I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew it would make the perfect keepsake first birthday card for my cousin's little boy who is one on Monday. Right on theme with the birthday party!

Take a blank piece of paper, green, blue, red and yellow paint. (Mix the blue and red to make the purple)

Paint the palm of a hand with green and the four fingers blue for the legs.

Turn you paper upside down and place your print on the page. 3 prints make a great body!

Big boy did the first two sections and small boy did the last body. It was impossible to get him to keep his hand open so I painted three of my fingers as the legs for his body!

Paint a palm red for the face and two fingers (with a finger space in the middle) purple for the antennae.

Dada did two big yellow finger prints for the eyes and big boy two purple pupil thumbprints! Small boys thumbprint made a great nose.

I decided it was so sweet, I ink stamped his name along the bottom and framed it in an A4 frame with a luggage tag hanging from the top with a message from us!

A truly handmade card from the whole family.

When I saw this idea in The Vintage Tea Party Book, I knew one little three year old who would enjoy them just as much as his Mama! A super idea for children's parties, make them on little cocktail sticks with jam and chocolate spread.

Flatten your bread and spread with butter and your choice of filling.

Cut the crusts off and roll into a sausage. Wrap in cling film and set in the fridge for 20 mins so that the bread will hold the circle shape.

Slice into 1cm width and skewer onto cocktail sticks.

I made a cone out of some scrapbook paper and balanced it on an orange. I poked my cocktail sticks through the cone and into the orange!

lollypop1

lollypop2

lollypop3

Big boy has all of a sudden started impressing us with his interest and ability to recognise numbers. He wants to stop at people's doors and points out speed limit signs where ever we go. He loves to copy me so the other afternoon we went on a number hunt around the estate, armed with an instant camera.

As I am usually taking the pictures, he was as keen as mustard to shoot the 'big numbers' we found on our walk.

We went through 1 - 9 which took longer than you would think as the estate is full of lots of little cul de sacs rather than long streets! Then we went on a hunt for the big ones 10, 20, 30, 40 etc right up to 100.

The game lasted just over an hour when he told me that his legs were aching! We had walked a fair way so we headed back for tea.

We are going to go out again for 11-19 another time and save 21-29 and 31-39 etc for other days when we need an hour out of the house.

I have printed the first 1-9 as business cards and laminated them to use as flashcards. Much more fun for him as they remind him of our little adventure. The big ones are on business card sized instant prints so perfect!

The only disappointment was number 100. The only house on the estate not to have a number plaque! We took a picture anyway as he now says "Look Mama that house has no number but it is as old as Great Grandma Mabel!" Well she is 98 and a half but I am happy for him to think she is 100! How sweet!