The Gup Fleet is Complete!

We've had a productive last week of school holidays with the Gup-E being whipped up in just a couple of days.

Drying time was the biggest factor as it was made with just tissue paper on a plastic soap bottle. The tissue paper is nice to work with as it's so soft, but it's also of course very delicate so a bit fiddly. The Gup-E is Peso Penguin's Guppy-shaped rescue vehicle. It has a 'creature tank' in the back for injured sea dwellers and a device on top that can be a camera or a flashing orange light . For this, I noticed when I removed the pump nozzle thingy from the soap bottle I found that regular soft drink lids fitted the screw top perfectly. I checked bottle tops while shopping recently to find an orange lid but to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of fanta to use! Horrid stuff!! So, I covered one lid in orange tissue paper and the other, I nailed a hole in the middle which I poked a pipe cleaner through then covered it in green tissue for the camera piece. Now the boys can have the appropriate device attached for the story they're role-playing!

I put a big wad of blu-tak inside the bottle and attached Peso to a piece of icypole stick and stuck it in there, squishing the blu-tak to the stick with skewers. I wanted to put a wall in to separate the two 'rooms' of the interior but it was too hard to work out the size & shape, not to mention how to attach it securely.

So there we have it, the last of the Gups :) Pretty much as soon as it was completed, Caelan was hassling for me to get back to work on the Octopod !! He has been very appreciative of the work I've done though and so genuinely excited to welcome each vehicle to his collection as it's been finished. But, Easter things have had to take over this weekend and I've enjoyed a nice break from having gluey fingers!

Each year for Easter, I get the boys some new jammies for the days are getting shorter and the nights colder as winter creeps on in. So, this year I bought Caelan some plain stripey pjs & a plain blue long sleeved t-shirt which I made some iron-on octonauts transfers for. (Aedan got Thomas jammies as he's not quite as obsessive as his brother yet though I will be making him some transfer t's too now that I have the stuff...) 

He was of course quick to mention that 'Barnacles doesn't have the logos on his arms like that'... but he was 'just so happy mum to have octonauts jammies!' 

I also like to give the boys each a book for Easter and fortunately, one of my ebay orders arrived in time for Caelan

His very first Octonauts book :) We've read it several times each day so far, it's a lovely story and the artwork is just beautiful. So many colours & so much detail, the four of us snuggled on the couch tonight & enjoyed it together, it was lovely! I can't wait for the others I've ordered to arrive...

We've also made Caelan the Creature Chart and Cards from the octonauts website. As he plays different games, he earns different creatures which I've saved  and printed and laminated some for him. He get's one as a reward each day and it's working as a great incentive for him while being eductaional as well!! Did you know that belugas are the only whale that can swim backwards?!!

I've been having ideas of making an Octonauts board game but should shift my focus a bit now that kinder is starting back this week and do something creative that will appeal to Aedan while the game idea brews away in my brain for a while... mind you we have kinder 'homework' that we will do tomorrow for Caelan.... I can't forget!! eek! Four year-olds getting homework?!! What is the world coming to? Gasp!! The horror!!!

Don't worry, I've had it planned in my head since the end of last term and we should all have fun helping with that one tomorrow.... I will post details as we create them :)

We gave Aedan the new Wiggles DVD for Easter called 'Ukulele Baby' so I think I'll have to pull out my uke, tune it up and have a jam with the little fella, hopefully he won't realise that I'm not very good! ;)


Ok so it seems I'm not necessarily doing any of these projects for 'myself' as such, (as I'd originally hoped when venturing into this creativity spree) but I'm loving getting to share my boys' interests and have these special things between us, it's much more satisfying than being all artsy-fartsy in my book!