Craft Kits

Kai likes being crafty, in more ways than one. Since he was about 1yrs old he's had a go with aqua draw, crayola pens that only draw on special paper, felt pens, pencils, crayons, stickers, paints, gluing.

We don't have a dinning table just TV tables, so giving him the art stuff is always a big deal, getting everything ready and finding him somewhere to do it. So we like little craft kits that come with everything you need in the pack.

In the past we've made a small picture of a cat looking into a fish bowl and we've done a bigger decoupage type one with a princess and castle, made from foam stickers cut into shapes from Hobby craft.

These kits generally work for me because being controlling Mummy I like all the elements in just the right place. Stickers Kai's used to but gluing is still something relatively new to us at home.

Over the last few days we've been crafty, after Kai wakes from his nap and before Alana stirs we've been busy.

First of all we made a foam reindeer from Hobbycraft. It came in a small pack to make about 6 although Kai's interest wains after 1. He loves the googley eyes like his new fav programme on the BBC in the afternoon Ooglies.

However the draw back to this kit, was that there was nothing to stick them on. I suppose it's so you use you imagination where they go, but the drawback to this is you need to spend more money on the cards, or foam shape you mount it on.

Yesterday we worked on a calendar kit provided by @NEDayCrafts / http://www.nedaycrafts.co.uk/ who I met on twitter.

I cut out all the pieces, and I was very impressed that there was a glue brush and a little plastic bag of pva glue included. Now with hindsight, this should have been when I said over to you Kai, but controlling Mummy lay it out as per the pic for him to see and then handed him each piece in turn, showing him where to put it. He enjoyed himself, I got a very pretty calendar and now I feel guilty for stifling his creativity. Never mind he can always be crafty tomorrow.

When asked which bit he liked best: "I like the sun and all of it". I asked him which kit he preferred doing and he said "the calendar" so perhaps I am being too hard on myself, he still enjoyed himself, and got to spend quality time with Mummy, so it's all good.

What's "UP" at the cinema.

A few months ago Kai and I went to the cinema to see "Ice Age 3" he loved it and considering he's only 3yrs old way remarkably well behaved. So as a treat for him doing so well with his toilet training the last few weeks, I thought we'd go back and see Disney Pixars new film "Up".


Ok perhaps I should have moved when the ads came on and the music was loud enough for Kai to put his hands up to cover his ears and said he wanted to go home before the adverts had even finished.


Before the film started there was a short animated film "Partly Cloudy", which was funny, and Kai even started to relax and enjoy himself. I should have given up while the going was good.


Then came the film itself began. The first few minutes are all about how the main man, Mr Fredrikson met his wife and about their life together. Unfortunately at the end of this section she dies, and me being the soppy thing I am, was sitting there bawling my eyes out. I knew she had to die (ok it's the natural order of things, but) it's also the point of the film, she dies and he goes on the big adventure they'd always planned. So there's me bawling and Kai wearing just the hood of his jacket to try muffling the loud music from the film.


The film progresses and main characters befriend a big bird that looks like a big peacock crossed with a dodo. The baddies capture the bird in a net and take it away with them. Well poor Kai got really upset and started crying / screaming because they caught the bird. I gave him big hugs, whispered reassuringly, not to worry they'd rescue the bird, all the time he's screaming as though I was killing him. In the end I went for the tried and tested method that Mum's have used to stop crying for years, BRIBERY. I offered him a little bit of my coke if he stopped crying, this worked, for a while at least....


In true Disney fashion, the good guys rescue the bird, and all live happily ever after but Kai started to cry / scream again and this time continued while I got his coat on, we left the screen and even leaving the cinema. One of the poor guys who came in to clean the screen said "It wasn't that bad was it?". When I eventually got him calmed down he said he was crying because "they left the bird behind" with its family, and then "because the film ended". Poor little dude got close to starting again everytime we mentioned the film for the rest of the day.

I went to the cinema expecting lots of laughs, and although the film was good, I wouldn't say it's a kids film or for soppy people like me (at least not in public).