Kora and boys Day 3

Is putting up the Christmas tree a craft? It is in my mind! I love a nice Christmas tree so the prospect of decorating it with three boys in tow was not appealing. In fairness their attention span was fairly limited and I'm not one for colour-coded baubles, so all in all I'd say it was quite a successful venture. Noah unwrapped all the decorations, Jonny laid them out on the carpet, Jack managed to adorn the tree with all of two decorations and then they all left the room! Bargain! Not a bad effort! Tree looks great.... good job I'm not a perfectionist!

Cat and Eilir Day 3

New paper chains

Apologies for a repeat of a previous 12 days activity from 2011, but Eilir was very keen to do this again. It's funny how kids latch on to the familiar and want to return to activities they've enjoyed, turning them into new family traditions. We used our original ones again last year but they were looking pretty tatty when we brought them out of the attic this time round.

Eilir has a character that he created that he draws everywhere (and on everything) called 'Big face' (see the Christmas card he made me), so he was especially keen to have a paper chain version. It took a few attempts to get it right (his first one was overly complicated with added speech bubbles etc that made no sense when cut out), but he was really pleased with the final result. I made strange skating girl shapes, which Eilir added to with a snowman and a smiley face wearing a Christmas hat (that looked like funky mushrooms when cut out).

Silver and girls Day 3

Santa Tree Topper

Using the inner cardboard tube from a toilet roll & some tissue paper, we decided to make a new Santa for my Mum.  It was a project I remember doing at school myself and knew she would appreciate.

We glued the paper down one edge of the tube and rolled it up so that the cardboard was completely covered.  Next Nim cut out a strip of black paper to make Santa's belt, which she then also glued on.

Next Nim pulled apart some cotton wool balls to make the fur for his hat and his beard, I think she enjoyed this part best as she was manically giggling away!  Those were also stuck onto the tube.  Next we used glitter glue to do Santa's buckle and his eyes, this one probably took around 20 minutes to do.

Johana and boys Day 3

We had a letter home that for T's school Christmas play he was to be 'a friend of Cyw', he chose to be Llew (the lion), so we brought some fabric and got the sewing machine out.  He loves machines and making things, so on the lap of my partner he had a go sewing a little of the body, whilst his younger brother attempted to sabotage the process and I made the ears.

Adeola and boys Day 3

Roti is a wise man in his nativity play. He refused to try the costume on for ages but when he did, I took some photos.

Lo was excited to get started on improvising the background of the photo on Microsoft Paint while I read bedtime stories to Babi and Usborne’s ‘Snakes’ for (just about) the 12^th night in a row for Roti!

Roti wanted to have a go with my help. He ended up working with Lo and covering the whole image, while I had a shower before the Thursday morning school-run.

Not sure where this is heading, but they seemed relatively pleased.

Steph and G Day 3

 

 

G is in a little Christmas show, requiring costuming as a woodland deer, we talked about it over a few days, and made our plan.  Success with painting a plain cheapy t-shirt in previous years got us started, and we are well known deer stalkers, often scrambling through the mud and rhodedendrons in Margam Park to catch a glimpse of a little female deer being natural, rather than coming down to the road for the landrover dispensed food.  We found a real antler this way, but have also come across a stag a little closer than we expected.  We backed off pretty quick, they can really stare you out.  A pop sock was deftly stuffed with old material for a little tail, and brown leggings found then G set to work mixing the perfect fallow deer colour amazingly twice! How did she do that? I kept harping on about trying to make sure she mixed a big enough volume because we would never get the same shade twice.  G assured me she could, well, she could!