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.
Given the wonderful sunshine we have been having lately, it is hard to believe that it is already October. It seems September has literally flown by and the summer seems like just the other day; before I know it the kids will be back home for the October half-term. I have been wondering about going away for a long weekend, seeing as we haven’t taken a “proper” holiday this year. Yes we have been fortunate enough to have a few days in Devon and have certainly done lots of wonderful activities as a family, but it would be lovely to spend another couple of days somewhere else! I am considering Centre Parcs, especially since one of my mummy blogger friends, Natalie from Bambino Goodies recently went and had a wonderful time! She had such fun in fact she has vowed to return every year. I must admit, a fair few years ago (I wouldn’t want to say how many as it will make me sound old 
) we did all used to go annually and hire out several chalets, and it was wonderful. We used to go the one in Sherwood Forrest in Nottingham, so I’m off to investigate some offers to present to Michael later. I think I might serve his favourite sausage casserole in a giant yorkshire pudding tonight to sweeten him up!
So there has been a lot of news this week surrounding this issue of childcare. In particular with reference to the police officers who job shared and also took it in turns to look after each others children. I am totally confused by the fact people are so keen to step in to this arrangement, where the children were clearly being looked after in a totally safe and loving environment which allowed both their mothers to return to work on a part time basis. To me this sounds like a great idea. Yet time, money and resources is being applied to stop this happening, and yet I seem to read on a daily basis of Baby P type cases where some really poor and deprived children are being let down by the system as it does not seem to be able to cope. Does anyone else not think this is utter madness? As a mother of four, I have been unable to work in the 9-5 capacity for many years now, and if I did return to work, I would almost certainly want to rely on friends and family to step in for childcare. It seems that this may be harder than it seems and I could be under investigation! And whilst officers would be looking into that business some poor child somewhere else is being subjected to daily neglect and abuse and nobody steps in.
Rant over, but my goodness this system is flawed.
I thought I would give a mention to my lovely chickens today, as I haven’t blogged about them in a while, and this week they have kindly laid me lots and lots of delicious free-range eggs.
As a result tonight we will be munching a nice big fritatta, the only problem being now is I am not sure what to chose to put in it. The classic spanish with potato, onion and cheese always goes down very well, but I have lots of vegetables to use up, so I’m thinking I might try out a courgette and pepper version. Fingers crossed it will still be very tasty.
I think we will be having another fairly home-based weekend; Michael wants to re-paint our hallway, but first of all we will have to agree on a colour! Looks like a trip to B and Q…
Have a lovely weekend!
Good Morning everyone,
What a wonderful weekend we had after all; I was expecting the weather to turn bad on Saturday, but clearly the weather man had got it wrong again. It was a bit cloudy on Saturday morning but by the afternoon we had glorious sunshine. We decided go and have a walk in the local country park, and went down to the lake to feed the ducks, which the kids loved. We also found some bushes absolutely full of big tasty blackberries, so we went back with a couple of plastic shopping bags and picked as many as we could! I have frozen half of them, but used the other half to make a tasty blackberry and apple crumble which we had for pudding after our Sunday dinner (Michael was a happy chap!).
Of course on Saturday evening, having had a thoroughly lovely afternoon we all got together to watch the latest X factor. Whilst we did all love it, I have to admit, the contestants seem to be getting stranger and stranger! The lady who had entered in the groups for example, as opposed to the over 25 year olds, with a dog for her singing partner had to be slightly unwell! I was actually discussing this with another mummy blogger, the lovely Natalie from Bambino Goodies (a fantastic blog with lots of handy info on all sorts of kids goodies, along with lots of info on some great bargains/discounts). She thought that the audition stages aren’t as entertaining with the audience, and I think I would agree. However, after Susan Boyle’s troubles earlier on in the year, perhaps they are necessary to ensure contestants will be able to cope with the pressure. I did feel very sorry for young blonde girl who didn’t quite make it; bless her, she seemed so lovely.
For now I am off to investigate something more exciting to do with my remaining blackberries as I always make a crumble with them! I will let you know tomorrow if I have decided what they will become.
Well, I can’t believe it is Friday already, and the first week of being back to school has gone without any real mishaps!
Unfortunately the weather isn’t looking too great this weekend, so I think we might stop in really. I already have so much washing and ironing to do and have ready for Monday; another joy of having all four kids at school now!
One thing we will be doing is entering the new AdventureBox competition to win memberships to the Nature Detectives club. I think it sounds like a great club for the kids to join and is run by the the Woodland trust. If the weather does hold off, perhaps we will get our wellies on and go for a woodland wander! Even if we do get a little soggy, we can all warm up when we all snuggle on the sofa to watch X factor!
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the new Storybox books that came out in September have a new feature called “Time for a Rhyme”. Our new Bayard books arrived at the weekend and I have to say that I was not disappointed. The time for a rhyme feature read-aloud celebration of poetry and art for children. Plus, by publishing these pages, StoryBox supports the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) , a non for profit organization working to defend every child’s right to read, which I think is utterly brilliant.
This first edition is Jerry Hall illutrated by Quentin Blake. I couldn’t recommend Storybox more for your young children.
We had a real rare treat last night I have to blog about today; we all went out for a delicious meal. I think Michael had picked up on the fact that I was feeling a little bit worn out and could have done with a night off cooking so we went to try out a new all you can eat indian buffet that has opened up locally. The words “all you can eat” and “Indian buffet” had obviously been tempting Michael since the place opened up a few months ago. Although it looks fairly simple, or even cheap and cheerful from the outside, the quality of food was just amazing, and the price was exceptional; just £5.99 per person.
The dishes were all really good quality and there was a great variety which meant there was plenty of choice for the kids too, who aren’t too keen on overly spicey food. We also had a huge amount of pickles, chutneys and other sauces as well as naan breads and salad. To be honest with you I really couldn’t believe it, for the price especially. If we had wanted to have a take away of that quality and amount it would have probably cost twice what we paid plus it was really lovely to all go out as a family for a treat.
we will definitely be going back!
Good morning everyone. Wow, you would not believe how busy I have been since I last blogged on Friday! I did mean to blog yesterday, but unfortunately any “me” time is seriously precious at the moment. If it weren’t for the small fortune I am going to have to spend buying new uniforms for all four of my children, plus new shoes, school bags and stationary I would say I am quite looking forward to them going back to school!
At least today we are having some lovely weather, something of a rarity this August, so the kids are out in the garden playing at the moment. I will be joining them shortly to get on with some much needed gardening and to keep an eye on them too. I am hoping it will stay nice until the evening so that we can all have a BBQ when Michael gets home from work. I have a lovely bit of wild trout that one of my friends caught on Sunday and I was hoping to cook that with lemon slices and fresh herbs in some foil on the BBQ and serve it with some baby potatoes and salad. Lovely.
Good morning everybody!
Apologies for my lack of blogging lately; I do like to blog everyday while the children are at school but I must admit that while there are home over the summer holidays it become rather hard to find the time.
We returned yesterday afternoon from a wonderful weekend with my Sister in London. Michael had the opportunity to get lots done over the weekend while the house was empty which was a real bonus to return home to also.
It was lovely to see my sister and she loved having us over as her house is rather quiet these days with her boys being older and living away.
We had a fantastic time at the Science museum on Saturday, and the kids really enjoyed the ‘Cosmos & Culture’ exhibition which shows how astronomy has shaped our world. Having really enjoyed learning about the moon in the latest DiscoveryBox book, I think the trip really brought learning about space alive to the children and if you have an interest in astronomy it is well worth a visit.
We are really looking forward to looking out for the meteor shower taking place later this evening
Right then, I’d better be off to see what mischief the children are getting up to! If you have the chance later, enjoy looking out for the shower!
