August 29th 2015 - Drayton Manor/Thomas Land

August 29th 2015 - Drayton Manor/Thomas Land

What a long day!  It was lovely but very long.

We were up, dressed, fed, car packed and out of the door by 08:30am.  What should have been 1hr 35mins drive took over 2hrs.  This was partly due to having to slow down through Leicester town centre and partly due to us having to do an emergency toilet stop at the side of the road and then a delay to get into the car park at Drayton Manor (we we're queing for 20minutes!)   By the time we had got parked, got my wheels out and sorted the suncream/hats and picnic bits it was almost 11am, we got our tickets and went in.

We met up with my friends husband and children just inside, they had gotten there before us.  Sadly my friend was unable to be with us as she had collapsed a few days before and was still in hospital, but rather than let her children down her husband said he would bring them and meet us.  None of us had ever met before (even my friend), we have only communicated via internet and phone for the past 5 or 6yrs.

My 3 boys and my friends 2 boys and 1 girl all got on really well together.  My boys are a bit older than my friends children and I asked my eldest 2 to look after her youngest 2 on the rides.  As it was a hot bank holiday weekend the place was packed and the ques were long.  It took 45mins to get on 1 ride!  So whilst they were on that ride I joined the que (on my wheels) for the next ride, once they came off it they came and joined me in the que!  This meant that they didn't have as long to wait for the next ride.  We did this a few times.   We also split up and the older kids went to que for 1 ride with adult and the younger ones stayed on smaller rides.

We all had a great day, the kids went on many rides and cost us all a fortune!  It was a shame I didn't get to meet my friend, but hopefully we will meet at somepoint in the future.  Her children are lovely and her daughter kept holding my hand.  The boys all played nicely together and her husband has a similar sense of humor to me.

We left Drayton Manor at 5:30pm and set off home, we needed to avoid the M6 toll road as we refuse to pay and said we would stop at mcdonalds when we found 1.  Obviously this did delay our trip home.  We finally got home very tired at 10:15pm.

 

August 28th 2015 - Happy Birthday

August 28th 2015 - Happy Birthday

Happy 6th Birthday to my lil "dinky dot", I can't believe you are 6yrs old today, where has the time gone???

Me, my hubby and friend we were staying with put up Thomas Tank banners ready for him to wake up to.  We didn't do too many because it wasn't my house.  But lil man was happy.

He had already had some of his birthday presents before his birthday - like his scooter so that he had the 6weeks holidays to play on it and he had his presents from 1 of his godmothers before we went away so he could thank her.  We left his cards on the table but not his presents as we didnt want the dogs to rip them open!

He was really pleased when he opened his presents - a thomas tank  wallet (to put his birthday money into he said) and a thomas watch, a thoms tank dvd he has been asking about for ages, a set of speedstcks and lastly and most importantly a thomas tank mega bloks set that has Butch the recovery lorry in, he has wanted it for ages but it was discontinued 18months ago, I found it on ebay though!  He had £5 and a pack of malteasers from his great nan, a jigsaw from his other godmother, £10 from my sister and £5 from his best friend/girlfriend, and his other godparents sent him £20 as well.

He is 1 very lucky little boy.  We spent the day playing, and sorting out food  etc  as we were having a small party in the evening.  All of the food had thomas trains and labels, we played thomas games etc.

FOOD
 we had: sir tophams sausage rolls

Diesel'sfuel stop for the drinks

 Percy's pizza slices

rosie's rocks of grapes and raisins

Farmer mccolls fruit & veg car - carrot & cucumber

 Thomas's treat car - barney bear cakes, iced gems and party rings

Toby's twiglet lumber

Charlie's crisp car

Charlie's chicken bits

James's jelly

Thomas the tank birthday cake from asda

















GAMES

We placed sweets in gre and black balloons and said that they were fallen rocks and they had to burst them in order to move them from the track, once burst they had teh sweets but had to clear up the bits of balloon as "they were still on the tracks"!  (saved me cleaning up).

Here they are trying to burst them


We played "pass the train" instead of pass the parcel.  The train was an empty box with no lid and I covered it with a train front, back and both sides,  inside it we put sweets.  When the music started they passed the train around and when it stopped whoever had it took out a sweet.  We  made sure that everyone had 2 sweets (there were only 5 there but should have been more).  Then on the last go whoever had the train won it and the rest of the sweets.  This happened to land on birthday boy and he said would share them with everyone.

We also did musical bumps and musical statues.  The last game we did was "pin the light on thomas" (bought off ebay).  This is played in the same way as pin the tail on donkey etc.  We "cheated" for the 2 12year olds and turned the image upside down but 1 of them still won!

We had planned to play coal toss (bean bags into a bucket) but we didnt in the end as the kids we're happy to just dance to the music and disco lights.

August 3rd 2015 - Making party bags

August 3rd 2015 - making party bags

Everyone buys the plastic party bags for treats etc to go in, well I wanted to be different!  As lil man is having a Thomas tank themed party the plastic thomas bags are over £2 for 8 and i have 12 kids going to be there.

I bought a roll of thomas tank wrapping paper for 99p and found a link on how to make party bags on pinterest.  They are actually quite easy to do once you get the hang of them and I guess with more practise they would  look much neater, but lil man thinks they are ok for his birthday which is fine by me.

You need a box the size of the bag you are making, another box you can cut up, scissors, glue or double sided tape, paper, hole punch and ribbon.

Take the box that you are using for the size of the bag and using 1 end draw round it onto the other cardboard (do this for as many bags as you are making) and then cut them out.

These will be used later to re-enforce the base of the bag and make it stand up.

Next you need to cut the paper so that it is bigger than the box you are using - you need about 2" more than the distance needed to wrap around the box and about 3" extra in the length of the box.  These extra inches are so that you can make the folds etc so the bag looks nice.









From here you need to fold the edge over about 1/2-1" (depending on size of bag your making - smaller bag = less fold).  And also fold down the top edge as it's easier to do now before the bag is assembled.  Once you have the folds you need to add glue or double sided tape to the fold on the side.  Place the box on the paper and cover like you would to wrap a present.  Before you stick the folded side to it you need to get it on the shorted edge (depth) of the box as it will look better.

You now have a part-wrapped present, you need to move the paper from the bottom part of the box so that it over hangs and you can fold the bottom.  Again do it as you would a normal present and glue or double sided tape it together.  Remove the box from the wrapper carefully.

Take the small rectangle of cardboard you cut out at the start and add glue or double sided tape to one side of it (the box I used had writing on one side so I put the tape on this side.)  Then push it into you bag and down to the bottom.

 From here you are almost done, you need to pinch the top at the sides and fold inwards so that you get a crease shape like shop bought bags have.  Crease them hard with your fingers on both sides.

You can now put holes at the top of both sides and add the ribbon as handles.  I'm not adding ribbon to mine but going to staple shut once they have the goodies in.  As you can see the bag is complete and stands up.  You can also fold them over so that they lay flat and take up less room if you need to store them or transport them anywhere.










I will certainly try and make them in the future rather than buying them.  I do think thicker paper will be easier than thin birthday wrap, but as I wanted thomas ones I had to use what I had.

July 13th 2015 - Boarder

July 13th 2015 - Boarder

I have finally got round to putting up the Thomas the Tank Boarder in my sons bedroom.  It has only taken me about 2months since buying it.

It's nothing like the picture as that looks like something from the 1980's, but it was the only 1 I could find on pinterest and I couldn't be bothered to look for his and add it as a pin.

I was really pleased with it, it was on a reduced rack in shop in town, was £3.99 a roll down to £1.79 a roll.  I bought 3 to make sure I had enough, I have plenty I have used 1 and 1/4 rolls.  IF I was too move lil mans bookcase off the stairwell and do that wall as well it probably would use the 2nd roll, but thats too much work to do it.  Well I say that today but I will probably change my mind in a few weeks/months and do it.

Lil man is going to be pleased when he comes home from school as has asked since I bought it when i'm going to put it up.

June 29th 2015 - Party planning

June 29th 2015 - Party planning

As daft as it may sound I am planning my sons birthday party that is in 2months time (yesterday).  But there is a method to my madness, I have loads happening over the next few weeks and I won't even be holding the party at my house but my sons godmothers house over 5hrs drive away!

Therefore I am unable to stick loads of stuff on walls etc like I do at home and go OTT for the party.  Don't get me wrong it will be good but wont have stuff everywhere like I usually do.

I was looking online for Thomas the Tank party banners and bunting and realised very quickly how expensive they actually are.  The 2 images linked to the pins above gave me a good idea.  I started hunting the net for images of thomas trains with their names on them, there are loads that were made as jigsaw puzzles.  I added these to w word document, flipped them over and added next to it so that I can double side them.  Only thing I didn't thing about was the name is now backwards on the reverse, but never mind!  It's better than plain white paper.

Here are some of them:

Once they were all printed I cut them out, doubled them up and then laminated them all.  I am going to put a hole in each one and a few pieces of curling ribbon so they can hang from door frames.

I also copied the design of the above link and edited it to my sons name and age, and have printed loads and laminated them as well to go around the table edge.

I also printed food labels linked to the trains and have printed wheels to go on the food tubs as cargo cars behind some of sons trains that I will be taking with us.

Watch this space for more updates on the Thomas Tank party.

March 5th 2015 - 2 pins for 1 today (see post)

March 5th 2015 - 2 pins for 1 today (see post)

Today there is going to be 2 pins for the price of 1!  That is because  of 2 things - 1. it's world book day and 2/3 sons have gone to school dressed up and 2. I had a brain wave last night on how to do something that I need to share as it may help others.

Lets start with number 1 on the list.  Today is world book day, this is a great day that aims to raise awareness of books and reading and encourages children to do so.  Most schools allow the children to dress up as a character froma book.  My youngest decided as soon as he knew they were dressing up that he was going as Thomas the tank engine.  He was going to wear his dressing up playsuit of thomas but its very thin and most of the back is open (it ties at the neck) and  as the weather doesn't know what its doing at the moment (snow, hail, rain and sun all on same day 2 days ago) I told him to wear his thick thomas onesie, which has thomas from the top to bottom, not small pics or the writing but a big thomas (see pic). My middle son wanted to go as Hiccup the Viking (see FEbruary 26th and 27th) from How to train your dragon.  This proved a bit hared than the simple onesie, but I managed to make him it and everyone that saw the photo of himand stock image of hiccup said I had down really well.  (See pic).

 

I will also add the instructions for Hiccip to one of my very early blog posts about making costumes for book day and parties etc.

NOW for the 2nd part of todays pin, this is a how to by me as when I looked yesterday on google and pinterest all I was finding was shop bought or make your own with wire or dental floss of which I have neither.

This how to is about making a needle threader from a drinking straw.

On March 3rd I posted about making a clown wig from wool and a hat.  Things were going ok to start with, then after 1 row round the hat my finger started to really get sore from where I was threading wool into a needle.  So I got out my needle threader (for cotton as all I had) and after 3 strands of wool it broke! 

After going on google and Pinterest to try and find how to make 1, I hunted the house and hubbys tool boxes etc to see if I could find any thin wire (no such luck) and the strimmer wire was too thick for needle as well and I don't have dental floss in the house either.  Call it what you like but I choose the word FATE 2 drinking straws fell out of the packet that sits on top of my cupboards (or my boys use them 1 per drink and then bin them).  Well this got me thinking - straws are flexible I wonder if it will fit through eye of needle if squashed?  AND yes it does!

For this make your own needle threader you need a drinking straw, a pair of scissors and a big eyed needle.  It's very simple to do.  Step 1 - cut a small (1-2cm long) piece off the drinking straw.  Step 2 - thread wool into straw.  Step 3 - squash straw flat.  Step 4 - push the straw through eye of needle.  Step 5 - remove strw and needle is threaded.  Then repeat the steps for each piece you need to do - this is lots with this clown wig!!!

Step 1 top left, step 2 bottom left, step 3 top right, step 4 middle right and step 5 bottom right

February 19th 2015 - Spong cakes

February 19th 2015 - Sponge cakes

My little man loves cooking and baking, to the extent for the past 2 and bit years he has said he wants to be a chef and has already made a business plan - he's the chef, hubby is serving drinks, his brothers are waiters and cleaners and I can sit around in apretty dress and drink wine. lol!

Anyway, he asked if we could make some cakes, which I agreed, he then said like J (his brother) made at school with no packet mix.  Errrrrrr I can't make cakes without a packet mix, they don't rise etc.  But I agreed.  Hubby bought the ingredients on tuesday when he did the shopping and today is the 1st day we have had a chance to make them.

The receipe my eldest used at school was 100g SR flour, 100g caster sugar, 100g margerine and 2 eggs, and it made 12, I also found teh same receipe on pinterest.   We doubled it all up so we could make 24 cakes and ended up with 30, however I forgot teh last 6 were in the oven and they are slightly burnt on top.

But i'm impressed they did work and they did rise (slightly).  (see pics below).  We still have to ice them, of which 12 are having thomas tank rice paper on (can't remember how we ended up with spare rice papers from a pack).