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We've been making lots of different Easter decorations, but these have to be my absolute favourites so far!  I love salt dough and have seen some great ideas for painting salt dough Easter eggs, but as my kids are too young to really paint details we went for a different approach and used our hands to imprint the dough and then paint in a solid colour.



First we made the salt dough using a very basic recipe of 2 parts flour, 2 parts salt and 1 part water.  Ethan poured all of the ingredients into the bowl and stirred it around.  We worked together to knead the dough into a ball, then we rolled it out nice and flat.  We have some great little Easter cookie cutters that we used to cut out most of the shapes (except for the large eggs which I just shaped by hand.)


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Ivy is at an age when she just likes to get into everything to explore and examine it in every way possible!  So a basket full of eggs to open up with surprises inside is a perfect activity for her!


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Today we are starting to get ready for Easter!  So step one had to be getting our Easter baskets ready. 



We used some simple sand buckets instead of baskets, because they seemed much easier to decorate and safer for Ivy (she would definitely try to chew on a basket!)  Then I dug out as many stickers as I could find!  



Ethan did really well at finding the letters to spell out his name first (even though the stickers we had were all capitals, so I was impressed!)  Then he just went crazy with the stickers!  He was very excited to have so many stickers in front of him and no rules about where they could go.  He wanted a variety of the foam stickers, shiny stickers and character stickers to go all around his basket.  I didn't have to help him at all, he just happily did the whole thing himself.



Of course it was a little bit different for Ivy as she's only 13 months old!  I spelled out her name for her, then started handing her one sticker at a time to stick on.  Let's just say that there was a lot of crumpling up of stickers before I managed to get her to stick any on!  But eventually she did do a few, then I just had to convince her not to pick them back off again!






















They both did a fantastic job of decorating their Easter baskets, so now the countdown to Easter begins!  I'm prepared to wake up tomorrow to Ethan asking questions about when the Easter Bunny will be here! 

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This week we got a new book from Parragon to review, it's called Red Fish, Yellow Fish and it's perfect for Ivy.  At just over a year old, she's still not that into books.  Well, she enjoys pulling them all off the shelves, and she likes lift the flaps and touch and feel books, but she's just not into stories yet.  So this was nice, because it's a big chunky board book without too many words, but Ivy will get a little something different from it.


It's quite simple and goes through different seaside animals and other things of two different colours.  I was able to read it to Ivy a few times, and even got her to point to things to identify along with me.  Hopefully this is the start of her learning to love books!

What have you been reading this week?


* This is a review post and also contains an affiliate link. *

When it comes to Mother's Day the two main things that I want are; to spend time with my family, and to get all mushy and sentimental about how lucky I am to have 2 wonderful children!  (A day to relax would be nice too, but that's just not realistic!)  So the type of gifts that I would like fall into those two categories, gifts that I can enjoy with my family and cutesy personalised items with my childrens' names / handprints / artwork, etc.  The personalised gifts can be easy to find, but gifts that I will enjoy and will encourage fun and play with my children need a bit more thought.  So here are some gifts that I've come up with, the gifts that keep on giving!




Cooking and Baking Together

Ethan loves cooking and baking with me, and this Indoor Herb Allotment set from Treat Republic will take it one step further.  I would love to receive a gift like this because it would look fantastic in my kitchen sitting on the windowsill.  It's also great because it's something that Ethan and I could set up together, planting the seeds and watering them everyday. Then when the herbs have grown we can pick them and use them in our healthy cooking endeavours!  So it's not only something that we can enjoy together for one day, but continue to enjoy and watch grow.



Of course once the herbs have grown we will need somewhere to chop and prepare them, and what better than an Apple Shaped Cutting and Serving Board that just happens to match perfectly with my kitchen.  And I'm pretty sure that Ethan and Ivy would love to eat their snacks off this board too!  It's a really good quality oak board that is the perfect combination of form and function.



Doing Crafts Together

We love to do crafts together, and already have many, many craft supplies!  But for a Mum who isn't quite so equipped, a book of craft ideas like Red Ted Art or 101 Kids Activities and a voucher for your local craft shop would make a terrific gift!

Reading Together
I read with Ethan and Ivy every day, it's a great way to interact with them, to chat about the book and to have some quiet time after a busy day.  We love all sorts of books, but getting a personalised book as a gift is still very special.  I say this one is for the kids, but making myself (as well as Ethan and Ivy) into a Peppa Pig character is pretty fun for me too! Penwizard have a great new book for Mother's Day called My Mummy, and it's all about you!  You design the characters of the Mummy and child / children and the book is all about the things that the children love about their Mummy.  It's really sweet and gives you a great opportunity to chat about all of the things that you love about each other as a family.

An excuse for Cuddles

For my very first Mother's Day my very clever 6 month old Ethan got me a lovely teething necklace from Mama Jewels.  I still wear it now, especially as Ivy is getting her first molars and chewing on everything!  She'll happily sit in my lap for ages playing with that necklace, a perfect way to keep her busy when we're out for our Mother's Day lunch.  I love that it looks nice and is safe for Ivy to play with whilst relieving a bit of her teething pains.

Giving Back



I recently did a big clear out of all of the kids old baby clothes, I love to look back at how small they were (and to show Ethan, he just doesn't believe it!)  It's always hard to let those clothes go as they hold so many memories.  I have a friend that I trade some clothes with, but there was still a lot there that I wanted to find a good home for, so when I came across Jojo Maman Bebe's 'Mother to Another' campaign I knew it was the right one for me.  They're collecting children's clothes that you package up by size and season, then they repack it in a lovely box and work alongside the charity Barnardo's to pass each package onto another Mother for her child.  It's just nice to know that the clothes that we loved so much and have lovely memories of will be worn by another baby, and that another mother will get a lovely gift knowing that their child has some good quality clothes to wear.

And Relax

After the kids are in bed, it would be nice to enjoy a few things just for yourself and attempt to relax for a little while. Don't Buy Her Flowers offers gift boxes of treats for new mums and has a special Mother's Day edition that has chocolates and gin, what more could you want?

If you're still stuck for ideas, you could try out this gift finder from My Voucher Codes for more inspiration!



Happy Mother's Day!


* This is a review post and contains affiliate links. Treat Republic sent us the apple cutting board and indoor allotment as well as Penwizard sending us the My Mummy book to try out and write an honest review.*

We are lucky enough to receive a box of fun crafts from Baker Ross every season, and our Spring box has definitely not disappointed!  It included the Valentine's Day Heart Glasses that we reviewed back in February as well as a few crafts for Easter and Mother's Day.


I love these Bird Suncatcher Windchimes, I'm saving them for Ethan and Ivy to colour in a few days before Easter.  Hopefully the weather will be nicer by then, and we can hang them outside for the Easter Bunny to hear them ringing and so he'll be able to find our house.



Ethan was very excited to make the Easter Bunny's House!  This came from a great kit that makes 2 egg shaped houses completely out of foam stickers.  So this is a perfect craft for when you don't have the time to get out loads of supplies ready or to be able to supervise fully.  Putting the base together was quite tricky, so I had to do that part for Ethan, but after that he was able to put all of the stickers on by himself.


These Chick and Bunny Pop-up Puppets are another great craft kit that doesn't need any extra supplies.  We brought these out to a restaurant with friends the other day, and the kiddies happily sat and decorated the puppets with stickers and played with them afterwards.


These 3D Wooden Bunnies are super cute, and Ethan was able to paint and decorate his however he liked.  He decided straight away that he wanted to paint his white, with black ears.  Then we raided the craft drawer to find pom poms and googly eyes to stick on him as well.


And the one that I'm not meant to know about, are these cute Mother's Day Handprint Poems that Daddy spent Sunday morning doing with Ethan and Ivy.  I have seen a few sneaky photos, but I can't wait to see the finished products on Mother's Day!



* This is a review post, we were sent all of these craft kits from Baker Ross to make and write our honest opinions about. *

We've been sent a lovely version of The Princess and the Pea from Parragon Books to read and review.  

Today we went to see the local Christmas lights switched on.  I am a huge fan of Christmas (and all holidays really) and can't wait for all of the festivities to start, so this was a great introduction for Ethan for all the excitement to come in December.




When we walked around the Christmas market I spotted some flashing light up toys and decided that one would be perfect for Ethan.  He loves things that light up!  He was memorised by it straight away and it only took him about one second to figure out where the button was to change the settings.  This is a great toy for his Knowledge and Understanding of the World as he can see the changes that it makes when he presses the button (cause and effect).  And as a part of all the Christmas preparations it contributes to his Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

Today we made yet another sensory bottle!  This one is a bit different because we're using something outside of the bottle as well, and that is what makes it truly special!  

• empty water bottle
• pipe cleaners
• magnet
• glue

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Unfortunately I'm really not feeling well, so the creative play ideas are just not flowing.  But luckily for me, Babycentre had a great one today called Under Cover which involves hiding under a blanket.  Perfect!

Ethan loved finding me under the blanket, and got good at taking it on and off himself as well. We also ended up just being in the 'tent' together, which he found really funny.  This was great for his Knowledge and Understanding of the World and the object permanence that they mention on the website.  Which links to his Personal, Social and Emotional Development as hopefully these types of activities will help him to understand that Mommy always comes back as well and to feel more secure when I leave the room.

Today we started working on some Christmas gifts for a few very special family members.  It's all very top secret and hush hush, but we may have got an idea involving footprints from Pinterest.  

So no photos today, just in case some of the recipients of our lovely gifts may be looking ;)

Ethan really enjoyed having his foot painted and playing around with the paints.  It will be an ongoing project, but it's definitely fun to be encouraging his Creative Development with arts and crafts.  It's also a part of his Personal, Social and Emotional Development as we are making gifts for loved ones for Christmas.  I can't wait to finish (and remind me to show you the finished products on December 26th!)