Homemade Diwali cards craft

In 2017 Diwali will be celebrated on the 19th October.

Also known as the Festival of Lights, Diwali (also known as Divali or Deepavali) is one of the largest and most important festivals of the year for Hindus. Lamps are lit to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, and families exchange gifts and cards.

This year we made some simple Diwali cards to send to family. First we looked at some commercial cards, and talked about the images and how they relate to the Diwali story.

Then I found some printable Diwali colouring cards with a selection of lovely images. I let Harry choose his favourite and we printed it off to colour. We decorated with glitter glue and sequins, then mounted the picture onto some brightly coloured card.

This is the first year that I've started teaching Harry about Diwali, as I think that he's old enough now to learn a little bit about his culture and heritage. I'll let you know how we get on!

If you are looking for some more Diwali crafts, then you might like these pages:

How to make a salt dough diwa
How to make Rangoli using dyed rice
Large Hama bead Rangoli
Small Hama bead Rangoli
Simple Burfi sweets for Diwali

If you are teaching your young children about Diwali, here are some books that they might enjoy:

The Best Diwali Ever (affiliate link) - A heart warming picture book about Diwali, siblings and how very special this celebration can be.

Diwali colouring book for kids (affiliate link) - A simple coloring book for young children, suitable for ages 2-5. Contains all sorts of things to colour including lamps, fireworks, candles, lanterns, food & rangoli patterns.

First Festivals: Diwali (affiliate link) - Featuring simple text, gorgeous illustrations and satisfying lift-the-flaps, this book explores common Diwali traditions and helps young children understand the importance of this special holiday.

Mr Men and Little Miss Happy Diwali (affiliate link) - The five-day festival of lights is celebrated by millions of people across the world and the Mr Men and Little Miss can't wait to join in. They're busy cleaning their homes, creating Rangolis, lighting lamps and enjoying all the festivities, including large feasts that Mr Greedy is particularly looking forward to. It’s going to be a busy five days of light and laughter!

I've also collected together lots of fun Diwali crafts and activities on my Diwali Pinterest board:

Follow Jennifer Jain's board Diwali Crafts and Activities on Pinterest.

A walk, a sit and a think

I've not had the best few days. It started on Wednesday, when Harry threw a major strop on me. It all began when he didn't want to have his socks put on. We've been having this issue for a few weeks now, he says that they hurt and keeps taking them off, then refuses to put his shoes on. I'm getting fed up with it anyway, and so when he started playing up again I probably handled it wrong and it all escalated, ending up with us not going out to visit friends after all.

We had screaming, tears, kicking, stamping, more screaming, both indoors and outside. I know that we are very lucky that this isn't a regular thing, but it threw me completely off balance because I'd never seem him like that before. Harry was a screamy baby and I could deal with that - in fact I became very good at dealing with a screamy baby. But as far as I can remember this was the first time since having children that I wanted to escape up to my parents. It was probably for the best that I had calmed down by the time I was able to talk to my Mum!

I also have a major life change coming up in a couple of weeks which I've found quite emotionally draining. I'll be fine when it's over, and it's definitely all for the best in the long run, it's just the getting to that point that is hard.

So in my lunch break today I escaped for a long walk and headed down to the seafront. I love visiting the sea at this time of year when it's deserted and peaceful. It gave me time to order my thoughts, and of course any type of exercise always makes you feel better. Changes are afoot, which I'll share when the time is right, and there are fun times ahead.

We also have an amazing holiday coming up in a few weeks time, and although it does involve things that I'm trying to forget about (a ten hour plane journey with two small children - one of which will not have a seat - and a time difference significant enough to mean that we don't sleep for a month) I am really looking forward to it.

Here's to fresh air, exercise, and collected thoughts!

Easy Malteser (or just about any other sweet) cookies

Ever since I discovered a recipe for Smartie Biscuits at Living it Little I have been addicted to making these cookies. They are so easy to make and so versatile, you can make them with whatever type of sweet or chocolate bar you have around the house. I received a big box of Maltesers for my birthday last week, and so after a morning which started with a rather major meltdown (from the pre-schooler, not the toddler) I made a batch of Malteser cookies for some comfort food.


Unfortunately the link is no longer available online so I've reproduced it here. To make your own, here's all you need:

4oz softened butter (I put it in the microwave for a bit)
4oz light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp syrup
6oz self-raising flour

Sweets - Living it Little used two tubes of smarties, for Malteser cookies I used two (large) handfuls, bashed up a bit with a rolling pin. I've also used two double Twixes or two Crunchies cut up into small pieces.

Then you just cream the butter and sugar together and mix in all the other ingredients, probably using hands at the end to make a nice sticky dough. Make little balls on the baking tray (I find it makes about 20, depending on how much of the raw dough I have eaten) and cook at 180c for about ten minutes. When you take them out they will be a bit puffy, but when they have cooled they will sink down to nice flat, chewy cookies. Yum!

Book Review - The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb

We were sent a copy of Paper Dolls to review - a new book by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb. I really don’t want to sound too gushing in my review, but I have to say that in my opinion this picture book is perfect.

The story follows a little girl with a mother that makes her a string of paper dolls - each named and unique. The paper dolls have some beautifully illustrated adventures as the little girl plays with them around the house and garden. The paper dolls encounter a variety of imaginary hazards, but they escape them all, singing that they are ‘holding hands and we won’t let go’.

In the end, however, they can’t escape the very real threat of a little boy and his scissors, and he cuts them up into tiny pieces. But they haven’t gone forever, and they float away into the little girl’s memory, along with all sorts of other lovely things, until she has a little girl of her own that she can make paper dolls with.

This story is different to others by Julia Donaldson in our collection. The book is a touching reminder of children growing up and the passage of time, and that can be very poignant as a parent reading to a young child. It also broaches the subject of loss, and I think it would be a good book to share with a child that has experienced bereavement or any other type of loss, as it builds upon the idea that nothing and no-one is gone forever, they will always live on in your memories.

The illustrations in the book are quite superb. I love the drawings of Rebecca Cobb. I recently reviewed Lunchtime, which Rebecca wrote and illustrated, and that has become one of our favourite books. Her drawings are so lifelike, and they inject so much personality into the story.

I would absolutely recommend this book. We’ve been reading it every night for several days now, and I’m enjoying it every time. It must surely be destined to become a children’s classic.

I received a copy of the book to review

Review - AMF Bowling, Worthing

We'd been wondering whether to take Harry bowling for a little while, so when AMF Bowling offered us the opportunity to try out a family bowling day I was very interested to see how we got on. Initially we were going to take Mia, but fortunately we were able to arrange for my Mum to look after her, as I think at 17 months old she's probably still a little bit too young. Harry is 3 1/2 though, and it was perfect for him. We went to our local one, which is on Worthing seafront.

I've never been a regular bowler, although I've been a few times over the years. I've not been with a young child though, so I wasn't really sure how Harry would get on. But with the addition of bumpers down the sides of the lanes and a special ramp for him to roll the ball down, it really made the competition between us much more even.

I must admit that the adult's scores benefitted more than a little from having the bumpers in place, even if my husband did claim that he was using the bumpers strategically in order hit the pins at a particular angle. Harry caught on very quickly, and I taught him my tried and tested trick to use the power of your mind and your waving arms to will the ball over to the correct side. As I knew he would be, Harry was also fascinated by the machine that returns your balls to you.

We had a great morning, and we all really enjoyed it. It felt like we could compete evenly, despite the fact that he's only little. We'll definitely be back when Mia is old enough to join in too. Here is a little video showing how easy it was for Harry to use the ramp to roll the ball down (and how waving your arms really can influence the movement of the ball).

 We received two complimentary games at AMF Bowling Worthing in exchange for this review

Homemade play food - salt dough and felt pizza

I love making play food. It can be as simple or as difficult as you like (I tend to go for simple) and has hours of play value. We eat a lot of pizza in this household so I thought that it was about time I made some pizza to play with. It's great for lots of different role play - among other things you can use it in the toy kitchen, in the toy shop or in a pretend restaurant.

I made the pizza base from salt dough. I used my favourite salt dough recipe - 1 part salt, 1 part water and 2 parts plain flour mixed together to make a dough. I used about half a cup as my measure and that was enough for a nice sized pizza.

I rolled the dough out into a circle and cut it into six pieces. I smoothed the edges and make a slightly thicker crust around the edge. To dry them out I placed them in the oven on a low temperature, which worked well, but I had better results when I just placed them on top of a radiator for a few days. Before painting them I sanded away the rough edges.

I painted the pizza slices with standard poster paint. To make a suitable colour for the crust I mixed a little brown, a little yellow and lots of white paint. I had enough paint left to paint the bottom too, although you don't need to. I made sure to paint all the way down the sides.

Then I used red paint mixed with a little brown to add the tomato sauce into the middle of the slices.

For the toppings I cut pieces from felt. I was going to get fancy and sew each individual item, but it was a lot easier and quicker just to cut out simple shapes. I made large blobs of pale yellow for cheese, then cut out pieces for tomato, red and green peppers, mushrooms, olives, pepperoni and sweetcorn. I made about six of each of the larger pieces.

Looks delicious!

You might also like to see the other play food that I have made:

Realistic play food for the toy kitchen -laminate realistic pictures to add to saucepans and plates
Felt biscuits - Felt party rings and cookies
Felt sandwich - Everything that you need to make a felt sandwich
Cardboard biscuits - Really easy pretend biscuits that children can help to make

Review - Le Toy Van Toaster Set

We were recently offered the chance to review a product from Dolls Houses. I had a lot of trouble choosing which set to receive, as there was such a lovely selection of toys. In the end I went for the Le Toy Van Honeybake Toaster Set (affiliate link).  We've never had a toy toaster, but I've seen Harry playing with one at toddler group and he loves it. When it arrived it looked so pretty in the packaging that I didn't want to take it out of the box. But Harry had seen it, and he was desperate to play with it.


Harry likes eating jam on toast every morning for breakfast, and so he quickly got started.


I love wooden toys, and I really liked the retro design of this toaster set. I was particularly impressed with the interactive elements of the set. The toaster is spring loaded, so you can push the bread down and press a button to make it pop up (I  just wish I'd had the video camera ready to catch Harry jumping the first time this happened!). Secondly the slices of butter join together with velcro that you can cut apart with the knife. Perhaps Harry is deprived, but he's never had any play food that does this, so it fascinated him. I also fell in love with the little jam pot.

It's durable, and a good quality toy that has plenty of play value. The toaster set is aimed at children aged 3+.

Disclaimer - I received the set for the purpose of this review. Amazon link is affiliate.