The Making Place

Finally. I found the time to check out our city art gallery's new and improved family-centered art programming, known as The Making Place. [I posted on its ancestor, Super Sunday, here].

REVIEW
With an enthusiastically engaged staff and 3 well thought-out projects, each carefully relating in some way to an exhibit or specific piece in the art gallery itself, there was bound to be something of interest to Spud. And, as it turns out, he had the time of his life. And therefore, so did I. He really focused on just one of the projects; the collaborative reinvention of a map of our province. What a treat to be able to work in a such a large format.

MATERIALS



· Black construction paper, spanning one end of the room and so tall the children needed to stand on a stool to reach the top
· scissors and magazine clippings from tourist and city magazines
· white chalk and oil pastels [with a few other colours tossed in]



TASK
Each child was asked to add a place that meant something to them [either draw or glue magazine clipping or both] and draw a road or river or some other connection to the Art Gallery, situated in the centre. Spud spent 2 hours doing just that! The amount of love and focus that went into it was astounding.



He really made sure the province had an extensive [and terribly complicated] road and transit system.







Well. We'll be doing that again.

Kid Driving the Bus

Spud had some pretty grand ideas of how he wanted to spend the afternoon with his dad; "I want to build carts that work in a factory and move gold and treasure".

It sounded a little intimidating but Hubs decided to let Spud drive the bus, so to speak, on this activity. It turned out to be 80% Spud with about 20% dad [eg the operation of the oven when baking the fimo clay and dissuading Spud from putting the contraption over his bed so he could "play with it all night"].



Each cart, carefully planned. Luckily we had fimo, wire, yarn and hooks on hand.







I was completely smitten when I saw what they created. So simple and elegant in its execution. Spud was happy-happy with it and spent hours carting treasures back and forth.

Happy Birthday Spud

Seen here decorating his new Hens + Chicks and cactus garden with the various rocks and shells he's collected over his little years. He even buried some pirates' gold.

Home Made Oreo Cookies

Ridiculously easy recipe over at Group Recipes



Spud and I are going in to work today to share some of our Chocolate with Cream Cheese filling sandwich cookies.

Happy Hunting

Ketchup is a Food Group, Right?

MUFFIN TIN MONDAY



· Skewers with olive and tomato
· Pocky
· Ketchup
· Freshly made chicken fingers [coating = leftover crackers from the pantry, shreddies, and sesame seeds]
· Apple sauce
· Orange peppers

Rice Krispies Balls

We used a rice ball mold, one of our bento accessories, for forming Rice Krispies squares ... I mean balls. It worked remarkably well.





That's right, red and green Rice Krispies, of the Christmas variety, an impulse buy back in December. As you can see, we don't eat much cereal which is why we are making Christmas coloured treats in the spring time. And since 'multicoloured' is one of Spud's current favourite colours, why not go crazy and add even more colour? So, two thirds of them were dipped in warmed Nutella and then sprinkles.

Soft Lunch Please

A new little snack bento we've added to our collection, that can be either one or two levels.





Yesterday's bento was themed 'soft' as our little Spud has lost yet another tooth and it was still feeling a bit tender.



· cheese stars
· jello
· blueberries
· canned pears
· buttered bagel

Note cute storage area for mini cutlery in the lid.



The main course was a thermos of octopus weiners and beans.

Buksi Ball: A Spud Favourite

This toy, made by perplexus has kept Spud [and his parents actually] busy for hours. It's even worked in the car when stuck in traffic. He's a bit of a maze freak and this genius toy is actually a 3D maze.





An additional favourite part of the game is that in the 'rules' it states you must yell out "buksi" [pronounced 'booksi'] when you drop the ball [the little silver one that runs the maze]. There is something about the act of announcing this silly word that is so fun it mitigates the sting of having to start over. Especially when the whole family chimes in. It's so simple and effective that Spud bravely tries the maze over and over again without giving up.

Cute New Lunch Box

Look what came in the mail: a new lunch bucket, called goodbyn.



Love the wee icons a lot.



The genius part about it is that each compartment seals so there's no unwanted food mingling. Yay!



It's recommended for the 5 and over set since it takes a bit of practice to open and close. Spud has practiced twice at home and twice at school and still needs a little help to get it open.



The stickers are just so much fun. Spud had the time of his life decorating his new buddy, named 'fluffy'.







They have a set for the older kids, in more muted colours and no ears. Thankfully, Spud still thinks ears are cool.

Here I've combo'd up his morning snack and lunch together. It can certainly accommodate it.



· apple slices
· dried fruit candy
· popcorn
· stroop waffle cookie
· milk
· canned peaches [note that sloppy peaches keep to themselves, without the need for a separate container]
· cheese and tomato sandwich
· red pepper squares

Unfortunately, with shipping, this beauty of a lunch bin worked out to be very expensive. Finding it in a store would likely make it more affordable.

Spud Hearts Jello

To make the jello stiffer for the molds, we used 1.25 cups of water for one packet of powder.



In the fridge for 3 hours and they are ready to come out.

To release the jello from the mold, I placed them in warm water for a bit, to loosen the sides. Some turned out fine. Some not so much. But we'll have fun practicing.

Photo Friday #21

SEATTLE SCRATCH PATCH  |  TRAVELS WITH KID

A few weeks back, when I had very little time to post, I had a wee business trip in Seattle and brought the fam. Of course I went to Delicious Baby to see what sorts of kid friendly fun we could get up to in my off time and we found this! A scratch patch. A tradition in South Africa apparently, where one roots around a giant patch of various polished stones. Right up my kid's alley.





Identify them.





Roll around in them.



Pick your favourites.



And pay for the ones you leave with.

For other travel pics, check out my favourite family travel site Delicious Baby. Or go there to share your travel photos on Fridays too.

Bento Accessories Addiction Continues

Managed to pop over to Daiso, to grab a few more goodies for making bentos. Spud helped to pick out the following.

New food separators:



A few more silicone cups for separating food [we used some of our older ones for baking and they are starting to look it!]:



And a few more silicone cups which we will also use for mini jello molds



A cross between a fork and a skewer, these wee things will be good for meatballs and other solid, bite-sized morsels:



And a few new bento box belts to add to our collection:

A Little St. Paddy's Love

· Shamrock turkey and cuke
· Strawbs
· Cheese triangles and a couple of crackers
· Bagel with butter
· Carrots
· Orange slices
· Chocolate wafer cookie bites

Two Snacks in One

Morning snack and afternoon snack combined in one place for Spud to pick and choose what he wants.



· Vache qui Rit cheese triangles
· Apple
· Kashi crackers
· Cucumber fish in bubbles, my favourite!
· Cherry toms
· Banana
· Wholewheat Fig Newton

Photo Friday #20

Oh, just a little something that my designer buddies and I have been working on for the past 4 years. And I've been lucky enough to be a bit of a tourist in my home town for the past week, to take some of it in. Here are a just a few thumbnails of some of the things we've been up to.

Hope you are enjoying the Games! Only 3 more days left.

For other travel pics, check out my favourite family travel site Delicious Baby. Or go there to share your travel photos on Fridays too.

Flags of Nations

OLYMPIC ACTIVITY
I'm back. And happily finding more time now to enjoy the Games AND to enjoy my family. On the weekend we had a couple of good friends over to watch a Hockey match [Canada v. USA] and Spud kept himself pretty busy for the first two periods, making flags.

He has a particular fascination with Chinese Taipei at the moment, for some reason, so that's what he started with.



And here a but a few of the others he managed to bust out.




MATERIALS
Paper
Crayons
Straws
Scissors
Staples or Tape
Plasticine [for the base of the flag pole]
And a good visual cheat sheet, of sorts, is also important. We happened to have a little booklet with all the flags of the participating countries of these Olympic Winter Games. Kids Yahoo has a good reference site for nations flags also.



THE PLUSES!
· Questions and learning about other countries arise naturally
· Fine motor skill practice ... colouring, cutting, and stapling
· And we got to watch most of the game!