Nearly December

I love Christmas and getting the Christmas decorations out of storage and ready to put up. I also enjoy adding new ones to the collection and making shiny new decorations at home with the kids. 

Since the unions in the UK have decided to strike on Wednesday we are going to stay in the comfort of our home and prep some newly created decorations and add some more, come the weekend our Christmas tree will be put up and twinkling Christmas lights. I can't wait.

Books by Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes books are wonderfully illustrated and are lovely to read. Just innocent child's play with a little reality thrown in.

Sunday's

As a kid I enjoyed my Sunday's I made a point of doing something that day, I either went swimming, horse riding at my local riding school (when riding was cheap) or take the dog for a long walk, help to cook the Sunday roast and make some sort of dessert, arts and crafts, I always did something. On most Sunday we would have a fried breakfast to start the day with Staffordshire oatcakes yum!

My husband on the other hand loathes Sundays he remembers it was a homework day or a chores day. Nonetheless I am aiming for my kids to enjoy Sundays, where we go for walks, cook and do some form of activity but also make it a relaxing day to recover and regenerate after a busy week.

HAPPY SUNDAY!

School

My eldest daughter is in a great infant school. She is doing well there and I am pleased with her progress. However, we are not too thrilled about the primary school she would end up in.

Prior to her being enrolled in her current school we were applying to schools when we were still in Canada and in the middle of our move. I had to go by what family told us who were based in the area we were moving to and by the ofsted reports online, sad to say she ended up in none of the schools we had chosen for her (humph!).

As it happens my little girl started nursery school a few weeks after school term time started and I spoke to the owner who mentioned a great local school that was not as well know but was up and coming and had an outstanding reputation. I left it for a month or so before visiting but when both my husband and I had time to go, we were greeted by this lovely old school with loads of grounds in the middle of the countryside in a tiny village. To add it takes kids from Yr R to Yr 6 so we only have to worry about what secondary school she ends up in, and our little one will end up going there too and they will both be in the same school at the same time (Hooray!).  Needless to say we were impressed but we were informed to apply quick because word was out and places were filling up fast. So we did and we got  a letter a week later to find she had not been accepted (humph!). We decided that we would appeal, it took us a week to do it even though it was a one page form, because with these things if you do not word it right you are out.

Luck would have it she got in so now we have to decide when she should start. I think the new year would be a good starting place.

A day out in London

Today is the first time we have taken the kids into London for a day trip. We were going to take them to Hamleys, the huge London toy store but instead someone suggested Harrods would be a great place because there is a good selection but not 5 floors worth plus we have the food store to visit. I would love to wander through to look at the clothes but no one other than me would enjoy it and besides I have no justification in paying some of the Harrods prices. Anyway, the girls got a cuddly toy each and we got ourselves some yummy chocolates.

The kids were great on the train into London. We packed some drinks, fruit colouring book and pens and they were happy campers. We got a taxi cab to Harrods but the traffic was horrid and the cost was a bit shocking to say the least. We eventually got to Harrods and it was busy. It is ALWAYS busy. It was a little bit of a challenge to find the toy section, there was no signage and we had to go up 4 floors but we got there. I think the kids were a little overwhelmed, my youngest was just so happy to be there, my eldest went into a strop, we then realised that she had seen something she liked then we went back to look for it and could not find it. Eventually she found it - phew! Lucky for us all it was not an expensive toy (there would have been tears if it had been) and little miss (my youngest) could not decide what she wanted then we found this really cool puppy.

We then went onwards to Piccadilly Circus to the Rain Forest Cafe only to find there was a 20mins wait and  the kids were not going to wait that long so we ventured on until we could find somewhere that did not have a waiting time. It would have been fun going to the Rain Forest Cafe :(.

We came back home before it was dark, it would have been nice to have stayed so they could see the Christmas lights but they were getting tired and they were ready to come home and so were we.

It was a great day out.

Game night

Game night is something we have been doing on and off for a while but trying to get the kids to play nicely and finding games that we can all enjoy is a bit of a challenge at times. However, this ones seems to be a winner. Leaping frogs, now, the rules of the game have had to be adapted somewhat for our kids but when they get older we can change the rules to the original one but for now we have great fun laughing, giggling and shouting with glee.

Friday night is movie night

As a household we seem to lack those family memories that we aspire to build for our children. So now we have a family ritual, it happened out of desperation.


I was at home alone with the kids for a few days and to get them to cooperate and also to add a distraction (really its a bribe to get them to behave), I told them that if they were good on Friday after school we would have pizza, popcorn and movie night. It was a huge hit and the ritual lives on, (I have only been doing it since they started school). It seems to be working and they really enjoy the evening. They choose whatever movie they want to watch (it was the Incredibles for several weeks) and we all watch the film with all the trimmings. It means we get an easy, relaxed night once a week. 


This week we are watching the Fox and the Hound (we have 1 and 2), it has been an age since I watched it and I have never seen the second one so it will be exciting for us all to watch. No doubt  I will get the inevitable, "I AM HUNGRY MUMMY" or "I AM THIRSTY", half way through the film which means I will watch it piecemeal. Over the next several weeks when we watch the film over and over again, I will realise that I have missed big chunks of the movie and notice the little things that are really important, or funny or just awesome. 


The wonders of parenting, I would not have it any other way!!!


NOTE: Did you notice that I used film and movie, the North American and English language differentiation. I also use ladybug instead of ladybird I prefer ladybug to ladybird but I should confirm that I am English.


;)