DIY kite

I recently read a great (though shocking) book "The Kite Runner," in which, among other things, talks about how the kite flying is the national sport in Afghanistan.

I would not say that kite flying is a national sport in my country but it sure is fun. Since last year I could not find a kite in the shops (whether because it is popular so it was sold out or maybe because it is not popular, so the shops don't offer kites - it's hard to tell), I decided to try to do something myself.


Instead of dowels, I used the parts of these old eating pads (I do not recommend buying these, they are very difficult to clean).

I've cut a longer and a shorter stick and pasted them with some "super glue." According to the dimensions of crossed sticks, I've cut out diamond shape out of plastic bags and attached it to the sticks (I used crepe tape).

I tied a piece of string at the longer stick and there it was, our kite was all set for flying!



 


We repeated the whole process once again (probably you've noticed the two different samples at the photos), to avoid sibling-fights, so that each of my girls can have her own kite. Who ever has got two children, knows what I'm talking about.

After the extreme heat, we finally have some mild wind here, so we quickly tried our kites. The girls enjoyed the preparation and in the right wind, the kites were happily flapping and we had so much fun.

I am definitely happy because of the fact the kites weren't torn apart at the first wind, as I was afraid of, so I believe that we will be playing with them the entire summer.

Let's play together!

Children paint - DIY

My girls absolutely love painting and always spend a great amount of color for their pieces of art.

So it was Sunday, they were really in an artistic mood, and we were out of watercolors and paints of any type, actually. And what will mum do, other than to explore how we can make them ourselves.

Google-Almighty featuring Pinterest The Great offered a solution in this case as well. Children friendly colors can be made in several ways, and we tried two of them:

1. Flour, salt and water + food coloring

Mix the flour salt and water in equal proportions (for example, one tablespoon) and add a few drops of food coloring (the amount depends on the intensity of the color you want to achieve).

If you store them in a plastic container with a lid, they can last for some time, especially if you keep them in a fridge. Ours did not last long, because the girls really liked them, and quickly spent the entire amount we prepared.

Pictures painted with these colors have a sparkly look after drying -  it's because of the salt used in their preparation.

2. Yogurt + food coloring

Me and the girls prefer this way- I because they are really simple for preparing, and the girls because these yogurt colors leave more uniform coating.

* * *

And most important of all - the ingredients are edible (in both cases), so no problem if some color ends up in the mouth, as it usually happens with toddlers.

But I would definitely recommend this as an outdoor activity, because the amount of mess is quite huge.

P.S. we were featured at this awesome linky party:

Let the play begin!


And we also participated at these parties: 

Birthday party theme: The Smurfs

It has been a while since The Younger celebrated her second birthday in a smurftastic style and I finally found some time to edit and post the pictures. Considering all the news that happened in our lives lately , this was a last-minute celebration, simply because I did not have enough time as I had before, with preparing the Cars birthday.

The idea of T-shirts as a decoration on the wall was "recycled" from the Cars birthday party:

I didn't make the cake myself - I am still not an expert in cakes, so I left it to those who know it better than me. I just added some (store bought) decorations, according to the birthday theme:

A stuffed Smurf found its place on the wall:

Blue balloons were a fun and simple decoration in our backyard:

We also bought some plain smurfy blue plates, blue cutlery, cups and napkins. Simple, effective and much cheaper than the ones with the Smurfs, which can also be found in stores. Given the circumstances, the decorations were mostly bought and not a hand-made as I prefer, but that's how it is when you suddenly transfer from stay-at-home-mum to working mum.

I also found some free online printable smurfy coloring books for the little guests to have fun.

As party favors, we have prepared some homemade play-dough in jars painted like a Smurf house. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them, which is a shame because they really looked great. The kids liked them very much, so I believe we will do it again, and then I can add the photos.

Need more ideas for a Smurftastic birthday? Look here at the link .

   

Bringing a new life to the old shoes

I'd like to greet everyone after some time. Due to all the news that happened in our life, I can not promise that posts will be as frequent as they used to be (at least until I go on maternity leave), but that does not mean we stopped playing or recycling, I simply have a lack of free time for posting.

Recently The Older damaged one comfortable flats she enjoyed wearing. No big deal, but it is not nice to see it. I have been thinking for a while how to repair them, until one day an idea crossed my mind - to cover them with some flowers and to make them even more beautiful than they were originally.

This is how they looked like before:

 And after my intervention:

I simply took the lapels that were left from our wedding (yes, I still keep things like that) and pasted them to shoes with an universal glue. It's very important to let the glue dry well, in order to prevent possible detaching.

Do I have to mention how The Older was thrilled with the result and she did not want to take them off her feet? We will see how to deal with the challenges of playing in them, but the shoes have certainly passed the house-walking-test.

P.S. Click on the pictures below and visit some awesome linky parties I'm participating in.