Pom pom ice cream shop

Here she is all ready to serve at our play ice cream shop. Nothing like ice cream at 9 in the a.m. :)

Foam comes, colorful twisted pipe cleaners for straws and candy, ice cream scoopers 

and

 some pom pom sprinkles. 

I used a plastic container and poked holes in the top and put in little pom poms.

and then of course...

all sizes of pom poms for ice cream scooping fun. :)

Here are a few more pics of our ice cream shop that lasted for a full week in our living room. The kids played with this daily and it was a fun thing to do and keep the kids occupied on those hot days and while I was packing for our trip to the States!!!

Here are the DIY foam ice creme cones. 

I Used a piece of foam, a black marker and a glue gun to make these.

Hope you have enjoyed and found a bit of inspiration in our "pom pom ice cream shop".

It is easy, inexpensive and you can find most things in your house.  

We are still in the States, thus my minimal posting these days. Today was our little guys birthday, 4 years old  and wow was it fun celebrating with family. 2 Grandmas, Grandpa, Cousin and Aunt, all came and loved on our little guy with us. What a gift to get to enjoy family. 

~Missing my little west corner a bit today but torn by all the joy of being here with family,

Becky

Toting a cardboard COFFEE shop

Get your donuts, coffee...

We saw this really fun post last year and my oldest daughter wanted to make something simliar for her sister (at Christmas, yes I back posting. :)).

Sock donuts

Sponge cake 

and cardboard coffee cups make for quite the fun play at:

Lydia's COFFEE. 

This new coffee shop on the go is quite lucrative, especially with a Baba who likes donuts and coffee, plus Lydia discovered that several of our stuffed animals here are coffee lovers as well. Who knew?

Lydia's COFFEE includes: 2 sponge cakes, 2 sock donuts (picture tutorial below), 2 cardboard coffee mugs and 2 cardboard plates, with a cardboard cookie thrown in for extra fun.

We hot glued some cardboard pieces to each side of a cereal/oatmeal box for the Carrying Coffee shop.

We then used ribbon so the little Carrying Coffee Shop could be toted around Lydia's neck.

Unfortunately I didn't get the best picture of the handles on the side and the ribbon around her neck, but I think you can see just enough on the above pic to get the idea. 

The aerial view. ;)

Simply snip toe, roll and decorate. 

Again here is the link for some more close ups of the original sock donut and the link for the sponge cake.

So my thoughts for you are go find some cheap socks and have a donut.

Of course don't forget to throw in some cardboard it makes all pretend play so much the funner. 

Using what we have over here...

In my west corner and smiling. :)

Becky

Cardboard love #5 ~ Cardboard town play houses

WELCOME to:

Living room Lane, where a small little red neighborhood has been newly developed. 

Come take a look.  

The key hole, peep hole, mailboxes, cardboard phone and flower boxes make these individual compact playhouses FULL of pretend play and fun. 

If you recall THIS post ~ then you remember the very large cardboard boxes I scored. I cut them in half and then I surprised the kids with their own little playhouse neighborhood and we together put in all the fun simple amenities. Come and see us as we paint the living room red and white. :) Simple fun!

 Visiting your neighbor is a high priority in this tiny town. 

Little key holes for keys.

Cardboard phones.

Cardboard phone and straw antenna. The kids made these on their own. 

They're held into place with some velcro strip.

We worked together on some pretty flowers and flower boxes. 

I walked into the living room and here they were watering their flowers. 

So made me smile. :)

Here are the flower boxes, blooming with color.

Now this is my favorite part... they are compact and easy to put aside and pull out again.  I don't have room to store them long-term but because they are so compact I am happy to store them like this for a bit...

 My kids have thoroughly enjoyed these simple little homes, major pretend play has been happening at our house!

Off I go ~  Our kids are on winter break here so tomorrow we are heading to 

Istanbul for a few days to visit friends. 

We are all super excited to get away and do something different. 

Well my friends that is the end of this very picture heavy post. 

Using what I have and this week it is ~ polka dotted cardboard!

In my west corner,

Becky

I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY, WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH." PHIL. 4:12,13


Linking up at THESE PARTIES

Public KITCHEN Library

Come one and all to the opening of our

Public Kitchen Library.

f

Welcome to our public kitchen Library.

Our motto: For the love of books.

Bonuses:

cute Librarians

cool stamp pad

homemade library cards

quality books

food near, in case of hunger 

What we did:

We taped small white pieces of paper to the front of the books

We used some make shift stamps and a stamp pad. One stamp to check out the book /one stamp for when it was checked back in.

The girls favorite part of course was all that stamping and feeling so official.

They also liked typing in the Library card # . :)

bonus: Simple set up and quick tear down:

We grabbed 3 boxes 

white paper

tape

stamp pad

2 stamps

books

 Took us 20 minutes to put together and 10 or less to take down. :)

Here in Turkey there are few Libraries and the ones that are here are not necessarily public libraries. Lets just say there is no fun childs section.  I miss Libraries in the States and am amazed at what a wealth of resource a Library can be and how it is full of exciting books and gives an awe and wonder for reading to young and old.

Every time we go back to the States we load up our suitcases with 2nd hand books kids books. 

Truth is we really do have our own small library with the amount of books we cart here from the States. 

We made our own Pretend Library and had a blast.  I was the librarian for a few minutes too. Yes, I too liked the stamping check out part. ;)

Ps. we did this on a hot August day thus the missing shirt from my daughter. :)

Pss. If you enjoy pretend play you might also really enjoy: our Home Theater post. :)

For the love of the written word ~ 

Becky

I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY, WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH." PHIL. 4:12,13

Linking up: Skip to my Lou, Making the world cuter,Keeping it Simple,Sew can do

Paper dolls ~my girls occupied with paper style.

Sweet girly Simplicity.
My girls absolutely love paper dolls. 

Here is our newest find that is soooo sweet. I love gingham fabric, so I think these girls are fun and so do my girls. A new paper doll find on the internet has kept my two girls completely occupied and engrossed in high style for hours. Having a sister is lots of fun.

All scanned paper dolls on this site are out-of-print and there are several different dolls and styles to pick from. We chose these sweeties for now. 

I had to copy the dolls unto a word document and I didn't make them very big.  The dolls and accessories all fit into an envelope. :) Perfect for travel.

Well hope you enjoy our find. Here is the link for the Terri's Paper Doll Land. It will take you to the main page with lots of resources for paper dolls. Click here for the Gingham girls and their clothes.

The Gingham's 
 Sarah         Katie          Becky 

Click here to view the Gingham's.

My girls also have:
*Laura and Mary in the Big woods paper dolls. (found at a garage sale in the states)
*International paper dolls brought back from Thailand by their Baba.
*A few homemade cut out and some internet finds. This one being our fav site so far!


Just a little fun to pass on. ~
Good night from our corner to your corner of the world.
~Becky

"I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY, WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH." PHIL. 4:12,13

Recyclable Treats for our 'sweet shop'

I had one of those moments again where inspiration hit with a fun idea for the girlies. 

So come along and see how sweet an egg carton, bottle caps and a cardboard box can really be, at our Sweet Treats Shop. Pretty tasty!!

From this:

and this:

To this:

and this:

 Come to the Sweet Treat Shop right down the hallway

 for some great homemade (recyclable) treats.

The other picture above was staged but this one wasn't. I thought it was so cute her sitting there waiting for one of us to come by. :) 

Afiyet Olusn!!

 Picture Tutorial 

~ egg carton fabric cupcakes:

Cut up egg carton and paint individual cups.

Decorate with beads and ribbon ~my girls favorite part~ and there you have it, recyclable Treats.

For our tea:

The cardboard box for the Sweet Treats Shop window came from our makeshift theater in this post if you all remember.  Sometimes I get these ideas in my head and they get bigger and bigger :). This one wasn't too big but it did take time and I wanted to do most of it 'with' the girls and that takes more time, so on the opening day :) of the Sweet Treats Shop not to much house work got done and Isaac spent a lot of the evening with his Baba in order for us girlies to have a 'sweet' time. :)

Being creative with my girls is fun and challenging. I often have the beginning idea and then they continue the idea with this and thats along the way. One challenging thing is 'letting' them create and not try and make them do it my way, the "better" way.  Perfection is not the goal it is allowing them to come up with their own ideas and use their God given imagination and creativity to explore and dream up fun things on their own.  ~ Always learning.

from my west corner over here

~becky