"Life is a collage of events, really."

Day 40:

Not the greatest of days today to be fair, everything just seems a little heavier than usual. We did however manage to have a morning of cutting and pasting, 80's style. Opeie drew a pretty awesome Mr.T to go on his which really made me smile. The little things that make us happy are pretty much all we've got to hold on to, while we're not seeing our friends and loved ones, I'm really hoping for some much brighter days. 

When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.

Well there was bound to be one day during our 'Art week' that Opeie wasn't all that bothered about, Cutting shapes out of a piece of coloured paper and sticking them down was never going to have the same appeal to a 4 year old as throwing paint around the garden but the whole idea of the week was to show Opeie some different art styles and to show that pretty much anything can be deemed as art.

Our artist of the day was Henri Matisse and his paper cut out style of art. We started with a piece of coloured/patterned paper, cut shapes out and flipped and mounted them on a larger piece of white paper making positive and negative shapes. It was a nice quick activity but as I said Opeie didn't really get in to today's art so I'm going to have to really think about something more entertaining for our next activity.

Our morning of Matisse ending in Opeie doing multi coloured scribbles and us creating a fox paper aeroplane so in the end a great start to a day of creativity.

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight."

Just a very quick post today. Mrs M has been feeling a little down the last few days so myself and my little assistant set about our 'make mommy smile morning'. Whenever Mrs M is having a bad day we make her a card, there is a big box in the house of 'I love you' cards that we have made and today we were adding to our collection. Firstly i looked to my partner in crime for some inspiration. "What shall we make Mommy today Opeie?"... "A Princess". Good clear instructions from a two year old, that's what i love.

I stood behind Opeie and helped him cut out the pieces for the face and then he did all of the gluing including googly eyes and gems for the crown, as always it was a real team effort. Opeie kept saying "Mommy's going to be so happy" which i thought was adorable. He's always so proud of himself when we give Mrs M something we have made together.

The head was complete so i asked Opeie what we were going to do about the body, to which he replied "Cat in the Hat dress". Good job i had been collecting all of those Dr. Seuss books for my future craft idea.

A few pages from The Cat in the Hat and we started to make our dress...

Opeie did say 'Princess' so he needed to stick lots more sparkly gems on for the full effect. I helped Opeie write a short message inside and then talked him through writing his name himself, which for 2 years old i think he did an amazing job of (he just needed a little help on the tails of the E's).

As expected Opeie was eager to get the card to Mommy and as he showed her he looked very chuffed with himself. The card did exactly what we intended it to do and put a huge smile on mommies face. A little bit of effort goes a long way and its important for me and the boys to show Mrs M just how much we love her, she does after all put everything she has in to looking after us.

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood."

It was freezing this morning and I really didn't feel like going out. I didn't feel like doing much house work either so we got out a big stack of colourful paper, cardboard, glue, pens, scissors and Duck tape. It was time to let our creative juices run wild. The theme for Opeie's dance class next week is 'snow' and Opeie had made it quite clear exactly what he wanted to take.

Opeie loves the old frosty the snowman cartoon which auntie Lotty had bought him at Christmas and he wanted to make a mask to show off at his class. I try and leave Opeie to his creating these days unless he asks for my help as he is very independent and if you try to get to involved your greeted with "I CAN DO IT!", so I sat next to him and made a mask of my own. I'm a touch fuzzier on the face so I decided to be the abominable snowman (based on the boys Lego minifigure because it's simple yet very cute).

Opeie lovingly hacked away at his paper and covered everything in glue but he knew exactly what he was trying to do. I decided to make mine out of paper cardboard and lots of Duck tape (it's a must for any craft box as it's so strong and sticky).

It wasn't a long craft session, we were pretty much finished within 45 minutes but it kept the little one entertained and the outcome was fun. Opeie was a little upset when he realised he wasn't going to the class after we'd finished the masks but he was very excited to show mommy what we had been up to.

"By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on"

Seth requested that we have a craft session a couple of days back, he had been reading the blog to catch up on what he had missed last week and saw mine and Opeie's mask making craft post. Seth was desperate to get in on the action so our craft activity became mask making part II. Opeie was shattered and due his nap so we all lay on our bed and read some of Roald Dahl's 'The Twits' which is Seth's favourite book. Opeie soon dropped off (probably because of the lack if pictures) and Seth said 'can we make a Mr Twit mask?'

Seth wanted to make sure he got the details right so grabbed his book and used it for research, he knows the story so well that he didn't really need it but it was cute anyway. It was most important that we included the "slimy tail of a tinned sardine", "mouldy old cornflake" and piece of "maggoty green cheese" in the beard. We shredded lots if card to make his beard hairs that "stuck out straight like the bristles on a nailbrush'.

The mask was a great little craft activity and only took us about 40 minutes to make before we moved on to something else. Mrs M was very impressed when she go home and has now requested a Mrs Twit later in the week (something to keep us occupied for another afternoon during this dreary british summer).

A couple of quick craft activities to fill the morning. Painitng eggs and making masks.

Because of the great weather we have hardly done any craft activities over the last few weeks, none of us really want to be cooped up indoors, i know i could do it outside but lets be honest its never going to win over a trampoline and a good old fashioned ball. yesterday though Opeie was adamant that he wanted to stay in and colour for the morning so i went hunting through the boys craft boxes. back at Easter time we had brought lots of plain polystyrene eggs, designed and painted a few but didn't end up doing anything with them, there were plenty left over so i got them out for Opeie so we could continue our decorating, still with no idea what we are going to do with them.

We've now ended up with a big box of decorated eggs to play with which I'm sure Seth will find a use for at some point. As Opeie scribbled away at his eggs he gave me clear directions as to which characters he wanted me to create for him...

Opeie soon got bored of colouring eggs and said 'scissors', while pottering round Ikea last week Mrs M picked up a big pack of coloured card for the boys so seeing as Opeie was in a foreman style craft mood dishing out his character requests we started chopping away at the paper to create some masks and Opeie did an excellent job of gluing all the pieces together, in the words of that rather annoying children's program 'wonder pets' that he likes so much, "whats going to work? Teamwork!".

"To create something you must be something."

Today is the first day of Seth's half term and were all so happy to have him at home during the daytime, Opeie especially. It was a morning of craft today and we all had a great time. With Easter coming up our craft plans have all been Easter themed. Were concentrating on getting our new craft blog up and running (giftsfromthepiratescreate.com) at the moment so the completed items that we make will be on there. There's been lots of painting, cutting, sticking and drawing happening today, Seth loves craft and can happily sit for hours creating, Opeie on the other hand has the attention span of a rock but he's happy just playing while were crafting.

After lunch we decided to go and see nanny and grandad as Opeie has been saying 'grandad' over and over again this week. Seth and Opeie really enjoy going to visit them and I'm not surprised, their lovely people and always make such a fuss of the boys. We did some building with our new toys (I'll write about those on the next post), We played hide and seek, watched some family movies of Mrs M when she was a little girl (very cute) and we got to hear grandad play the guitar (while Opeie and Seth helped with the strumming).

...Oh and Seth got to dress up as a bee keeper in Nanny's fancy hat, so all in all an excellent first day to the holiday. Were going to pack as much as we can in to this holiday so be sure to keep checking in on us and be sure to check out the new blog to find out what we've been making for Easter, they will be up soon.