Evacuate!

I'm getting quite good at this school dress up day thing, yes I'm swiftly moving away from that feeling of utter detest each time the school mentions it, but don't be fooled; I'm not yet loving it...I'm not sure how or when I got more enthusiastic about it...perhaps it was just the simple case of having more than three weeks notice this time. So there was no flat panic, no rush trying to throw something together and there was plenty of time to decide what was needed, what we had  and what could make do. The topic this time: World War Two Evacuee's.

Getting Monkey-Moo off to the library really helped, he may have cleared out the entire World War Two section of books, but it really paid off. Not only did we get a clear picture of what he need to look like (yes I did a Google image search too) but he managed to find a book that had tons of art and craft ideas all centred around WW2. He decided to make his own gas mask.

I think he did a really good job. Apologies that I didn't get a photo of it without him holding it in place.

Here he is; an old white shirt he used for a wedding years ago (looking slim fit but still useful) a pair of tailored shorts (last seasons fashion trend), school socks and shoes and a plain grey v-necked jumper picked up in the local supermarket, all topped off with (the now trendy) flat cap!

Final touches to finish off the look- simply a tag and his boxed gas mask.

And with that dress up day success under my belt, I have just learnt that both Monkey-Moos will be needing to don 60's themed outfits at the end of the month...watch this space for those creations....right now I'm off to Pinterest to work out how to tie dye fabric...

World Book Day DIY Dress UP

Now if you've read my blog before, you will know how I feel about school dress up days! Hate is a strong word, I think detest is probably a little  more accurate!

Putting my feelings to one side: it's World Book Day, and naturally the Monkey-Moos have to dress up as their favourite book characters. All fine and dandy, but my two head strong monkeys refused to use the pirate outfits we already have (Pirates next door) or the Peter Pan one we had from previous years and instead insisted on Greg (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Mr Snow (Mr Men series)....here in lies a problem...white...boys want to wear white...NOOOOOOO!!!

After running around desperately trying to locate White jumpers for the Fussy Monkey-Moos to wear (it is after all still too cold to do t-shirts) and coming up empty handed, I managed to find the last white long sleeve t-shirt in Monkey-Moo #1's size but nothing for #2.

Being as crafty (in the sly sense of that word) as I am, I set about planting seeds to chang Mr Snow to Mr Bump. #2 took some serious convincing. But I won in the end! Yay me!

So with a £3 Blue Jumper, two bandages and a sheet of black felt, I got to work!

A bit of sewing, a lot of pinning and a little cutting.

Tadah..
We have our little MR Bump!

After all that sewing and re-pinning...they seemed to have a life of their own those pins.... Greg aka Wimpy Kid was a simple 20 minute job!

Getting Monkey-Moo#1 to decided on a facial expression wasn't nearly as easy as it sounds. After several changes we settled on one (which changed again at the last minute), located some card, an old polystyrene pizza round some double sided tape and got out a trusty marker pen. Ready set go!

Sketched, drawn and then cut, added details and left a small "neck" so Monkey-Moo could hold it up.
Hello Greg!

Crimean War- Walking Wounded

Another long overdue post, that's been sitting here written for months that I simply forgot to post!

Nothing fills me with as much dread as dress up days for school, I can just about deal with a Pyjama day, simple easy and no fuss at all, but the rest of them, book day, always with a theme that makes it more difficult than just pulling something out the cupboard, and maths week which lets face it - is just so dull you can't make it exciting! So you can imagine the look on my face when Monkey-Moo came home from school with a letter instructing that their year would be doing a Crimean war dress up, girls as Florence Nightingale and the boys as soldiers! pffft.

I was happily about to send him off in a white t-shirt ("Pretend it's your vest under your soldiers uniform" I said )  bandaged up, and call him the Walking Wounded! Then after a few discussion at the school gate with other Moms, I started to get pangs of guilt that I wasn't putting much effort into this at all.

With little over 12 hours to go, one fabulous phone call from another mom, currently in the supermarket- " I'm picking up a Red Sweatshirt, it comes in a two pack, I'll drop it round on my way home!" SAVED!

OK send him in red with bandages, still Walking Wounded, it's good enough right? Right? No, didn't think so! Oh no dinner time. Kids to bath, Little Monkey to bed.

Light Bulb!

 

Get paper plates. Get gold paint. Bandages. Find old ribbons. Scissors. Double sided tape. and GO!

Enlist Monkey-Moos painting skills.

 

 

 We have buttons!

A bit of double sided tape, a snip or two, yes that will do!

 

 

More gold paint!

Send Monkey-Moo to bed, it's getting late. Wait for paint to dry.

 

Quick assembly 15 minutes before it's time to head to school, double sided tape all the way, throw on a bandage! (no fake blood here, but some great moms did add that touch.)

 

 

Ready to go! My Walking Wounded! Proud as punch!