Little One

I call him my Stinky Stonky,

my Happy Chappy,

a Silly Billy! 

He's Little One and he turned three at the beginning of the month. I thought that I could not let the month pass by without acknowledging him and making special mention, because he and his big brother are my inspiration for blogging and Love and Lollipops! 

We celebrated with a fun construction themed party and I would have loved to have shared some photographs, but unfortunately don't have any - poor lighting wasn't very conducive to great pictures.

What I am sharing though, are these slightly blurry, a little hazy, "imperfect" pictures, which I think are just perfect. Little One has a great sense of fun (and mischief) and is quick to smile and be silly! I think you can tell, right?

Happy Birthday Little One...don't get Big too soon.

Love this Book : Alison Jay's ABC

oooh it's so nice to win something, especially if it's something you would LOVE to win. A few months back Two2Read had a competition to win an alphabet book of your choice...

I entered hoping, hoping...and I won :)!

What fun it was to choose an alphabet book of my choice! I had quite a few on my wishlist already, but winning this gave me a great excuse to go and check out some more and read as many reviews as possible. (Yip, I love reading book reviews). I eventually chose Alison Jay's ABC and must say that I am thrilled with it. This is a delightful book.

The art work is beautiful and the simplicity at first glance, deceiving. Look a little closer and you will see a wonderful story unfold, as each page connects to the others. Little surprises along the way truly bring smiles! I really loved exploring this book and sharing it with my kiddos. (To add to the fun, we read it with a magnifying glass.)

I have now also added Alison Jay's Counting book to that growing wishlist.

Thank you Alida for this lovely prize and for sending it all the way over the seas to South Africa. And here's some great news...Two2Read is having another great competition this month and you can win a Mem Fox book of your choice! Click here to enter.

Good luck and till next time...Happy reading!

(PS. I would love to know what your favourite ABC books are...please share in the comments.)

Bottle Top Animals

  Inspired by some wonderful bottle top animals at Silly Eagle Books, I created these and turned them into cards... to keep for some parties coming up. When the kids are in the mood, I think this makes for a great rainy day activity :).

  I simply cannot throw a bottle top away anymore... more ideas coming soon!

PS. Linking this to  

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ tatertots and jello 

For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars

Fun for Kids Friday @ Local Fun For Kids

Bottle Top Memory Match

Bottle tops and stickers = Memory Match!

For my South African readers: The bottle tops are Woolworths' milk bottle tops and the stickers are (great sticking) foam stickers, available from Isabel, who can be contacted at play2learn(at)mweb.co.za 

To make a slightly harder version of the game, I used the transport stickers pack, which had the same sticker (for example, the yacht) in different colours and sizes. Big One and I have enjoyed a number of challenging games. 

I think that this makes a fantastic gift.
Happy playing!

PS. Linking this to:
It's Playtime! 
For the Kids Friday 
The Sunday Showcase 

Georgie's Picks {Little Girls}

"Sugar and spice and all things nice,

that's what little girls are made of."

 This sweetie pie is the daughter of a friend of mine and is also the sweetest little friend to my Little One.

I had the opportunity to photograph her recently in her wonderful back yard. Wish it was mine...it would be so great for photo shoots.

PS. Georgie's Picks is my choice of some favourite pictures I've taken. 

      Hope you enjoyed them.

Little Red Barn

I really love a traditional, all American, big red barn! Even though we don't have red barns as part of our South African landscape, Little One easily recognizes this as part of a traditional farm setting and I have always wanted to add one to our box of animals. Charlotte's Web was also one of the first full-length movies that he ever watched and he has always loved it .

Store bought barns are hard to come by and when you do find nice, good quality ones,  they are usually really pricey. Aaah, but then I remembered my favourite I-can't-throw-away box...the Lipton tea box!! 

To make the barn, I glued the lid closed, cut out the entrance, and stuck a row of craft sticks to the front and back of the box. The main reason for adding the sticks to the back was to make it a bit stronger and it definitely did! The rest of the sticks were cut to size, glued on, and I then added a coat of red paint and the final white touches. Some of the Lipton labeling shows through on the sides - my cousin (who lives in the States and has been here on holiday) said that it adds to the authenticity, as a lot of barns have old advertising on them :). COOL!

Once the barn was done, I created the little farm scene, along the lines of the movie, hoping it would grab Little One's attention. Did you notice Templeton the Rat on the roof? Wondering where Charlotte is? In the barn of course ;).

Although Little One loves the barn itself, the sensory box wasn't a big hit with him. I have come to realize that my great ideas aren't always received with the enthusiasm I'm expecting. I've been thinking of creating a felt farm scene instead...I'll share it with you as soon as it's done.

To view some beautiful photos of traditional red barns, visit here.

PS. Linking this to It's Playtime (Pop on over and join the fun!)

Water Photo Challenge {iheartfaces}

An oldie, but a goodie. Little One, 6 months old,  floating so peacefully in a porter pool. The photo challenge this week at iheartfaces is "Water"...I couldn't resist entering.

Fun with Oranges

Who knew that some oranges could be so much fun?

Oranges for cheeks?

Oranges for ears.

Happy oranges...

Juggling oranges!

Cute oranges...

Moody oranges!

Counting oranges...

 In winter, in Cape Town, bags of oranges colour the street corners...it always makes me happy.

Thank you oranges...for these oh so happy pictures!

PS. Photography inspired by Katherine Marie
To see Katherine's veggie faces, click here
Speech bubble created at Superlame

Three Little Pigs

When Little One was in hospital recently, this became his favourite "new" book. We read it over and over!

When we were back home, I made these houses from some big juice boxes, added the finger puppets (bought at a local craft market) and we played out the story. As you can tell, it's fun being the wolf and huffing and puffing!

I really like this particular version of the traditional story and highly recommend this book, if you can get hold of it - It's part of a Walt Disney collection of story books.

Do you have a favourite book of this classic story? I'd love to hear about it.

"Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf?

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Not I, not I, not I!"

PS.  Linking this to:

Fun For Kids Friday 
Show and Tell 

Spider Party

A while back we were invited to a little friend's birthday party and were very surprised to find out that the theme was SPIDERS. You see, this little friend is a very petite, sweet, girly-girl and loves all things pink and pretty! So I thought, it must be a cute spider party ...yeah I know, spiders aren't cute, but you know what I mean. However, much to my surprise, this turned out to be a realistic ugly eight-legged hairy spider kinda party!!

Check out the cake!
(Made by THE CHOCOLATE MOOSE)

Don't you love this super spider accessory for the birthday girl's hair.

 There were super games at this party. 

Being wrapped in a spider cocoon...

...or being stuck in a spider's web!

I was inspired by these over at Silly Eagle Books and decided to add a cute bottle top spider to our gift. I really love how she turned out...yip it's a she...can't you tell?

Have you ever had a Spider party. If you have, please leave a link in the comments below. I would love to come and see!  

PS. Linking our spider to 
Fun for Kids Friday