DIY Studio Ghibli Soot Sprites

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Are you a fan of Studio Ghibli movies? We're big fans over here. We have a box set of Hayao Miyazaki movies and they get played on heavy rotation. 

My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are two of the kids' favorite Studio Ghibli movies and one thing they have in common (apart from being great stories) is Soot Sprites. These cute little black balls of soot appear in both of these movies and the kids think they're absolutely adorable. 

So, for Halloween, or really any time of year, we decided to make our very own Soot Sprites. They're super easy to create with just a few materials and they look adorable. I'll have some Studio Ghibli inspired costumes on the blog in the next few days, and these little Soot Sprites made the perfect addition to the costumes. Lola and Mathilde are dressed as Satsuke and Mei from Totoro below. 

Now, the Soot Sprites in My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are slightly different. Totoro's Soot Sprites hide in corners and in the shadows in groups. They scurry away together as if picked up by the wind. They don't have legs, arms or personalities. They're just balls of soot with eyes. In Spirited Away, however, the Soot Sprites have legs and sometimes arms, and they use these to carry coal for Kamaji, the six armed man who runs the boiler room of the bath house. So we made two different types of Soot Sprites, some with legs and some without. They're pretty much the same with just one pipe cleaner for the difference. 

Here's how we made our Studio Ghibli Soot Sprites...

Berkeley Bear Cubs

This last weekend was a busy one for us. On Saturday we went to an Easter party, which I'll be sharing soon, and on Sunday Ava had her second cheerleading competition.

Ava has been taking cheerleading lessons with Young Champions since September last year. At the end of each 10 week (or so) session a competition is held between groups from the Bay Area and beyond. You may remember Ava's first cheerleading competition with her team Berkeley Stars which was held back in January. You can see it here.

This time around Ava's team was called Berkeley Bear Cubs. If you're not familiar with Berkeley then let me just point out that the sporting teams at the university here are all called Cal Bears, hence our little ones choosing the name Bear Cubs.

Ava's team of eight competed against a large team from Oakland and an absolutely massive team from San Leandro. They came in third and were pretty excited about their medals. All of the kids did a fantastic job and we were very proud of them.

Ava shows off her bronze medal and trophy

You wish you were a Berkeley Star

While we're living in America I want Ava and Lola to try out things they wouldn't be able to do at home. So when the opportunity came up for Ava to take cheerleading classes after school we jumped at the chance. Bring it on!

Ava has been taking cheerleading classes since September and she loves it. She takes pride in the fact that she knows all her arm movements and has been working hard at perfecting her jumps. Admittedly, all of her various jumps end up looking pretty much the same but she's getting there. She's quite dedicated to getting everything perfect and practises her cheer so much at home that even Lola knows all of the words!

Our little cheerleader