September / October catch up

At the end of September we had a lovely ward trip to the temple. Whilst the youth and adults were inside, the primary presidency had organised some activities for the children. Joseph's admiration for McKay began on this day. He and his family have moved into the ward from Arizona via Poland. Joseph LOVES him. We went around for FHE the other Monday. After giving the pep talk about appropriate behaviour - don't go noseying around the house, don't open their fridge, don't ask for food - yada, yada we knocked on the door. Nate opened the door and in they ran, flying past Nate's kegs and straight up the stairs, in a scene reminiscent (according to Nathan - I totally cracked up laughing when he said this to me on the way home) to the Dunkirk landings, the boat doors opened and the soldiers run for it. Pep talk worked then :) Within thirty seconds they were downstairs having found battery powered plastic machine guns - proud moment lol!

They kept the lesson nicely brief and afterwards it was nice to chat and get to know them. The boys loved playing with McKay and Cole and for the next few days Joseph asked daily if we could go again. Today at church he wanted to go and sit with McKay and then after church he wanted to go to his house or for him to come to ours - hope McKay is OK with all this adoration :)

We've had some pretty heavy rainfall resulting in the bridge being shut for the past two and half weeks. Fortunately the flood defenses held, the water was very close to overcoming them so the army and fire services came in the middle of the night to create extra height with sandbags.

The Autumn nights are drawing in and it's been nice to get the candles out and enjoy our cosy living room.

On Saturday, Skipwith was calling. A sunny Autumn day walk at Skipwith is a tonic to the hustle and bustle (and thankfully midgey free). We found the long horned cattle, the boys obviously found twig guns, a branch hobby horse and the puddles. They played tag with Daddy around the ramps and very graciously posed for a few photos for mum. It was particularly lovely to see Jospeh looking after his little brother ' Come on Ben' 'Hold my hand'. 

Button flower dress upcycle

For my niece's birthday present I was inspired by a top my friend upcycled for her daughter found here.

I bought a simple stripy dress from H&M and upcycled it with some button embroidered flowers and appliquéd butterflies.

Lace infinity scarf

Some projects just make me happy.

This is one of them.

I was inspired by a gorgeous scarf I pinned on Pinterest here unfortunately it is just a link to a fashion blog rather than a tutorial, so I had to make it up a little as I went along.

I found a lace table runner in a charity shop on holiday and had some grey jersey in my stash.

Love the lace, love the grey, love the fact that I made something for me - slightly smug :)

Canvas upcycle to noticeboard

Scored a few used canvases from the side of my neighbours bin - she was having a clear out after completing her art GCSE and I saw them with my magpie eye and saved them from the tip :)

Using my fabric, lace and button stash a staple gun and some thread. I came up with this noticeboard.

Have to say I was pretty satisfied with  the result.

It's now hanging on the boy's bedroom door and is a great place to display the ever forthcoming paintings which Ben is producing at nursery. In four weeks he has in no exaggeration brought home more pieces of art than Joseph brought in the five terms he was there :)

The same afternoon with the supplies at hand, I redid the noticeboard in the kitchen too.

Stitching

I really enjoy hand stitching. While I stitch I get to think. Hand stitching gives me more time for my mind to wander and think about them both than sat at the machine

I have just been hemming Joseph's trousers and as I stitched I've just felt an overwhelming sense of love for my boy. I love making things for both of them. 

Tomorrow is book character day, he's going as Peter Pan; with Izzie's green jeans, a simple green tabbard and a felt hat with red feather. 

It's simply made, very homemade looking but he was so excited to try it on and was really thrilled with how he looked - throwing his head back and laughing in true 'Joseph' fashion as he looked at himself in the mirror. Moments like that make me feel so happy, that as a mum a piece of scrap felt and a few hand stitches can bring delight to my boy. 

Ben's speech

The most memorable one liner from the film 'The King's Speech'  is;

'I have a voice'

Ben has found his voice and it is delightful.

He is truly becoming a little boy not only brimming with character but with opinions, demands and questions.

Some of his current most used one liners are

'What about me?'

'It's not funny - hmph'

'It's my turn'

'Where's my biscuit'

'Not that one, I want THAT one'

'More toast and jam please' (the boy can pack away slices of the stuff)

'It's not fair- hmph'

'Where are my scissors?' (he currently loves to cut things and can cut really quite straight)

The list of new words is ever increasing and it's lovely to hear him sing, something which until he went to Nursery we haven't heard him do before. 

Ben is becoming a proper little boy - however I do love the fact that there is still a bit of baby in there too which manifests itself when he's sucking his thumb asleep. There are times I stand, stare, stroke his hair and take in a deep breath of his sleeping angelic loveliness.

How to train a dragon / viking party

Thought I'd do a post showing all the different components of Joseph's 'How to train a dragon party' with links to the tutorials I used for inspiration.

The costumes - 

Viking hats - I used this tutorial found here on Samuel wisdom blog. I made the horns on mine flat - just wrapped the cardboard in foil, then masking tape. Pva glued them and then last minute decided to paint them white. Note - do not use metal headbands, they are a nightmare to trim the ends off and I ended up redoing two of mine subbing the metal ones for plastic. 

Cost for 6 viking helmets

6 x baseball caps - £6 (thank you Sainsbury's sale)

6 x headbands - £2.40 (Thank you Home Bargains)

Foil - 75p

Masking tape - £1

Duct tape - £1.50

Cardboard - free (thank you Aldi)

Total - £11.65 or  £1.94 each :)

Viking capes -

I used the tutorial found at I am Momma hear me roar here 

I just measured the width of Joseph's shoulders and used that as the diameter measurement for  the circle. I then overlocked the edges of the furrier capes, added velcro to fasten and a button for decoration.

Two metres of fleece - £6 from The Shuttle.

Viking shields -

Came up with the idea solo mio - slightly proud :)

Take one silver platter from poundland, get husband to hammer four holes in two near top and two near bottom, cable tie a canvas strap to shield through holes, then cover the centre of the shield by super gluing a cardboard circle to it. One shield ready for decorating. 

10 silver platters - £10

canvas straps - free I chopped up two canvas belts

cable ties -£2

So that's the costumes - 10 viking costumes for  £ 29.65 or £2.97 each :)

Cake - I used the tutorial found here on instructables

It was my first attempt of decorating using food colouring - not my favourite part of the party prep - I found it really hard to get a decent colour and I was rubbish at icing - fortunately Nathan came to my rescue and was a dab hand at it with much more patient than I was - bung on some sweets and jobs a good un.

Games - The children arrived and were set off on a dragon egg hunt. They each had a specific number to look for, which gave them all an equal chance of finding the same amount of eggs.

When they had completed their hunt they received their Viking shield - part one of Viking training completed.

They then went to decorate their shields with black and silver paper 'jewels'

The Viking princesses also had headbands to decorate. For these I used some brown vinyl my mum had stashed away. Attached some velcro and then the girls decorated them with poundland jewels.

The children then went to play pass the parcel - not particularly viking themed but a party classic. (Grandma just getting them organised into a circle :))

 and then pin the tail on toothless the dragon.

 After this section of Viking training the children got their Viking capes.

 It was then time for some food and the birthday cake.

(My mum had made some viking buns very similar to the ones found 

here  but they got eaten before I got a photo - she used banana foam sweets for the horns)

The last part of Viking training was the obstacle course. 

Daddy doing a demo :)

At the end of the course they collected a bean bag which they then had to 'feed' to the dragons.

Of course most of them wanted to do the course over and over again. When they had finished this last part of viking training they received their Viking helmets or the headbands they'd made earlier on.

Time for some Viking posing :)

Everyone seemed to have a really fun time especially the birthday boy which is the main criteria I would say for a good party?

I was pretty wrecked and grateful that our fab families were around to help with the tidy up as in my current pregnant state I had to waddle over to a chair and sit down when the children had left :) It had been a lot of hard work but really worth it and at least I've got the boys Halloween costumes sorted out - Vikings it is :)