ribbon weaving and coloured box walk

I showed BabyEbi a new exercise yesterday. First we got out his mat, a basket containing lengths of ribbon and clothes pegs and the 'loom' which is actually a shelf from the ¥100 shop that I have had for ages, I didn't throw it away when we moved because I thought it might come in handy for something!

Then I showed him how to clip the ribbon to the top of the loom. We started at the top left, as you would if you were writing - to reinforce the left to right, top to bottom action used in the English writing/reading system.
(This photo was taken from behind the loom)

Then he threaded the ribbons in and out. He REALLY enjoyed pulling the ribbons out when he had finished.

After all that it was time to have a snack, he had sakura mochi as a Hinamatsuri day treat, sakura is cherry blossom and mochi is made from beaten rice, it is very chewy and several people a year die choking on it, the one I chose for babyEbi wasn't very chewy and I made sure he chewed every mouthful properly - just in case. Inside is sweet red bean paste, yep mushed up beans, took me quite a while to take to this but I quite like it now. Oh, and I don't recommend eating the leaf either.

After lunch we went on a colour walk. I saw this idea on someone elses blog but I can't remember where, sorry for not being able to give credit where credit is due. The post I saw had used a cardboard egg carton and she had painted each section a different colour. I didn't have an egg carton because our our sold in those awful plastic ones but I did have a fancy chocolate box left over from Valentines. So, I used markers and coloured in each hole, I had to turn the card inner bits inside out because it was shiny gold on the proper side. We then went for a wander to see what we could find to put in the various holes, he tried to get a ladybird in the red hole but the ladybird wasn't having any of it! We have got lots of allotments around and about so we didn't have to go far. I will take the box with us next time we go to the big park .

Right, today I am on a mission to finish a very long project....