Leaf Art

We've all caught colds over the weekend. It started with Emily and then spread to the rest of us. This meant she was home from school for a couple days and the boredom was something else entirely. Her teacher has obviously set the bar extremely high when it comes to entertaining our little smartie pants now, and Emily had no patience for my usual (lazy) methods of entertainment. Well, we tried - none of us had much energy for anything else - and the result was several tantrums, way too much shouting on our part, and in one quick description, Hell.

So on Sunday morning I woke up with a minuscule amount of energy and decided it was time for some craft. I mentioned that it would involve paint and Emily was extremely excited. I took her out into the backyard which has someone else's vine growing into it and we picked some (sick-looking?) leaves to use in our project.

We first stuck them to some thick paper, and then we painted them. 

Glitter. 

What was I thinking?

David went in to work with pink glitter on his face yesterday.

Once they had dried I cut them out.

We had one very pleased little girl.

(For all of 20 minutes, until boredom hit again.)

The leaves are now stuck on the back door,

and she very proudly announces to everyone that "Me and Mummy made them!"

Thanks goes to RuralMummy for the inspiration.

Quick and easy ideas, just the way we like them!

The Rainbow Room (Emily's Room)

I think it's about time I let you into this room....

Welcome to Emily's (huge) Rainbow Room!

She adores her "hiding place"

There was a very different plan originally meant for this room that involved completely different furniture.

Then we realised that the room this big wardrobe was meant to go into wasn't high enough to home it,

but we didn't want to get rid of it (it's huge and too good by way of storage to lose out on!) so Emily's room

adopted it, and before it was even all in place, we already knew it looked way better than the furniture that

was originally intended for her room. As Emily would say, "We got lucky there!"

She loves her room and will show it off to anyone she can convince to come upstairs with her.

Her Bedtime Brigade

Dolly sleeps in her own cot at the foot of Emily's bed

And then, a while after I took these photos, we finally had THE chandelier installed.

Not everyone was convinced it would work. My mother thought it might be too much for the room.

I think it completes it. The pictures don't even begin to do it justice.

...And my mother has since eaten her words ;)

I am extremely pleased with the outcome of this room, as well as with the fact that I was able to bring in elements of Emily's old bird theme room as I didn't want to leave that behind completely - we barely had eight months to enjoy that one... Here's hoping the Rainbow Room's reign is at least slightly longer!

Princess Canopy from IKEA

Alphabet stickers from JojoMamanBebe

Rainbow & clouds stickers from The Graphix Studio

Images in small frames from IKEA

Flower Nightlight from IKEA

Bookends from Sass and Belle

Blue wall colour is First Dawn by Dulux

Happy Monday

Yes it's Monday... does anyone need cheering up?



:)

At the Petting Farm

On Monday, the day before Emily started school, we had a special little outing. We went to the petting farm in Ta' Qali. We'd been in May and she loved it. We especially went to see the rabbits, which we then discovered had been moved for the summer months due to the intense heat, but will be back later on this month (an excuse to go again soon).

So this time, we instead focused on feeding the goats. We picked some weeds from the soil and I explained to Emily what to do. I wasn't quite sure how she'd react as she's not always very confident around animals (especially lately since a family member's dog tried to steal an apple she was eating and scared the hell out of her!!) but she quite liked the idea and enjoyed it.

It's a sweet little place - the huge pity in my opinion being that there is no kiosk or anyplace to buy snacks. But it's free to go in and enjoy and you're welcome to take your own snacks. There's a horse, a donkey, a pony, swans, peacocks, ostriches, turkeys, a colourful aviary, goats and usually, rabbits. Plenty of rabbits!

She wouldn't go closer or "the pony will eat my banana!"

And these are the pictures from May (ironically, she was wearing the same t-shirt!!)

She loved these rabbits. There were more in hutches that you could pet properly but this was where she wanted to be.

Being a statue.

Small play areas within the farm.

It's a sweet place, and easily a quick entertainment option (we weren't there that long this week). I still wish there were food options as I'm sure we'd have stayed longer each time... and the play areas don't really cater for children under 3 or 4 (Emily is really good at climbing but here she always needs help getting up to the slides which isn't easy when I'm holding Adam too!), which is a pity and could easily have been rectified with better planning, but hey ho we have a petting farm and anyone can pet the animals and I guess that's what counts! :)

Off to School

Today is THE day. We spent a few hours in Emily's classroom last week, but today she flies solo. I'm not sure who's going to deal with it worse - me or her. I keep thinking back to that tiny baby I held in my arms split seconds after she was born. How did we get here already? 

We treated her over the weekend, especially for the occasion. We gifted her the Happyland Sunflower PreSchool. She was absolutely thrilled and hasn't stopped playing with it, or thanking us. 

I love watching her play with her "people."

Apologies for the disjointed post. There are just so many emotions flying around at the moment, I can't quite seem to put anything decent together on this topic. 

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers
Slipping through my fingers all the time

[Abba]