March 14th 2015 - 3 more books from list

March 14th 2015 - 2 more books from list

Back on 9th January I made a post about the 2015 reading challenge.  This morning I have added 3 more books to the list of completed books, giving me a total now of 6/50 read.  I have read more than this so far this year but not all have been on the challenge list.

The 3 that I read this morning are Bulgy from Thomas the Tank from the category of "non-human characters" and Monster stories for under fives from the category of "book with a number in title" and the 3rd book was the dinosaur that pooped a lot from the category "funny".  All of these were read to my lil man, who like his Mum loves books and reading.  He's happy cos some of his on his shelf he can actually read on his own now.

We try and read at least 1 book or story a day, usually at bedtime, but occasionally like today, he will come down with a book and ask if we can read it.  The 3rd of today's he came back from town with as he went and used he book day token.

As its a dry day and the sun is shining I think I'm going to go out and do some of the garden, and I know lil man wants to plant his carrot seeds in his planter.

March 13th 2015 - Red Nose Day

March 13th 2015 - Red Nose Day

Today is Friday 13th!  The second of these this year.  Some people are very suspicious about this day and believe it to be bad luck - I don't!  Bad luck can happen any day of the week/month/year not just a set day.  Today is also Red Nose Day.

My eldest sons school was just non-uniform and pay £1, but the younger two (infants and juniors) had to wear something red and pay £1, they also bought noses for £1 earlier in the week - they both got the diver.

This red clothes wasn't an easy task - I have boys they don't tend to wear red clothes!!!  Well lil man said he would wear his red England top and trackies ok thats him sorted.  Middle son hadn't got anything in his wardrobe neither had the eldest.  So I raided the boxes on top of the wardrobe of clothes that are too big or summery etc, I found a red vest top and shorts (bit too cold for these) and a red top that middle son got for taking part in some event the school organised last year - that will do him.  I did think of removing the xmas decorations that I stitched to a red jumper but thought I would only have to re-do them for xmas so didn't bother.

Lil man managed to rip his red nose in half before breakfast so he didn't actually have it for school, nor for his friends birthday party this evening which is circus themed and he is going as a clown.  He has his blue onesie that has green and blue stars on it, and the wig  I made for him to go with it.  I will add a pic of him before he goes to the party.

March 12th 2015 - Stretching shoes

March 12th 2015 - Stretching shoes

Last week I bought a pair of shoes off ebay because I need a low heeled pair to go with my St John Ambulance uniform for our enrollment/presentation evening in a few weeks and couldn't find any in town that I liked or were comfy.

These shoes were listed as a size 7, which is good as that is what I am in most shoes.  However when they arrived they have a great big 6 on the sole, which isn't so good.  I did contemplate complaining to the seller  but for the sake of £3.79 (including postage) I didn't think it was worth it and would could me more than that to send them back.  I have tried them on and they are a bit on the tight side across the top of my foot and against my big toes.

Then I remembered that I had pinned this random pin about stretching shoes by wearing loads of socks and using a hair dryer - I can do that as have socks and a hair dryer.  So I started off with 1 pair of socks on and a couple of mins under the hair dryer, removed them and tried shoes on without socks, they were still a bit tight.  So we went for a 2nd pair of socks.  Although this did feel that they were stretching slightly after a total of mins the sole of one of the shoes had come unstuck.

So I can safely say that stretching shoes with extra socks and a hair dyrer doesn't work.  This is a pinterest fail.  And I now have a pair of shoes that are still tight and have had to glue the sole back onto them and need find another pair asap.

March 11th 2015 - Family Learning at school - William Wordsworth

March 11th 2015 - Family Learning at school - William Wordsworth

Today at the family learning at the school we had 2 ladies in from Dove Cottage - the home of William Wordsworth.  It was a fun morning and lots of hands on activities.

They started off by explaining who they were and where they from and asked if anyone had heard of it and the person who lived there, my boys put their hands up as we had talked about the people that lived there.  They then made a timeline of how old we all were starting with the 5year olds right up to the parents, and they then removed a boy to be William and a girl to be his sister Dorothy and they moved them round the room and then had them stop and face the rest of line to show how far back in time they were - the room wasn't long enough to have them on the end.

After this it was dressing up time.  They had a boy get up initially but he decided he wasn't wearing the outfit so my youngest son, Blake, said he would wear it - even with them tied to the smallest they would go they were still really big on him but he is tiny!  Because clothes were so expensive back in the 17/1800's they were made bigger so they would last as you grew into them. 

Here is my lil man getting dressed as William Wordsworth:

1. is his shirt
2. is his shirt and breeches (should be 3/4 length but full as he so small)
3. is his waistcoat
4. is his tail coat
5. is cravat
6. is his hat

They dressed 1 of the girls up as Dorothy with her peticoat, pocket, dress, sash, apron, bonnet and shawl this is a pic of them both, I have blurred her face as she is not my child, both look really good:

 

Then the rest of the children and 2 of the adults were dressed up as boys/girls from the era, they didn't have as much to wear as the richer people did.  The following 2 pictures are of Blake and his girlfriend and Blake and his brother Kenzie.

Once everyone had taken pictures and what ever the kids were told how people of the day would stand and how they would bow/curtsey and the males removed their hats etc.  They then all took the outfits off.

The ladies then brought out a box of very old things from Dove Cottage and talked about what they were called and what they would have been used for.  There was a Spurtle used for stiring porridge, a small but heavy iron, a muffin turner, a 2 pronged fork, a pair of small girls shoes and a shoe horn.  The children went for their break which was indoor play as it was raining.  When thy came back they had juice and cookies and were asked if they could remember the names of the items.  The 2 ladies split them up into older and younger children - the older had to choose an item, draw around it and then write a poem about it BUT they were the object and they had to include how they would feel etc.  The younger again choose an item and either drew round it or drew it by hand and they had to write words about what it was, looked like, was used for and its material.

The ladies then told a story linked to Williams poem about the butterfly and they had animal/bird puppets to use.  after this the children had about 10minutes to make bird masks from paper and feathers and things.  Blake made a robin, Kenzie made a brown bird.

It was a great morning and I am looking forward to actually going to Dove Cottage at somepoint, its about an hour and half drive from where we live.

March 10th 2015 - Making a new hide

March 10th 2015 - Making anew hide

My bearded dragon is growing!  This is good for him but not for me as the hide I made him from expanding foam when he was a baby is now getting too small and he can only get his head/front into it not all of him.

So I looked on pinterest for ideas to make him a new hide.  There isn't many but as I needed a pin for today I have linked to one of them. 

I had the box my smoke machine came in going in recycling bin, so I decided to use this for his new hide as its big.

I cut out the middle of the box as an arch so he could get in/out of it.

I then covered the inside in expanding foam, making sure that all of the edges and pins that hold the box together were covered.  The expanding foam gives a really bumpy/rock look when its dry.

I'm now waiting for this to fully dry so that I can add a ramp to it and then coat the ramp and the outside with expanding foam so that it all looks like rock.  I will update and add more pics once its done and then it will need to be painted with grey acrylic.

March 9th 2015 - Planting seeds

March 9th 2015 - Planting seeds

Yesterday afternoon, we moved some of the wood bark from the front garden to the base of lil mans planter as it has started to go to mulch/compost where it has got so wet etc.  We also filled the planter with compost ready for lil man to start planting his veg.

We also planted a tray of seeds, which I have today sorted out with labels etc, brought in and watered for him.  Not sure how well they are going to do but fingers crossed they start to grow.  We are 2 weeks in with potatoes but as of yet there is no sign of green shoots.

We have a row of lettuce, a row of rocket, a row of basil and a row of corriander - all of which apart from the lettuce our bearded dragon can eat.  I did buy carrot seeds as well but they seem to have grown legs and wander off from the shelf where the rest of the seeds were.  I will see if Aldi still has any at 19p tomorrow when we go shopping.

Lil man has also asked me to get some corn as he wants to grow his own of that.  Not sure where I get it from so I will be hunting the net later.

March 8th 2015 - Pheasant & wine

March 8th 2015 - Pheasant & wine

(apologies for  spelling mistakes explain in post)

This is something I have never tried in my 32yrs of life!  Not sure why, but have never tried it.  That was until tea today.

It all came about when my neighbour asked if we had we a spare shelf in the freezer over Christmas as she had no room.  We said we had and she brought round a few bits.  A few days later she came and got them and brought a few other bits - 1 of which was a pheasant - I generally commented that I had never tried it - she said that in new year she would sort out a date and cook them and we could go round for tea.

Well a few dates were discussed and either they were not available or we wern't or something happened on planned date etc and today ended up as dinner date next door.  We went round at 5pm as agreed and were given beer (me and hubby not kids) - they knew we drank it as had seen in recycling (oops lol!)  Never mind.  We sat drinking and talking whilst the veg finished off cooking.

We then helped serve the food - they were trying to be good hosts by putting all food in serving dishes - I told em to serve from saucepan as it saved on washing up. No point making a dish dirty for no reason is way I see it.

We moved to the lounge where their table had been moved to as more room than in the kitchen.  We had chicken as well as the pheasant (encase we didn't like it) and loads of veg and yorkshires and gravy both meats had been coated in paprika as  it crispens the skin and adds flavour (note for future).  This is where it got messy - we had white wine with the pheasant main meal - it was nice and i'm not really a wine drinker as I don't like the taste of it and it goes to my head.

Well I can safely say I enjoyed the pheasant, it sort of seemed like a cross between chicken and turkey - I can't really say what it tasted like but it was nice, I finished off 1/2 a pheasant to myself.  I was also surprised that I liked the taste of the white wine.  So all was going well.  I then finished off the remaining 1/2 bottle of white wine!

My neighbours had also been and bought cheesecakes for desert (which were lovely) and had bought red wine to go with desert - this wasn't going to end well lol!  The deserts were lovely, we also the cakes I made yesterday and took round as my Mum told me you don't go to dinner empty handed.  And me and my neighbour had 1/2 bottle of red which each - hubby had another beer and the neighbours wife had coffee.  I felt fine and was talking normally, that was until we left and the fresh air hit me, not to mention the spots on my stair carpet moving as I tried to walk down them!  This is why I don't drink wine as it hits me hard!

A good evening, with good food and good company.  I should no by my age not mmix drinks but never mind. lol!