Rest of Birthday presents and Kiki's invitation to play

We got back from holiday last night and after unpacking and settling in a little, we set up Kiki's remaining presents. 

Butlins Birthday

As we were away for Kiki's birthday, we took some of her presents with us to leave out for her in the morning.

I took wrapping paper, but forgot sellotape so left them unwrapped.

Like she cared, she was happy to get straight in to playing. She especially loved her little dolls' house from her Uncle and Aunt.

Sensory Play Bottle Craft

I've posted before about sensory play ideas, and about how much Pinterest has given me ideas.

I have made the bags from sandwich / freezer bags, gaffer taping the edges, but as Little Lady still likes to try and put things in her mouth, I was looking for a more resilient way.

Bottles! Yes, small pop bottles in my case. They are more solid, can be stood up, rolled, etc. And more importantly the lids can be glued on securely. I bought Asda's Cherryade in small 250ml bottles, as I thought chunky enough to hold, but small enough to pick up easily full.

I bought a selection of sequins at the Pound shop and some hair gel.

Two bottles, just have coloured sequins, homemade maracas!

 

One was filled with blue hair gel and beads, I ended up tipping some of the gel (and subsequently beads) as the gel was too thick, I added some water to get a bit of movement in the beads.

Three had a mixture of multicoloured beads and water. The blue has a drop of blue food dye.

The last two just have 2 colours of glitter mixed into the water.

Finally, I glued the screw tops on to the bottles.

Play & Fun

I was looking around the internet for play ideas for Little Lady.
She has so many toys that don't get played with, but I wanted something more educational and less reliant on technology (Only so many times you can listen to the Singing Alfie song!).
I pinned quite a few ideas to Pinterest, some of which involved sensory bags and boxes.
Sensory bags or boxes contains items that encourage the child's senses, for example the feel of a product, the sounds it makes, etc.
I was fascinated by the contents some people added:

• glow water (!)
• glitter
• oil
• hair gel
• paint
• shaving foam
• sand 
• toys
• buttons
• shells
• lentils
• pasta
• rice 

I like messy play, if it's outside! But these are great, so next trip to £1 shops will see Daddy & Me making these.
This one looks great for older kids too - Giant Squishy Sensory Bag



Have you tried these with your children?
Were they received well?