5 minute papersuit or All you need is...paper...

Today our Nicole gave us a nice idea for activity before the dinner. Accidentally she tore off a piece of paper which we use for painting on the board from IKEA and the length of it was enough to roll it around Karolinas chest, what we actually did. The next moment we were decorating it already, painting whatever we think about in this very moment.

After that we took another piece of paper as a skirt and repeated the actions. Fixed everything with the help of some clips and TA-DA our outfit is done!

Homemade cake vs Cake from the Bakery

Yesterday we had a nice Lazy Day which was on the other side quite "productive". How can it be, you will ask?! Hm...the thing is that we spent the whole day in the kitchen making experiments and improving our skills in cooking and baking as rainy weather didn't allow us to go out. Slowly Tempo, enjoying the time within the family circle.

So, we chose to bake our first BEE STING Cake  ever and after 3 hours we GOT IT!!! A little bit before the "Masterpiece" was ready, we had called to our friends and invited them to us. 

Waiting for the guests...whipping the cream last minutes, putting the cake in the fridge to let it get cooled before serving....and Binggggg Bonggggggg...Our Guests are coming with....a CAKE too-))) and what kind of cake????? BEE STING Cake......lol

Yeah, our afternoon coffee time was reminding kind of cake degustation and comparison. So, we collected all points to this or that cake and on the Ring with a battle HOMEMADE CAKE Vs. Bakery Cake...we chose ours as the Winner

it was of course Fresh, soft, not sooo sweet and crispier.

I hope you had a nice weekend too-)))

Hugs,
Mum of Karolina
Ladi Di

Easter Party Review

Hey Hey Hey!!!Easter Holiday is over but still memories are fresh. And lots of impressions ...We had a really big day which started from a nicely decorated and quiet breakfast part and then was quickly changed into a loud and vivid part, full of kids and their parents.

My friends and I decided to make a kind of mini role play for our children with their participation in games and then Egg hunting.
So, do you remember that Bunny mask which I told about before? It was just the beginning of my costume, the next day I made the rest- with a hot glue gun I stuck the cotton balls to the paint suit. At this time my friend Olga prepared wonderful Papier Mache Masks of the Fox and the Duck. All of these three characters were playing with kids where the Bunny was a brother of Easter Bunny, the Duck was his friend and the Fox made always jokes with two of them and stole Bunny's tail.

The idea was to find the tail as soon as possible together with the sweets which were hidden by Easter Bunny. All instructions were given on the carrots with tasks which were spread around the garden, after finishing with which kids could finally find the chocolate eggs. In the tasks there were different games, like:
- bringing eggs on the spoon from one place to another
- making bunny masks and jumping like the rabbit
- a game where the fox must catch one of the bunnies
- a bunny train
- singing songs about bunnies in the train and jumping, etc

As a suprise there was a big Pinata Egg on the tree full of sweets and....the Fox hid the tail there as well. Everybody was happy as they got what they wanted and the celebration continued.

I hope you had also nice time and memories from that big day are bright and colourful-))))
Hugs,
mum of Karolina,
Ladi Di

Easter preparations

Few days are left before Easter and lots of things must be done yet. Preparations are in the process...I am working at my Easter Bunny costume as we plan to make a kind of mini-show for our kids where I will play the Bunny. The mask was made today...

Here you can see also some things which we created or prepared as our Easter Decor.

    This year I planed to paint the real eggs after they must be blown out. However the plan didn't work. I guess I didn't have enough power, lol. Neither had Karolina. So, we decorated styropor eggs and hung them on the bush.

      We found as well a very nice Easter craft block where all you need is to cut out the template and do what is written in instruction. You can see the pic above with some chicks and chicken as an example.

       Karolina likes preparing garlands. Ours is made from Easter symbols or some thematical characters.

24....24 of them....painted eggs on a cardboard. Karolina had fun to work with acrylic paints, preparing the background. I was responsible for the print. Anyway, the band through the hole was managed by both of us, where I should say "WOW, Karolina, you were sooooo patient!". She was fighting till the end till she got the thread from the other side of the hole-))) So, these eggs will be hung up a day before, as it is a part of decor exactly for the holiday day.

The basket for Egg Hunting was decorated by me together with the bunny mask today. I stuck different attributes of Easter from all sides of the basket and added a ribbon of red colour. Karolina loves it. 

   So, I have couple of days to finish the rest.  And what do you prepare for the Easter Holiday?
Hugs, 
mum of Karolina
Ladi Di

DIY Easy and Creative Easter Wreath

In this post I would like to share with you with a wreath which I created myself for Easter 3 days ago.  It is very easy to do, cheap by supply materials (I guess all together about maximum 5 euro) and within 15 minutes it was ready to be hanged up.

You will need:
1)a cardboard
2) scissors, glue, hot glue gun
3) some fabric
4) decor elements

I didn't use this time a styropor ring for my idea as I wanted to make it from really simple things which are not so costy. That is why I cut out a ring with diameter of 30 cm (outside) and some eggs.

Then I wind it with a piece of fabric. I choose feltband of a yellow colour, size: 7,5*200cm. Just glue the beginning of it and then twist it. Fix the end of the band as well with a glue. 

 For eggs I took old clothes from the baby and cut out some squares to cover them with fabric.

After that I made a kind of compostition on the wreath which I like and stick them with a hot glue gun. All in all it looks cute and with memories.

Easter chick, peep peep-))) Easter craft with handprint

It is already a long time when everybody makes different craft works for Easter. We are not the exception=) Unfortunately, didn't have time to post as garden demands a lot of attention,lol-))) So let's start...

This Easter chick which we made was the first one  apart from egg decorating, postcards and other crafts.

You need:
1) cardboard of yellow, orange, red colour
2) googly eyes
3) finger paints or other paints you have for craft
4) some decoartive elements as feathers, crepe paper, etc
5) scissors, glue

- First Karolina cut out 2 circles from yellow paper and stuck one to another.

 - After that we made a hand print of her on orange paper (for chicken wings) and a print of 3 fingers (for chicken legs).

- Cut out them and stuck to the body.

- Googly eyes and chicken beak are glued as well.

- The best part is decoration: we stuck feather of different colours, and bow to the neck. Your variant can be different. Make it beautiful with what you like-)

and TA-DA...

 Cute and a good memory of Karolina's little hands! Can be a nice present for grandparents or friends-)

As it was Karolina's first Easter craft this year, she wanted to leave it by her (Actually she begins always with intention to give her "masterpiece" to someone, but after she sees the result, most of the times she wants to have it in her playroom-)))). Now it is on our fridge...

BACK YARD activities, to be OUTDOOR brings FUN!

With the spring the sun shines brighter, birds sing louder, flowers blossom, life seems to be more energetic and you want to sing from all of this. Karolina is so happy when we are outside. Apart from the time which she spends on her favourite trampoline, or when she gives water to the flowers, she comes to me with question: "Mama, what will we play today?" And she waits for my "Well..."
So, when I am still powerful, we can play with her a football. You know, womens football with our womens rules is FUN-). A tree is kinda gates...You can kick the ball or hit with your hand-)))
She loves "Hide-and-Sick". And it doesnt matter if the mum sees her standing by the next tree. Mum must look for her for about 5 minutes pretending she cannot find Karolina, although Karolina gives mum signals abt herself like an owl or cuckoo,lol.
We paint with colourful chalks, or I teach her to a hopscotch. Thats a good training for big motor skills as well.
We have several hoops of different colours. So, we play "Where is...a red hoop" game. She must close her eyes, and I must hide all hoops after what she is looking for them. The most interesting is when Karolina  must hide the hoops...she does it in the same places like me-))) But I'm trying to find them of course everywhere in the garden...
A racket-ball game takes a place from time to time in our entertainment. The thing is that mostly my task is to catch the ball in order it doesnt fly to our neighbours-)
ABC search (First letter- word match game) makes Karolina very excited too. We have wooden puzzle letters, and I hide some letters which we learn with my girl at the moment and put them on the objects the names of which start from this or that very letter. "W"-water: the letter W was laying over the pipe/tun where we take water for plants. Or "G" for "grass",etc. The funniest was "P" on papa's shoe, who had to stand still till Karolina sees the letter,lol. Thank you, papa, for your patience-)

Outdoor activities include a great teaching element. Thats not just the time for hanging around, which is also good by the way-)))Childhood is the time of having fun and at the same time learning from all what a child does. That's why we hope this summer will be enough warm and sunny that we could spend all days outside and do our "hanging around/learning" stuff-)
And what is your favourite outdoor acitivity? Will be very glad to read about it-)

Shopping Queen and Ice Scating Princess

I love to go shopping with Karolina. I should say she has patience to spend 2-3 hours in the shopping centre  and a good taste. She knows what to choose-)))as I told already before, like a real girl she is crazy about sparkly-glittery-pinky stuff-)))and it is sooo cute when she brings me a new and a new, and a new hanger with this or that skirt or dress, whatever. Moreover, she doesnt forget anyone: "Mama, this is for me...I love these pink shoes...Mama, this is for Nicole...Mama, you look beautiful..."
   One of our last time we were looking around mostly in one of the accessories shops where Karolina tried on almost every single thing. I saw the face of the shop assistant who was smiling already not so friendly-)))anyway, we managed to catch some pics with my Shopping Queen

Another mini story is about Karolina's first experience on the Ice-)))Oh yeah...my daughter is much more brave like me...she fell in love with this kind of sport and couldnt stop skating. Poor papa...he was all the time behind her in the position of letter Z as we say in Russia-) Anyway, it was more fun with him like with mum as speed and new adventures on ice conquered the heart of my girl. By the way, I should open a secret...there was someone else who helped Karolina to stand on the ice...what do you think, who it could be? there is a little tip: that was not a person...Can you guess?
Here she is, my little Ice Skating Princess

P.S. as soon as I copy pics on the ice from my big camera I can upload them, as these shots were done with a mobile. And they will show you the answer but meanwhile...think and say who it was...

So, although spring has started, but we were lucky to have party on Ice. And what kind of sport does your kiddie like most of all?
Wish you all a nice weather, and sunny days-)))

4 DIY accessories for girls

Hey, Hey!!!mum of two is a little bit busier time like with one kid!But I like it-) my Karolina seems to be such a big girl! she loves her sister a lot, plays with Nicole, helps me to entertain the baby and she takes care of her quite well.

Anyway we still have some time for us, 2 big girls, to do something and of course what do all girls like? when sth is sparkling, looks beautiful, and ...and...and...jewerly...ok, in our case some accessories but they are hand made and the most favourite ones.

Here, my dear friends, you can see what we managed to do in the time apart from nappies, cooking, garden, etc.

1) Necklace from cardboard:

 Karolina is crazy about Prinzessin Lillifee who is really a very nice Fairy and character for the girls of this age. We buy every month a magazine where we find lots of stories, useful and educational information, craft ideas. In one of the magazine there was a craft activity with such a lovely necklace.  But you can do it yourself and decorate it in different ways.
All you need is...
1. cardboard of one or different colours
2. toothsticks (about 17 pcs)
3. thick thread or yarn
4. scissors, glue
5. some pictures for decor (alternative)

You must cut out about 17 triangles from the cardboard (you need to check yourself how much is enough to make the desireable length). Then roll triangles around the toothsticks and glue it quite good, beginning from the middle of the triangle. Let it dry for some time. After that you can take out all toothsticks and it will look like you have 17 paperbeads. You put them on the yarn, in the middle you can make a kind of medallion, like it is Lillifee by Karolina, and decorate it with anything you like.

 2) Hairband with sparkling stars

 Also a simple and cute  idea for your little princess.
You need:
- a piece of decor ribbon, length must be enough to make a knot, or bow from behind
-coloured cardboard
- glitter
-glue, scissors

I drew 3 stars for Karolina, which she cut out herself (oh, yeah-)))she can cut out already such kind of shape). Then we spread some glue and sprinkle with glitter. When it got dry, we glued the stars to the ribbon and Thats it!!!

3) Accessories from pipe cleaners

Pipe cleaners are one of my favourite supplies for crafts. You can do so much stuff with it! Even accessories like rings or bracelets, or glasses...

One evening we just had fun with twisting these fluffy pipe cleaners, bringing them in the shape of various figures. What I managed to catch into close shot was this flower ring and glasses in the shape of heart (by the way, that was our papa's idea!well done, daddy!!!) But be careful working with it as it can be quite sharp at the end and don't leave your child alone during the craftwork.
By the way, here is video how you can do it: Pipe Cleaner rings.

I hope you found it somehow useful and enjoyed it and would be also very glad to read about your DIY accessories ideas.
See you soon.

We wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dear friends, and again a year passed. Time is flying...However, let's be happy and with a big smile on the face!!!Its one of our favourite holidays, which unites people together. 

So, we wish you all the best in these holidays and...

 May this Christmas be bright and cheerful and may the New Year begin on a prosperous note! 

and this is our xmas tree which we decorated with Karolina after the last post

Karolina and her mum, Lady Di

Christmas crafts 2013

Some days are left before Christmas and New Year 2014. As I already mentioned before preparations with Karolina this year were amazing and here are the crafts which we made with her:

So, as you can see we made a big family of Reindeers-) Karolina wanted to make the family which consists of mum, dad and 2 kids like by us. She gave them even our names-))) and that one which is with a bow - is of course our Karolina.

This 3D Christmas tree craft was done for Karolina's great grandfather which she decorated again with her favourite Minnie Mouse image. She also added some decorations in different geometric forms as we repeat them again. So this tree is already in the envelope somewhere on the way to her greatgrandfather.

And this snowman which was made from cotton discs and xmas tree was a present for her grandmom. It is together with 3D tree travelling to its final destination.

We also made some decoration from pipe cleaners and this craft was inspired by Martha Stewart. Now the hang on the lamp and some go to our Xmas tree.  

    

                                              
An angel appeared in our decor as well. It was her handprint angel activity where the face we tried to pain together, with supervision of mum of course.

One of the longest mini Christmas projects was to make a girlanda from Xmas associations of Karolina and her cousine.
And of the last but not the least crafts was again a Christmas tree but already done in another way:





So, this is a little summary of our productive work with my little girl and now we are going to decorate our Christmas tree. We wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Attention!!!Toes are playing!

Today Karolina continued to play with her snowballs. In the morning before changing her pygama, Karolina decided to use her bare feet and play with her toes, taking a foil snowball and put it into a basket like we had done before with the pebbles.  It makes her laugh every time-)))

I remember how it's happened the first time - tickling feeling, new experience, exciting activity. I told her: "Try to be a monkey and do like they do". Showing to Karolina how to move the pebbles helped her to get the idea at once-)))and plus the pebbles makes such a nice sound ...

That was not only fun, but also a good thing for motor skills. Her first glass pebble was not taken up so succesfully like she was thinking but at the end she managed it very well.
So, play monkeys and don't forget to eat banana after that-)!
P.S. for developing motor skills you can also take a towel with your toes from one side and your child from the other side and try to pull it,  it is such a joy!!!

My little BIG helper in the kitchen. What makes a toddler busy?

Karolina likes to play a pretend game "Cinderella", where she must tidy up things, toys, dishes, clothes and etc. Of course it works when she is in a very good mood or when she wants that her room - or her palace- will look like by the princess, or by fairy- clean and tidy.

As other kids Karolina loves to help as well with washing clothes, putting them into the washing machine, taking out spoons, forks, knives from the dishwasher and sortirising them in the place they belong to.It makes her really occupied. And she loves helping with cooking and working with all kitchen utensils.

Karolina is helping with preparing Pelmeni, russian meal

 

One of her favourite one is combiner or mixer or blender. Like today we made a banana-milk shake where Karolina was the chef cook. She knows already what she needs and how to make it-)))

Karolina can cut a banana with a child knife and put it in a correct way from the chopboard into the blender

I was proud of my little BIG helper today and her milk shake was really delicious-)))
And what does your toddler already cook???

Foil SNOWBALLS activity

Winter crafts do not stop...It brings so much fun and joy to Karolina. Especially she likes when we need to decorate sth, like it was with Xmas decorations for the flat. She wanted to hang all lights only in her room. Everytime she took out anything from the box, what she found more beautiful, she said immediately: "Mummy, let's hang it there as well...", adding "I will do it myself..."

Yeah, this year is really different, Karolina's understanding and expectations of Holidays make it more interesting for us as parents. I love New Year and Xmas but with Karolina I feel it even more.

Her dad promised her to make a snowman as soon as the snow will come...So, Karolina is waiting and meanwhile, like today for example, we played with her fake snowballs....which were made from the alu foil.

We made a shape of balls, and the main idea of snowballs games was the following:
1) to make them, which is good for motoric skills
2) to count them
3) to compare them by size
4) to throw them into each other, pretend play with snowballs
5) to throw them into a bowl or basket
6) to take them with chinese sticks and put in the bowl (which was quite difficult when she did it from the floor, thats why  a TIPP: let the child do it from the table, on the same high level) - for motoric skills

Time is for bed already. It is quite warm in the flat, but our snowballs will wait for us till tomorrow, to play again. 
Take care and don't get cold-)))

DIY sand at home for your little one, mummy-time

The weather doesn't welcome us now at all. Quite chilly, quite fresh, quite wet. Karolina asks me every time to go to playground when we pass it by. And I have to find again everytime a new explanation for her why it is not possible. Just the answer "it is too cold" doesn't satisfy my toddler already. She doesn't stop her question WHY and it continues, it seems to me, ages...

So, to make these dull days brighter I allow her to put on sometimes her swimming suit with Hello, Kitty! and then she plays in swimming pool with her toys, using a basket for that.  And I made for her sand a time ago, when the sun stopped appearing often here ....to remind a little bit about those nice days.

I should say, It was fun and brought lot of Joy to Karolina. I didn't listen her for about an hour, so much made it her occupied.
All you need for your mummy-hour-time is 4 glasses of flour and 1 glass of baby oil and mix it....The consistence is nice and so is the smell.

It was once, I will tell you honestly, may be later I will do it again, but for now I must take rest from that hard work with vacuum cleaner, lol-)))

Anyway, I am happy that Karolina enjoyed it, it was quite useful for her motorics as well. And it was sth different from days full with crafts, which I will post later as now it is hot time to make postcards or presents for everyone-)))

3rd ARTY-PARTY Birthday day

And here we are...already 3 years old. My little girl is getting older!!! And what a big step is in her development!it is completely a different child, I mean she understands much more, you can negotiate with her and arrange even sth-))) This year Karolina was waiting for her birthday a looooot. We have a calender for the year 2013 where for each month there are photos of us. November is devoted to her birthday with the pics from her 2nd birthday and her Date was marked with a sticker long time ago. So, we counted and waited...

Karolina helped me with some prepartions for decorations. We chose such theme as ARTY-PARTY for her 3rd birthday and I guess it was quite successful. My daughter loves painting, colouring, cutting out from the paper, making crafts, etc. In one word, the meaning of this party was not only about Art as painting, but Art as creation of something, creative work in general. And naturally all colours of rainbow were used to evoke such mood. Moreover we used not only balloons and swirls in decorations but also we cut out some paint spots from the colour paper and stuck Karolina's craft works which we made during the whole year. She was so excited in "decking" the room with them. After that I printed out the photos from our blog which showed how she was doing this or that craft.

Here you can see a piece of Art which is called "Aphrodite" by Theo Michael, our friend from Cyprus. I wanted to mention it on purpose that you can see his works, they are great!!!

In this picture you see our old work with Foot Print Giraffe Craft, exactly what I mentioned above

   

Invitations were made in quite easy way which look like that:

Even though we moved not so long ago to our new home, we managed to make some goos friends who joined us to share the celebration and it was really fun, in a small company but very cute and nice-)
The most focus was done on games, activities for kids, here are some of them:
1) kids made their hand prints for the memory and actually it served as a favor, thank you present as well. Karolina was the first and it was very "fat"-))) but the results of next participant were already better

2) our girls and fathers were asked to play together and stick the red nose of the clown to the correct place, a very well known and old game, but as usual makes everyone laugh

3) one of the funniest moment was the game with whipped cream and gummi letter-sweets. Kids and mummies should find the letters without help of hands and say a wish to Karolina which begins from the letter. Of course womens fantasy was all about cosmetics, perfum and jewellery-)))it was Top!!!

There were some other small games and you can without a doubt imagine how children room looked after that.

The cake was baked by me this time and guests told they liked it, hope its true,lol=)))

 Kids left quite happy and Karolina was glad to have such a nice company for her birthday! Of course we missed our friends from Cyprus, but thats why I want to post it and tell them that we were thinking about them!!!

P.S. Here you can see tired face of a birthday girl at the end of the party-))) Facepaiting was done by one of the child, good work, also art, isnt it?