It's not pretty, but it's play

Recently, my children's play hasn't been nearly as pretty or as obviously photogenic as usual. However, I've still snapped away, trying to capture all their brilliant adventures, and fortunately, I've discovered a great image processor on Picasa 3. I think this 'plastic' camera effect works really well for this particular collection of Buddy and Daisy at Play pictures.

On Saturday, Darth Vader gave us a super quality black balloon at a Star Wars party (which explains the Jedi and Yoda costumes in the top photo). There have been a great many giggly games of keepy-uppy since then.

There's been some top-notch potion-making; but no perfumed petals or glitter were involved this time. Instead, leaves, carrot-tops, mud, water, washing-up liquid, vinegar and small stones were collected, whisked into the 'cauldron' and then the nasty-looking mixture was poured into jars.

 They are deadly potions, apparently. They have the labels to prove it.

This black, shop-bought, pizza packaging has been transformed - with the weight of a few pennies - into a surprisingly robust flying saucer. They've been having some fantastic post-dinner frisbee games in our little garden.




 Just goes to show - play doesn't have to be pretty to be pretty cool!

Five ways to have fun with football (even if you're not a fan)

A visit from Nan and Grandad this weekend coincided with the FA Cup Final. As huge football fans we knew they'd want to see the match so of course we said we'd watch the televised game with them, and we came up with some fun and creative activities that got everyone excited about football - at least for the afternoon. Here are five fun things to try:

1. Play air-ball

Bud and Daisy drew a chalk pitch on our PVC pouffe, and then, kneeling opposite each other, they each used a drinking straw to blow a ball - actually a screwed-up piece of paper - around the pitch. To score a goal the ball had to be blown off the pouffe at the goal markings on their opponent's side. An exciting match ensued - it got extremely noisy and dribble-y, and made them laugh so much they got the hiccups.

2. Bake footballer biscuits

Using a simple butter-cookie dough recipe we soon had a whole team of footballer biscuits ready to munch during the match. Bud drew chalk markings on some green paper, and I covered the whole thing in sticky-backed plastic before the biscuit-players and balls were strategically placed all over the pitch. It really didn't take long for them all to get sent-off* though.

*eaten

3. Play football-oon

During the match - and out of the way of the TV screen (mostly) - my five-year-old's attention was happily occupied with balloon keepy-uppy. We spotted some very fancy footwork, great headers and brilliant slow-motion action replays.

4. Prepare refreshing oranges for half-time

Rolling oranges around and around with the palm of her hand (to release the juice) entertained Daisy for quite a while during the match. Then she helped me cut the oranges into quarters for everyone to suck during half-time - just like real footballers. Do they still do that?

5. Have a pre-match kick-about
Fortunately the sun came out for long enough that we all got out for a quick kick-about before kick-off. Nan and Grandad showed our children some pretty impressive ball skills. Never mind the final score of the FA Cup -  for me, the best result of the day was seeing them all enjoying playing football together in the sunshine.

Up, up and away

I have a love/hate relationship with balloons. I wince in anticipation of the inevitable BANG! and I have the loudest response when the moment arrives - I always let out a yip-type scream more shocking than the pop itself. Then I still can't relax, never failing to remember my Nana, warning of the dangers of small children inhaling and choking on the deflated variety. So yes, balloons make me nervous.

However, I do see their merits. Balloons are simply super play things - all kinds of creative encounters revolve around them. My two children love to play keepy-uppy and slow-motion throw and catch, where their skills are of course so much better than with a ball. And balloons take on all manner of guises; rockets, pets, stuffed under clothing to make babies in tummies, I've seen them all.

Today at a party there were about a hundred balloons filled with helium, ribbons dangling at enticing heights. A game evolved amongst the 5 year old revellers where they sold their captured balloons to one another for £10 each; very enterprising. I'm not so twitchy with helium balloons - they are far more likely to disappear into the blue than to pop, and tears I can handle. But since I've seen the film Up I can't see one without getting all sentimental, each humble balloon a poignant reminder of that sad yet life-affirming movie.

My favourite creative response to the balloon was one I saw just yesterday, when my family played at being balloons themselves. No actual balloons were used, so I had no need to be on edge - it was perfect. Rob (daddy), Buddy and Daisy (my two children) took it in turns to 'inflate' each other using our football pump. They started small and limp-looking, becoming larger and taller as the other pretended to fill them with air. The giggliest part came when daddy was the balloon; when he couldn't expand any more there was a moment of stillness then... all the air came out of him with either a pop or a big raspberry as he zoomed around deflating rapidly landing on the floor to great applause. Buddy and Daisy just loved this game - they must have played it a hundred times.

So for me the best balloons are definitely imaginary. And while I have to endure the real things more often than I'd like, I have at least learned the best way to get rid of them once the thrill has gone. I stick some Sellotape onto the balloon and pierce that bit with a pin. No pop - just instant, silent deflation. I'll leave the bangs, screams and raspberries to the rest of the family.

New balls please

Football doesn't feature in our immediate family. At all. I for one, am more excited about June 21; that's when the Wimbledon starts. On hearing this news yesterday, I felt inspired to dig out all our balls - numerous glittery super-bounce balls and tennis balls - and we had a bit of a free-for-all throwing and bouncing session in our little garden.

However, with England's first match in the World Cup today, we could not escape the presence of its importance; there were so many St George's flags out and about. Spotting every single one, Buddy and Daisy chanted 'ENG-ER-LAND!' at full volume. So, I agreed to watch the match with them tonight.

Knowing that a) they'd never watched a football match before, b) a game lasts at least 90 minutes and c) a lot of the play would go over their heads, I had to think on my feet as to how this was going to be a fun stay-up-late event for a 3 year old, a 5 year old and a mummy who would really rather be explaining the rules and excitements of tennis. However, I can report that we had an absolutely brilliant match.

We kicked off by celebrating the very early goal (thank you Gerrard) by making celebratory flags.

I folded a sheet of A4 white paper into little rectangles, drew the St George's cross across all its sections in swift ruled strokes of red felt tip and then Buddy cut them out. I got him to leave two adjoining flags uncut so we could fold along their join, and glue them together with a pipe cleaner as flag pole in the crease. They made super miniature ENG-ER-LAND flags. So far, so good.

Daisy wanted to wear hers on her head. So I rummaged around for an Alice-band and wound round two pipe-cleaner flags. She then hopped around as 'The England Rabbit.' Goal!

Buddy wanted to decorate a car with the flags, so as pictured below, we adorned a toy Mini. A brilliant goal!

Daisy suddenly announced she wanted to play football. I scored by producing a selection of balloons to use as footballs. The rest of the first half just flew by as my children just amazed me with their fancy footwork, headers and knowledge of the game; they showed me slow-motion replays and got injured numerous times - a rub and a pat on the back was required to get them back on their feet again.

With half-time approaching, I raided the fridge for an orange (a clementine actually) and cut it up into quarters, telling my two tired little soccer stars that we were going to suck out the juice from the oranges just like the real football players would be doing during half-time. This was incentive enough - my two never eat oranges or clementines usually, by the way. Buddy and Daisy really enjoyed this taste sensation and were ready for the second half.

With more foot-balloon keepy-uppy fun, the football on the TV faded into the background. But excitement returned when Daisy spotted someone in the crowd with their face painted. I found our face paints and obligingly created some England flags on cheeks and noses. Another superb goal!

By the end of the match Daisy was playing Shoe Shop, and Bud had become engrossed in his new magazine. Even with the late near-misses, their interest had dwindled. But they did want to keep their flags and balloon-footballs for the next match.

England may have only produced a draw tonight, but we definitely had a win. And for a non-football person like me, that's a pretty good result.