Toddler sensory garden

Well we've seen a teeny weeny spot of sunshine recently and with all the gorgeous daffodils out I thought it would be a fun time to think about the back garden and making it a little more toddler friendly!

We've got a Little Tikes slide which was very kindly passed down to us from our neighbours but apart from that the garden is a bit bare for play things! 

Now being on maternity I thought I'd keep a closer eye on the buy/sell groups and see what pops up! I also put the odd post up to see if people had garden items for sale.

We managed to find a little tikes rocker for £4 and a Early Learning Centre sand and water table for £10.

The sand and water table normally retails at £50 and the rocker £25 so lots of savings here :)

This weeks been a really tough one with another trip to the GP and an urgent blood test at hospital due to suspected obstetric cholestatis, add in a sick and very clingy toddler and exhaustion sets in very quickly!

To top it off Oscar and I missed our 2nd play date in the last few weeks and chance to get out the house and catch up with buddies and our last term session of baby signing, we were feeling rather cooped up!

So getting the garden sorted into a place for fun times was a nice idea, Mummy could sprout ideas inbetween the vomit, screeching and clingyness on top of the anxiety awaiting my test results.The perfect distraction!

Even better that the lovely ladies on the buy/sell groups offered to deliver the goods to us, so no need to get all packed up in the car or carry and lift items, the doorbell went and we were able to pay for our new garden toys at the doorstep :)

Here is Oscar enjoying the garden, he loves the fresh air and even brings his shoes up to us now when he wants to go and play outside!

Then it dawned on me that although the buy and sell groups are a great way to pick up toys there are other ways to entertain your little one outside.

We have had a spare planter in the living room for months and it suddenly dawned on me that we could put it to good use outside where it should be!

I thought a toddler sensory garden would be a nice touch and a place to put some colourful windmills, toys and plants for Oscar.

So on Saturday we nipped out to the shops and picked up some mini daffodils for 75p a mini plastic truck for £1 and I had some pet rocks in the garden.

 I drew some little eyes and a smiley face onto the truck with a permanent marker.

We filled the planter with a cheap compost and I planted the daffodils. Here is the finished garden:

I know its really just a planter filled with a windmill and some nik naks but we really love it! The beauty is we can re plant seasonal flowers and change the contents easily as we wish, it gives a little corner of the garden for Oscar which is visually fun, colourful and stimulating and all at toddler height :) 

I'm going to help Oscar water the daffodils with a little watering can so we can watch them flower further.

So that's been our little outdoors adventure for the last day. Hope this has inspired you to create your own fun in the garden and outdoor spaces.

Homemade Easter activities

I saw these online at the NutureStore and just had to give them a try with Oscar!

With Easter on its way and sping clearly blooming we are in the mood for making some crafts and treats for loved ones.

At playgroup this week we made Daddy and adorable Easter cup chick! 

Our Easter chick was made with a painted yellow cup, filled with some shredded paper, a fluffy feather tail at the back and some googly eyes and a beak for the face! Sprinkle some mini eggs inside for an extra Easter surprise!

At home we've made some Easter bunnies! These are a lovely gift for friends and family and can be made with bits you find around the house!

You'll need:

- an empty toilet roll middle

- brown, white and pink paint

-a paint brush

-googly eyes

-some cardboard

-scissors

-cotton wool balls

-glue

-Sellotape 

1. Paint your toilet roll middle brown and allow to dry.

2. Cut some ear shapes and feet shapes from your cardboard and also paint brown, leave to dry.

3.Glue on your googly eyes if they're not self adhesive ones.

4. Paint on a pink nose, white whiskers and white ear middles and again allow to dry.

5.Attach your ears using Sellotape inside the toilet roll.

6.Attach the feet at the base of the toilet roll using the Sellotape.

7. Glue on a cotton wool ball tail at the rear of the toilet roll.

8. Fill with mini eggs/foil covered chocolate eggs as an Easter treat :)

Here are our Easter bunnies in their natural habitat!

Our bunnies are now all ready to give as an Easter gift! That's if we don't eat all the mini eggs first hehe!

These make a lovely home made alternative to store bought pre packaged eggs and are a great way to recycle bits around the house :)

And thanks to Blu Tack and our bunny creations Oscar and I have won £25 to spend at Hobbycraft! one of Mummy's favourite shops! We entered our bunnies into the Easter competition and they were picked as winner! We're looking forward to picking out some more craft goodies in the near future! Thank you Blu Tack and Hobbycraft.

Down to Earth Community Farm- Review

I just had to write a review of this place! Its a little Gem!

For Mothering Sunday my Hubby & Son took me to the Down to Earth community Farm in Southampton.

Entry is £2 per adult and children are £1 although Oscar is under they age of 2 so was free admission.

The farm is a local social enterprise run by volunteers and offers educational visits and craft courses and you can even book birthday parties there. This includes activity days such as making your own bat box, wood work, bush craft and felt making as just some examples of the courses they run.

We arrived just in time for the farm tour at 2pm and were guided round to see and hear more about the project and all the animals on site.

We paid 70p for a bag of feed so were able to feed the chickens and then hens as we went round.

First stop was the gorgeous pair of Kune Kune pigs Primrose and Precilla! The tour guide called their names and the pigs came right up to us! They're obviously very loved and looked after and comfortable around people! They had a gorgeous muddy pen and little stick hut to roll around in.

Moving on from the pigs we saw some beautiful bearded and very friendly goats! Here is Oscar probably getting a bit too close and personal!

The goats shared an enclosure area with a gorgeous white cow called Snowball and some fluffy Shetland sheep which you can feed straw through the fencing.

We also saw the vegetable crop area and further developments going on at the farm on the way round including the area being cleared for a new poly tunnel.

Final stop was the small animal room, here we were met by some very friendly volunteers and got to hold a African Pygmy hedgehog and bearded dragons and even feed them! Oscar's little face says it all :)

In the animal room there were also tortoises, sugar gliders, gerbils, a snake, and lots of other animals to learn about. If you have a specific interest or animal you'd like to meet the volunteers were very happy to get them out of their little homes to handle them and tell you all about them.

I must say this was one of the highlights of our visit, we've been to quite a few farms and zoological parks and although you can sometimes pay for up close encounters we've never got so close to animals and learnt so much as part of the admission to a farm. We've seen the usual chicks, bunnies and guinea pigs but the animal enclosure had a real variety of different species which we'd never had the chance to meet before, making it really unique!

The community farm also had a gift section if you want to treat yourself to some souvenirs of your visit, we saw some jams,  lovely birdy bunting, insect houses, fairy doors, woollen finger puppets and my hubby & son got me an adorable hedgehog letter holder :) 

If you're looking for refreshments there is a little community room on site and as a special Mothering Sunday feature they were offering afternoon tea! We didn't stop for anything as we had already had some lunch but we saw some gorgeous home baked cakes available and they serve freshly made sandwiches and other tasty snacks daily.

You may recognise the community farm when BBC's Mr Bloom took a visit to collect some chicken eggs, they were featured in series 2 of the popular children's programme and you can see a snippet of the episode here on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/K1THaFF5nac

Why not take a look for yourself and visit the farm! On March 28th/29th and early April they'll be holding an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones :) 

Down To Earth Community Farm 

There are also some great April Holiday Activities lined up. I believe these are for ages 3 and up and you can contact the farm to book your place.

We thoroughly recommend a visit and had such a lovely family outing there :) It's refreshing to see so many fun and interactive activities and there's a real community feel here,superb, affordable and educational day out right on our doorstep. Thank you Down to Earth Community Farm!