What to do on a Sunday afternoon

We had a project today - figuring out how to turn Amy into a pineapple for Halloween. We even have a pineapple - she made Baachan buy one when they went to the supermarket yesterday, just so we could refer to it. We went to a few kids' clothing stores to look for brown or yellow or green tights and tops to wear underneath, as well as a brown or green or yellow big top that we might be able to use to make the pineapple. We settled on a pair of Winnie the Pooh pyjamas, in 'Winnie the Pooh' yellowy-brown, the perfect shade for a pineapple. And in another store I found some maternity smocks for 10 yen. (Yes, no zeros missing, TEN yen, nobody wanted them. I bought three). I imagine I will either paint it or stick paper to it, sew (get the shop to do it) the hem with elastic and stuff it with newspaper.

We also went to the 100yen shop today, which is always a lifesaver for a boring afternoon. I spent 1000yen. We got: a jester's hat in three colours with bells, a peacock mask, a fairy wand (Lena spent the rest of the day as Cinderella's fairy Godmother), a rubber snake (Amy wanted to find a spider to scare Aunty Jo!), a slinky, a math puzzle, a set of coloured pen, glitter paints, water paints, and a sketch book.

Amy in the picture above is making use of her new water colour palette. She's naked so she won't get paint on her. She first used an easel a few weeks ago in her art class, and it looks like she likes the idea. She made it herself. Last week she took off with a couple of polystyrene trays and a mirror and asked me for selotape. It was right on bedtime so I said no, and that I wanted to throw the trays out. She got quite upset and her Dad felt sorry for her and let her hide the trays by his chair. Next day, she asked for the selotape again, and taped the mirror to one tray and that tray upright to the second tray as a base, to make a standing mirror, which she then put in 'her' room (which she doesn't sleep in yet because we need to re-do the walls first, they are earth walls and they crumble and are not good for her asthma).

So when she started asking me for something to use as an easel, I remembered about this creation of hers. She got 'that' look on her face (WOW) took off without a word upstairs and soon had herself installed in the kitchen painting.