Friday 31 October 2014

Dinosaur Rhyme Time - A Review

Our second book from Faber and Faber has arrived for review!

Our first, Hog in the Fog, is still a firm favourite in our house and I can recite most of it by memory... helpful when you are stuck in a traffic jam on a long car journey!

This next book is aimed at slightly younger readers, which is perfect now B is getting of an age to enjoy books too.

Dinosaur Rhyme Time is a collection of your favourite nursery rhymes and well known songs, illustrated with lovely soft illustrations of cute and cuddly dinosaurs in character.  Many of my friends have toddlers who are mad about dinosaurs therefore this is sure to be a hit with many families.


Thursday 30 October 2014

Toddlebike Trials 2014 - Getting Started

This week we have finally been able to get out and test drive our Toddlebike.  We were luckily enough to be selected for the Toddlebike Trials 2014 and C's bike arrived 3 weeks ago.

The first week the weather was awful therefore our test driving was restricted to up and down the hallway at home.
The following week C was ill. In fact I've never see her poorly for so long. It was horrible! 
This week has been half term and the weather has been lovely so we couldn't wait to get out of the house and get started!

We went to Leeds Castle on Saturday as a family and gave C her first proper extended go.  I knew it would be an interesting experience. At 31 months, C is at the older end of the spectrum for a toddlebike however she lacks confidence in situations like this therefore her age advantage did not guarantee success.


Tuesday 21 October 2014

Up and Away! - Walking at 10 Months

B was a big baby at 9lb 10oz.
He was also 10 days overdue.
Every since his birth I feel he has been in a rush to grow up.
To catch up on those 10 missed days... and a few more!
He was in 0-3 months clothes from the start.
By 6 months he was in 12-18 months clothes.
I wondered if his size would hinder his movement but instead it has brought him superior strength.
At just turned 7 months he started to crawl, and before he was 8 months he was walking round the furniture!
My baby was not a little baby for long.

Thursday 16 October 2014

National Baking Week

This week is National Baking Week and today sees the launch of my good friend Baked Potato Mummy's new #LittleChefs linky.

As her blog name suggests, Lucy loves to bake and this new linky is all about having fun in the kitchen with your little ones.

With two under 3, I have little time for baking and my continuing drive to lose the baby weight has made me shy away from making anything remotely unhealthy that I might be tempted to eat.
With hubby away who do you think is going to eat 10 out of the dozen cupcakes or biscuits we bake? You guessed it... Moi!

Lucy then pointed out that I didn't need to actually "bake" anything.  Just getting out one or two digestive biscuits and having fun icing them was a great activity in itself.
Stupidly, this option had never even crossed my mind!  And of course she was right.

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Autumn Train Play

This past fortnight, in my attempts to improve the quality of our homelife, I have been focusing on creating activities for C that I know she will enjoy.

I spend many hours researching small world and imaginative play ideas on Pinterest only for C to play with them for 5 minutes before getting bored. Disheartening to say the least!

I therefore decided to tap into a theme I know she loves... trains!

I came across this wonderful blog and have taken a lot of this weeks inspiration from it.

For the first activity I sneaked out of the house with C & B were having breakfast and collected a large pile of leaves and twigs from under our Oak tree in the garden.
After breakfast I created a small wooden train layout on the dining room table... away from the households littlest fingers.... and spread out the leaves between the tracks.
I broke up the twigs into lengths of 3-4cm so they could be used a logs.
I then dug out our 3 "flatbed" trucks for the logs to be loaded on.
 

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Finally the Swing is Up!

In the Summer we bought an Action play house and slide for the garden.  We also bought a swing frame.
The playhouse and slide were erected immediately and we have had great fun with it over the past few months.
Due to one thing and another, the swing has sat in its boxes since then.
Finally, last weekend we got around putting it together.
Typically, just in time for the end of the good weather!

The swing frame is a Galahad swing from Action.
It consists of 2 dual rope swings and a metal frame duo swing seat.


Monday 13 October 2014

OctoAlert at The National Sealife Centre

On Saturday we got up bright and early to travel up to Birmingham.

We had been invited up to the National Sealife Centre to embark on their latest Octonauts mission which runs until the end of November.  It was particularly exciting because this was our first visit to the Centre and my first visit to a Sealife Centre since I was 12 years old!