Playdough and bubbles!!

Some things Lolly likes.

OMG Playdough!  Dino-Roar (her dino toy) does "cutting" and shapes!

Love the face on this one!

Dino-Roar does cutting out.

Playdough is fun!

We got some beautiful organic playdough, Eco Clay, from an online friend recently, it's just gorgeous!  Here's a pic, and her madeit shop is here - the colours are gorgeous, it's so soft, and scented with organic oils, nom nom! 

Look at those gorgeous colours!

Bubbles are the other sure fire favourite lately.  We had a bubble kit from Snail years ago with lots of cool shapes for blowing bubbles.

Catching a bubble.

Here's a cute face :D

Hi Mum!

Bubbles, U R doin it rong :D

Ummm....

Ekka!!

Yesterday, despite the rainy weather, we braved the Ekka!  We headed out in the afternoon, and after an exciting start visiting the emergency room when one of Smash's friends cut his head on a ride (he was fine, 5 stitches!), the boys went their own way while DinnerDad, Lolly and I went on the hunt for animals to look at.  We found pony rides!!!

Ridin' a pony!

We looked at birds, cats, fish and dogs, horses, and the animal nursery!  You couldn't get more awesome toddler entertainment into the one venue if you tried!  Lolly LOVES animals, so went from animal to animal with this kind of "awesome!" expression on her face :D  Here she is telling me about this calf.

Holy Crap!  A cow!

We bought some straw to feed them all, Lolly loved to get some in her palm and give it to the calf.

Feeding the calf.

We had some yummy Ekka food, saw the big cows, some more horses, then tackled the showbag pavillion.  I loaded Lolly up in the Ergo for that one :D  We got her a Backyardigans bag and toy, and some jelly snakes which kept her happy for a bit longer while we checked all the foolish showbags out.  DinnerDad and I grabbed some coffee and headed up to the arena to get a spot for the night show, finding enough space to meet the boys right up the front of the sheltered area, so we got pretty wet!  Here's Lolly admiring the view and the weather.

Watching the arena in the rain.

The three hooded teens :D

DinnerDad went foraging and returned with food!  Then ice creams!!

Strawberry Icecream!

A lot of the show wasn't on in the arena coz of the rain, but they did do the fireworks, which was great, though a little scary for Lolly, she liked the ones that weren't tooooooo noisy :D

Blurry fireworks in the rain.

It was a wet and muddy walk back to the car, totally worth the day, we had such a great time.  And at home sat on the lounge room floor and emptied our showbags, just like when I was a kid :D  Lolly ran round like a lunatic high on fun and chocolate.  DinnerDad ate and Extreme Sour Warhead from his showbag (which was hilarious), I ate chocolate, it was all good!

Nerd funny :D

*chortle* 

A little bit Montessori...

We're kind of Montessori round these parts, Lolly periodically goes to NIDO (we've had a bad run the last few months due to illness) and we're seriously considering the same Montessori school for her.  There's a lot I like very much about the Montessori philosophy of approaching childhood and "learning", especially in providing a certain kind of environment for a child, meaning both the physical surroundings and the social and emotional side of it all. Of course, I have some issues with it, too, but that's a post for another day!

Here are some examples of what I mean.  We set up things at Lolly's level, changing things round to keep her amused.  We have a large amount of plastic (not quite Montessori, but hey...) but also have a lot of simple, everyday tasks and activities that Lolly loves to do.  You can really see the concentration on each task, and the value of returning things to their place.  I keep her tables clear, or put one or two things on them so she can focus, and then we put things away (okay, it's mostly me, but she does love to clean and help tidy).  I tidy every night so the environment is clean and clear for our next day's fun!  As she gets older, the more she does to help me do this, it's just normal for her.  For small children, putting things away is often just as much fun as getting them out and doing them, and for me, sometimes the frustration is that putting it away reawakens her desire to do it more, and we have to get it all out again (this happens a LOT with play-dough) :D.

The Bookcases in the lounge room

One of the tables set up with some of her music things

Lolly's peg boards and pegs in a basket

I found this nice introduction to Montessori in the home here - this is part 1http://www.youtube.com/user/willowtreephoto#p/u/5/_9i-yESU-GY it's a simple explanation from a real world mother, showing her set up at home.   The Monte book, available in pdf form for free here - The Joyful Child has some lovely ideas in it for all areas of the house.  

I get a lot of inspiration from Montessori stuff, everything is just so lovely!, and from Steiner and unschooling sites and books as well, though we are nowhere near 100% Monte (check out the video collection in the bookcase shot - lol), nor are we planning on unschooling.  There is so much to be learned from treating our children as people, adapting and changing to suit them, encouraging their natural ways of doing things, meeting them where they are at, respecting them as small people, not treating them as inferior beings that simply should be controlled until they are big enough to know better.  Each of these learning philosophies embody those principles, so they are all worth drawing from.

I'm planning to write more about all this fun stuff in future, so stay tuned!

Of books, playdough, and salt...

Had to share my two gorgeous girls, out in the windy weather coming home after the brother was finished playing soccer on the weekend.  Naw!!  Check out the too cool for school Lolly in her glasses :D

Two gorgeous girls!

Lolly has started on playdough for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and is mad keen on it!  Here she is sitting on our dining room table with her "shapes".  She calls it "play shapes" and requests playdough fun several times a day.  Snail is also very keen, and says "playdough" as they do it at school with her as well.

Playdough!!!!!

The other day Lolly was endlessly making these "snakes", I roll em out with her, then she puts all the accessories on, first eyes, then "a tail" then "a back" - lol - which means all those blobs on their backs.  I think it's representing their scales, we had a snake skin here (sorry mum!) to look at the other week and she was very interested.  I was less impressed with DinnerDad who hid it behind the bookcase with just the tail poking out to scare me :-o

Lolly's snakes

And here she is eating salt on the rocking chair one morning.  She is salt obsessed, and given the slightest chance, nabs the salt grinder, gets up in the rocking chair, and eats all the salt out of the top of it. 

Like so... :D

Apparently it is nom nom nom!

Busy days here, here there and everywhere, we are slowly getting out of our sickness slump and getting back to normal (we hope!).  Today we went in to Snail's school to hang out, played basketball with the kids at break time, and generally were a huge hit with her class :D  We went to Ippy library and got heaps of books, Lolly is enjoying factual books at the moment, with real animal photos in them, as well as her Bears in the Night Dr Seuss, Hairy McClairy, and a book called the Wide Mouth Frog that Nanna got her.  She has a whole bit where we say the lines from the book, and pretend to eat her up for dinner.

She LOVES Bears in the Night at the moment, and recites it as we go.

So that's a snapshot of us lately, will post more soon! 

Horse Riding Tot

We went to the Abbey Medieval Fair last weekend, and despite being disappointed with the fair in general, did have the fun of seeing Lolly have her first pony ride! She was a tiny bit daunted at first, but once she was on the pony, loved it so much that she asked for an hour for another one! Of course, we obliged :D Here are some photos from DinnerDad's phone of her second ride, and there are 6 of them coz she is just too cute for words.

Waiting with her helmet on for the pony to arrive. I mean, seriously, how cute can one kid get???


More helmet cuteness.



OMG this one is made of cute!!





Here comes the pony!!!!!


Riding into the sunset with Sophie her pony :D


She is still telling me about having a helmet and riding her horse.

In fact, we're off this weekend to the McIntyre Centre so she can have even more pony rides, naw :D

Just a quick...

Congratulations to my sister, who just yesterday graduated from the Air Force officer training program!!! We love you, and are so sorry we couldn't be there to cheer you on.

xxx