salt dough fun

December has meant Sophia's nursery hours have been all over the place with Christmas parties, nursery plays and Christmas activities. Usually she is in during the afternoon but this month a few sessions were swapped to morning sessions. Then I get the dreaded call that they had messed up with the dates and could I have her in nursery within 30 minutes. 100% not happening, I'm in my pj's, she is running around refusing to wear clothes whilst occasionally paying attention to her breakfast. Even after being a mother for just over three years I haven't mastered how to get ready and out the door quickly. I need to plan in my head and work to a schedule, it is like a military drill. Instead we decided to do a food shop together and plan some activities we could do. Then the light bulb moment happened and salt dough Christmas decorations were on the itinerary for the day.

If you haven't used salt dough before it's simple, literally salt, flour and water. A cup of each adding the water slowly to get your dough to the right consistency and then it's ready to squish, roll and cut into whatever shape your heart desires. For us it was hearts and gingerbread men shapes. Now I forgot to leave my dough to rest but they are currently in the oven, they have raised slightly but not too much. You can add food colouring to the dough or paint them using acrylic paint. I'm hoping ours can be used as decorations for the tree. 

Sophia had great fun playing with the dough, mixing everything together and getting her hands a bit messy. So there you have it, a cheap, cheerful and easy to do toddler pleasing activity! I would to see some of your creations!

Out of the oven and ready to paint! I am slightly concerned my gingerbread men have grown boobs... cant really see it in the photo and i'm hoping that its not really obvious when we paint them!

Deck the halls!

I finally convinced Bruce to pop up into the loft and bring down our boxes of Christmas items. Last year it was our first Christmas in our new home and we had ended up with a mash up of bits and pieces from all of our family members. This year however I have been slightly more prepared. What started off as a deep clean of the sitting room turned into a full blown deep clean of the entire house, I got a tad carried away and even ended up sorting through our wardrobes, cupboards and all our little hiding places. Thankfully Bruce was with me to give a helping hand and keep me calm or I think I would still be sat in a pile of Sophia's old toys & clothes now if he hadn't been with me.

This year I got all of our tree decorations from The Range and Homebase, nothing expensive or overly fancy. I didn't want to spend an absolute fortune and end up having a mental breakdown when and if Sophia knocks something off of the tree. Our silver baubles and the fancier ones all came from The Range, even better the large jeweled silver one is an almost foam type material. I've always found that individual baubles can be quite delicate but these are completely Sophia proof! Yay! 

I cannot wait to see Sophia's face in the morning, I also hope Bruce comes to terms with the pink... I did ask him if he had a colour preference and his reply? "The tree is your thing, do what you want!" So I did and tonight he started questioning the pink. Sorry darling but you live with two females and you were out voted! Now all I need to do is convince Bruce that Sophia and I would really love lights up outside too. Wish me luck!