Chalk it up...

Good morning to you all :)

So I have been a bit quiet. Between getting wedding plans going, visitors from over seas being here and working I have left this post a bit late. But none the less, here it is.

Looking for a fun, CHEAP way to entertain the kids this weekend?

Chalk. Thats all you need. Oh and a tar/brick road. Over the last weekend Mr T had the girls. He had a meeting the Saturday and although he wanted us to join, us girls decided to stay at home and chill. Who wants to attend meetings on a Saturday right?!?!?!

Anyway, we watched a movie and then decided to do something else. Crafts and or baking  is what always comes to these 2 little peoples minds. I was not in the mood for baking, painting or cutting things up so decided to pull out the chalks. I bought the chalks a while back thinking I'd use them when we needed a "quick fix" no mess no stress type of day. This was that day.

The kids had an absolute ball of a time. Mr T has quite a big drive way so we had loads for space to write him love notes all over the drive way. T is old enough to write now and so she totally enjoyed writing all over the drive way. I had to draw pictures for J and she coloured them in. It is a bit tough to draw on a surface that isn't smooth so the small people might need some help. Over all the kids have so much fun. It is defiantly a fun activity to do on those days where you want to just hang low while the kids have a blast.

One of the best things about this is that if you run out of space, water your drive way down with a bit of water and there is a clean "chalk board" for you to start all over again :)

So go on, add a box of coloured chalk to your shopping list. You won't be sorry, and neither will the kids :)

Have a lovely weekend :)
Watch the blog this week for some fun photos.

Love Trace

Parenting - lunch box love letters

My boyfriend has 2 little girls who I absolutely love. They bring us so much love. He is a super hands on dad, but because of my love for little people, especially these 2, I help him out when they spend the weekend at his place. This includes packing in their lunch box.

I always try to think of fun and creative things to put in their lunch box, while keeping it healthy. I will have to do another post on this :) But for right now, lets stick to the love letters. It started off as a quick think one night. I had just packed their lunch in and I thought maybe I should just leave them each a note in their boxes. I often leave little sticky notes for Mr T around the house, so why not extend it to the kids?!?! I have since stuck little notes into their boxes every now and again. Not every time as I want it to be a surprise, something small so that they know that we love them and are thinking about them.

So they came over on the Thursday night before valentines day 2016. The oldest of the 2 is 7. She came into the kitchen and I chased her out. I told her I was doing a surprise for them for valentines day lunch for school. I had some heart sweets, red and pink smarties, I made cheese sandwiches and used my heart cookie cutter to cut the bread into heart shapes. As she was walking out the kitchen she turned around and said to me "Aunty Trace, please make sure you write a love letter for us and put it into our lunch box." Ah, my heart melted. They hadn't said much about these love letters until now. I told Mr T and we decided to find some corny valentines jokes that the kids would enjoy. Their love notes read something like this:

"what did the boy squirrel say to the girl squirrel?
       I'm nuts about you."
 we hope you have a nutty day,
love Pappa and Aunty Trace

When the kids came home and spoke about their love notes, they said they had laughed and thought they were funny. It was totally worth sitting and reading 100 jokes to find one the kids could relate to.

So I am spreading the love. If you go and see my facebook page www.facebook.com/justbreathefamily I have posted the files that you can have. Print them out and personalize each of the 4 notes :) Lets see if your kids will appreciate the little bit of extra love you have shared with them. It is bound to make them feel special.

Have a super Monday and remember to tell your kids you love them :)
Much creative kindness,
Tracey