school

pirates and treasure island (we’re building a box maze)

Fairfield Primary School Fair is on Saturday 14 March from 2-7pm (do come along!).  And this year Elise, Wendy and I are building a box maze.  It’s going to be an indoor one and the kids are going to crawl through the boxes.

We saved the election booth boxes that were at school for the recent State Government election.  And we have been diligently dropping in to Harvey Norman Preston twice a week to collect all their fridge boxes, which they are kindly saving for us. The aim is 100 boxes.  

maybe the ship could look something like this one I found on Pinterest

So, the plan at the moment is that the box maze will start on a pirate ship.  The kids will have to walk the plank to the island (this will take them up the ramp to the classroom door).  Then they’ll enter the castle and follow the maze, climbing to the lookout (they’ll be able to look out a window … a crafty trick to entice other children to wonder what they are doing and visit the box maze), before visiting a fairy glen (fun for the little kids) and entering a pirate dungeon (where the treasure is stored of course).  Before popping out at the end via a waterfall (well it will be a slide really …).

some of the pirate treasure … my inherited silverware is going to see the light of day!

Sounds ace huh?  After some intense Pinterest research that you can see here the major technical decisions for construction are:

1. Fridge sized boxes are the go.  We are using large boxes to minimise the joining required.

2. The boxes will be joined primarily with cable ties.  These make the joins sturdy and mean it is simple to dismantle the maze at the end (we’ll just cut the ties).

3.  We will drill the holes for the cable ties. We’ve had a practice and this is a simple process.

I’m getting so excited. Today we started working on the dungeon.  Inspired by this photo below I am now in the process of photographing the teachers to be part of the ‘pirate picture gallery’.  I am asking to take a photo of them dressed up.  Fun!  Then I am going to make some sort of photo display …. a bit like this hopefully.  With the treasure in front!

how cool is this room? i found this image on Pinterest.

I think my kids would like to be part of it too (the display that is) … the practice run pictures are pretty cute huh?

a few new things …

Ok, it’s a quick blog today.  On Saturday I went to Spensely Street Primary School fete and got so much great stuff.

Including this lovely Olga Berg bag.  I’ve got a couple of Olga Berg bags.  They always catch my eye.

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And this fab. red necklace that is made of silicon (I think it might be one of those chewable ones for Mum’s with teething children …clearly that’s not me but I love the necklace anyway).  It looks super with the Juicy Bear red and white striped t-shirt that I bought a while ago at the Salvos op shop at Anglesea.

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And speaking of which, I also bought this black Juicy Bear long sleeve t-shirt at the Spensely Street fete.  Black long sleeve tops are my stand by.

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And this dark grey drapey linen Essence top/vest.  It looks really nice on. I bought it with Elise in mind, but I think I’ll keep it for myself.  And the necklace in the photo you have seen before.  I got it at Westgarth fete last weekend.  It matches the new pants I bought on Thursday at Camberwell Salvos that are sage green.

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And I got lots of stuff for the kids at Spensely Street as well,  including this Fred Bear t-shirt and this super kitsch hello kitty hand knit for Scarlett.  They’re pink and cute so she loves them both (when you are 6 it’s all about pink isn’t it?  I’m OK with that).

And there’s so much more, more, more …  I think I might need to get realistic about capacity in our house and have a bit of a wardrobe cull.  Maybe I’ll start tomorrow.

fathers day

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My friend Ali organises the Father’s Day stall at school. And she is a crafty soul. Everything she produces has a bit of a home made, recycled theme.

And my children bought all the good ones for Clive!

He got some sunflower seeds. I like them in the little sewn up package. Succulents in tins, and some soap packaged in old maps. Oh, and one cent coin cuff links.

Great work Ali and co.