Days 3 and 4

On Friday we spent a quiet morning at home. I managed to distract 2 of the 3 kids with a Disney movie but Gman was fascinated by the gas man and stalked him around the house for the duration of  his visit.

The afternoon was spent charity shopping in Eastleigh. 

In the evening my parents took the children out for a few hours. Hubby and I had a lovely meal at Frankie and Bennys, which included a sneaky cocktail for Mummy ;)

Yesterday DH was working again, but I was very brave a took the children out solo. I have no problem taking them somewhere I know but this was a completely new place in an area I didn't really know. 

We visited a Summer Fun Day held by the Friends of Hermitage stream. Most of the activities were free or very low priced so we all had a go at everything. 

The highlight of the trip was definitely the pond dipping. We caught some tiny sticklebacks, pond shrimp and a water boatman. 

We came home with handfuls of freebies to. 2 lovely cotton shopping bags, several leaflets, recipe cards, rice scoop and spaghetti measure. The girls have popped all the badges on their backpacks.

Among the little selection of stalls was a Christmas in July stall, selling...you guessed it!

All the items were priced at 30p or 4 for £1. I grabbed a small craft set and 3 sets of the advent calenders. Each of the numbered mittens has a tiny wooden peg behind it, perfect for holding a sweet or a little treat.  

Because the children said thank you politely when we bought our items the lady on the stall added 2 mini jigsaw puzzles for free. 

The jigsaws have 20 pieces each so I'm planning to put one piece a day on the advent calenders for the girls, or possibly a clue on where to find that days piece. 

For now they have been stashed in the Christmas box ready for  December.

X x X

Summer holidays day 2

 Today we stayed home, DH was working so it's just me and children for the day. Tomorrow has something rather special planned so staying indoors was a good plan.
 First we made a raisin bread recipe from our newest River Cottage cook book.  They all enjoyed weighing out ingredients and kneading the door. DD2 was fascinated that the dough needed to 'sleep' in the airing cupboard and reminded us frequently that "the raisins are sleeping! Ssshhhh!"

Clever hubby found a yellow stickered pineapple a few days ago. At 10p it was a fantastic and tasty bargain. I was planning to serve it with pancakes but as soon as the scent of fresh pineapple wafted through air it was gobbled up as a starter. 

We are now trying to grow our own pineapple plant from the leafy top. Hopefully we'll have a few sunny and tropical days to help get it growing.

The afternoon was spent cutting and sticking. I let the girls loose on some old seed and flower catalogues, they made beautiful fantasy gardens in their holiday diaries. It was a lovely quiet, and relatively clean craft to do while DS napped. 

Tomorrow morning we have the excitement of the gas man visiting to do our annual boiler check. Hopefully the poor bloke won't be as pestered as last year's chap.

Then it's off to visit the grandparents for a special surprise!

X x X

Day 1 of Summer - Library visit

It's been a soggy and dark start to the summer holidays, but luckily that didn't effect our plans. Last week both girls were signed up to the library's  summer reading scheme and borrowed their first book to read.

Thanks to the rubbish weather we decided to stay for a while.

DD2 and Daddy enjoyed sitting and reading a story together. 

DS ran around the children's section  (chased by me) handing anyone who past random books and shouting "Read it!" Thank goodness he is at the age where his actions are cute and not threatening. Lol

DD1 curled up on one of big squishy beanbags and read some picture books to herself quietly. DD1 likes to be left in peace when she reads so we gave her all the space she needed.

Once we'd given our book reviews and claimed our first set of collectable stickers, we returned back home.

Both of the girls recorded the trip in their holiday diaries.

X x X

Summer Holidays have begun

I've been looking so forward to the summer holidays :)

We celebrate the first few moments by visiting our favourite local ice cream parlour for a little treat. 

We have so many great plans for things to do. Our main summer topic this year is The Romans. 

Watch this space.

X x X

HUGE soap

Hello lovely readers. 

You may remember me mentioning that I won a posh bar of soap at the recent school fete we attended. I hadn't really thought about it at the time, but it's a HUGE bar, with no hope of fitting into my little soap dish.

I emailed a soap making friend of mine for advice on hacking it into smaller chunks. A hot sharp knife or cheese wire is the answer. 

She also advised keeping the chunks in the airing cupboard to dry out and make them last longer. 

So they are now living in unlidded jam jars waiting to be used, with the added bonus of scenting my household linens with a gorgeous rose scent.

X x X

Now you see it...

We're slowly but surely redecorating the house at the moment. Currently we're working on the second half of the down stairs hallway. One of the parts that bother me the most is the ugly Internet router. 

I saw a cracking idea on Pinterest a few days ago. I just needed to find a hardback book the right size. A few quick snips along the internal binding and...

Now my ugly router is much nicer to look at! Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best and one that cost me all of 20p! 

X x X

Hidden needy

I was contacted a few days ago by someone I hadn't spoken in probably a year. She was a neighbour from the far end of the street, someone who I'm only on waving and nodding terms with these days. We used to exchange small talk most days on the preschool run but our daughters had gone to different local schools, and people drift apart.

She asked me for money, she'd run out of gas and electric and had no money until the end of the week. She was desperate and apologised over and over for needing to ask.

As a rule I don't hand out money. I'll lend you £1 because you don't have change for the bus etc but never usually more than that. I don't have money to just hand out like that. But I do have plenty of resources. 

 Yesterday her daughter joined us for dinner and had a nice hot shower. Her mum refused to join us, so I sent the daughter home with a boxed up dinner. I'm hoping mum ate it, I notice she's lost weight. 

I've told them both the offer of hot meals and hot showers lasts for as long as they need it.

The whole thing has made me wonder how many people in the street are struggling without being noticed or feeling able to ask for help? This world can be a lonely and cruel place sometimes. Keep your eyes wide open folks, you might just spot someone you can help.

X x X

Weekend round up.

On Friday this cheeky young man had his first haircut. Hopefully he'll been feeling a little bit cooler with shorter hair. It's made him look so much older suddenly though, where has my baby boy gone?

On Saturday we were melting and grumpy from the heat. The afternoon was spent in a nice cool bubble bath where we rescued small plastic toys from giant icecubes. 

It was a new activity we hadn't tried before but I highly recommend it. It costs next to nothing and can be on standby in the freezer for the next heat wave.

We also ate ice creams. Does anyone know why toddlers always eat the bottom of the cone first? Almost every parent I speak to had dealt with this phenomena and I'm sure there must be something to it.

Today we went to a local summer fayre. It was one of those lovely ones where the PTA man all the stalls and everything costs 20p/50p. We all enjoyed watching the country dancing, dog agility show and playing on the school playground equipment.

We all had a go on the Tombola and walked away with 4 prizes. A can of ginger beer, a yankee candle, posh soap and a tube of Marks and Spencer body lotion. 

 DD2 was very proud of her prize and fell asleep clutching it on the way home.I'm predicting the next few days will have a distinctive shea butter scent lol.

 Over all its been a very pleasant weekend. 

What have you all been up to?

X x x

 

Thursday Tales

DD1 had a taster morning at her junior school today. It seems to have gone well, she found some friends in the playground from our twirling team, which really helped. Nothing is cooler than having friends in older year groups she tells me, bless her. 

Today's after school activities were butterfly related (of course!). We talked about how butterflies eat with their proboscis. I made simple card flowers with a hole in the centre and the girls went from flower to flower using their straw proboscis to sip the nectar. 

We also tried a simple static electricity experiment. Rubbing a balloon on a towel we created enough static charge to make the tissue paper butterfly flap it's wings. I then explained how it worked (mostly to DD1, DD2 declared it magic and wandered off)

We also played with Gmans new board game. I'd picked it up as it was Thomas the tank themed and he liked the little train shaped counters. It had most of the little cardboard counters missing and no instructions but that didn't bother the three of them at all.

In fact all three of them are playing completely different games in this photo, and just sharing the space nicely. 

Luckily I've discovered pennies are the perfect size and weight to replace the missing counters and found the instructions online so tomorrow we can sit down and play it correctly. That's if I'm allowed to join in lol, they might prefer to do it their way instead.

X x X

Cress Caterpillars

DD2'S class are raising caterpillars this term for their topic of life cycles. They've become her new obsession. Everyday she comes out of school with a new caterpillar fact to tell me. Today I learnt that caterpillar poop is black and very tiny small. Lol. 

Today after school we made cress caterpillars. It's a pretty straight forward craft to make and kept everyone amused for a good 20 minutes of decorating and seed sprinkling fun. 

 Hopefully in a weeks time we will be making delicious egg and cress sandwiches for dinner.

X x X

Mini holibobs on IOW

On Friday the girls school was closed for teacher training. It was the perfect time to use our Sun holiday vouchers for a weekend break on the IOW!

This weekend we've ridden on ferries across the sea.

Petted the residents at a Donkey Sanctuary.

Enjoyed a Garlic Farm's adventure playground.

Eaten burgers on the top deck of a converted London bus. 

Hitched a lift on the dinosaurs of Black Gang Chine.

And made hundreds of wonderful memories that'll last forever.

Good use of a weekend, I think.

X x X