Rainbow paper bunting with a sewing machine

We love a nice bit of rainbow bunting in our house…. oh, and a sewing machine. One that works anyway….(frowns in the direction of redtedart)

So I had this idea to make some colourful paper bunting with some left over paper triangles (don’t ask, I can’t bear to throw ANY scrap of paper away – even if it IS destined for the recycling!) And rainbow bunting sprung to mind… Avoiding the typical rotation of the triangles, we went with sewing down the MIDDLE of the triangle – and there you have it!

This is perfect for 17th March – St Patrick’s Day in our neck of the woods – if you fancy a #StPaddys party – would be a great decoration!

If you’d like to see some more fabulous #rainbow crafts, and #Stpaddys crafts – check out the #getyourcrafton challenge here.

Also, Maggy, Anthea, Liz, Kelly and I were in a google + hangout recently discussing various rainbow crafts, and you can watch us in all our glory by clicking here.

If you like any of these images, and would like to keep them to remind yourselves to make some later, do PinIt 🙂

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

baking, crafts, google+ hangouts, kids

Valentine’s Day Hand Hearts

Ah, this one is SO easy to do, once you start, you won’t be able to stop, and you’ll have a whole room full of them stapled together as Valentine’s Day bunting!

Simply fold a sheet of paper in half, and draw around your child’s (or your own) hand positioning the thumb and forefinger slightly over the folded edge of the paper – (see the red paper image here) As you are drawing the area which will become the ‘heart’ slightly curve the tip of the thumb up, so that you can see the shape of half a heart appearing… cut around the fingers, and unfold to create this lovely shape of hands holding a heart, and repeat! If you have access to a sewing machine, you could join them together to create bunting, a stapler would work just as well, or simply write your message on the hands, and pop into an envelope! #SWALK (that’s sealed with a loving kiss if you aren’t familiar with that acronym!)

Granny has had several of these hearts over the years, dated, so we can see their little hands growing in size every year…. so sweet!

For the recipe for the Cake in a Mug seen here, click through to Ali’s other blog aGreenerLifeforus.com

For more Valentine’s Day inspiration, try my FREE Printable jigsaw puzzle piece crafts Valentine’s greetings cards and check out our Google+ hangout hosted by Red Ted Art, featuring Kelly from domesticgoddesque.com with her glitter heart cake toppers Lizzie with her missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk rustic twig heart wreaths and her silver birch bark candle – amazing… Plus Anthea’s needle felt hearts and Maggy’s collection of Valentines Day craft ideas.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

education, kids

Make the World Better with a Sweater

So Friday 13th December is #XmasJumperDay – my Mum wouldn’t approve of that hashtag, so it her honour, I’ll also refer to it as #ChristmasJumperDay and have taken a couple of photos to show you what it’s all about! #Selfie no.1…

It’s not too late to join in – I took these this morning before school, and you can ALMOST see me in the bauble reflection outside my friend Smudgetikka‘s house too…?

The idea is simple – get into the Christmas spirit by wearing your best Seasonal Jumper and donate a pound to Save the Children to help support the wonderful work that they do for children around the world.

Don’t forget to text TEAMTHINLYS to 70050 to donate just £1 to Save The Children. Go on, make a difference this Christmas.

For every blogger who writes a post about Christmas Jumper Day and includes a selfie of themselves in their jumper, Westfield London will be donating an extra £10 to Save the Children. All you need to do is tweet a link to your post to @westfieldlondon What are you waiting for bloggers?

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

key stage 2, kids, life

Board Game review – Bridget

As a family, we like to play games together… we like the classics (of my youth)… Monopoly, Connect 4, and anyone remember ‘Sorry’?

My parents always bought a new ‘family game’ every year, and I’ve carried on this tradition with my own children.

This time last year, we bought Pucket – an amazingly fun game, you pull back the elastic to fire your wooden pucks through a gap in the middle of the board (the ‘gate’), and when all of your pucks have got through… before your opponents’, you’ve won! It’s manic, and massively funny to play. We can highly recommend this game 🙂

Now the makers of Pucket, ETGames, have a new game… it’s called ‘Bridget’ and the boys LOVE it… 11yo opened it on his birthday, they figured out the rules – taking it in turns to add the bricks to get across the board with their ‘bridges’…they insisted we took it with us to the restaurant for Birthday Supper with Daddy… and excitedly explained the Bridge Building Strategy Game to him. “A three dimensional noughts and crosses” which I seem to lose to a 9yo and an 11yo…grrr.

(When not playing the official game, they use the bricks to create characters and funny faces!!)

It’s produced following the same Fair Trade principles as the production of the Pucket game, and packaged in a small organic cotton bag, perfect for taking with you on your travels, and Bridget is carefully hand-crafted in the UK – in fact, it’s quite a thing of beauty!

I’ve recommended this to several friends who have already purchased the Bridget for Christmas pressies, and my Brother in Law will certainly be getting one from us too this year!

If you can recommend any other classic games you think my family, and the boys age 9 and 11 may like – please comment below, thank you 🙂

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

baking, cooking, cooking with kids, halloween, kids

Toffee Apples

I used to LOVE Toffee Apples as a kid, well, I SAY that, I do seem to remember just eating the toffee, and discarding the bit with the vitamins… My boys on the other hand, food-swots that they are, love getting through the toffee to the yummy healthy apple centre! So I thought I’d share the recipe we use with you, just in time for Halloween and a few fireworks for Bonfire Night here in the UK!

you will need:

6 medium sized apples
200g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
half tsp vinegar
50ml water
Sprinkles (optional)

1) Pop the apples into a bowl of boiling water to remove the waxy finish, rub them dry with a tea towel, this allows the toffee to adhere to the apples. Push a wooden lolly stick into each apple.

2) Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper onto a plate beside the stove, and space the apples on this so they do not touch each other. I sprinkled some ‘hundreds and thousands’ onto the paper first, you don’t NEED to do this… looks pretty though 🙂

3) Pour the sugar into a pan along with 50ml water and set over a medium heat for five mins until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the vinegar and syrup. If you have a sugar thermometer (I don’t), pop it in the pan and boil to 140C or ‘hard crack’ stage. I find after about ten mins, you can test the toffee by pouring a little into a bowl of cold water. It should harden instantly and, when removed, be brittle and easy to break. If you can still squash the toffee, boil it for a tiny bit longer…

4) Next bit – act fast! Dunk the first apple into the pan, swill the toffee around so it’s fully coated, allow excess to drip back into the pan, and then place the apple back into its spot on the greaseproof paper, careful not to bump it into the other apples…

Obviously let them cool down well before eating, as the toffee is SUPER hot, and if you have any toffee left over, poor onto another sheet of greaseproof paper (with a lip so it doesn’t run) and the kids can have fun cracking it with a rolling pin when it’s cooled and set!

To keep the theme of apples going, and inspiration for a slightly healthier option, try Domesticgoddesque’s baked apples – Or try Lifeatthezoo‘s baked apple version and then, to go with your bonfire night treats…how about the Red Ted Art’s edible sparklers!

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

kids

WIN Exclusive merchanise with TURBO!

SOoo My boys age 9 and 10, were lucky enough to see an exclusive preview of the new Turbo film which hits cinemas TODAY! We went to see the film as a family, and we ALL loved it…The makers of MADAGASCAR and KUNG FU PANDA, brought us an all-star voice cast including Michelle Rodriguez, (a woman after my own heart – as the female garage proprietor Paz!) Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Giamatti and Snoop Dogg (the rather COOL Smoove Move, who’s partial to a lovely Fluffy pink dice necklace).

To celebrate today’s launch, KidsChaos and Female-Friendly garage Woodley Auto Centre are giving three lucky winners the chance to win a batch of Turbo merchandise packs. The packs include the following goodies: Spoke Charms, Fridge Magnet, Light-up Yo-Yo, Digital Watch, Retractable Earphones, Memo Board, T-Shirt and Turbo Pinball!

#TURBO is a high-velocity 3D comedy about an ordinary snail who dares to dream big – and fast. After a freak accident miraculously gives him the power of super-speed, Turbo kicks his dreaming into overdrive and embarks on an extraordinary journey to achieve the seemingly impossible: racing against famed driver Guy Gagne. With the help of Turbo’s tricked-out streetwise snail crew, this ultimate underdog puts his heart and shell on the line to prove that no dream is too big, and no dreamer too small.

To be in with a chance of winning, just watch the following clip and answer the question below:

What car accessory does Smoove Move have around his neck?
a) Pine air freshener
b) Fluffy pink dice
c) A steering wheel

To add to your chances…. you could like a couple of facebook pages via rafflecopter too…
a Rafflecopter giveaway

good luck! Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Click here for other KidsChaos Competitions, and Pop over to say hello x we were invited along to a family film viewing with the Twentieth Century Fox team.

Terms & Conditions
• Open to UK residents only.
• The prize for three (3) winners is one (1) spoke charms, fridge magnet, light-up Yo-Yo, digital watch, retractable earphones, memo board, T-Shirt and Turbo Pinball
• There is no cash or other alternative to the prize stated and the prize is not transferable and no part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
• Winner will be selected from all valid and correct entries and notified by email. Winner’s details will be passed to a third party for prize fulfilment.
• The prize will be delivered to the winner within 28 days of confirmation of delivery address.
• The Editor’s decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into. Ends Midnight 29th October 2013.

kids

Skylanders Swap Force Review

SOoo My boys age 9 and 10, LOVE Skylanders, what’s new…..? They have an “Intendowee” (yep, that’s what they thought it was called… bless their innocence.) And sadly, this is the thing (the Nintendo Wii) that gets ‘banned’ when behaviour is not QUITE as good as it should be in the KidsChaos household…

So imagine my delight when the new Skylanders Swap Force arrived on our doorstep – great! And yes, the behaviour this last week has been impeccable in anticipation of trying it out for size. We even had the camera handy when they were pulling the packaging off – oh their faces!!

I asked them to ‘review’ it for me, and so they did.

So, to explain their review-methodology….At school, when they are reviewing/critiquing their young colleagues’ work, they use the method of “Two Stars and A Wish” – 10yo asked if that would be OK, and hoped that nobody would mind the “Wish” (which essentially, is the one “positive” thing they’d wish for to improve the product in question… )

There were lots of “Stars” compliments – which included the much-improved graphics compared to the original Skylanders (he hoped that Skylanders wouldn’t mind him saying that)… the fact you can now JUMP, measured very highly, and both boys agreed that it’s brilliant that you can create LOADS of their OWN characters by swapping heads and bodies. There have been certainly a LOT more playdates at our house this week, and all of the kids have been massively enamoured (once the homework has been finished clearly…).

Which leads us to the “Wish” – They would like to be able to play with more than two players, and hope that the “Portal of Power” will soon be available with enough room for four figures please… that said, they’ve all played beautifully, encouraging their friends, and have shared so nicely, that the Wii may not be banned for some time chez nous!

Want to see the boys talking about their new favourite toy? Worth watching just for their excitement on opening the packaging! click here to watch. nmsf2013

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Click here for the latest KidsChaos Competition, and Pop over to say hello x This has been a commissioned post.

competitions, kids, monster

WIN a copy of Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles

My boys LOVE Star Wars… My boys LOVE Lego….So, can you imagine our delight to be invited to the launch party of the new Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles which is out now on DVD!

What a fab way to spend an afternoon, AND we got to meet a rather imposing REAL Darth Vadar, AND play with Lego too – all of us piecing together parts of a giant Yoda ‘jigsaw’ made of single lego pieces, it was quite a challenge! We have a great affection for Yoda, click here for our finger puppets!)

The kids really enjoyed watching the new DVD stories, and we are saving watching it again on our own DVD player, for a trip down the M4 to Swansea at the weekend, I’ve no doubt it will be on loop… ‘one more time please’! 🙂

And if you would like to WIN one of three copies of the #LegoStarYodaDVD click here!

Disclaimer: we were invited along to a family day out with the Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment team

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, google+ hangouts, halloween, kids, monster

Halloween Skull potato print party bags

What is it with skulls? There is something so graphically appealing about them… and with several small boys to entertain for yet another birthday party, I decided to involve them in making wrapping paper, and party bags… So we each carved a face into a potato and got printing!

It’s pretty simple stuff, you can see in the photograph of the potato, you slice it lengthwise, and carefully cut the mouth and eyes with a sharp knife. It’s essential that the potato is sliced FLAT otherwise the print won’t be nice and clean.

8yo (as he was at the time) enjoyed mixing the colours to get the murky grey, and we rolled out some brown packing paper on the table to print up the wrapping paper. The party bags are really easy to make too, you need a tissue box for a template and for an easy ‘how to’ vlog – click over to redtedart.com where one of my earliest appearances on video camera will entertain you…

These potato skulls would be great for Halloween bunting, or if you didn’t fancy getting the paints out, dowload my FREE Day of the Dead printables here.

Want to see me talking about this project and skull potato printing? Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Halloween crafts’ on Google+.

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, including toilet roll bat pinatas! More links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree, Aly at plus2point4.co.uk, Kelly at domesticgoddesque.com and Lizzie from missielizzie-meandmyshadow.

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!

crafts, halloween, kids, monster

Day of The Dead skull bunting FREE printable

So Autumn is upon us, and time to look at a Mexican holiday celebration which is new to my boys: Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos which is the first two days of November.

Although the holiday involves artistic representations of skulls and skeletons, the occasion is festive, rather than morbid. Death isn’t seen as the end of one’s life, but as a natural part of the life cycle; the dead come back to visit every year. In the UK, around this time of year, Halloween’s images of skulls and skellybobs are spooky,eery, and scary. By contrast, On Day of the Dead, it’s about celebrating with the family both alive and remembering those who are no longer with us.

I asked the boys what they would like to make, and ‘masks’ and ‘bunting’ seemed popular and do-able choices… as they are 9 and 10 now, and love their Marvel graphic novels, they wanted me to ‘draw’ the templates in Illustrator for them to colour – so that’s what we’ve done… and I’ve attached a FREE Printable for you to colour and create your own Day of the Dead garland too…(you too can make your own ‘microwave dave’ character like the 10yo…)

Day of the Dead Bunting – you will need:

A print out of our FREE PRINTABLE
Colouring pencils, glitter, or paints
A hole punch
Ribbon

My boys really enjoyed colouring the skulls, and requested Star Wars themed skulls too… not one, but two, so have fun – and would love to see yours too 🙂 If you’d like to see more SKULL craft ideas, click here to take a look at our potato print skull party bag how to!

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, from skulls on stones, and corks, balloons and more links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree who loves a bit of skull face painting, and talked about T-shirt printing, skeletons and sculpting and glitter and check out Kelly at domesticgoddesque.com and her day of the dead spoon craft!

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!