Big news

First of all, apologies to all those who are accustomed to my regular posts, you've probably noticed that they are not so regular any more. The reasons for that are many, but in short, my life has turned upside down, so much has happened in the last few weeks that I really don't know where to start.

I (unexpectedly) started working again, the offer literally came overnight. I'm still pretty confused, it's weird to go to work after I had been stay-at-home-mom for four years. The job itself is great, but I still haven't managed to learn how to coordinate business and private life - we are not just used to eat kale from the day before. And more great news are that I will finally manage to get a place in a kindergarten (daycare) for my kids, which I couldn't do before, because of stupid administrative rules that impede the right of every child to socialize. In other words, in my country your kids can't go to kindergarten, even for a few hours, if you are SAHM.

More good news include the fact  they are starting to go there on 2nd May because we'll enroll them in a private nursery. Specifically, due to the lack of places in kindergartens, our city equalized the cost of private and municipal kindergartens! Of course, no one in the city government or in the kindergarten, had a hearing for the fact that first days should be in a time when mother is not working and she has enough free time and not when she starts to work and needs to prove herself on a new job. But this will pass eventually, and the Older actually cann't wait to go, because she is indeed a very sociable child.

We also have another great news - we are expecting! Our family will get a new member, in early November. Now I am 12 weeks pregnant just about time to announce it. :) At first I had morning sickness (often lasting the entire day), but now I feel great (blissful second quarter), so that was another great timing for returning to work.

Image source: b92.net

Girls are happy with the news, although I think that The Younger does not understand yet what it actually means, but when we said the news about the baby to The Older, she immediately said:  "Let's name the little brother Lightning McQueen, and the sister Sally!" All true fans of Cars will understand what she meant by that.

The other day I saw her playing with Barbie Snow White and she tried to put a small figurine of Snow White under her dress, and since it did not work, she told me, "Mom, this dress no longer fits  her, she'll need a maternity dress!" Aaaah, my little smarty.

News in our lives do not mean that we stopped playing, the only thing is that the mom just does not have time to write about it. When I catch some free time, I ought to write you how we made ​​a dragon out of a plain plastic bag and flowers from egg cartons.

We are also planning a Smurftastic birthday party, so it will also be discussed as soon as I catch a break.

Also, I would like to announce that tomorrow will be my "SITS day" and my blog will be featured in this great blogging community with over 40,000 registered users. If you write a blog or just thinking about it, be sure to visit them. And tomorrow you can see me in the role of a "featured blogger". 

I wish happy playing to all of you, and I hope that we will soon accustom to the new situation, so that the posts will be published with the same frequency as before.

Homemade puppet theater

I am not a big fan on commenting the weather, when there isn't anything we can do about it, but enough is enough. I really feel how my kids already miss playing outdoors.

However, mama has a solution - DIY toys.  They really provide you multiple benefits - you are having fun, you recycle, the boredom is gone and you forget about the rainy weather.


So we decided to make a puppet theater. Finally all those numerous stuffed toys found their purpose in life.

Notice how Cars mania still lasts in our house

We pasted several boxes one to each other (we used duct tape). I perforated the bottom of the top box and added some curtains ( I hung fabrics craps on a plain plastic rod), and the show was ready to begin.


We also had another, simpler version with a garden house made ​​of plastic tubes and which originally had a plastic cover, but was torn apart in the heat of the game. Here we used old blankets and sheets for a stage:

If you really do not have any boxes or a garden house, you can use a sofa or a lower cabinet / dresser. Only thing important is to play ......

Let the game begin!

Easter decorations

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you had a nice time with your loved ones!

According to the number of readings and comments, I can conclude that you really liked our Decoupage Easter eggs for children, and I can't tell you how glad I am because of it.

And here's how we decorated our home for Easter:

A garland with paper eggs

This is another super simple activity for children: 

Cut a piece of cardboard in a shape of an egg (we only took four pieces because we wanted a smaller, i.e., shorter garland). Decorate as you wish. We used some advertising flyers, the same as we did with the decoupage eggs or the paper chains. Also, we have again used the homemade white glue, see the previous post for the recipe.

Cut or fold the excess paper (so you get the egg shape) and let it dry:

Use a paper punch to make a hole in each egg and tie it with a nice ribbon and there you go, you have a nice and simple Easter decoration. It is a great activity for small arms to develop fine motor skills:

Easter centerpiece

Here I can't boast with some great creativity, because I just cut off the branches of jasmine and hydrangeas that were broken by this early spring snow and I hung purchased ornaments on these branches.

What I really want to show you how even bare branches can turn out to be a beautiful decoration. I was pretty annoyed this year, when I realized I won't have green, flowering branches for my Easter decoration, as I had in previous years, but it turned out really nice:

Trying to dye Easter eggs with the natural colors

I'm always so angry and disappointed when I buy Easter egg colors and eggs turn out to be very pale, and the worst of all - the colors pass through the egg shell and paint the edible part of the egg. I must admit that it really does not look appealing for eating, no matter how much these colors were claimed to be "edible".

So this year I have read a lot about natural colors for dyeing eggs and decided to paint them with chard, blueberries and black tea (mainly because I already had these ingredients). Look here for other natural ingredients which can also be used for egg dyeing.

Frankly, my result was again disappointing because chard did not dye at all, blueberries somewhat weak, while black tea was only a partial success:

Last minute rescue were the store-bought films that we just put on the egg and soak it in hot water and it was done. A little bit kitschy, I know, but still better than pale colored eggs.

I assume that the mistake was that I left the eggs in the dye solution only for an hour, and according to these tips, you need to leave them in the fridge overnight. A useful experience for next year.

And how did you decorate your home for Easter?

Decoupage Easter eggs for children

It's a little bit strange to write about Easter themes, when I see all this snow outside. Somehow it seems more appropriate to write about Christmas activities . :)


                                                                            ***


For some time now, I've been collecting plastic eggs and trying to figure out what to do with them, how to make them more appealing. And then I saw this idea by Red Ted Art and decided to try something similar.

We started by making our own white glue. It seems as if more and more every day you can hear about the harmfulness of certain chemicals, being a part of even some children products, so I strongly believe the homemade version is much, much safer. In 5 cups of boiling water I added a mixture of 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of water and mixed it until it was smooth, dense and evenly distributed, with no lumps. I did not even wait for it to cool down, we immediately started using it. Holds surprisingly well, the smell is not sharp, can last for weeks in the fridge and it is really easy to clean.

We used advertising leaflets as a decorative material - we cut Easter motifs and used a brush to apply some white glue to plastic eggs. Our fingers were of a great help in smoothing the surface. Piece by piece, after about an hour, we got these beautiful, colourful Easter eggs:

We didn't strive for perfection and we did not smooth each wrinkle, because after all, these are children's crafts.

It is a great activity, because children can participate all the time, and in the end you get a really nice Easter decoration.

I wish you peaceful, pleasant, tasty and creative Easter holidays! And a lot of successfully dyed eggs, of course!

Homemade playdough

Did you know that playdough can easily and quickly be made in your own kitchen? All you need is some flour, salt, water, oil and citric acid and edible colors (available in all major stores).

Of course, the store-bought playdough is not very expensive, so we can't actually talk on saving money with it, but since my toddler still puts everything in her mouth, I'm more happy (and more calm) with this kind of playdough. And another HUGE advantage of it is the fact it can be easily cleaned up after the play, just let it dry and clean it with a plain broom, it won't stick to floor, like the store-bought playdough does.

The required quantity of ingredients for homemade playdough: 

20 oz* of flour
5.2. oz* of salt
1.6 oz* of citric acid
0.02 gallons* of oil
0.13 gallons* of water
edible color - the type and quantity of your choice. 

*Note: originally I have used milliliters and grams, since we use the metric system in Europe, but I have recalculated it for you. Here is a great calculator for doing so.  

While waiting for the mixture of water, oil and edible colors to boil, mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Kids will really enjoy if you let them to participate:

When the liquid boils, add the remaining ingredients and stir constantly until the mixture gains desired density. The absolutely best thing about this type of playdough is the fact that nothing can go wrong. If it's too sticky, just add flour, if it's too thick, just add some water. 

Allow it to cool (this is the worst part for the kids) and  you can start playing!

If you do not like the smell of it, you can add something that smells nice, for example, we use cinnamon, but you can use the vanilla sugar as well.

As you can see from the picture below, we managed to get a significant amount of playdough (the volume of the red container is 2 liter). 

Cake tins, empty plastic  candy boxes or from advent calendars - all that will make excellent additions to the game, and will also be a gret, creative way of recycling . 

P.S. I've participated in these awesome parties: