Well, despite the horrible weather we still managed to have a lovely weekend. It certainly seems like Winter is here and here to stay don’t you think!?
On a brighter note, we have had a mad X factor weekend. It just seems to get more and more exciting. Plus I was very moved by the Great Ormond Street feature on last nights show; as a mother of four I know just how important the work this charity does is and I am very happy to support it by buying the X factor single.
I thought the single being performed was really good too so I’m sure we will have a lot of fun listening to it and doing our very best impressions of John and Edward’s infamous dance moves!
I thought it had been a while since I had tried a new recipe (and of course shared the good, the bad and the ugly details of said recipe)!
If you are a regular reader, you will probably know I love Thai food and often try out different recipes for different curries. I also love introducing lots of different cuisines to the children; we don’t allow picky eatings in our house (although I don’t make the kids dishes to spicey).
Anyway, one famous Thai dish I have never tried out before is Pad Thai. I have bought some rice noodles especially for the job and some fresh lime too, plus I have some freshly laid eggs courtesy of my lovely chicks! I’m going to have a go at a prawn one tonight as there were some lovely big king prawns on half-price I picked up the other day! If not I would probably do a vegetarian version, as I have tried one made with tofu before and it was so delicious. I do try to eat a vegetarian diet when I can, and tofu is both cheap and very nutritional. I will let you know how it goes down anyway!
Good morning everyone.
As I am sure many of you are aware, (I have made it no secret) I am a huge X factor fan. The one thing I was not too happy about initially was the fact that the twins were put in the final 12. I though Louis had made a huge mistake! But here we are, having had four weeks of live shows, and week after week the boys come out to booing audience and they really do their best to entertain. I’m really not quite sure what planet they are from, but I must admit, I do secretly look forward to their performance! They make me feel good and the kids just love to watch them, so I have to ask myself, are they really all that bad? They are certainly doing the job of entertaining us all. Plus the fact that they have received so much negative press, and at just 18 they are able to come out week after week and give it their all; I really do respect that.
The real turning point for me about the terrible two was when I heard about the work they were doing for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Along with the other final contestants, they are releasing a charity single, with the proceeds going to this fantastic cause. One of my friends daughters received life saving treatment their, and I have only ever heard good things about the charity. All of the contestants went down to the hospital the other day, and from what I have read the twins were really lovely and hands on with all the poorly children. It must of really made their day to see them, and I just can’t help but think they are not so terrible after all!
I will certainly be buying the single to show my support (of both charity and X factor)!
So half-term is practically upon me and my blissful home (I have gotten quite used to having it back from the Summer holidays) will be full with my four lovely children.
This weekend Michael and I will try to get ahead on doing some bits and bobs on the house while I set the kids some various arty fun activities to keep them happy! They will be entering the competition on this month’s StoryBox by drawing their favourite halloween costumes, so vampires, ghosts, witches and wizards galore! Then I thought they could have a go at the fun and games section on the October AdventureBox book too. Thank goodness for the Bayard books.
Then next week I have decided we will definitely go back to water world for some more fun, as we had such a good time last time. I’ve been looking into what is playing at the cinema too next week and we will definitely be heading down on Wednesday (when Michael and I can both use our 2-4-1 vouchers!) to see the film “Up” in 3D! It looks brilliant anyway, but I don’t think Disney get it wrong too often.
So in my quest to find some half-term fun for next week I have discovered lots about the Eureka! National Children’s museum
It is an award-winning attraction and educational charity for children; “designed to inspire children to find out about themselves and the world around them through 100s of hands-on exhibits”. I came across it on this month’s StoryBox site as their is a competition running to win 3 family tickets to go. Sounds perfect to me!
Plus to enter the competition you have to send you kids drawings of their favorite halloween costumes, so that will be yet another fun activity too. I think I will encourage them to do their drawings on Saturday and have a bit of an arts and crafts weekend.
Some brilliant news! My darling daughter’s netball team won their first ever match last night, so we had home-made pizza for dinner and ice-cream for pudding as our celebration! I was so proud of her.
Well, with half-term looming next week it looks like I’m going to be spending the rest of this week getting ahead with all my various jobs around the house in preparation for having the brood in! In addition to thinking up various activities to keep them occupied and prevent any kind of cabin fever setting in. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the weather is going to be up to much so indoor activities are a must. Sadly Centre Parcs just isnt going to happen right now; we really need to put out extra money into the house. I’m off to research some other fun things to do now! We had a great time at water world recently, so perhaps a revisit may be in order! I must see what is showing at the cinema too, it’s been ages since we had a visit.
So today is the big day for my eldest daughter; her first Netball competition! Bless her, she was so nervous this morning as she was getting ready for school, I can’t even begin to imagine the stress we will have with her when it comes to GCSE’s etc. She is such a perfectionist and sets really high standards for herself already. I really try to encourage her to do her best but make her understand that is all she can do! I tell her we will love her and be very proud of her no matter what, but I really do hope that the team wins later as I know she will blame herself if it is not the case. I have decided to not watch but just pick her up after the game finishes as I don’t want to put any more pressure on her. Fingers crossed it all goes well!
Good Morning everyone.
Last night I noticed that the results for the Michael Morpurgo competition that ran in the March AdventureBox book have been published.
Sadly none of our entries made the top entries, but having seen some of them I’m not too sad about this. Some of the entries are totally brilliant and it warms my heart to see so many talented children who care a lot about animal rights and have done some fantastic posters for the cause.
As I keep my own chickens and battery farming is something I feel very strongly against I loved this poster:
I also thought this one was really good too!
Well done to all the kids out there that entered, it’s so good to know that concerns about animal rights are held strongly by young people.
Well it has been a real roller-coaster weekend!
Firstly we had an amazing time at the cinema on Saturday with the Kids finally watching Ice Age 3. It was so, so good, especially in 3D. As we entered the cinema we were all given our 3D glasses which makes the event of all going to the cinema even more exciting. The film was hysterically funny at times, plus the little baby dinosaurs were a big winner on the cute factor. I think this is a film that really does have something for everyone and all members of the family will love it. It has some really good family values too, which is always a bonus. Having seen the movie now it has put a lot of the stuff we learned about 3D animation from DiscoveryBox last month into perspective. I am now really hoping we do well in the Ice Age 3 competition! So all of that was all very heart-warming and fun!
On the other hand, I found watching the males Wimbledon final very emotional! I really got behind Roddick and really wanted him to win. When it got to the final set, I thought it was clear there was nothing between them but felt Roddick deserved it more and seemed like it meant so much more to him. To lose the way he did was really hard to watch!
I was also very disappointed the Michael Jackson was not number one in the singles chart, being pipped to the top position by Cascada; a group I have never heard of and doubt very much will make musical history. A great shame I felt.
Seeing as we have been so busy though this weekend I now have a gigantic pile of ironing to go and do as I was very naughty and neglected this task over the weekend. With six of us in the house you wouldn’t believe how fast it can build up!
