Creating Art At Muji

On Saturday we went into Tokyo to the Muji Atelier to see the Watanoha Smile project that I talked about here. It was great to see all the works of art by the students, everything made from debris from the tsunami. Each of the pieces have a little story to go with them and most of the pieces looked like cheerful little fellas. I did find myself wondering when the parts were last used, did someone make a cup of tea with the kettle on the day of the quake, were children playing with the bells and did these people survive, if so, how are they doing now?

We had booked into the free workshop which was held in the same room, the back wall was a free art wall and the kids were having a great time scribbling on it. I was amused to see Kilroy was 'ere written along the top.

The class was run by the designer who did the Muji Camp posters which are leaf prints, very simple in design and in-keeping with Muji's style. 

First they had to spray washi paper with water, that was left on the side and the kids then picked out a dried leaf or two. Using the back of the leaf the kids painted the whole leaf. Once that was done they move the leaf to a clean piece of paper and placed it the way that they liked. Once that was down they placed the damp washi over the top and then a couple of sheets of kitchen paper over that. Using a roller they rolled the paper a few times.

Then for the magic part, peeling the washi paper off the painted leaf. I was surprised that the washi didn't tear.

The washi was then left to dry and the kids got to try a new leaf.  This was Ebi-kun's first attempt, he used three types of green and some touches of gold. The gold paint was very popular with the kids (predictably) but it didn't print so well.  The kids made three or four prints each and then the Muji team produced a frame for each child so they could take the framed piece home with them.

If you are a long time reader you will know that I am already a big fan  of Muji, I love their kids goods and recently they have been adding a splash of colour to their ranges. The team did a great job, everything ran smoothly and we really enjoyed the day out. I will keeping an eye out for any other events that they run. Now I am trying to find a supply of the right type of washi paper so we can try it again at home.

Gold Medal Muffin Tin Dinner

I made Ebi-kun a booklet of Olympic things to do, one of the pages was to design his own Olympic Muffin Tin Dinner. He had to pick foods to go with the colour choice for each ring and he had to go and check that we had that food in (kept him busy as I was working).  So here is his gold medal Olympic muffin tin dinner....

It was a great springboard to start the conversation about the types of foods athletes eat and a discussion about healthy foods. The only thing we missed was the yellow pepper and that was because I said we had some but then realised I had used it all the night before. If you want to make your own Olympic plate I save the page as a PDF for you. You could also use the page for a colour matching activity for little ones or get the kids to draw the food instead of writing it. And as always, there is more muffin tin fun over at the muffin tin mom. If you think this fun and have friends who would enjoy it, then click the share buttons!

Olympic MTD Jojoebi-Designs

Seven, you will be....

So, yesterday was Ebi-kun's birthday. We decided to have a quiet day, no shopping, no housework just relaxing, opening presents, eating, building Lego and watching the Olympics. We started off with cake for breakfast....

Yoda cake of course, I will do a post on how I made it, it turned out to be one of the simplest cakes I have made so far. It was a bit like Christmas when we have to decide who is getting a leg, instead it was who is getting an ear!

Next up was the present opening ceremony... can't hide the excitement on getting another Beast Quest book...

Just in case you forgot how old he is, the number T-shirt tradition continues...

The 'biggie' and it took all afternoon to build it, it was such strenuous work that I was forced to take a nap. We missed the first part of the opening ceremony for the Olympics so it was fun to watch that as well, James Bond and the Queen were brilliant, in fact it was all really well done, proud to be British!

We finished the day as we had started, eating Yoda, I think maybe I should stick to fancy cakes, my Yoda pizza wasn't quite as I had hoped!

Now, I am hoping to get some work done as Ebi-kun is busy battling ninja's and skeletons......

A whole seven years old!

Yep, that teeny tiny baby from 7 years ago is now a strapping lump of a lad! We had a bumpy start, you can read about it here, and he was a skinny little thing when he first arrived... first picture at about 45 minutes old...

This one I edited myself out of the shot since I look like hell, I was yellow and had my head rested in a sick tray - don't ask, not that I could explain because I don't remember! Ebi-kun was about 7 hours old here, ohh don't they grow fast!

And here he is a healthy, silly, funny, intelligent, cheeky, cocky 7 going on 15 year old! Happy Birthday Ebi-kun and I hope you like your cake!

puffy paint revisited

It is a while since we did this so I thought it would be fun to do again. What is good about these types of activities is that Ebi-kun is big enough to do most of the prep work himself now.

What you need:

1 cup flour

3-4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

water to mix

food colour

small bowls to mix in

disposable piping bags

cardboard or paper plates

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and add enough water to make a thickish paste.

2. Divide the paste into 4 smaller bowls.

3. Add food colour to each bowl.

4. Pour into piping bags. TIP - put the bag into a bottle or vase, it makes pouring the mixture in SO much easier.

Tie the tops of the piping bags, I used twisty ties and doubled the bag over to make doubly sure it wouldn't leak, then cut the tip off.....paint.

We decorated paper plates. When a plate is finished, pop it in the microwave, we did it at 800W for 30-40 seconds and watch the paint puff up, it has a spongy kind of texture.

Not sure what this is supposed to be but I can see a poodle wearing skates, jumping through a hoop!

Mostly it was abstract work and pretty designs, good way to kill and hour or so! Do you have a favourite time killer, if so please share below.

Going For Gold...

I spotted this download from Tinyme Games, it has popped up on several blogs I read over the last couple of days and since we are studying the Olympics just now, I thought I would have a look. If you click through there are loads of printables and the design work is really cute. We downloaded the board game, printed it onto card and gave it a test run this afternoon.

image: Tinyme

If you are making this for little ones I recommend just making the dice then folding the counters over to make a triangle because that are a bit of a faff to stick together and too difficult for Ebi-kun to do alone. We played it a couple of times, it was fun but Ebi-kun said next time we should make the forfeits more difficult as long as he doesn't expect me to do the 100m dash or high jump! 

At the end of the day, it's cute, it's free and it's topical, what more could you want?

boredom busters for the 2012 Olympics

I usually share what we have been doing after the fact but since the Olympics kick off tomorrow I thought you might want to join in the fun. I made up a PDF so that you can make up your own family Olympics. This afternoon we will decide which 'events' will take place in ours. Hoopla is definitely on the list but I'm not sure what else yet. 

So, print out the sheet, you might want to print out a few copies, write in the events, they can be as serious or as silly as you like, we will probably be leaning towards the silly side, then pop them on the fridge or up on the wall. When you have one of those 'I'm bored' moments, pick an event and go for it. 

When you plan your events make sure you include ones that even the littlest kids can win.

As you know the actual Olympics will be running over the course of a few weeks, you can do the same with your family Olympics. Record who has won what and either award medals as you do the events or have an award and closing ceremony at the end of the holidays.

Need some event ideas?... hoopla, thumb sumo, tidily-winks, skipping, hula-hoop, ping-pong, egg and spoon, ball toss, long jump, sprints, balancing a pencil on your nose, juggling, standing on one foot....

Family Olympics by Jojoebi

What fun events will you be doing? Share in the comments section below and if you have friends that you think would like to join the fun please share this post!

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the dish...

Do you remember a while ago I told you that we went to a pottery class with some friends? Well, at the weekend we got the dish back that Ebi-kun made. And I must say, it looks really good!

On the bottom he wrote his name (I have smudged it on the pic) and the date and it is stamped all around the edge. He also chose the colour of the glaze, surprisingly he didn't go for green this time.

So late nights dinner, penne with asparagus, broccoli and bacon in a garlic cream sauce served in a dish made by his own hand. Now he has the handmade dish, glass and chopsticks, next up a fork? Anyone know of a fork making class?

With a bit of the left over clay he made me a devil pendant, I think it was going to be a monkey but it didn't turn out quite right.

On being a worry wart...

Yesterday Ebi-kun and I looked at our schedule and worked out the best time to do homework, my work and when to play, when to do housework and when to do projects. I think whilst the holidays are on we will do this every morning. I have my work related items already in google cal so we just added his homework and play date arrangements then we both can see what we have to do and when. Worked pretty well yesterday, let's see how the rest of the week goes.

So, yesterday he had already arranged a play date with his new best friend S-kun. They arranged to meet in the little park down the road. I feel that at 6 almost 7 Ebi-kun is not old enough to be wandering the streets alone so I go down to the park with him, I took some work and sat on the bench out of the way. All was well for 30 minutes or so but then S-kun was fed up of some of the other boys and just ran off, the other boys chased him, one ran straight into the road when a car had to slam it's brakes on to miss him - the boys, clueless. The mom's? out of the 5 boys there were 2 moms in the park but they were with the little siblings and didn't bat an eye at the car incident. Ebi-kun had stayed in the park but wanted to play with S-kun, who came back about 10 mints later. So I laid down the law, they could play in the park or at one of the houses but I wasn't having Ebi-kun running round the streets. The boys decided to play at S-kun's house and the incident was over.

I am fine with Ebi-kun playing on the street our house is on or playing down the road with other friends, the tendency is to play in front of one of the kids houses but playing at the park and running round the streets without adult supervision I am really not comfortable with but it seems like once the kids get into first grade they are allowed to run wild.

Now I'm not sure if I am being over protective and a worry wart or it is one of those Japanese things I have yet to get my head around. What is it like where you like? Do first graders get to wander the streets unsupervised?

A Star Wars Party For A Seven Year Old..

Well, an almost seven year old, Ebi-kun will be 7 next Sunday but we had his party early because some of our friends leave this week for the summer. This will be a photo heavy post and I will do another post with the explanations of what I made and how...

Saturday was wet and miserable so we were praying that the weather would clear up for Sunday, it did thankfully so we started off with lunch (we didn't want the food sitting out so it would spoil). We did it as pot luck and had some great dishes such as The Dark Side Pizza, Wookie Cookies, Han (and cheese) Solo Butties all washed down with Yoda Soda - Refresh you, it will.

Now, normally I make a cake but because it is hot we have to leave it at home and my husband has to do a run home and pick it up when we are ready to eat. This year I decided on something different... watermelon! and In Japan they have a tradition called suicawari, which is basically, beat a watermelon with a big stick until it breaks. In the morning I carved it into the Death Star, we sang happy birthday and they beat it up! It was good to see kids tucking into a whole load of watermelon instead of cake.

Next up was Padawan Training, the young Padawan were split into 3 groups and had a Jedi master to guide them. First they had a treasure hunt, I had taken close up photos of things around the park so they had to find what it was and write it down.

Next up, they had to capture of of the strange creatures (crayfish) and bring it back to Jedi Jo

Finally, they had to climb through the wall without setting off the bells and then they were awarded a lightsaber

And led me to shout one of the strangest things I have ever told a bunch of kids to do...

" Now go over there and fight!"

Fight they did, the dads of course had to get involved, the girls were getting into it too. Now, you would have thought that was enough violence for one party but no, there was more...

The Death Star piñata that I had worked on all week.

So, yes more swinging of bats, misses and giggling. Sadly it fell off the string so they ended up kicking it around, which is what we usually do.

Once it split the usual chaos ensued, the bottom picture the big kids are sharing with M-chan who didn't get anything, they were all trying to palm off the pink candies onto her!

The battles then continued into the pool, it wasn't so hot but warm enough to paddle and splash around in, in fact we all agreed it was better that it being a roasting hot day.

Ebi-kun got a Bear Grylls book from the group - we decided a few years ago that it was better for the parents of the birthday child to buy a book and present it as if it is from the playgroup rather than exchanging gifts. I prefer it this way, there is no expectation of piles of presents and it is less stress for the parents too.

Here are the Jedi graduates, ready for another battle no doubt! It was great fun, the kids were all exhausted (me too) and we got to hang out with old friends before they leave again. It was boy heavy, most of the older girls have left so poor N-chan gets a bit fed up with having to put up with all the boys. 

So, I will do another post with my resources and how-to's, I will make a cake for Ebi-kun's actual  birthday on Sunday so I think I will wait until I have done that then put it all together for you. If you have an questions pop them in the comments section and I will make sure to answer them in the how-to post.

The Tohoku Cotton Project

Last year when I was regularly posting about the after effects of the quake and tsunami I talked about the Tohoku Cotton project. The idea is to plant cotton in areas such as rice paddies that were damaged by the disaster, cotton is a much hardier plant than rice and by growing it the project can create employment, not only with the farming of it but with the production of the cotton as well.

Well, the project is well under way and there are many companies involved, the site has a basic English page but if you click over to the Japanese site there is a blog and info about everything that they have been up to, it is great to see something positive coming out of the disaster don't you think?

Hope you are planning an exciting weekend, we are just getting ready for the birthday party tomorrow...