Kidzarama

Welcome to this year’s first Blog Blast for Peace, and my first one ever. Yes *blush* I’m a virgin no longer.

Peace is such a broad topic that it’s been hard to fix on something specific to write about.

I thought about being flip and discussing the brawls we have in the UpsideDownHouse each school morning, when Wren refuses to get out of bed.

But it seemed too trivial when I think about what each morning must be like for families in war~torn countries like Sudan, Somalia, Congo and the Ivory Coast. And that’s just in Africa.

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I’ve made up a printout for this project. You’ll probably need to muck around with the scale in ‘print preview’, because I’m new to this.

And the photo isn’t ‘one I made earlier’. It’s one from a party that Mr Bump attended.

So I’m lazy today.
The timber floorboards are real. Does that help?

You will need:

• A4 cardboard

• This template

• Pencils or textas to decorate

What to do:

• Print the template on cardboard and cut out the shape. Thinner lines are for folding, not cutting.

• Let little Johnny or Jenny colour it in or paint it.

• Then fold it and glue it and mark it with ‘B’. (But don’t put it in the oven because it will start a fire and they might not get there quickly enough to save your house.)

• Fill with party goodies and scoff some down while you’re at it. The sugar will tide you over until mealtime.

• Drink some red cordial too, if you’re really tired (or if the kids are really rowdy).

Other Thoughts:

• Cut out some pictures for younger kids to glue on.

• Draw some pictures for the kids to colour in.

• Great lollies for this type of party are chocolate money, candy jewellery and jewels (or clear boiled lollies).

What do you do if your whole family loves cats, wants to adopt a cat, but can’t?

Well, in January we came up with our own answer.

We got guinea pigs. Two. One for each of the kids, named Olga da Polga and Mrs Guinea Pig.

Wren’s little black gp has been named Olga da Polga, because that was the name of my guinea pig as a child.

My Olga was named after the main character in the book series of the same name by Michael Bond (he also wrote the Paddington Bear books).

Luckily, I kept those little books and now Wren & Mr Bump love the stories, too. ~ It’s lovely to share those special childhood memories with them.

This fictional Olga was a bit of a wild child gp who delighted in adventures like car rides and biting that wavy thing dangling in front of her cage (until she realised there was a friendly cat on the end of it).

Meanwhile, poor Mrs Guinea Pig had a bit of a gender identity crisis. Mr Bump wanted to call her Mr Guinea Pig (after Pinky Dinky Doo’s guinea pig). After some thought however, he decided that it just wouldn’t do, and she was happily renamed. Crisis averted.
These two little furballs are very cute and are more affectionate than I remember from my childhood. Somehow I think that might have something to do with me being a whole lot more gentle now. I don’t remember being rough with my own Olga, but when I see how the kids handle these two… They think they’re being gentle, but still….

Some mornings I sit and watch the two little creatures in their run when I stop for a morning cuppa. All of a sudden, one of them will squeal and jump in the air, doing a 360º turn. Both will disappear into the sheltered end, then reappear just as suddenly. This sometimes goes on for 10 minutes, with me roaring with laughter the whole time.

The first time I saw them do it, I went and checked them both for fleas! Needless to say, they didn’t have any, and the entertainment continued almost as soon as I closed the hutch door.

They’re so cute, but I’m still hanging out to get a cat…

Afterthought:
On a totally unrelated subject, unless your guinea pigs are toilet trained, I read The Potty Poem, on Quiet Mom’s blog earlier today and just had to share it here. It’s wonderful!

It’s a case of ‘better late than never’, with the Easter Bunny delivering a little ceramic egg-painting kit for Wren & Mr Bump this morning!

I really haven’t gotten into things with them for Easter craft this year ~ Wren has a new friend who lives 3 doors up and they are joined at the hip, and Mr Bump is at preschool 3 days now, which limits the craft time a little more.

I know I should have just included the new friend in some craft activities… Maybe at Christmas I’ll feel up to it

Wren was really into Polly Pocket the year before last and so I tried my hand at making a Polly cake for her 6th birthday. I didn’t think to take pictures to show how I created the design, so if you have any questions, please do ask.

I used a similar technique as in the Thomas cake, making a grease proof paper stencil of the picture. I traced the picture from one of Wren’s posters.

~ Okay, one day I’ll have to actually show photos of the technique.

Next time we have a birthday, it’s a promise.

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