Wee Stories » Kids

Sunday hi jinks.

Jean — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:17:13 +0000

The aforementioned hi jinks.

The girls didn’t want to go to a park yesterday, so K blew up the inflatable pool for them to have an evening dip. All was relatively peaceful until a playfight began and someone splashed water onto the deck as Bryan was passing.

Crouching tiger, hidden dragon?

Bryan got all excited and started patrolling the pool, waiting for the next splash to snap at. Eventually, he started climbing on the sides, which got the kids all screamy because they didn’t want a big furball in there with them.

Bryan contemplates going for a swim.

A crocheted crown for Zoe.

Jean — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:39:21 +0000

Zoe asked for a crocheted crown, so I made her one using this tutorial, which I mentioned earlier. It took me two nights to finish, mainly because I had to rework the six points several times as they were rather fiddly to make. I used $2 acrylic yarn from Daiso, and I added 20 stitches on each tie just to make sure that it would be able to fit on Zoe’s head.

Some of the points were pointier than others because I'm still getting the hang of gauge.

My little goofball prefers to wear her crown over her eyes than on her forehead.

To the beach.

Jean — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:38:48 +0000

One of the things that K and I have resolved to do with the children this year is to spend more time in the great outdoors. We said we’d try to take them to the beach or park every Sunday afternoon, and today was the first day we actually made it out the door and to the beach. Here’s the pictorial evidence!

Watching sailors from the Mana Mana Beach Club play with all sorts of sailing equipment.

The main purpose of the outing - sandcastle building - was not very successful because the sand was not of the right consistency.

After a while, the sand was abandoned in favour of water.

And of course, the mandatory horsing around.

Arrr! The year of the dragon is nigh!

Monkey mirrored.

Jean — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:08:39 +0000

Spotted in the glass of my bathroom door - Zoe doing a stunt.

Whirl ‘n Wear review.

Jean — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:28:25 +0000

I’ve been looking at Pandora and Trollbeads lately, after seeing pictures of people’s bracelets and necklaces online. The beads are so pretty, but they are very pricey. I’m also not a bracelet person, and many of the beads look better on bracelets than necklaces, so I’ve yet to pull the trigger on either brand.

While I waffle over whether to spend money on little trinkets, the girls have dived headfirst into the wonderful world of charm bracelets. I bought the Whirl ‘n Wear Spectacular Spinner set and an accessory pack for a lark during a recent sale at Toys “R” Us, and they have whipped up several bracelets and bag charms. Here’s how to make a bracelet with the spinner.

The packaging. I think it's $39.95 for the spinner set and $19.90 for the accessory pack.

Apart from the charms, the packs come with all the necessary stuff to make bracelets and bag charms.

Step 1: Arrange the charms in the spinner according to how you like them.

Step 2: Turn the wheel to move the plastic hook through all the beads.

Step 3: Thread the thread through the threader. Ha.

Step 4: Move the hook so that it catches the thread and turn it anti-clockwise to draw the thread through the beads.

Step 5: Carefully remove your creation from the spinner. Keyword: CAREFULLY.

Step 6: End the bracelet with a charm stopper. This step is quite tricky and sometimes needs several tries.

Yay! Completed bracelets!

The three bracelets above are for Alison and her best friends – a sort of “welcome back to school” present I suppose. The girls wanted to make more but my eyes were so crossed after fixing the charm stoppers, I had to say no. So far, we’ve made three bracelets on the spinner, two small ones freehand for Zoe, and a bag charm – and there are still charms left to use. I’d say buying the spinner set and one accessory pack will last for quite a while, and you can always reuse the charms by cutting the elastic thread. All in all, a very good toy.

PS: I forgot to mention that although the box says this toy is suitable for ages 5+, Alison had some problems placing the smaller beads in the spinner, while Zoe could not not manage them at all. Even I had some problems, especially with ending the bracelet with the charm stopper. Be prepared to have to help your kids through the whole process.