Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Hi Everyone...

Well this week I am writing from my sick bed :( both us girls are full of cold so its honey, lemon and lots of snuggles for us this weekend... we're missing ballet class too which makes us very sad..

One thing I am thankful for is that the cold held off until after our first Decote Diggers class yesterday. After getting our own garden a couple of weeks ago we were really looking forward to this and we weren't disappointed! I've never had my own garden before so me and little miss are very much beginners and we were looking forward to learning all about different flowers, which was the theme for our very first class.  Our lovely teachers Jo-Anne and Charlotte started by telling the class about flowers and giving out very pretty cards for us to take home.  We then did some gardening themed dances to original songs made especially for Decote Diggers which was a lovely change from the usual songs you hear again and again! After that the little ones were taken over to a really fun garden set up where everything was ready for them to create their own mini garden.. But first they had to decorate their garden with lots of lovely stickers and sparkles...

Afterwards was the messy part - getting stuck in to a big bucket of compost to fill up the mini garden (little miss was promptly stripped to the waist.. she loves to make a big mess!) Once that was done, it was time to pick some pretty flowers however by this point she had discovered a big bucket of water so it was left to me to actually plant the flowers... but she had lots of fun watering :)

After the gardening was time for free play and there was lots to choose from - crates of soil, sticks and stones for sensory play, brushes and rakes, tents and tunnels and a selection of garden themed story books and soft toys.  We had a lovely morning and can't wait to see what next week brings.  Would really recommend this class if you're looking for something different to the usual music and crafts classes which can get a bit repetitive - with a different theme every week I'm sure this will keep us entertained!  We also got to take our mini garden home to take care of and bring to next weeks class so we will look forward to watching it grow..

Feeling crafty??

Inspired by our garden activities over the last couple of weeks, the fact that we're feeling poorly today AND its raining outside, we've tested out this cute little craft to make an indoor garden..

What you need:
Paper doilies/plates
Paper/Plastic cups (we cut the tops off ours to make them shorter)
Large Buttons (optional)
Sparkles
Stickers
Paint
Glue/ sticky tape (you can use hot glue here if you are using plastic and need something stronger but obviously this will need to be done by an adult)
Wooden dowel / lollipop sticks / straws
                                                        Plant pots / Vase / Bottles


 Instructions:

Paint your plates and cups all different colours and/or decorate with stickers
Use glue and sticky tape to attach a cup to your plate then stick your button or sparkles to the bottom of your cup (inside)
Use sticky tape to attach the dowel or stick to the back of your flower
Pop it in a pot and there you have a pretty indoor garden..





Don't forget to send me your photo's - I'd love to see your indoor garden :) Hope you like ours...

 

Thanks for reading and see you all next week where we will be keeping in with the nature theme and making some homemade soaps and lotions xxx

An introduction

Hello everyone.. and a big welcome to my blog page :)

So first of all I'd just like to tell you a little bit about me and what inspired me to start this - I hope you enjoy reading it and do remember to be kind because this is my first ever blog.. and i'm a little bit scared..

Ok about me.. well I'm 30 years old and I live in a little apartment in Wallsend (Newcastle) with my husband (6 years in July eeek!), my beautiful, tiny but very loud almost 3 year old girl and my hairless Chinese Crested doggy, Hugo...

This is us watching Peppa Pig and the Golden Boots at the pictures :)

I'm not ashamed to say that since becoming a mammy my life has changed so much and absolutely for the better. While I have virtually no social life of my own, her calendar is always full!! My life absolutely revolves around this small child - she is my reason for getting up in the morning (just way too early for my liking), my inspiration for everything I do and I am a very proud (maybe sometimes pushy) mother..

When I became a mother, I swapped nights out for days out.. instead of shopping on Saturdays we have ballet class, soft play parties and princess events.. I swapped late night online clothes shopping for late night online baby research - recipes, activities, crafts, parenting tips.. you name it I've googled it! I dived head first into motherhood and tried to do everything by the book - baby classes, cooking baby food from scratch, planning the perfect birthday parties - but at the end of the day we can all put pressure on ourselves to be "the perfect mother", all that really matters is having fun and celebrating them being little while it lasts..

                                                    The simple things - lots of laughs on the slide

This is where Looking for Rainbows comes in.. I want a place to share all of the fun things I have found on my many hours spent trawling through Pinterest, Facebook, Google, etc and I want to document all of the activities me and my little miss have done together.. We hope to inspire you to embrace creativity, encourage imagination and most of all find fun in every day.. keep looking for rainbows <3

My next blog will be all about our recent adventures in our new little garden - we aren't lucky enough to have a garden and after finding out there is a 3 year (!!!) waiting list for an allotment in our area, my lovely generous Father-in-law has loaned us a little patch at the bottom of his garden.

                                        Relaxing in her new garden after a hard days work!

Little miss starts a brand new class next week - Decote Diggers - a brilliant new idea from two local ladies, where children learn all about gardening in a fun environment.. We are hoping to practice what we learn in class in our new garden patch and look forward to reviewing the class next week - hope to see you then :) Thanks so much for reading xxx