How to keep a 7 year old quiet for hours....

Ebi-kun used some of his money from Obon to buy himself a dino excavation kit, he as had a small version before and really enjoyed doing it so he was very excited to get one with his won money. The bones are set in a block of plaster of paris and before we did the digging outside but it has been far too hot so I said he could do it indoors. It is very messy/dusty though and because he had a bit of a cough I made him wear a mask when he was doing it.

Took him two days about 6 hours in all to dig all the bits out - which gave me a nice chunk of time to catch up on work! Ebi-kun and daddy and some one on one time in the morning and put all the pieces together, money well spent I think!

If I can make space in the freezer I might pull it apart when he is not looking and freeze the pieces in a tub of water so he can do it again, like the ice treasure boxes - but that will have to be done outside!

Dinoworld at Makuhari Messe

After the few days in Wakayama, we travelled to Chiba to got to the Dinoworld exhibit at Makuhari Messe. I am kind of torn about this exhibit, it was over priced in my opinion and could have been laid out better. There were some interactive things for the kids to do but many of the the quest were really long. I think with it being really hot day it didn't really help matters.

The big news in the dino world is that they now think that a lot of the dino had feathers, including T-rex and they had some pretty cool models showing what they think they would have looked like.

There were also lots of replicas of dinosaurs including the largest bones ever found (I think), this isn't it, it is of course Ebi-kun's favourite, Stegosaurus.

All in all, I expected it to take us much longer than 2 hours - at a slow pace, to get around. They did have a massive gift shop which of course you had to go through to get out. Ebi-kun had been given some money from Baa-chan and Jii-chan so he bought himself a kits to dig out bones from a block of plaster and a wallet to keep the rest of his change in!

We had arranged to meet friends at 4pm so we had a couple of hours to kill but we didn't know the area at all, it was waaaay to hot to go out so we ended up going to Lalaport an enormous shopping mall. The upside was it had a big play areas so Ebi-kun could get his wiggles out and I left daddy in charge and sneaked off for an hours mooch around the shops.

Ebi-kun's art carrier...

Oops! I just realised that I never actually blogged about this and I made it for Ebi-kuns birthday, his last birthday, which was in July! Last year Spoonflower had a fabric design contest for kids and Ebi-kun entered, I ordered some of the fabric but 'forgot' to show him when it arrived. Once he was in bed I got busy making this for his birthday.

I was inspired by the carrier in Meg's Growing Up So Liberated book but for reasons that I can't remember I ended up making it my own way. Inside the covers pieces are hard plastic.

And my favourite part, the pen's pencils and erase/sharpener are all attached with velcro (this idea led me to the fridge velcro pens shown here)

Ebi-kun really likes the fact that it has a handle so he can easily carry it and everyone loves pulling the things off the velcro strip. He has used it outside and taken it on road trips as well as just using it at home.

But the best thing was seeing Ebi-kun's face when he opened his present on his birthday, his first words were 'It's my fabric' 

If you are interested in buying some of his fabric you can get it here and Ebi-kun will get the profits from it, he will be very happy for any purchases as he is currently trying to save enough money to buy some Star Wars Lego!

Gift Guide - our top choices

I know all kids are different but I thought I would give you a run down of our most played with toys ...

(in no particular order)

LEGO - He got the castle and some small sets for his birthday, first time round me and daddy built it for him, I think he was overwhelmed with it all. Since then he has build all but the drawbridge by himself. It does tend to stay built and then he plays with it as a castle rather than rebuilding it as something else.

WOODEN BLOCKS - these still get lots of play, from building robots to cities, I have blogged about these before over here.

SCHLEICH - dinosaurs and knights. When I first came across these I admit my first thought was 'how much'? But daddy bought a couple when he was a business trip last year and they have been played and played and played with, the paint hasn't chipped at all, in fact they all look good as new, amazing considering the amount of jousts and battles that go on around these parts. The other thing I love is the attention to detail, we are so impressed with these toys that we have ordered more for his main present this Christmas. I ordered through HappyHappySue, the service was great and the toys a bit cheaper than most places.

*** edit - I am no longer happy with 'Happy Happy Sue' after putting in a second order, they apparently sent it to Japan although I requested it be sent to my moms address but it never turned up and so they eventually refunded the money. I attempted to make the order again since it was supposed to Ebi-kuns main present and then I find out several days later that they can no longer ship to Japan. Shoddy, very shoddy.

TOMIKA - toy cars, Tomika is the main toy car manufacturer here so most of his little cars are Tomikas. We don't have any of the accessories, just a selection of cars. They are the toy of choice to go on train trips and the back of the car.

ART AND CRAFT SUPPLIES - in all shapes and forms. He would rather have blank paper than coulouring books, he does like activity books though, dot-to-dot and mazes. He prefers felt tips pens and coloured pencils to crayons, he does like the Japanese oil pastels.

DRESS UP CLOTHES - like many kids, ebi-kun loves dressing up and make believe. We have a treasure chest from Ikea which is where all his dress up clothes live, I am hoping to pick up a couple more bits and bobs to add to the collection when we get to the UK. last Christmas I made Spotty his faithfully steed using a Melly and Me Pattern, it is really easy to follow and Ebi-kun LOVES Spotty.

and finally....

BOOKS - in every subject! It doesn't matter the language, Ebi-kun devours books, luckily for him, his parents are book lovers too.

Merry Christmas

to all those who celebrate it, we had a lovely day, I managed to cook the full turkey dinner without any disasters. Babyebi was really excited, Christmas eve we went up to bed, I was reading him book when we heard a loud "Ho Ho HO" so we looked out of the fukinuke window and there was Santa-san putting presents under the tree. I was surprised he actually went to sleep after that but he did and Christmas day was lovely. We took our time opening the presents and we left his main pressie - dinosaur Lego until last, needless to say that is all we have played with since.

I also managed to make some new Christmas place setting, getting them finished just in time.

Boxing Day was a bit odd as always, at home we have a big family party, eat too much, drink too much and play stupid games, not quite the same here. We did have an internet chat with the folks back home but with the time difference they were just getting up and we had already eaten dinner and had a glass of sherry or two, it was lovely to see everyone though.

I should warn you that I had three great new books for Christmas...Last-minute Fabric Gifts, Amy Butler's in Stitches and Simple Gifts to Stitch so I will be sewing mad once I get a minute to decide what to do first. I have decided that everyone will get homemade gifts next year, or mostly homemade because there are some awkward cusses out there hahaha.

Well, I am off to make some Staffordshire Oatcakes for lunch, a local dish from home that I REALLY miss but luckily I found a good recipe to make them myself....now my tummy is grumbling........

I'll try and pop in again before New Year but we are off to the in-laws for a few days so I won't be around much, so have a lovely New Years and see you in 2008, if not before.

stomp, stomp, roar, roar

here come the dinosaurs!

Since discovering dinosaurs in the local park, BabyEbi has become a bit obsessed so I decided to make him some dino 3 part cards and of course a wallet to hold them in....(no, that isn't a kangaroo on the front, it is supposed to be a Parasaurolophus!

With the wallets I made for the art and fruit cards I found that babyEbi (and erm, myself too) would sometimes pick up the wallet upside down and then all the cards would fall out, so this time I made a flap to cover the cards and hopefully hold them in....

I made a set of cards with just the picture, a set with the picture and name, a set of name cards and a set on info cards. I used the clipart from learning page , you have to sign up to access a lot of the file but it is free and there is some great stuff on there.

Although the ribbon ties I have used on other wallets look very pretty, babyEbi can't do and undo them by himself yet, so I used a dino button and an elastic hook so he can open and close it without my help.

Right, I am not sure if this is going to work, it seems to on my computer but if someone could try it out and leave a comment to say if it works or not, that would be lovely. *NOTE* - system does work :o)

OK, go over to my flickr you should see a set called "3 part cards" on the right-hand-side, click on it, you can then click on the 3 part cards icon again or the dino cards icon.

Click on one of the pictures, to the right there is a link in blue "different sizes" click on the link

Above the picture it should say "download the medium size" you could use this but you will get a BETTER quality image if you click on the "original" size - near the top of the page and then download it. (repeat for other files)

You should have the jpg file on you computer to print out as you like.....fingers crossed.