Discover & Do Chez Cafe Bebe

Jul 25, 2011 by cafebebemama

I love being a Mother. I love my daughter immensely. I love to do things together that don’t involve arguing or stress. This is why we don’t do a lot of crafting. I like the idea of crafting. I love the craft supplies. But my minimal OCD tendencies cause me to freak out repeatedly when mess occurs or when Ella puts something where it shouldn’t go. According to me, mind you.

So, when I read about a crafting challenge on the lovely Red Ted Art blog, I thought, “What the hey, we’ll give it a go!” Never mind that there is a PRIZE incentive, I thought that this would be a great experiment in crafting for Ella and I. The idea of the challenge was to read one of two stories from the Fly Thomas Cook Kids site and create a craft that represented the story. The stories were a bit advanced for Ella and didn’t have enough pictures to keep her interest but I still decided, through some helpful prodding from Maggy of Red Ted Art, that we’d give it a go anyway. We chose the story, The Ghost Island and this is what we made!

Isn’t it brilliant?! I cut down a cereal box, drew out a squiggly “island” shape in the middle and Ella and I painted the sea with shade of blue and green water colours. Then Ella painted the island with glue while I used a blob of blue tack to secure a straw which was the “trunk” of the palm tree. I added a bit of green tissue paper to the “tree” and then Ella helped me sprinkle sand on the island after glueing on snail shells and stones. We even used a green bead for the “magic stone” which features in the story. And thus…we have our ghost island. Ella finished the masterpiece off by colouring in a boat which was provided in the print out of the story. Et voila! Fini!

I also decided to push the boat out and make Brownies with Ella. Again, testing the patience and mess-factor with Mummy today. Am I insane? Maybe! Living the gluten-free life, baking is always a challenge so I really appreciate it when blogging friends point out recipes that I feel compelled to make. Brownies are one of my all-time favourites and Ella and Mark are extremely fond of them as well. Darn.

We met Sarah of Sarah Bakes at Nick Coffer’s My Daddy Cooks celebration in May and after hearing about my gluten-free struggles, she’s been lovely enough to send a few links my way for her recipes. She has had some great success with gluten-free baking and it’s lovely to have her testing things for us. Her chocolate brownie recipe is simple, sweet and GORGEOUS!!! Ella helped me to make it today with very little mess which was wonderful. As there are no eggs or dairy in the recipe, it was totally safe for Ella to lick the bowl & spoon which she MUST always do (not that we worry about that too much anyway…chocolate is chocolate!).

As you can see…they were a hit! I highly recommend making these with your Kitchen Helper as soon as possible! You may have to fight your child to lick the bowl though!

Today was a major accomplishment! Ella and I didn’t argue once, we created two brilliant works of “art” together and used up about 2 hours of the afternoon doing so. Time for a cuppa and a bit of Cbeebies now, methinks. I do believe that Ella’s face says it all here…we must do this more often! Thank you Maggy! We owe you one!