patchwork

The girls and I got invited to this lovely children's production at the Baxter last weekend. 

We've long been fans of Pedro The Music Man, and the promise of 45 minutes in darkened aircon during this radical heatwave was deliciously inviting.

The girls sat up front with hosts of other smalls - including 3 sets of twins! - on comfy cushions, right at eye-level to the action.

Such a simple stage - the 3 players dressed in comfy white, a scattering of cushions (some of which talk!), a wee bed, a fresh cotton sheet flapped and waved most gracefully (I felt my head nodding at the thought of curling up under it), a wonderfully imaginative and animated dressing gown, and all accompanied by Pedro's signature so simple, but so effective, musical sounds.

The play is very much geared at 1 - 4 yr olds. My entranced nearly-7 yo loved it too. No one doubts the value of kids being exposed to theatre, live performance, but when they're seated so close they can really read expression, feel emotion and see the performer's hands at work ... there's a magic in that they just won't get anywhere else.

Let's support children's theatre! 4 days left to see Patchwork!

wa'shi gonna do?

'Mum, can I play with your pretty tape?'

Words which could make a washi-lover nervous.

But clearly sticking the pretty is not really the goal here.

Much more fun to make patterns, colour-coordinate, build towers ...

... and of course knock them down!

Clearly washi is an important educational toy, I should probably get more right?

faithful to nature

Two words: blog swag.

The good people at Faithful to Nature ('your online organic store') sent us a Suncoat Children's Make-Up kit - an incongruous concept to me in some ways, but the fact is my youngest LOVES painted toenails (those'll be my genes) and what's not to love about a product that isn't shockingly bad for her AND is mess-free enough for her to use herself?

Check her technique!

She's a natural. And using all natural products too!

Later the big girls tried the make-up. 'Do we look like fashion ladies Mum?'

Thanks Faithful to Nature, we had great fun playing with the kit - go check out their fab au naturel Christmas gift ideas!

snow play park, canal walk

*this is a guest post, by Friday*

Last night Mum and I went to the Snow Play Park. We were on a special list. When we walked in a lady gave me a HUGE stick of candyfloss and Mum a HUGE glass of wine.
We were both very happy.

It was magical, with all the decorations and lights. I saw a giant snow globe, but it didn't turn upside down, and it looked like there were huge candy-canes everywhere.

Mum's friend told her it would be really cold, so we brought lots of coats which we didn't need at all. But I was happy I had my mittens when I played in the 'snow pit'. It was like sand but not as easy to build with and very, very cold!

Because it was the first night there were snacks and face-painting and icy cold drinks, and we could go on all the rides for free!

The rides were my best part. We had to drag our little boats up, up, up a long slope and then wait for the man to give us a push so we could slide down.
Mum came after me and I know I heard her screaming although she said she didn't. Mum said grown-ups go faster because they are heavier and for once she was happy to have a big bum.

I went on each ride lots of times, standing in line wasn't that much fun but there were lots of lights and decorations to look at.

I wish we could go back there everyday, but Mum says she doesn't really like shopping centres that much. 

I think she's mad.

*Thank you Canal Walk for kindly inviting us to the launch event for their 2013 Snow Play Park. Friday had heaps of fun!*

twinkle star photography

Much earlier this year I won a family photo shoot with Twinkle Star Photography by answering the question: why do you think you should win this shoot?
I answered that we should win because Friday was losing teeth at a rate of knots and we should get some pics before she became a gap-toothed monster, and I won!

Months later I finally got it together to free up an afternoon and the lovely Sam arrived to take our pictures. We settled down for tea and chat to get the girls (and me!) at ease, whereupon Friday promptly popped a tooth! We did laugh!

Sam quickly had us all feeling very comfortable, and the girls and I pottered around as we would on a normal afternoon.

I'd had my reservations about the shoot - I'm not a formal portrait person and definitely didn't want it to be too cheesy ... but Sam was super, she totally got where I was coming from and in our pre-shoot chats quickly recommended a more documentary style, lifestyle photography it's called.

Basically, photos of our lives.

With Sam cleverly catching snippets of our home and other quirky details (love those sneakers!) in between. I think this gives so much more depth to the collection of pics she's given us, and I've a feeling I'll treasure this memory, tying a little girl's shoe, as much as the shots of us together.

Later we headed outside into the wild wind for the great afternoon light, and some horse-play.

Thank you Sam for a wonderfully relaxed and fun afternoon, and for capturing such lovely moments in the lives of my crazy little ones and I. 

I just know the glow of these pictures will become more golden and magical as these little girls grow up, up and away.

rocking the daisies

For once, I have no words.

It was bigger, and muddier, and louder, and fuller, and younger, and colder than I'd expected. But, as expected, it was a complete jol.
Best friends, free Jack Daniels, no kids, total freedom and a radical change of scenery.

Good for the soul.

free range art

We've been decidedly non-crafty around here for a while. The girls both make and do so much at school that I think that satisfies their creative bent for the most part, and our lovely 'art room' is pretty cold and dark during the winter months - we tend to gravitate to the sunny north-facing lounge in the afternoons.

Having said that, there's been a fair bit of spontaneous, free range art happening and I have to say I love it. Some of it is even collaborative - on Sunday's request Friday drew her a tree to adorn with leaves, apparently this piece is called a 'celebration of Spring'.

Sometimes I'm asked for specific materials, and sometimes I've just left water colours (least messy paint available), glue and silly sticky things out to be 'discovered'.

There's also still lots of colouring happening. How coy is this mermaid? Friday's been stretching her eyeballs practising the look.

And a bit of art imitating life. We've been finding lots of crabs in the garage and front garden lately, we think they must be following an internal GPS, desperately trying to get through the house to the lake out front.
I wasn't that surprised when I found this little sketch on Friday's table the other day.

But I'm keen for a project again, and have my eye on this one from the sweet new Cape Town blog Tuesdays with Megan. I'll let you know how it works out ...

planet kids, muizenberg

I'm not a fan of indoor play places (sometimes I think I'm such a parenting grinch), but Planet Kids in Muizenberg is truly an exception.

A beautiful building, huge room, high ceilings, wooden floors and lots and lots of creative, original and stimulating play to be had.

Exciting sit-on slide, takes kids up to 35kg.

All manner of ride-on's. These padded platforms with wheels and some gorgeous little wooden cars too.

Lovely wooden puzzles and a couple of fooz-ball tables for some calmer fun.

Great imaginative 'ball wall' - with lots of different sized balls and holes to lob them through.

Plus, two indoor jumping castles - one is a UFO with aliens inside! A corner for smaller kiddies, comfy seating for the grown-ups, coffee, an outside jungle gym etc for sunny days, a fun collection of party stuff for sale and a dedicated room for birthday parties.
What's not to love?

gifting money

A close friend observes Ramadaan and we've shared many an indulgent pancake breakfast to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with her family.

In keeping with tradition all the kids receive a little cash gift and at first it felt odd for me, giving small children money. I've generally avoided cash altogether with my kids - apart from some shiny coins from the tooth fairy and the like. We don't do pocket money yet, and although we talk about money - how we earn it and how we spend it - we haven't gotten into saving it etc yet. I'm sure we should soon.

Over the years I've looked for ways to make Eid money playful, which felt a bit more fun than just handing over cold cash.

My 'go to' has often been the origami shirt - really quick and easy with a couple of presentation options.

This year I tried something new, and although they proved really hard to photograph, these cash 'n confetti balloons were fun to make and got a good response from the kids.

Tip 1: I rolled the notes up and secured them with elastic bands a few days before so they'd stay fairly tightly rolled once in the balloons (I removed the bands before inserting them).
Tip 2: Make sure the parents of the kids you're giving these to have a hand-held hoover, or a relaxed attitude to confetti being strewn about the house. It's a celebration after all!

If you were celebrating, hope you had a good Eid, and if not - a very fine long weekend!

daddy play dough

This is what happens when Daddy gets asked to make play dough.

Have I mentioned how much we love play dough?

let's talk about colouring*

*And no, I don't mean colouring ...

Colouring-in has gotten a bad rap over the years, the premise being that it stifles kid's creative drawing, use of imagination etc etc blah blah blah.

We're in a big colouring phase (I'm trying to type with a straight face here) and I think it's great.
Firstly, it's super easy to print pages off the internet depending on what they're interested in - in the last month we've been through unicorns (of course), fairies (of course), frogs, bee's, eagles and a medley of patterns and floral designs.
Secondly, what they're learning about colour and shading, and the pencil-grip practise they get puts paid to all other concerns.

Thirdly, they're still totally drawing freehand as well.
Fourthly, printing out and handing them a stack of blank, inspirational pages buys me some time to do other things around the house - and what's not to love about that?
And lastly, we've seen such a huge improvement in Sunday's colouring skills in just a few weeks. From random scrawls, to real progress in keeping between the lines and using different colours etc.

My favourite thing at the moment is to listen in on them working together. Real discussion about colour choices and the personalities of the figures they're colouring or the stories behind their pictures.

Imagination, creativity, sisterly bonding - all of this is good. Now if someone would invent a self-sharpening pencil crayon I'd be completely happy.