{Birthday Special} - E is 7 and free DIY Paper Bunting

Little E turned 7 years old finally, a day he has been longing for as it signifies that he is a big boy now. A major milestone to a young kid as that's the age he starts formal schooling, a.k.a. The Big Boy school.

We had a simple celebration at home, with wonderful spread of dinner cooked by the grandma, a chocolate mango mousse cake with special decoration by mommy, and a Star War LEGO set that he always wanted. 

The very happy birthday boy.

The birthday tradition - longevity noodles and red eggs. Roast chicken legs are the kiddos' favorites.

E was smiling the whole time and had such great appetite. Ate double portion of fried noodles, a whole chicken drumsticks and double slices of the mango mousse cake. That, brought smiles to me too.

With his Lego Star Wars Clone Commander, spent the night assembling it by himself.

However, secretly I was worried he would be disappointed as this time round, I did not arranged a party with his little friends - mommy had resumed working so no time to bake him a cake nor organized a party, but I had a pleasant surprise when he told me this during bedtime..

"Mommy, today is the happiest day for me!"  

"Really? Can you tell me why?", I pretended blunt.

"I got my favorite mango chocolate cake, my favorite LEGO toy, and all my friends celebrated for me too!"

"All your friends? In school?", now I got really curious. 

I did not packed party food to bring to his school this time, since I don't think his class teacher will like him to disrupt the lesson - local government school teachers are well known to be really strict.

"Teacher Chan asked the class if we know whose birthday is it today, I raised my hand, and she invited everyone to sing birthday song for me...", his eyes sparkling and his face brighten up as he told me, "in 3 different languages!! English, Bahasa and 华语!"

"Wow, you are one lucky boy to have 50 person celebrating with you..."

"Yes, I know! I am so happy mommy!"

He was smiling like the morning sun, warmth and bright.

Despite all the horror stories I have heard about the local teachers - how they punished the students unreasonably, how they gave crazy amount of homework etc (no offense to all teachers, personally I adored all my former teachers).... I am just glad that E got a caring teacher for his first year of formal schooling life.

A good & caring teacher is hard to come by, E must have got a lucky star shinning upon him.

Happy birthday, my boy. 

May you be blessed always.

May you be happy always.

May you enjoy every single day of your life.

Mommy love you, to the moon and back.

Love,

Mommy pH

【FREE DIY Bunting a Template】

In case anyone of you interested to make a paper bunting, I've made the template available in baby blue and soft pink. Download one that suit yourself and print it on an A4 size paper. Enjoy! 😉 

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Make Your Own... Christmas Craft!

Christmas is one of our favorite holiday of the year, a peaceful and meaningful occasion that unites us with the loved ones. The kids love it the most too as that's the time they receive gifts (who does not like presents? *laugh*)

The duo and I setup the Christmas tree, lighted it up but we wanted to make our home really really Christmas-ty, so we started making more some Christmas craft. Here's how make your own Christmas decor with with absolutely no cost! 

Using plain papers, we've cut out lots of shapes - snowflakes, Christmas cottages, Christmas trees, and even volcanoes..

Then we made Christmas cards.

Make your own... Pop-Up Christmas Tree Card 

Next we made an ever Christmas wreath. Since it is made of fresh Christmas tree twigs, it smells so good and we decorate it with fresh flowers from our garden everyday.. 

Make Your Own...Evergreen Christmas Wreath!

Then we deployed these crafts all around  the house. By using blue tac stickers, the papers stick on easily without damaging the surface. The duo were so excited going around the house sticking on their Christmas cottages and trees... They we so proud as they showed daddy later at night.

 

Make Your Own... Popsicle Stick Tree!

You can either purchased a set of ready packed craft set (E received it as birthday pressie last year) or buy the Popsicle sticks from stationeries or bakery supplies stores. Then just glue, paint, stick!

What about some sparkly stars too? 

Make Your Own... Snowflakes! 

We followed these simple steps to fold the paper and just cut out any shapes of snowflakes we like, it was too challenging for C as the paper is rather thick to cut, so I let her design and I did the cutting for her.. You can practically design endless shapes, creativity is your only limit!

Make Your Own... Felt Christmas Tree!

Not to forget, our cute felt Christmas tree which functions as a child play too.

This Christmas tree was made with large button holes to let little ones learn to button on and off. It served its purpose well - both E and C practiced by themselves and can handle buttons well now, and it is such a pretty addition for the door :)

Not a crafty person? This is a super easy one that requires no crafting interest at all..

Just get a real small size Christmas tree from IKEA for only RM8.90, hang  some golden ornaments or balls and it is perfect addition for indoor or the garden.. Well, will have to change it to a beautiful pot thou. *smile*

That's all peeps, easy-peasy craft to brighten the home. 

Hope you have a wonderful time bonding with your little ones and celebrating with your loved ones..

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Christmas Special} Pop Up Christmas Tree Card

The kiddos are spending home with me this holiday season so I though of doing a series of Christmas crafts with them. Good for bonding and to have some decoration for the home & family too. 

After the Christmas Wreath I made last weekend, I found it is not quite suitable for little ones with the use of hot glue gun (I burnt my fingers few times), I decided to start with activities that are kids-friendly and something that would be fun... So when I told them we are making Pop-Up Christmas Tree card, they got super excited. I have not met a kids who do not like pop-up so far. I insisted they had to call me Teacher PH instead of mommy, they loved the idea! Lol.

We had a good 45 minutes making these cards. From left to right - by Ethan, by teacher PH, by Claire. 

The duo drew, cut, glued and decorated the card all by themselves. I just gave suggestions and jumped in for damage control, e.g. When Claire accidentally squeezed too much glue or could not cut a round Christmas ball. So these cards may not be perfect, but are truly their own artwork. I am emphasize on the kiddo's learning progress than to cheat a perfect outcome.

Ethan and I completed this wrapping paper strips Christmas trip for the card cover. He found the paper stencil punchers so we made some flower & little people punch holes, how cute!

The pop-up Christmas tree with 2D gift box. Noticed the little soldier I added? *smile*

The pop -up Christmas tree as done by Ethan. He dedicated it to Yuky 姐姐, one of my buddies whom we are meeting up for lunch later.

It was a total mess on our dinning table, but we managed to clean up within 10'minutes. The kiddos had been trained to clean up and we have a pretty good team work by now. :)

What you need to make some Christmas cards with your little ones..

• Some colorful papers

• child-friendly scissors 

• artwork glue

• used wrapping papers / ribbons / buttons / washi tapes 

• pencils & market pens

• paper stencil punchers (optional but adds fun to the making)

• cutters (optional, NOT SAFE FOR KIDS)

• old newspapers to protect the work surface

• some creative juice ;-) 

Here's the simple tutorial on how to make the pop-up tree..

Cheers!

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Tutorial} DIY Christmas Wreath

It's December, my favorite month of the year! It's time for birthdays, holiday and Christmas!

I have been thinking of getting a Christmas wreath for our front door, but somehow I was secretly hoping for something that is real and evergreen.

God must have heard my wish, this morning I saw my neighbour's gardeners trimming down his Christmas trees. A lot of branches were cut and discarded, and and I thought they are just perfect for making a fresh Christmas wreath.

So I asked the gardeners to spare me some nice cuttings, and they generously gave me a bunch. I made this in 30 minutes - A DIY Christmes wreath that gives a fresh scent of greens. All natural and free!

It looks great over a dark green background too.

To make this, you need the following:

• 2 wired hangers 

• 1 cable protector (from IKEA)

• 2 dozen Christmas tree cuttings *

• 1 hot glue gun & hot glue sticks

• some Christmas ornaments

• 30cm long red ribbons 

* if you cannot find fresh Christmas trees, you may use the store bought plastics leaves.

The Making:

1. Using your hands, bend the hangers into a round shape (it's ok if it is not a perfect Robb's, it is not noticeable once you cover it up with the leaf)

2. Covered it up with a cable protector. Seal the opening with the hot glue gun.

3. While waiting for the hot glue gun to heat up, cut each Christmas tree cuttings into about 4"-6" in length.

4. Using the hot glue gun, glue one cutting at a time in one direction until it's fully covered. 

5. Inspect for any uncovered spots, conceal with smaller cuttings.

6. Glue on th Christmas ornaments of your choice (suggest to get something light)

Tie a ribbon over the hanger's hook and your Christmas wreath is done! Now go ahead, hang it up to impress your guests and neighbors.. *smile*

Cheers!

Xoxo,

PH



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Volcano Day!

The duo is fascinated over volcano, influenced by the junior encyclopedic that I've been reading with them. Since I'm now having much free time as I had began my career break, I decided to surprise them with a man made volcano... It's so easy & so much fun to make with the kiddos!

What you need:

• an empty bottle (or a kid's cup)

• a large tray (to hold the "larva")

• aluminum foil

• red food coloring 

• Soda powder / soda bicarbonate 

• vinegar - used the cheapest on shelf will do

Psss.... In case you noticed some differences in the pictures below, that's because our first experiment failed. I used baking soda instead of soda powder! Failed experiment gave a learning point too. ;)

First, we setup the volcano with the aluminum foil.

Next, added the soda powder.

Then, some red coloring.

Now, vinegar... And watch it explodes!

Little C started screaming..

"Volcano!", she yelled.

"Run for your life!!", screamed a villager.

Now, go try it with your little scientist wanna be. It's a simple experiment that cost less than RM5 but the little ones will super love you for it! 

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Art & Craft} Clay Fairy Houses

It's our weekend art attack time, or as the duo called it,  Dirty Hands Time, as all of us ended with really dirty fingers & palms covered in paint. Lol, but the duo really loved it.

Here's our artwork of the day.. Instead of the original plan to make a castle, we decided to make some colorful fairy houses. 

Before painting, the naked clay houses, I dried them up in the oven at 120°c for about 30 minutes.

Freshly painted with acrylic paint. Aren't they looking adorable? 

My favorite -- the Tree House, got my inspiration from the hundred acres wood. Little C thought that it looks spooky although she still likes it.

The mushroom house, both kiddos' favorite!

The colorful fairy house, added brick effect on the roof and doors, quite happy with the outcome. I was having beautiful Santorini houses in mind when moulding these. 

Little C was so curios with these tiny houses, taking picture of the houses uninterrupted was quite impossible with her around...

We made some apples & carrot with the left over clay.. Just for fun and these made perfect project for little C, easy to handle with plain colors.

It was an enjoyable & peaceful afternoon, together we completed the painting in 1.5 hours, right before we got ready for the evening fun - the Swiss Dream Circus!

If you would like to do some clay art projects with your kiddos, this post summarized how we started and the tools/materials needed -- Clay Art Project with Little Ones

Keep calm & get creative! 

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.