Homemade moon sand

I have been planning to make our own moon sand for a long while. They make it at a local sure start centre and Millie loves it. Chester has some of the shop bought version and he likes it too.

So yesterday morning as it was dry and warm we went outside to make some moon sand. I didn't really want to leave the house to go to the shops today so I made do with what I had which was just under half a box of cornflour and then I mixed it with about a quarter of a bottle of baby oil. The smell was lovely. The texture was crumbly and soft.

I got out some silicone cupcake cases, some cups, small pots and some spoons. I also put a pot of glitter on the tray to add another colour.

I put the tray in the garden for the children to explore. Millie was far more interested than Chester, but I think this was because he was busy playing dens in his tent!

All in all it was pretty successful, next time I will use a full box of cornflour as I think they would've prefered to have more to play with. I love that we had a theme so I will carry that on next time we decide to make moon sand!

Have you ever made moon sand before? What's your kids favourite way to play with it?

What a day!

Well I woke up this morning full of plans for today. We were to spend the day in the garden. It may not of been sunny but it was lovely and warm. Up until 1pm we were having loads of fun in the garden. Making Moon Sand and playing in the tent.

But then Chester decided that it was a good idea to stick a bead up his nose.

It was a bead from a kids bracelet that had broken the day before, I must of missed that one bead when sweeping up and sadly Chester found it. I tried to get him to blow it out but no luck. I had a look and I could see the bead but it was way too far back for me to try and get it back!

So off we headed to the local minor injuries unit. The first thing that I saw when walking up to reception was the white board with the wait time. 2 hours 30 mins. WHAT?!!! Well he needed the bead removed so what choice did I have?!

We sat down and I did my best (but failed miserably) to keep both children entertained. We were eventually called in exactly 2 hours 30 mins later. The nurse was really lovely, she admitted that she was dreading trying to get the bead out due to a past incident which caused her to be sick!! We had a little laugh and a joke about it and then she took a look. She was horrified when she saw how far back it was. She was wondering the best way to tackle it and wondered if Chester could dislodge it by blowing like we had done at home. She was very patient with him and eventually he blew. In fact he did such a good job he blew the bead out!!!

So we had sat in MIU for 2 hours 30 mins for Chester to blow his nose?! I was so annoyed I just laughed! The nurse was really sympathetic. She sat Chester back down and explained why it was not a good idea to put things in his nose (or his ears for that matter) she then took him off to choose a hospital bear for being such a good boy (she hadn't seen him in the waiting area) and gave one to a now sleeping Millie for having to be dragged along!

Not the best way to spend an afternoon, but I am thankful that Chester is ok.

Kids Grow Wild

A little while ago we were sent a lovely kids gardening kit from Brit Mums. It was sent to me as part of the kids grow wild challenge, so this post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge

Chester and Millie were both very excited to receive the pack. Craig and I will hold our hands up and say that we are not very keen gardeners. I say we are not very keen, but perhaps we would be if we took more time to find out how to make our garden grow?!

The pack contained a lovely garden tool bag, with a trowel and a fork. It also contained a pair of gloves and 3 packs of seeds.

I took Chester and Millie to some local shops to choose a plant pot each, they actually chose 4 each! Then we picked up some soil. We also got a bit distracted by a solar powered gnome and ladybird so we brought them to make the bigger pots look pretty whilst we wait for the flowers to grow.

Between us we decided that Chester's big pot should contain a sunflower in the middle and then a scattering of mixed flower seeds around the outside. Millie's big pot would contain a sunflower in the middle and the pansy's around the outside.

So we poured and scooped the soil into the pots and started to place the seeds into the pots. Chester was very keen to do it all by himself, so I did let him lead. He had so much fun arranging his seeds in the pots!

I was actually surprised at how interested Millie was in the planting of the seeds, she was really keen to join in. She very carefully placed her sunflower seeds into her pots, I think it took her a lot of willpower to not eat them!

Later that evening we watered the flowers and I explained to Chester and Millie that we would need to water them every day and then once a week we would mix some special plant food into their water to make them grow big and strong.

The next day the first thing Chester did was go out to the garden to say good morning to the flowers. It was so cute! Over the next few days he sung to them and blew them bubbles. All to help them grow some more.

A few weeks on and the flowers have started to come through, we had a few days of slight panic when Millie's pansy's did not come through. I thought we had done something wrong but it turns out they just take longer to grow than the others!

Even Millie checks on the flowers daily, she gets really close to try and smell them! If I had known how easy it was to grow flowers we would of been doing it a long time ago! Its so rewarding watching the children explore and dig the soil, planting their own flowers and showing a real interest in them!

I think this picture sums up just how much the children have loved growing their own flowers....

We will certainly keep up gardening with the children!

3 pictures one theme

Its not often that I post a very short blog post but I just wanted to share with you this picture.....

These 3 pictures were taken at the same time, only in different years! The first picture is in June 2009, Chester was 9 months old! The second one is in June 2011 and Chester was 2, then the third one was taken today, June 2013 and Chester is 4!

Oh how my chunky baby has grown!

What a lovely weekend

I have had such a lovely time this weekend that I really do not want it to end!

Saturday was Craig's Birthday, he was working during the day so I arranged for his family and my parents to come around in the evening for a takeaway. Chester and Millie were very excited to give Craig his presents, especially as Chester had chosen ALL of them! Craig is a big kid at heart so I knew he would love the presents. Chester chose him one of those new slushy drink cups, a belt and buckle with the mario mushrooms on, an Iron Man t shirt, a game for the xbox and a transformers blu ray. I was right, Craig loved his presents. He was also thrilled to receive a baker days cake (which I will be blogging about separately so look out for that).

We had a lovely evening full of laughter and food! Chester and Millie really loved having all of their grandparents here and they really loved being allowed to stay up late! As usual they had everyone wrapped round their little fingers and almost certainly ate far too much cakes and treats!!

Today of course was Fathers Day, we had planned to have a bit of a lay in. With the children staying up extra late the night before we were certain that they would wake up later.

How foolish we were to even think that!! Chester was wide awake at his usual time of 5.45am!! Millie did not wake until almost 9am though so she made up for what her brother lost! We had just planned to have a bit of a chill out day. But after breakfast and the giving of fathers day gifts (chocolate, sweets and some avengers smellies) we all decided to have a stroll around a local boot fair. I will admit that I used to be a total bootfair snob but in recent years we have picked up some awesome finds at boot fairs and I have learned to love them. However, today it was not really full of treasures, more full of tat. Apart from the lovely brand new coasters I picked up to match our place mats. For the bargain price of 50p!

So after the unsuccessful trip to the boot fair we decided to go to a fairly local country park, Cobtree Manor. It is on the outskirts of Maidstone, just off of the M20 so very easy to get to. We visited last year and loved it, sadly until now, we never found time to go back.

On the way Craig spotted a Beefeater restaurant and we decided to stop for lunch. That turned out to be a mistake, we should've known when it wasn't busy that there was a reason. Craig's salad had a hair in it and from then the rest of the lunch all went a bit downhill!

So, back on track to the country park. We arrived and were pleasantly surprised to see that they had built loads of wooden play areas/equipment. around the picnic area and also dotted around the park! Chester and Millie could not contain their excitement! We spent lots of time flitting between all of the swings, slides, climbing bits and seesaws! We ended up being there a lot longer than we thought we would, it was a really lovely afternoon and we will most certainly be back lots more over the summer!

The weather had gradually improved throughout the day so by the time we got home the sun had certainly got its hat on! I decided to get the kids Madagascar tent out. It was the first time we had used it, I won it earlier this year and was waiting for the opportunity to get it set up. It is a proper tent so I am planning to keep it up for the summer for them. Chester and Millie were so excited that we actually ended up having a little tea party in the tent! It was so cute!

So that was our weekend, what did you get up too. I would love to know!

The changes have started to happen...

So the other day I wrote a post saying something has got to change. I thought that by actually writing it on my blog that I would stick to it.

I am pleased to say that I have stuck to it.... in my own way. I shall explain.

I have not got round to weighing myself, perhaps that is because I am not particularly bothered about my baby weight I know that will come off. Eventually. I may weigh myself I may not I still have not decided. But as you know my main reason for trying to watch what I eat was because I am fed up of eating rubbish and countless amounts of chocolate daily!

On Wednesday I went to the farm shop, like I said that I would, and got a lovely selection of fruit, veg and salad. I would say the bulk was fruit because we already have lots of frozen veg at home. I spent just over £10 on FOUR carrier bags full of lovely fresh food. I then stopped off at supermarket and picked up some healthier cereals (apparently sugar coated child like cereals are not good for you?!) and some crackers.

Wednesday evening I had already planned to meet friends for dinner so I stuck to that plan, but rather than having pizza I chose chicken, veg and potatoes. Very unlike me on a meal out! I did however have apple crumble for pudding!

The end of the week I did really well, I stuck to my plan and had fruit for snacks. Dinners were delicious, home cooked and healthy. Although Chester did grumble that I had replaced his veg with salad. Apparently at the age of 4 he doesn't do salad?!

I did hit a bit of a problem though, and I can see this being a problem for at least a week. It appears I have had some kind of sugar and junk come down as I felt truly awful from Thursday afternoon onwards. Really bad headache has stuck until this morning. I will keep at it though as I am certain it is going to be a good thing for me.

I will blog about the weekend in another post as it was Craigs Birthday AND Fathers Day so I did go off track a bit, with a takeaway and some crisps. I am fine with that because I know that tomorrow morning I will be back on track. I think going off track has made me realise that it is ok to have a treat, but not every day. Once a week is fine for a little treat. Once a month is fine for a takeaway.

I shall update about how I am getting on some more in a couple of weeks, typically we have a really busy June so there will be a couple more times that I will go off track. But I am feeling really positive about it all, I know I can stick at it. My next challenge is that I STILL need to work out what exercise I am going to do.

Something has GOT to change.....

Last night whilst at work I was thinking a lot about how I am feeling recently. As usual I have been busy, I am not really complaining about that as I like to be busy. A few things have not quite gone my way, but hey ho life goes on. I am very aware that we have lots to look forward to this year, my main priority being Disney World.

I was thinking about how tired I have been recently. I find it a real struggle working until 11pm but what keeps me going is knowing that I am doing it to enable us to go on that trip to Disney World. I do think working late does take its toll as I find it hard to get to sleep on those nights. However, if I am being honest, over the last month or two we have been a bit lazy with our diet. I think we have had one too many takeaways.

I am not trying to make excuses but I think we are kind of going round in circles at the moment. The tiredness is affecting me so by the time it comes to dinner time I just can't face making a meal from scratch. So occasionally we have been having take away or I have fed the kids then Craig and I have had snacks for dinner.

Up until a couple of months ago I was doing really well loosing my baby weight. I am not someone who will be pressured into losing weight, despite having a parent who constantly harps on about weight and thinks everyone should be a thin as her, I was a happy size 12 before having Millie. I always knew losing the baby weight would be a slow process, because quite frankly, I do not have loads of spare time to go to the gym or attend classes. I lost all of my baby weight and more by the time I fell pregnant with Millie ( 3 years after Chester was born) and I was happy with that time scale. Mille is now 17 months and like I say I was doing really well. Even though I have not weighed myself I know I have put weight on in recent weeks, I can just feel it. So although I am not in a rush I also do not want to be putting weight on. I am certain the types of food we are eating are what's causing most of my tiredness too.

I came home from work full of great ideas for healthy eating and how to up my exercise a little. This morning those great ideas have certainly not been put into practice. Actually I am eating a magnum whilst typing this! I have never blogged about my weight or fitness and its not something I thought I would ever write about, but today I am writing about it because I am so annoyed at myself. I think that by blogging it I am going to be thinking about it more, which will make me feel guilty if I do not at least try and change our habits.

Don't get me wrong, I am not going on a super strict diet. But I am going to change my (our) eating habits. Then personally, whilst i'm at it, I am going to change my exercise habits too. I work evenings and find it hard to find some 'me time' as it is, so exercise time is going to be hard. But I am sure I will find a way. My main goal on the exercise front is to tone up my tummy.

Right, so thats it. I have said I will do it publicly on my blog so I will do it. tomorrow I am going to head to our local farm shop for a supply of fresh fruit and veg. I will then be sure to come back and tell you what plans I have to get me started on the food front!

If anyone has any words of encouragement or ideas to help me along I would be very grateful if you could mention them as a comment on this post.