Fun In the...rain?

It seems to me that the moment the school holidays began so did the rain! My children, aged 2 and 4, adore playing in the garden and at times have been all but bouncing of the walls to get outside again. Their wellies and waterproofs are by the door so that we can dash outside as soon as the sun breaks through the clouds.

So I have been dreaming up ways to keep them busy and happy! I have listed a few things we have done below.


Playdough has kept them occupied for a good while. Here's my favourite recipe, we often add glitter for fancy schmancy model making. Kneading warm play dough is one of life's pleasures!

2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoon oil
1/2 cup salt
food colouring
In a pan mix all ingredients together, adding the food coloring last. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove the dough from the pan and knead until smooth. Add glitter at this point if you want to. To store place in a plastic bag or airtight container when cooled. The dough lasts for a long time.

We have decorated fairy cakes as you see in the pic.

Both rebels also love to make chocolate crispy cakes with mini marshmallows. Mmmmmm!

My daughter wants to go to the cinema, our tiny local picture house only does matinees at the weekend and as the kids are so young we have had a couple of practices at home.First they made their own popcorn cones. Then we filled them with microwave popcorn. We closed all the curtains in the living room and watched a DVD in the dark. We had a brief intermission to serve ice cream. And I realised that J probably is a little bit too young for a whole cinema showing.

playing in a huge tray of shaving foam is also a big hit - but not one for the faint hearted!

If you fancy adding an idea of your own in the comments section please feel free to do so and while your at it why not include a shamless plug for your blog, shop or favourite item:)

And if you would like a chance to win one of my Tiny Tile Paintings please click here
the giveaway closes soon!

5 comments:

Vixanne said...

My small person (who is 3) loves doing anything that involves sticking so we're always making collages or models (including a toilet roll middle castle, egg box caterpillars, "cars" for her tiny toys from little boxes, and one collage she loved doing was our family tree using apples to represent people. and she drew little faces on them!)She also loves playing with my off cuts of fabric and yarns for many things, but my favourite, when she dresses up in the scraps and puts on a show. A perfect exhibitionist! I also help run a toddler group so I'm always trying to come up with fun things to do. We've made musical instruments from tubs, bottles, pasta etc, masks from paper plates, puppets from socks and hankies, biscuit decorating, stamping using poster paint and household objects like potato mashers, cotton reels and different sized bottle lids, and tons more stuff. This comment turned out a little longer than planned, sorry!

Sophie said...

Your kids are adorable!

I think that cinema idea is great.

I'm a children's nanny, and used to work in a nursery. I don't want to go on and on with my ideas though!

The shaving foam idea has reminded me of something - I remember playing with gelli baff with the kids - it's amazing stuff, they'll love it! Check it out.

Leigh Shepherd said...

Wow Vixanne, thank you, so many ideas there. My daughter would love to have a go at the family tree idea!

Dinky Daisy said...

Bingo, I remember playing this as a child and you can have fun making the boards using numbers or pictures.

Little Bird Too said...

Thank you so much I've been looking for a play dough recipe - we have spent the holidays sticking, baking and painting such a wonderful time :)