#Day one

Day one of our summer holidays.

I was treat to a lie in this morning… we got up at 7.23. Carl left for work, as quiet as a mouse so not to wake anyone up. 3 minutes later as he pulled away from our street, Nalah was wide wide awake!!

Breakfast went without hiccup, the usual mass crumb mess, soggy toast rubbed into clean hair and drinks flung across the room. But no real tales to tell.

Oscar spent his first morning of the summer holidays sanding down his bed.

Last night we discovered teeth marks all over his bed.  He was unable to tell us how they got there and insisted he must have been younger. Having only moved into that room a few months ago, I don’t belive that is the case.

This morning he informed he had in fact been trying to make his tooth fall out as his best friend had just had his first visit from the tooth fairy!!

After a talk of the health and safety risks of this and then a telling of talk for defacing furniture, Oscar was left with the task to think how to get rid all of these teeth marks. And there were a lot.

Oscar came to me with the idea he had spent the whole night thinking of, he would colour in some masking tape brown and stick it over the teeth marks. He thought this plan was solid, I wasn’t so sure.

I handed him some sand paper and instructed him how he could use it to get rid of the marks. So that his how he spent his first morning of the summer holdings.  Probably not his first idea to put on his holiday bucket list. But never the less the bed looks ten times better (slightly paler in parts) and I definatly don’t think he will be biting anymore furniture.

After he had finished I asked him to take off his bed sheet and put it in the wash as it was now covered in wood dust.

I then had to go see to Nalah, Oscar came bounding in pleased with himself for doing as I had asked.

Though I hadn’t thought the instruction through very well.

He had put his sheet in the washing machine as asked… the washing machine that had just finished it’s cycle full of my clean clothes…

We spent the afternoon at the zoo with my sister in law (soon to be) and the kid’s cousins who are 1 and 3 years.

Jokes…

We walked to pets at home. Which the kids absolutely love, the eldest two like to look at the rabbits, degus, rats and guinea pigs, whilst the babies happily stare at the fish swimming around, this trip enables a 10 minute uninterrupted adult conversation above the 2 prams.

This 30 minute trip took several hours due to extremely slow, tired, small legs and having to take shelter in b&m from the torrential rain that thundered above our heads.

Positives of the day.

• I managed to take the bin out in the nick of time, baby on hip, in my dressing gown, looking pretty pathetic so the bin man had to take over and pull it out of my yard.
• My wash basket is empty..and one wash has been washed twice!
• 1/6 of the 3 beds bedding has been washed.. better luck tomorrow with the other 5/6.
• Oscar had fun playing with his cousin and enjoyed a free trip out
• I spoke to an adult for over 10 minutes.
• Both kids were fed clean and in bed on time… despite Nalah still waking up at least 8 times throughout the night because she can now roll onto her belly..
• I managed 3 rounds of my Charlotte Crosby workout out dvd.. followed by 2 massive cheesy garlic stuffed mushrooms…mmm
• We didn’t spent a penny all day.

 

Mummies Surviving Easter – Day 5

this is my final installment of Mummies surviving Easter. And I am not following trend in this one giving you happy clappy artsy activities you can do or give you fancy recipes or places to visit. Reason been? I literally have done bugger all to report.

So this final post will be Mummies (and daddies and all carers to be PC) guide to surviving the final week of the holidays – a step by step guide.

Hope it helps save some of you learn to embrace the half term and helps you get over the dreaded mummy guilt that seems to follow everyone around even more through the long days of the holidays!

Step 1 – Try not to be too optimistic and be realistic

Okay so you start the holidays feeling great. Your child is with you for two full weeks and you have a list as long as your arm with great Easter activities, petting farms, theme parks, zoos, aquariums and shows that you can experience together. You have missed your little angel so much and this is the time you are going to show them just how much.

Right now take a deep breath, look at your list, another breath. Scrumple the list.

It is not realistic that you will manage an activity or outing every day of the holiday unless you have obtained some amazing super power, (if that is the case please let us know your secret) You may manage 1, 2 or maybe even 3 but I would definitely limit yourself to that. While you love your children dearly you do not need to do ‘things’ to prove that. It took me a long time to realise that. Been a working mum definitely leaves you feeling the mummy guilt stronger than ever and feeling like you need to ‘make it up to them’ somehow.

Be realistic – you can make memories in many ways they do not have to expensive, exhausting and Eastery at all.

Be realistic – Everywhere on your list will be jam-packed with other mummies all thinking the same thing. You will be queuing for hour with grumpy children.

Be realistic – If you are counting on sunshine for these activities, then don’t you can guarantee that our lovely British weather won’t let you down and will be as consistent as ever with rain whenever you plan to do something fun.

Be realistic – a picnic on the carpet, stuffing your faces with Easter eggs whilst watching Hop sounds much more enjoyable, easy and well Eastery.

Step 2 – Lie ins are a thing

And they make everyone much much happier. Okay so I have a 4 month baby and a 5-year-old so normally lie ins don’t really exist. Though with no school run to complete, baby to feed and change, breakfast to make, teeth to brush, book bag to check all before 8:30 the morning is always much much calmer in the holidays. So while everyone may well still be awake, encouraging staying in bed, or even in their own bedrooms is such a life changer to make for a happier mum.

So how do I manage this?

So Oscar is the easier one because he is able to listen and follow and instruction – usually…

At bedtime I set him a challenge like: I bet you can’t build a bat cave for your Lego men, it would be really cool, why don’t you try in the morning.

Hint this also gives him something to think about in bed on a night avoided the 10000 questions, such as why do we have walls?

If this fails I charge his tablet (don’t sharpen your pitch forks just yet) and allow him to watch kids you tube until it is a reasonable hour. While I don’t encourage endless hours of screen time I think this chill time in the morning is a god send.

We are quite blessed with Nalah as she is happy to lay down with a toy and (usually – touch wood 20 million times) will lay and kick her legs screaming in delight without adult interaction for around 20 minutes. (God help me when she can crawl though),

That been said we are entering the dreaded teething stage, so she is not so happy playing with a toy if that said toy does not enter her mouth and soothe her gums as she hoped so at the moment she is a lot more grumpier.

So my magic trick that earns me a little time in bed is simply making all her toys super accessible. I attatch the links onto everything – see my instagram for pics! Ok so I didn’t promise you could sleep for longer but I can lay in bed, scroll Facebook and take silly selfies at my leisure for a little while longer.

Step 3 – TV is not the devil.

It is actually very factual and informative, Oscar has told me so many things he has learnt from the telly and roped me into watching a documentary about palm Sunday, wish was very dull (but managed to get a bit more of that lie in during it) but he was ecstatic to learn more and link it to the work they’re doing at school.

Nalah is fascinated by the colours on the T.V and when I pop into the kitchen to put the washer on I can hear Oscar teaching Nalah the names of characters and talk about the programmes, it really is the cutest.

If you can put up with Mr bloody Tumble on your T.V for a while, then enjoy the peace and let him take over for a while, you deserve a little break!

Step 4 – Meal times don’t exist.

So strictly speaking you can’t actually starve your children, but routines are so much more slacker during the holidays that you can relax, breakfast doesn’t have to be eaten a lightening speed, sometimes it can last until lunch and then its brunch. So effectively your only having to prepare 2 meals. rather than 3. You know when your child is hungry (I am sure they will let you know like mine does!) and you know that they are not starving. Grazing is the key to holiday mealtime success. When Oscar goes to Grandma and Grandad’s house they offer him a 4 course breakfast which he absolutely loves, they then don’t have to feed him again till tea time! After his 1000s of raisins, apples, bananas, porridges, corn flakes and crumpets!

And with all these Easter eggs we have accumulated no one is going to go hungry in our house for a very long time!

Step 5 – Try and escape.

Not the children, you’re not going to be able to do that unless you have very generous family nearby. No but try to escape the house for a little while. Take a trip to the park, to the pond to feed the ducks, even just a walk around your local supermarket, poundshop, or my favorite Pets at Home – (It is defiantly a great free alternative the zoo or a petting farm!)

Not only will you feel like you have done something with the day and feel a bit like supermum for a short while but it is also a opportunity to learn new things with the kids, talk to them about things you wouldn’t usually talk to them about and engage them in things you don’t usually do together – because lets face it you wouldn’t usually drag them around Tesco for a pint of milk midweek, you would definitely wait for them to be in school or nursery to do tasks like this. But you may be surprised that this free, simple day-to-day task might – just might be okay!

You will feel so much better for escaping the house and not having to look at yet another load of baby sick covered clothes piled up near the washer.

Good look Happy holidays – and don’t worry just 6 more days to go!

Mummies Surviving Easter- day 3

So feeling a bit of a fraud now because I am just down to the one child now, who is currently drooling, crying in the midst of a teething nightmare. Oscar has gone on a mini holiday with my parents.

With this been the case I obviously havent been able to do any Oscar friendly Easter activities today. But I did promise regular Easter updates and ideas so here is something we enjoyed making last year.

If you’re anything like our household you have an abundance of cardboard Toilet rolls ready to throw out.

We went through a stage when Oscar would literally cry if we hadn’t saved them for his ‘art table’. After encouragement and clearing out ten tons of telescopes, microphones and maracas (that one was quite inventive) from.old cardboarf tubes, we managed to whittle the tubes down to just one every few months to paint or use for a crafty activity. Problem is, I can never remember to throw them out!

So we had our toilet tube and had just received a letter from nursery requesting Oscar join in the Easter competition of designing an egg. Now Oscar is really competative but I guess he gets that from me because we were not just settling for a simple Easter egg on paper design. Oh no we were going all out on this one.

In it to win it! I guess at the time I felt pretty guilty about always been at work so wanted to make the time we had together really fun, and what better way to remember our fun day by winning, right?

We used bubble wrap for the rainbow egg design. Oscar painted strips one by one printing them onto the paper. Which I then cut into an egg shape.

For the chick, Oscar painted the toilet tube yellow and I cut out wing shapes, big enough to secure with tape at the back. Oscar then painted these and then once this was dry added the feathers. This was the fun part!

We the finished off with googly eyes and an orange cardboard  beak.

Happy to report it was Easter Egg winner worthy! Oscar was chuffed!

What do you think?

Proud Parent Moment

The school play

One of the proudest moments as a parent is watching your little prince or princess up there on the stage performing their hearts out in their early school plays.

Oscar’s first school nativity was last December and boy was I a proud mum, 39 weeks pregnant may have added to the watery eyes as I clapped till my hands burnt.

When he first told me about his school play he informed me he was going to be a “Pexican”. Googling pexican and I was none the wiser what this was or what its role was in the nativity. Until one day he came home with a sombrero and drawn on moustache I realised he had meant a Mexican… though still none the wiser to where that relates to the Nativity 3 month on!

But he was so proud there singing and dancing at the front of the stage with his sombrero and waist coat singing his heart out. I was so worried I wouldn’t make it, with our little girl due any minute and had made back up plans which I had gone over 20 times with my mum to make sure he would see a familiar smiling face in the audience. But we made it and it was honestly one of the proudest moments of my parenting life, I mean they even sang in Spanish! They are 4 and 5 year olds!!

Last week he has just had his Spring sharing assembly. I had no idea what his would entail as I have defiantly never heard of a sharing assembly before, even with experience in early years and primary school. But none the less I was eagerly looking forward to it.

Oscar informed me he had a line to say, which of course I had to listen to over, and over, and over … and over again. “we have been planting some beans and have written some instructions.” I could almost recite it in my sleep! He spent the last two weeks singing songs about beanstalks and doing digging actions and reciting the story of ‘Jasper’s beanstalk’ whenever he got chance, you know like, in the bath, at the check out in Morrisons or whilst waiting at the dentist.
Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth (3-Apr-2014) Paperback

So fast forward to Friday and Oscar was up extra early and told me today was an exciting day (for me – not him- apparently) because I would get to see him in his ‘show’. We all made the trip to school extra early, but were still the last ones there, and sat excitedly waiting for it too begin, camera phone poised to capture the actions. To be honest, it was a bit of a drag to watch 60 (yes 60!!) children each say a sentence,  but then there was Oscar and I was filled with pride, my little buzzy bee saying his lines extra loud and clear (like he had practised so many times.) But that wasn’t the best bit, the best bit was during a song they did the actions of a duck and I could’ve cried, when I was 4 I was in a school play and I was a duck doing the same actions I felt ridiculously emotional and proud.

 

My Duck Day

In my duck day, my mum made me an amazing costume (featuring the yellow tights if you’ve read ‘the nightmares of world book day’) the best part of the costume was firstly my felt feet that my mum had actually cut out and sewn together using materials from her classroom at work, and secondly my fluffy bum! She had sewn white fluff on some pants (which I wore over the yellow tights of course) with a matching hat (which could have also been a second pair of pants.) So I could wiggle my bum, flip my flipper and flap my arms till my little heart was content. So when Oscar only had a cardboard headband with a bee on I was a little disappointed, what magnificent costume I could have attempted and properly failed miserably at making for a bee!

3 Piece Bumble Bee Dress Up Set

I have high hopes with risk of sounding like a completely pushy parent, that Oscar makes it to a speaking part in his next nativity you know angel Gabriel, Joseph, a wise man.. regular Nativity kind of characters!! I remember in year 5 I finally (after a lot of begging) got the lead role in our school play of red riding hood, including a solo! I cannot sing to safe my life so they really must have been low on volunteers that year. The next and final year of primary school I hit the ultimate height and was MARY!! This was a dream come true, I was so excited I could have fainted…
Oh no wait, I did faint, on stage, in front of over 200 parents, right after Joseph said “I think I need a rest my dear.” I woke up too my head teacher frantically shaking me until I sat up and threw up! Nice!!

The 5 awesome things about school trips

Remember going on school trips as a kid? Weren’t they just the best thing ever! Here is my list of the top 5 awesome things that made them so bloody fantastic!

So writing about parent’s volunteering for school trips yesterday got me thinking.
Thinking about all the school trips I went on as a kid. It was always the highlight of my school year, I remember visiting some awesome places, Eureka, sea life, the beach, the railway museum, Dalby forest. I remember getting so so excited about every aspect of the trip. So obviously now as an adult I know school trips were all educational and work related but as a kid they were magic, they were a day off, a skive, a complete free for all.

⦁ Non uniform

Okay so this wasn’t always the case, because sometimes (if they trusted us enough) the school liked you to be in your uniform because ‘your setting an example to your school blah blah blah’ Though most of the time the school would be happy not to have us hooligans setting the example of what their school can produce and would rather pretend we were from a neighbouring school. In these cases we would receive a letter the week before letting us know what suitable clothing would be for the activity ahead. No-one, I repeat no-one listens too what would be ‘suitable’, not when you’ve got your brand new Christmas clothes brimming in your wardrobe that no one has had a chance to set eyes on yet. So out come the brand new trainers, the best branded jumper and jeans that would make Beyonce jealous. School trips were a fashion show, end of!

⦁ Pack lunches

I was hot dinners for school, we tried pack lunches but it just wasn’t ever going to be a thing that worked for my family, sardine sandwiches so no one would sit near me, malt loaf, wrapped in kitchen roll and then having to peel bits of tissue from the butter, tupperware filled with raisins and grated carrots?! I mean really?! But I got excited when I could be pack lunches on a school trip, because it meant it could be special, I could have those things other kids had every day and I had always dreamt of, Sunny D, penguins, crisps, dairy lea dunkers, baby bels! And for these special pack lunches my mum really did go all out, it was a very exciting time. Though this was also my dad’s highlight, prime time for embarrassing us! One school trip we had a big picnic at Dalby forest, I opened my pack lunch up and there in my ham sandwich were little flies wrapped amongst the thousand layers of tinfoil. Plastic flies they turned out too be, my dads idea of funny. I wasn’t the worse off that day, my brother opened up his pack lunch and was faced with a giant dog turd! (again plastic.) but non the less we were laughed at for the rest of the school term for our ‘interesting contents.’

⦁ The coach

Another best bit about school trips was the coach ride, everyone always got wild withe excitement, chanting and cheering as though we were a hen party on our way to Magaluf. The coach ride was prime time to be opening up your pack lunch and having a snack and swapping with your mate your penguin for their twix (not in my case people didn’t really like to associate themselves with my pack lunch box, you never know what is lurking inside). If you were really luckily (or just a cool kid – again not me) you would have the row of 5 seats at the back and this was kind of the place to be. From here you could direct and dictate what would happen on the bus and the rest of the trip, if you were in that middle seat, well you were kinda god! But no worries if you didn’t make it on to the back seat, the highlight of your trip would be the little pull out tables from the chair in front that you could rest your head on and have a little nap, though for some reason they always smelt of gone of banana and I worried who may have been sick on them. Talking of sick, there would always be that one poor kid sat at the front next to the teacher with their head in the bin (yes the actual bin that I might need to sharpen my pencil in next week). However long the coach ride it was always sure to be filled with excitement, laughter and most importantly singing at the top of your voices “why are we waittttttting” at every single set of traffic lights.

⦁ Gift shop

Finally the bit I always loved the most was the gift shop! Wherever we went the gift shop visit always took at least 60% of the trip. When letters were handed out they always instructed to bring some change for the gift shop. So with lots of extra good behaviour and a few chores thrown in I bagged myself a nice crisp five pound note to spend till my heart was content. I got some brilliant tack from school trip gift shops. Nothing that would ever relate to the actual trip I had been on.
⦁ A pink plastic glitter bracelet filled with water so the glitter moves around. I bought this from Eureka and for some reason it was my by far best item of jewellery I had ever owned.
⦁ A water snake, though things you squeeze and the jump out of your hand, no looking back at these as an adult they defiantly don’t look like something a child should be handling!
⦁ A hairband (obviously) with my name written on in fancy gel paint, which I would then sit and  pick at for the reminder or the coach ride.
⦁ Gel pens, the smelly ones, so I could then write about my school trip experience and the teacher would have the joy of smelling cola as the marked it, or if they weren’t so lucky banana as they try and squint to read it.

Tinc “Pastelicious” Fruit-Scented pastel gel Pen – Pastel Neon (Pack of 8)
The gift shops were always so over priced and filled with crap but we would all leave beaming from ear to ear with our hands full of plastic tack in paper bags that were close to breaking point after we tried ramming in our McKenzie jacket in because 23 degrees was a bit warm for a jacket, like the letter had probably recommend.

We need you! ->

It is that time of year again were letters are getting send out highlighting the up and coming school trips, teachers are coming up to you to remind you that the residential money for little Sinead was meant to be in last week and there is that notice pinned to the school doors asking for parent volunteers, “we need you”.
When I first left work on Maternity leave it was Oscar’s first week at school, ever. So I was really excited and vowed to be ‘that’ mum, the one that helps out on the tombola stalls, the one who bakes for the bake sales, the one that goes in to listen to readers, the one that attends every parents play and stay session with a smile on my face and last of all the one that volunteers to help hold hands on school trips, alongside 2 or 3 other mums/grandmas who have also gotten roped into to wearing a hi vis standing in the middle of roads stopping on coming traffic while a class of 30 4 year olds toddle across.
So Oscar has only actually been on 2 school trips and by trips, I mean he left the school ground. One was his harvest festival in the local Church and the other was too the park on remembrance day. I took note of the tired looking piece of paper stuck to the door stating “we need you”, I couldn’t hide, they knew I was free, I agreed to hold my little ones hand whilst the whole class took the short 2 (in normal cases) minute walk to the church.
I got there eager and excited to be here, on time and alert despite been 8 months pregnant at the time. Oscar saw me and his face lit up that his mummy had come to walk with him, well that was priceless and made it all worth wile, however the actual reality of a 2 minute walk with 30 4 year olds is quite something else.
I held Oscar’s hand of course, but the ratio was too hold two children’s hands. Having been a nursery nurse in the past this was nothing out of the ordinary or weird for me but having to hold another child’s hand who kept letting go and wanting to run of was a little different. Having to ask Oscar the child’s name to encourage them to walk nicely, when Oscar admits he doesn’t actually know this child’s name…well it just makes it a little harder. Three other parents turned up to help that day, three! And weren’t we the unfortunate ones. We arrived at the church and got out little ones, and the rest, seated we could then go and find ourselves a seat and enjoy the first experience of them singing in a school show.  Oh but we couldn’t get a seat because all the other parents, from the entire school, who hadn’t walked had seats already. So at 8 months pregnant I leaned (sat) on a tombstone in the church trying hard not to throw up or pass out throughout Oscar’s rendition of been a little pear.
The walk back to school was equally enlightening, I had a different child’s hand to hold this time, he obviously noticed I was carrying a water melon in my jumper and went on to discuss with Oscar how he thought babies were made. Walking through the church red faced while two foundation students discussing tadpoles and eggs was defiantly not a highlight.
All been said I felt good that I had been a good mum that day, I had made my little boys day and even if I couldn’t see him be a pear I certainly saw lots of his pear hat (A pear stapled onto some card for them too wear) that I had to pick up enough times from the side of the road along with two dozen oranges and five apples. So all in all a really positive first school trip.
I got back to the car, only to find a parking ticket. So that ‘short 2 minute walk’ ended up costing me £60. Fair to say I didn’t end up volunteering for the park walk/waddle the following month.

Sunday Night Fever

When I see that it is Friday I give a little cheer, no school run, no early breakfasts, no getting dressed (just me?) for a whole 2 days. Weekends are my favourite, staying in our PJs till gone noon, slobbing out watching films, no-one caring if breakfast/dinner/tea all merge into one. And obviously spending lots of precious time with my small people.

No deadlines, no schedules, no school bells or rush hour traffic, just us in our bubble.

Until I pull out the book bag, look through the homework book and Bam! There it is our list of jobs to do to make it through the weekend. And when I say our I mean mine, no one gives a 5 years old homework like, “write a sentence explaining how frost is formed” or “write a paragraph about an animal who lives in a cold climate and list 10 things about this animal” without expecting the parent is going to have to be searching through trusty google to find these answers. And then sit for a further two hours painstakingly spelling out the words they need to write, p o l a r finger space b e a r. “No no no thats a rrrr (speaking like a pirate not an A, oh cross it out you will have to start that one again.”

No one tells you that when your child starts school, you too have to learn the alphabet phonetically, not only that , the actions that go with it. P p p (whilst blowing on my finger – I am meant to be puffing out candles apparently) O (pretending to flick the light switch on and off) L, you can imagine how long spelling out Polar bear took let alone the rest of the PARAGRAPH!!

Spring is here.

This weeks was one of the tamer weeks, only 4 tasks to complete, doable I thought. In recent weeks there has been 8 tasks which I had to literally set a timetable up to complete.

This weeks topic was Spring. We (Sorry Oscar should I say) had to look at plants in the garden or in the park and discuss the life cycle and then he had to draw or paint his favourite flower. Well we kind of bypassed the garden/park bit on this occasion but in our defence it was really miserable and wet out, which we found out later on. So we chatted (discussed) the life cycle of plants. Basically I told him that in winter a lot of the plants are dead, without googles help I am afraid I do not know much more than that. So I set him of on something we can do easily, paint a picture. Getting all excited I began to pull out Oscar’s paints he got for Christmas, the ones I’ve not really been letting him get out because there for ‘best’. Oscar shrugs and tells me his favourite flower is a daisy and that he is just going to draw in and then colour the yellow middle in with felt tip. Well I sigh, least that it one activity down. 3 to go.

The second was maths, it asked you to draw how many flowers each person had to help you work the answer out, but Oscar had already worked the answer out before we had chance to get his felt tips back out so he just wrote 5 on his sheet.

The third activity was “go to a shop or garden centre and look at packets of seeds, talk about what they might grow into.” I read further on and activity 4 is, “plant some seeds or bulbs, what do you think will happen.”

What? I have to actually leave the house? But its Sunday, I was so cosy in my PJs and mum bun and baby sick on my shoulder that I may or may not have wiped off since last night.

Okay so feeling productive we have to do this homework and make a go of it (I could do with Nappies and coffee anyway). We all make ourselves presentable, washed and dressed and leave the hours a good few hours later. I get out the pram in the rain, swearing as I trap my finger in it. Nalah is crying, she did not want to come out in the rain either.

We make our way to the shops, getting blown away by the distant cousin of Storm Doris.

Once in the shop I am pleasantly surprised to see a full wall of seeds (it must be a spring thing?) and even more happier with the prices, phew so just 50p for a pack of seeds, that should do. Oh but no wait, I need plant pots, I will need a trowel, gloves? £2.50! £2.50, no we won’t bother with the gloves we can just wash our hands. So we choose, some sweet peas, sweet Williams, sunflowers and carrots (god knows how you grow carrots, but we can give it a whirl). So we head off back home, unload the wet pram and now dripping rain cover and even grumpier baby into the car.

SUNFLOWER – GIANT Yellow 3 metre plus – 40 seeds

Once we are home luckily Nalah has a little nap so I grab that opportunity to start getting all green fingered, “come on Oscar shoes on coat on quickly we need to do this now” I shout. So there we are in the rain having a bloody lovely time, me trying to take photos for ‘evidence’ trying not to test the waterproofness of my phone out too much. Then I asked Oscar to write a sentence about what we had done, cue the jolly phonics and long drawn out spelling marathon (no one needs to know I had to use spell check to spell out favourite.)

The whole experience could have been over there, just 2 hours later and we could have been finished, well Oscar was. Lucky him. I know had to evidence what we had done. So for me this was just the beginning.

So I am no tech savvy at all. But because Carl has just recently bought me this laptop, and I know where the printer is I think I can save a few quid and a trek into town to print instant at boots, (So much easier.) So first I think all I need to do is get the photos from my phone to the laptop, easy you may thing. No actually apparently it is impossible! Well without social media it seems. So first I plug my phone in, nope, that doesn’t want to work, unrecognisable.

Then I think maybe bluetooth, both phone and laptop are paired, yes, I am doing great this might actually work. Nope, sending failed.

Right I know email, that is easy I will just make a draft and then pull the photos from that, I write the email, open it on my laptop, suddenly no WIFI. Not connected, unable to connect. What?!

As you can imagine this has already taken sometime and Nalah is waking from her nap.

I turn the laptop off hoping it might reconnect when I turn it back on, nope! It decides now is a good time to do a full update, taking a long 50 minutes! So once it has updated the internet is back working, phew! But no emails or drafts are showing. So I go to my last plan, I really didn’t want to have to, good old Facebook upload. So I apologise to my Facebook friends as they really don’t need to see Oscar’s homework in their news feed. And finally I can pull the pictures.

2 hours later and I have 4 pictures of Oscar planting his seeds on my laptop, now to print! This requires a lot more huffing puffing and swearing as I have to install, reinstall and download god knows what to make the printer and computer connect. But somehow I manage it and suddenly there are pictures splurging out of the printer. I did it!

Okay so the print quality was crap, the ink was barley there, the black was green and there were random bright red and Oscar thought his face looked just like his grandads. But they were there stuck in his book with all his writing and tiny daisy drawing. Finished! 4 hours and 30 minutes of my sunday it took, £4.50 it cost in materails, but hey we might get a pretty graden, and Oscar is certain to get an awesome smiley face stamp next to his work so happy days!

Update – Oscar was sick in the night, great big beans stuck to his face, so unfortunatly his homework won’t be needed today! Nooooo!!!

The nightmares of world book day and other embarrassing occasions.

So today is world book day, I’m not sure what that means but it certainly seems like another sneaky opportunity to bleed parents dry. Along with Easter, Halloween and of course the main event, Christmas, but this ‘day’ creeps up on you, because no one knows about it and then bam! You are suddenly having to create a costume in 1 evening.

Receiving a crumpled letter in his book bag THE DAY BEFORE! Asking for all children too be dressed as their favourite book character.

We are one of the more fortunate families on this occasion as Oscar has numerous costumes and luckily I was able to persuade him that while every super hero costume he has horded for the last 3 years (yes some are extremely tight and what were once trousers are now shorts) are presented in marvel comic books what his teachers had meant was a proper book. So I finally persuaded him he would look fantastic as Harry Potter. And I was right.

So Oscar’s day was a success and I felt like I’d  gained mummy points today.

.Rubie’s Official Harry Potter Pack Gryffindor Robe, Wand and Glasses Child’s Costume – Standard Size

I then got thinking about my own school days and the excitement and anticipation of dressing up. Ending in the awkward humiliation of the end results, but god bless my hardworking busy parents they really were creative!

Red nose day

The first day that strikes a memory is red nose day. It was the year of the squeaky noses. My dad left it till the night before to go and buy me and my older brother a red nose. Living out in the sticks he took the 20 minute journey too the nearest town and scoured the shops. He came back several hours later looking disgruntled and with no red nose.

Though he didn’t come home empty handed, oh no not my dad, he bought us both a red ball, a squeaky ball to be precise, a dog toy!! Inventive!! He snipped a hole in it for our nose and there you go a squeaky red nose.

Okay it was double the size of everyone else’s at school the next day and we looked a bit like coco the clown but that day was actually one of the more successful.

Children in need

So the next day that I vividly remember is children in need, or as it was known as at the time Pudsey bear day!! I remember it well, i was ten and we were in the middle of moving house and were renting a small house from a neighbour whose mum had just died. (One of my least favourite houses especially as the sofa she had died on was still sat in the living room.) All of our things were in storage and we only took the bare essential with us. So you can imagine the horror when I am sat in assembly been told to dress as Pudsey bear. I looked through the slim pickings of the clothes I had Packed and pulled out a big baggy orange woolly jumper and some yellow tights. Brilliant they’re bear colours I thought and set out to put them on. I showed my mum, quite pleased with myself. She told me I cannot go too school in just tights and instructed me to find a skirt or some shorts to wear with them.

The only shorts I had with me were my P.E shorts. Cycling shorts! Blue, shiny, lycra cycling shorts.

So off I go to school, two buns in my hair (ears!)A big woolly jumper, yellow tights and blue cycling shorts.

I never did win best dressed, the winner won a Pudsey teddy. I was gutted. Though my mum did take me to buy a teddy to cheer me up, he was the same unfortunate colour as my burnt orange jumper.

Ladies White Pudsey Bear Children In Need T-Shirt CIN Charity Clothing[M]

So remember stressed parents out there, you may be creating a last minute DIY outfit for the numerous  occasions schools spring on us. But cycling shorts over yellow tights is NEVER a good idea! Have you had any embarrassing moments please feel free to share in the comments, so we can learn from not just my mistakes!

Also whilst writing this I saw that Red nose day is this month, so I will aim to bypass the pet shop and get Oscar a nose on time!