{Outdoor Play Party: Lying in the Grass}

You know those moments you get sometimes as a parent, when your child does something that makes  you feel so proud your heart could burst? Well, I must tell you that when my 2 year old spontaneously went out recently and lay down by herself on the grass, just laid there, simply enjoying the feel of it, I had one of those moments! My daughter was just purely enjoying nature - the feel of it, the sound of it, the smell of it - enjoying it with all her senses! I can't tell you how happy it made me to see that - my little girl appreciating the natural world, without any prompting or toys or activities to entice her. Just the soft, green grass calling to her made her run out there and lay her whole body down on it to experience it.

Pinky Cat got to go out and enjoy it, too.

Otherwise, she was all alone, just peacefully taking in the world around her.


What else can you do while lying in the grass?

See what kinds of bugs or other life you can find hidden in the grass.
Mark off a small patch no bigger than the size of your palm and use a magnifying glass to try to count the blades of grass in that patch. Can you count them?
See if you can find other types of plants hidden among the grass - can you find daisies? Dandelions? Clovers?
Search for 4-leafed clover leaves.
Feel the grass on your skin and try to describe it - is it soft? Spiky? Dry? Damp?
Lay on the grass and watch the clouds go by - can you see any shapes in them?

The last Outdoor Play Party included 41 ideas for playing outdoors. Many of them also involved exploring the natural world. Below are a few of my favourite nature exploration posts that were linked up. If you were one of them, go ahead and grab yourself a 'featured' button from the sidebar.

Rainy Day Mum shared her post about going on a bug hunt in their garden.

Play, Create, Explore explained how to capture and preserve a spider web perfectly on paper.

At Pre-School Play, the children used mud and found nature items to create some International Mud Day artwork.

And the Children's Art Group used items from nature to create these nature prints in clay.

For further details about this linky party, see here.

{Pink and Red Heart Party: Cupcake Liner Rosettes}

Like Mama Pea Pod for birthday party ideas? Please consider throwing a vote our way in the Red Tricycle Most Awesome awards for Birthday Party Ideas! Thanks so much! x

Another craft from Sweet Pea's pink and red heart-themed birthday party: Rosettes to wear, made from cupcake liners!

Princess Pea has a store-bought 'Birthday Girl' rosette from a couple of years ago, but I thought it might be fun to make these homemade rosettes for all the guests to wear at the party and to take home afterwards.

I followed the tutorial for making cupcake liner rosettes for cards here*, except that I also hot glued a circular piece of coordinating fabric onto the backs and stuck a safety pin through the fabric, so that we could use them as wearable rosettes for the party guests (and my two girls, too, of course).

I had some plain pink, blue and patterned pink cupcake liners that I used, and I happened to have some sparkly craft foam, so there was no need to do the glitter step in the tutorial (though I think they'd still look sweet without the sparkles). 

For the boy at the party, I used a blue craft foam pre-cut star shape (not glittery, but oh well)**.  The only other patterned cupcake liners I had were all Christmas-themed, but it worked out perfectly as our little boy friend is obsessed with snowmen at the moment, so he got a snowman liner in his. 

And I had some sweet cupcake-patterned ribbon in pink and blue that was perfect for the tails.

For more creations from the party, look here. And for other heart-themed party ideas, check out my Heart Party Ideas Pinterest board.



* Although the tutorial looks like there's a lot of steps involved, it was actually a really quick and easy craft to do. 
**Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think pink hearts are unsuitable for boys, but rather that I expected that our 5 year old guest would not be very interested in wearing one. Particularly if his 7 year old brother caught sight of him in it.

{More Pink and Red Heart Party Crafts: Fun toothpick toppers!}

Fun Heart Toothpick Toppers

for Parties

Like Mama Pea Pod for birthday party ideas? Please consider throwing a vote our way in the Red Tricycle Most Awesome awards for Birthday Party Ideas! Thanks so much! x

Nothing says 'party' like decorative toothpicks, right? ;-)

So I made these for Sweet Pea's pink and red heart birthday party.

I found some craft foam heart shapes in the kids' craft supplies.

I attached one to the top of a toothpick, using one side of a bit of double-sided tape.

Then I peeled off the backing and attached a matching foam heart onto it, 

on the other side of the toothpick.

Cute and easy and took about 2 minutes to make 8 of them!

What other shapes could I make next?

{Outdoor Play Party: Snow!}

Play Hide and Seek in the Snow!

Yay, we finally got snow! This is the view of the garden from our 
kitchen window right now. We had the best time playing out in the snow this afternoon! Our friends who live across from us came to play too. It turned out to be dry, powdery snow, not at all suitable for building snowmen, but instead we took out some of our zoo animals [affiliate link] for a snowy game of hide-and-seek.

We brought the black-and-white panda and zebra for a challenge for Princess Pea ...

... and the orange lion and cheetah to be easier for Sweet Pea to find in the snow.

They spent ages taking turns hiding the animals and finding them again!

This was Sweet Pea's very first time really playing in snow (last winter she was just learning to crawl - seems so long ago!) and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it!

But the bigger girls definitely all had a blast!

In the end, Sweet Pea wanted to try sliding too, so I took her down a few times on my lap - she loved it!

("More again! More again!")

Whether you have snow or not, this Ice Bowling idea shared by Train Up A Child on the last edition of the Outdoor Play Party looks like loads of fun! I think we'll see if we can try a snowball version of it :-) (Train Up A Child, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar!)

If you're looking for more snowy play ideas, there were lots linked up to the last Outdoor Play Party. Thanks to everyone who joined in on the party, we had our most link-ups to date!

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1. Here are just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! Please grab the Outdoor Play button from the sidebar. 

• Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.
  
  
  
  

{Small World Play - Doll House}

For Christmas this year, my girls got my old dollhouse. 

My parents made it for me for Christmas when I was 5. 

I just cleaned it up, made new curtains for it, 

and Santa refurnished the whole thing with new Playmobil furniture and accessories.

I just have to say:

BEST

GIFT

EVER!!!

They've been playing with it every single day since!

And I've been having fun 'tidying it up' every night after they've gone to bed, too! 

(heehee)

*You can find all of these Playmobil products in my Amazon Affiliates store in the sidebar.

Shared at: It's Playtime

{Outdoor Play Party: Scoping out the New Neighbourhoood}

I must admit, I've been a bit disappointed that we haven't had any (significant) snow yet (I was so looking forward to building a snowman with the girls this winter as Sweet Pea is a bit snowman obsessed at the moment), but I can definitely live without snow for a while longer - winter is not my favourite season!


Instead, we've been taking advantage of the mild winter weather to enjoy some time at various local playgrounds. I've said it before and I'll say it again - playgrounds in Hungary are fantastic! They are plentiful, they are usually newly refurbished with great play equipment, they always have a water tap (though they don't run water in winter), and best of all, they are always a community hub!


It's always disappointing when we go to playgrounds in North America during the summertime to discover that there are hardly any other kids there, if any. We're always hoping to make a summertime new friend, but we find we are usually the only ones there. But here, there are always lots of new playmates to befriend, which is perfect for my social butterfly, Princess Pea!


This week we've been scoping out our new neighbourhood before our move next month. We spent a spent a whole day hanging out and pretending that we already live there! :-)

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1. Here are just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! Please grab the Outdoor Play button from the sidebar. 

• Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.
  
  
  
  
  Our last party had a TON of fabulous ideas linked up, it was really hard to choose which one to feature this week - they were all brilliant! But one that caught my eye was the post on 'Outdoor play and learning opportunities'  from Sixty Second Parent. A great article with loads of suggestions all in one place. I encourage all of you to read and share it! 
  
  

Sharing at: Family Frolics

{Outdoor Play Party: Lighting up the Dark}

Well, after that nice, long break we are back into real life again - and it's time for the Outdoor Play Party! We've decided that since real life is super busy, we are going to run the Outdoor Play Party every 2 weeks instead of every week, and the linky will be open to accept links for 2 weeks.


Did you get up to lots of fun outdoor play over the holidays?


We enjoyed a couple of nights outdoors in the dark over the holidays (the dark always adds an extra layer of excitement for the little peas) playing with sparklers. This was the first time either of them had tried sparklers before, and I was impressed with how careful they were.


Hungarian Christmas tradition is that instead of Santa coming at midnight on Christmas Eve, Baby Jesus comes in the evening after dinner, and brings presents and a decorated tree. One of the trickier aspects of this tradition is getting the presents (and the tree, for those that do that part - we don't) into the house and set up without the kids noticing - particularly difficult when you live in an apartment! So we found the perfect excuse to get them out - they had to go outside to light sparklers that Baby Jesus could see from afar, to indicate that we had finished dinner and were ready now! The girls had a great time after some initial tears about dropping half the pack of sparklers and losing them in the dark!

We also went out and lit sparklers with all our friends from the building on New Year's Eve at our spontaneous New Year's Eve party. All the kids had a great time waving them around and blowing their noisemakers to welcome in the new year!

 

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1. Here are just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! Please grab the Outdoor Play button from the sidebar. 

• Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.
  
  
  Our holiday linky was rather quiet, so an extra big thank you to those who were able to find time during this busy season to link up! I especially loved this Night Hike from The Family Adventure Project - a super blog that I'm so glad to feature!

{Outdoor Play Party: Pancakes, Ponies, and Elephants - Oh My!}

This week we went for brunch at a friend's house outside the city. After a delicious breakfast of pancakes, sausages, mini quiches, and bagels, we went out for a walk near their house. At the end of their street is a muddy path that leads to a stable that houses all the local horses and ponies and runs a riding school. We had promised the girls that we'd go see the horses after eating.

Princess Pea was very excited as we set off over the frosty fields and through the woods, across a dried up pond still full of broken bullrushes from last summer. When we got there, she eagerly pointed out the colours and features of the different ponies, asking questions and answering them.

Sweet Pea, on the other hand, somehow got it in her head that we were going to go see some elephants! Despite our repeated assurances that there were only horses and no elephants, she was completely unconvinced and I ended up having to carry her almost the whole way while she clung to me, repeating "Where's the elephant?" and looking fearfully all around!

When we finally reached the horses, she wasn't reassured much and stuck close to me the whole time. I still have no clue why she thought there would be elephants!

But anyway, on to the party....

There were some lovely posts linked up to last week's Outdoor Play Party! My favourite was this post from Exploring the Outdoor Classroom about using tires as 'loose parts' in children's play - fabulous!

Be sure to check out my cohosts' posts to see who they featured this week! And to those that are featured, feel free to grab a 'featured' button! (Sorry it's still copy and paste, working on getting code for it. Been a busy week!)

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every week! The linky goes live each Friday at 12:01 GMT+1. Here are just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! You can grab my button from the sidebar or copy and paste the 'Outdoor Play Party' button below. 

• Each week we will feature an activity from the previous week. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished.

Sharing at: The Sunday Showcase