A trip to the beach

Yawn.  That's what you're thinking now, isn't it?  Another blogger, bragging about her latest jaunt to the seaside, while you're stuck inside because it's not so sunny where you are.  Well, stop rolling your eyes, put down your cuppa and read on.

I put the washing out to dry yesterday morning.  Always a mistake, it started raining about an hour later.  Typical.  It stayed drizzling on & off for most of the day, which put paid to any exciting plans we may have had for going to the park, or anything more strenuous than a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse marathon.  Squeaky, however, had other ideas.  She wanted to go to the beach, and have a beach party.  She's been hassling me for days on this front, and as it was my day off today, there was no excuse that I had to go to work, or she had to go to nursery.  A beach party was the order of the day.

No chance in this weather though, I don't really enjoy being that kind of old person who sits in their car on the seafront sipping a lukewarm cuppa out of a flask, reading the paper.  So I had to come up with an alternative.  And if we can't go to the beach, the next best thing is to bring the beach to us.  I'm not daft though, there was no chance of sand & water play on my carpets.  No way.

Instead, I raided the airing cupboard, and found every blue, brown & yellow towel I could get my hands on. Squeaky then made the blue towels into the sea, and the brown & yellow into the sand.  We got our buckets & spades, a beach ball, and had our very own indoor beach party.  (Please ignore the pile of clean washing artfully displayed in the background!)

We spent the afternoon building sandcastles, swimming in the sea, catching and eating fish, and throwing the beach ball around.  We even managed to turn the tv off for a good couple of hours!

I don't think this is a rainy day game we're going to manage on a regular basis, part of the excitement today was because we're off on a proper holiday soon, so Squeaky's building up to that.  Even so, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and it's great to watch her imagination develop, suspending the reality in place of something much more fun.

What do you get up to on rainy days?

And another thing!

An unexpected bonus relating to my last post (what? You haven't read it yet? Hop to it!)

Miss Squeaky's still stuck at home with the chickenpox, and we're rapidly running out of the Toy Story Trilogy.  However, the paella ingredients came in a massive box, filled with what Douglas Adams called "missing matter" - polystyrene packing peanuts to you.  Add these items together, and you get... FUN!

So a second thank you to the folks at Thomson Al Fresco for not only providing Daddy & I with a tasty meal, but also giving Squeaky an afternoon's entertainment.

Steve The Pet Dragon

"Mummy, I want to make something!"  6 words.  6 words that mean 2 hours of preparation, hunting down crafting supplies & scrap from the recycling bin.  Followed by 2 minutes of intense concentration, and mummy spending the next half hour carefully creating a whatever whim passed through the head of a preschooler in the ad break between Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly.

Deep in concentration

This week it was "Mummy, I want to make a pet dragon!"  While I was still in my pyjamas.  Somehow, we managed to postpone making dragons until after breakfast.  There's no way I'm doing craft activities when I can't see straight yet!  Somehow, I gathered together a random assortment of junk from our "rainy day drawers" (mostly sourced from the closing down sale at Woollies, bored moments in Wilkos, and leftover tat from long since abandoned craft ideas of my own).  Added a few bits & pieces from the recycling bin, and we were off.


So, I've no doubt you're wondering, how DO you make a Pet Dragon?

Ingredients
One empty toilet roll tube
One empty Yeo Valley yogurt pot (other brands are available, but the shape was good)
One A4 sheet of green sugar paper
Some green tissue paper (toilet roll would probably work too)
A small piece of red sugar paper
Glitter Glue
2 Googly eyes (you mean you DON'T have a stash of googly eyes?)
Sticky tape or sticky pads
PVA glue
Green paint

First, paint your toilet roll tube green.  This is the bit your preschooler will actually deign to do.  Maybe.

Cover your yogurt pot with PVA glue, and then stick the tissue paper to the pot.  Be a bit rustic.  It's a dragon, not Kate Moss.

Put them both to dry for a few minutes.

Cut your piece of green sugar paper in half.  Make one half into a cone for the tail, and use sticky tape to fix it together.  Fold the other piece in half again & cut out two wing shapes.

Attach googly eyes to the front of the yogurt pot, and cut a tongue shape from your red paper, and stick this to the front of the yogurt pot too.

Stick the toilet roll tube to the inside of the yogurt pot using sticky tape to form the body.

Stick the cone of paper to the inside of the toilet roll tube to form the dragon's tail.

Stick your wings to the underside of the dragon's body, so they are flappable.

Decorate using glitter glue.

Take daft photos of a toilet roll dragon eating from your birdtable.

The dragon is called Steve.  For some reason EVERYTHING is called Steve at the moment.  She doesn't even know anyone called Steve, except for a cousin of mine who she hasn't seen in a couple of years.  But this is Steve the Pet Dragon anyway.  He's quite a welcome addition to our household, as I've had to be a pet dragon a lot recently and crawl around on my knees making firey noises, and apparently making toast.  Welcome to our home, Steve!

Fee Fi Fo Fum!

I don't think it's directly a result of this year's CBeebies panto, as they didn't use the immortal line.  I suspect tonight's entertainment is probably courtesey of reading a more traditional version of Jack & The Beanstalk at nursery.

Tonight's bathtime, like much of our playtime at present was all about imaginary play.  "You be a mommy & I be a baby", and similar topics.  I had to be a dragon, a monster, and a giant, as well as the more typical doggy and ice cream man.  The giant was the important one for tonight's tale.

I have to be honest, I wasn't quite sure how to be a giant, so I had to ask for help.  Squeaky told me how to be a giant.  Apparently, I have to say "Fee Fo Fum, I can smell a bloody Englishman!" Innocent misunderstanding, you say?  Well, we live in the South Wales valleys, but both Daddy & I are English (which makes Squeaky English too, thank you very much!), and the 6 Nations rugby starts this weekend.

That's what I thought.

(And to anyone who says "She was born in Wales, so she's Welsh" my answer is "Jesus was born in a stable, doesn't make Him a donkey!")

Imagination

Three is an exciting age, clearly.  But it's hard work if you're not three yourself.

Take last week, for example.  One of the days, I had to be a Mommy Cow, a Doggy, a Firefighter, a Mommy, a Froggy, AND go in a tent.  All before breakfast.  I can't keep up with these constant changes, at least not without a reasonable amount of coffee inside me.  Then of course, after breakfast, I had to be a Cowgirl, a Horsey, Shopkeeper, Ice Cream Man, and hide from a dragon.  It was something of a relief to visit her friend for a playdate/coffee & gossip with a real grown up, because the girls could make each other be whichever character they needed next ( a doctor, dentist & dinosaur all featured), and we could have a few minutes reprieve.

Oh, and I really should confess.  I seem to be instilling in Squeaky my own appalling taste in music.  I'm only partly to blame though. Some of the responsibility has to lie on the heads of assorted holiday camps, Daddy, and the legendary Justin Fletcher.  For your delight and delectation, here are a few Youtube videos for some of Squeaky's current favourite songs.  They are all safe for small people to watch, but your sanity may never be the same again. Don't say I didn't warn you.





And just to show it's not all complete trash...  (well, actually it probably IS, but it's in Spanish, so it might be educational, like)



(If you don't have at least one of those stuck in your head for the next three days, I'm doing something wrong.)