You Know Who Deserves A Medal?

Childminders that's who! How on earth they cope with more than one little person, never mind 5 or 6, running round all day is beyond me!

After 1 week of the school holidays, the kids were going stir crazy, so today I decided to have an activity day. We started off after breakfast by making monster finger puppets. Xander and glue was a risky combination but he did OK:

And the puppets turned out great:

After clearing up all the little bits that were left over (with absolutely zero help from the people that had thrown the bits all round the living room) it was off to the park. Park was fine, apart from lifting a 2 1/2 stone toddler in and out and in and out of the swings.

After a quick trip to Asda (not a good idea in the holidays!) and some lunch (bliss, 10 minutes of peace while their mouths were full!) we did some baking. Aprons on and cooking utensils out:

and lots of mixing:

and a few 'oohs' and 'aaahs' as the cakes started to rise:

There was a bit of impatience while the cakes cooled before icing, so out came the paint (can't believe I did that after telling Mariek the other day she was crackers for allowing kids and paints to mix in her house!). However, the paint was a big hit as the kids painted birthday cards for their friends in the States:

They were then hung up to dry:

While I got out the cream cleaner and scrubbed the paint off various surfaces (fortunately I'd covered our new table and chairs!)

Then, off to ice the buns:

And voila, lovely little mini cakes:

After all that, the kids were plonked infront of the TV for a bit of Toy Story:

Has the peace lasted? Ha, what do you think? Emily is currently sat on the naughty step and Xander has tipped a potty full of wee all over the carpet!

I tell you, how childminders do this day in day out is beyond me! They want knighting the lot of them!