building a snowman

We arrived very late to the "Frozen" movie craze, everyone was telling us how wonderful the movie was and how we MUST see it. We finally did, and we promptly fell in love, don't you agree? I bought the soundtrack to try and quell the constant requests for watching the DVD!

 It was no surprise when the theme for the school dance was announced "your favourite character" that the character chosen was one from the Frozen movie. I just wasn't expecting Olaf!

I wasn't sure that a full suit would be the way to go, lots of dancing = heat, not a good combination. Instead I made a shirt/skirt combo, with the "skirt" being easy to remove if he got too hot (or embarrassed - let's be honest). The skirt part was fashioned from quilting Dacron, I stitched some elastic around the bottom to pull it in and form a rounded shape, easy.

I painted Olaf's face on a cotton tee using fabric paints and pens. An orange felt carrot nose hand stitched on, several times, ahem. A couple of stick like arms, "coal" buttons and I was done.

It was a huge hit, with other kids coming up to him saying "Hi Olaf", he was pleased and that is the true measure of success in my book!

As for Elsa, well you can see in the below picture that she wasn't such a willing model, perhaps something urgent in Arendelle calling her away?

BINGO

Slightly wild, off the track walks are something my family enjoy. We always start off with loads of enthusiasm, but to be honest, the little members of our family often loose interest fairly quickly. I spotted this "Nature Bingo" set from Seedling and thought that might pique their interest, perhaps making our walks a little longer.

I suppose it's a bit like Mary Poppins says, "In ev'ry job that must be done, there is an element of fun you find the fun and snap, the job's a game." I find this is true in most aspects of parenting! It's also true (as it turns out) on our wild walks. The kids seem to be more preoccupied in looking for the items on the bingo board to notice how far we've walked. 

Looking out for things means we actually end up spotting many more things that otherwise we may have overlooked. Feathers, wild strawberries and seedpods are all eyed up as potential bingo squares!

The bingo boards have become a favourite part of our walks, often we have several rounds of bingo if I've remembered to pack a cloth to wipe off the chalk and we are lucky enough to spot some of the more elusive bingo squares! 

* This is not a sponsored post, I just love this product and the NZ company Seedling and wanted to spread the word!