Simple DIY Fairy Garden

I have been promising a fairy garden to the children for a while now, we'd seen them in the local garden centre so we decided to make our own using some simple bits and pieces from the shop.

So what do you need? Well it turns out not much, we bought a large terracotta plant pot holder, a little tiny one to put water in (fairies need a bath right) a succulent as they don't need much attention and then we succumbed to some little stepping stones and some mushrooms from the fairy garden section in the garden centre, you could however use some milk bottle lids for the stepping stones or make your own mushrooms out of some plasticine if you had the time. We also used some pebbles from our  rather over pebbly garden.

So we set to it. First, adding a little bit of compost to the bottom so we can add some more plants later on if we want, then we added in our succulent plant and the stones on top, along with some little tiny stepping stones.

We added the little mushrooms to the the plant and used a cute little windmill straw to set it off, then we added some water to our little pond and then, away we go. Putting the fairy garden in a container means we can move it if we need to and it isn't restricted to one place.

I also bought a small plant pot which I hand't really thought about what to do with, but a quick look on Pinterest soon solved that problem, we are going to turn it upside down and paint it, put a door on it and then add that. We also have a few shells we bought back from our holidays so we will be adding those too and may even make an adjoining garden

Pinterest is a really great resource for things like this, so do pop on over and have a look at my Fairy Garden Pinterest board for some ideas and if you've made one, i'd love to take a look for some more inspiration so feel free to leave your links in the comments.

Follow The Mummy Diary's board Fairy Garden Ideas on Pinterest.

Fun at Twinlakes

We visit Wheelgate all the time and with a recent half term offer of go with your underwear over your trousers we got free tickets to Twinlakes, so with the weather being super lovely we headed on over with a picnic.

In the lovely countryside of pork pie country, it is a huge park with lots of different areas and activities, with plenty of outside space to enjoy too.

From the moment we got there the sun was shining, it was a glorious day, but with lots of indoor space it is a perfect place to visit whatever the weather.

Quick stop at the farm, spotting the different farm animals (at the moment we try and encourage the children to say them in French as well as signing)

On the adventure playground, perfect for practicing your balancing skills...

There were about a dozen peacocks, I love them so much and this one was displaying it's feathers in all their glory.

This one was rather cheeky, waiting for some scraps from lunch...

On the fabulous jousting horse ride, the sun shining was beautiful...

The falconry centre houses some beautiful birds of prey, this peregrine falcon was a particular favourite.

Overall we had a wonderful day only made better by the wonderful weather, the great thing about Twinlakes and Wheelgate alike is that even on busy days because of the size of the park there never really seems to be huge queues and with small children that is always a bonus.

There is lots to do for both the younger and older children and even the adults can enjoy them too ;)

Toddler activities - growing cress

My son has been planting bulbs and seeds at nursery and I wanted to carry it on at home so we decided to plant some cress.

We had some left over from when we did it last year and it is so much fun to see his little face once it has grown.

When we took it out of the cupboard it went from being white in the morning to green when it had been out in the sun for a few hours, it was brilliant!

You will need:
1 x empty butter/margarine tub or something similar
1 x packet of cress
Some cotton wool

1.  Get your bits ready to assemble

 

2. Put the cotton wool into the container

3. Add some water to the cotton wool so it is completely soaked

 

4. Sprinkle the seeds over as evenly as possible (please note this probably won't happen when a child is helping but it's OK)

6. Put the container in a warm dark place, leave for a week and they should have sprouted. Take out and then leave on a window sill.

7. Once it has turned green and is nice and tall, trim and have in egg sandwiches for lunch :)

This is such a simple and cheap thing do do and it really gives children a sense of how things grow, they get to try what they have grown because it is so quick see it happening!

Happy growing!