs were admitted in hospital for 5 days.

They both had bronchial pneumonia...

and those 5 days felt like the longest five days of my life!

After the night comes the morning...

and we are so glad to be back home.

The Butterballs are feeling much better 

and Calvin and I are sooo thankful for the support, assistance and prayers of our friends and family.

Capturing childhood is all about photographing the good, the bad and the reality of everyday life.

So despite my sleep deprivation and exhaustion and worry,

I pulled out my DSLR and snapped a few pics.

...the nurses probably thought that I was crazy!!!

Nutella Milkshake - Simply Sweet After School Treat

Nutella on bread is one of the Butterballs favourite sandwiches,

and ice-cream is their all time favourite dessert .

Nutella + ice cream = Nutella milkshake!

After seeing so many yummy-looking glasses of Nutella milkshake on Pinterest, 

I just had to give it a try!

I read quite a few delicious sounding recipes but decided to try out my own version.
I served this decadent treat in plastic shot glasses...just right for little Butterball fingers!
(and my waist-line!)

Nutella Milkshake

Ingredients:
2 scoops chocolate ice-cream
5 tbls nutella
100ml whipped cream
100ml chocolate dessert custard (from Woolies)

Blend well.
Pour into chocolate rimmed shot glasses and top with a Ferrero chocolate.

Yummy!!! Really yummy,
Only 3 of the 6 glasses of milkshake made,
 survived long enough to be photographed ;)

Pretend Play Tea Party

Good manners...please and thank you, excuse me, I'm sorry...

there are SO many little rules about polite behaviour

that we instill in our little ones.

Most of it is by example, so today, we hosted a pretend tea party.

'Yeah!!! Tea party!!' ... 

meanwhile, on mom's hidden agenda :

Teach your kid good hosting skills (and how to be a great guest)

Firstly, laying the table. 
Tamlyn helps lay the table for dinner, Ethan helps by laying out the cutlery.
And both Butterballs help clear their place once dinner is over,
(reminders are necessary!)

Tamlyn laid the table for today's tea party 
(while Ethan was in the bathroom...cos 'he will just mess it up')

She has my passion for pretty tablescapes 
and I think she did an awesome job, 
right down to the paper-doilie placemats.

Down to business... 

each Butterball had a turn to play host\hostess.

 We focused on just a few basic points:

• Please and thank you.
• The host serves the guests first and themselves last.
• The guest will take just one cupcake (the cute, plastic cupcakes are from Toys r Us) not the entire tray! 
• Ask for seconds politely, once you have finished what is on your plate (host must remember to offer seconds and refill empty cups)

My little hostess serving her brother!

Ethan remembered to ask 'his guest' 

how many lumps of sugar she would like...too cute!

The Butterballs love to clink their cups and shout 'Cheers' 

(or 'Muffin'...thanks to Aunty Debs!)

Dad dropped in for a cup of tea.

'No Dad, don't slurp your tea!' exclaimed Tamlyn

Both Butterballs helped clear the table.

Tamlyn had a sink full of washing up to do, 

while Ethan packed the cupcakes into the fridge!

The Butterballs loved their tea party.

We will definitely be doing this role play quite often.

 The Butterballs were so eager to 'do it right'

and they had so much fun!

It was much easier teaching them those little skills 

when there were no real sweet treats to distract and give them a sugar rush.

I would love to try this activity out again using my china tea set...one day ;)

On the Farm Kids Activities - Shaving foam Sheep

The Butterballs enjoyed feeding the sheep.

They learnt that not all sheep are white; 

sheep give us wool; 

a daddy sheep is a ram and has large horns;

the mama sheep is an ewe and the baby sheep is a lamb.

(They also found that Benny Sheep loves carrots

 more than the grassy sheep food that they tried to feed him!!)

Today we did 2 simple sheepy tasks.

* The cotton-ball Sheep

This task was really simple. I printed out a picture of a sheep and laid it out along with cotton balls and glue.

The Butterballs enjoyed pasting on the cotton-balls creating a fluffy white sheep.

Too cute!!

The next activity is a slightly different take on School Time Snippets amazing activity  - shaving foam dot to dots.
http://www.schooltimesnippets.com/2014/06/shaving-cream-connect-dots-messy.html 

Supplies : a join-the-dot sheep picture, plastic sleeve and shaving foam.

How to: Slide the picture into the plastic sleeve.

Spray tiny dots of shaving foam onto each of the number dots on the picture.

The shaving foam will be on the outside of the plastic jacket that the picture is in.

The Butterballs then joined the dots using their fingers.

They loved this activity.

I had to wipe the plastic sleeve off and respray the shaving foam a couple of times.

And of course, they had to 'color-in' the sheep using the shaving foam

Messy but lots of fun...and they got to work on their counting skills!!

On the Farm Kids Activities - DIY Butter

During our visit to the farm,

 the Butterballs learnt that a baby cow is called a calf 

and it drinks milk from 'the mama's unders' as Ethan puts it!

They were totally fascinated by the cow milking demo!

We talked about how cow milk is drank by the calf and by humans.

We also discussed the many dairy products we make from cow milk.

I decided to give them a simple first-hand experience of butter-making.

Supplies: small glass bottle and fresh cream

The Butterballs helped me to carefully pour the cream into the bottles 

and I closed each bottle tightly, then the fun began!

The Butterballs shook the bottles for as long as they could, 

eventually we turned it into a dancing game.

It certainly got all the wiggles out of the Butterballs!

After about 15 minutes of shaking, we opened the jar to find a creamy little pat of butter. 

The Butterballs were ecstatic!

We poured away the liquid and the Butterballs spread the butter onto slices of toast.

'Best butter ever!' was the verdict!