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 27th 2015 - Places to go and people to see

August 27th 2015 - Places to go and people to see

Today has been a busy day.  The title should be people and places but it didn't sound right!  We are staying at one of our friends houses.  We had told her that we had few things to do etc and would be back just after lunch.  However, plans changed and she didn't get my message.

We started off by going to see my mum's best friend and the godmother to all 3 boys as planned.  Blake decided that he liked her pot of stones in the garden - not just stones but crystal types, clear fish etc, asked where they were from, his godmother didn't know and told him to take them.  So he filled a bag and said they would look nice in his fairy garden.

From here we went for Dinner with my Nan at a local pub.  The food was nice and the service was mostly good, but it took over 20minutes to pay for it because the people in front of us were argueing over the cost of their bill and there were 3 members of staff trying to sort it out.  This is where our plans changed as we were meant to be heading back, but my sister rang me and asked if we would go and meet her.

We went to meet my sister as not seen her since january and she asked if we wanted to go to Fineshade Woods in Northamptonshire, sounds far but it's only about 20minutes drive from Peterborough.  It wasn't anywhere we had heard of, which is a shame as it was really nice and certainly somewhere we would have gone when we lived that way.

We took out my Wheels so that I didn't have to walk and my sister said that I had a "granny mobile" - I don't care! lol!  We went round the woods to a tree house where the boys played for a while, lil man got stuck and had to be rescued from the top of it.  we then headed back to the smaller play area for a little while.

My friend we are staying with rang to check we were ok as she had expected us back a few hours before and she said she hadn't got my message.  She was glad we were ok but she was going out but told us how to get in house etc.  We were on our way to car when she rang anyway but we needed to go supermarket for party food for tomorrow so said would be an hour or so. It took us ages to pay in Morrisons as they had very few tills open and long ques!

August 26th 2015 - Wheels!

August 26th 2015 - Wheels!

Today we went to collect my wheels from the mobility scooter hire place on route down south.  We found a company in Keswick, just under an hour from us and on route, they hired it to us for a week at a very good price.

I don't want to be on a mobility scooter at my age BUT if its the only way I can go out to places and have trips as a family then I will do, as I am still unable to walk very far.

The scooter was a small grey 4 wheel version (similar to pin but different make).  The man explained all buttons and how to take to bits/put back together and off we went back to the car.  We had to empty out all the bags and things in the middle of the car park, take the scooter to bits and put in first and then pack everything around it.  We had to remove the parcel shelf as the boot was slightly too full for it, but we got everything in!!!

This was to be my transport along with my crutches for Thomas land at Drayton Manor at the weekend.  My boys are not bothered about me being on it and have said the same if its the only way we can go out then it is.

August 25th 2015 - packing

August 25th 2015 - packing

Not to move but too go away for a few days.  Normally this isn't a problem as we take the big hold all with most things in and then 1 or 2 of the boys backpacks with the overflow stuff, plus anything else that we want to take.

Today was different though, we needed 5 peoples clothes for 4 days in as small a bag as we could because we had birthday presents, disco lights, food, sleeping bags and a mobility scooter to get in the boot of the car!

I managed to get most of the clothes in a small hold all and 1 back pack.  We had a wheeled suitcase with birthday presents and disco lights in.  The boot looked really full and we still had to collect the mobility scooter.

August 24th 2015 - Summer fun

August 24th 2015 - Summer fun

I know summer isn't over yet but I have a busy few days and then need to be getting everything ready to go back to school.  So I am doing our Summer fun list now.

So far this summer we have:

*had a friend and her children come to stay
*been to a farm
*been on a trail through the woods
*been and met a Viking
*made a garden gnome and wrote about what it did
*played in the paddling pool
*been to soft play
*been to the beach and played in the sea
*been rock pooling
*been to the woods
*painted with car wheels
*painted with animal feet
*been to SJA day camp
*had some bbq's
*toasted marshmallows on open fire
*had an outdoor fire at night
*grown our own veg - peas, carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn
*been swimming (eldest son)
*played on bikes and scooters
* played various ball games
*played with the olympics bits - sacks, egg & spoon, 3 leg race, bean bags
*played on wii
*played board games
*read books
*made a solar powered rainbow
*watched dvds with snacks
*made cakes
*played with lego
*played with trains
*visited an exhibition about minecraft
*made things from recycled bits of card and paper etc
*collected shells
*built a fairy garden
*got a new kitten
*been shopping
*played with cars
*played with animals and boats in water
*guessed what would sink and float in paddling pool
*made cardboard box cars and sat in them
*played tennis with hands and balloons
*painted our own t-shirts
*played football
*made posters from pictures in argos book
*had a pj day
*played with bubbles
*made friendship bracelets
*ridden a donkey (youngest)
*gone to a friends to play (older 2)
*made a crazy golf type course using plant pots and tubs etc
*looked for shapes in the clouds
*made paint blob butterflies
*made a rock pet
*sorted all the odd socks into pairs
*been for a walk
*had ice creams
*had water fights
*had normal fights with brothers
*watched tv
*walked round a maze
*been to a birthday party (middle son)
*played with animals and dinosaurs
*helped with jobs at home
*we have been to the park

AND most of all we have had fun!

With 2weeks until the kids go back to school we still have more planned - we are going to see our family, we are going to Thomas land for the day, we are going to the room on the broom woodland trail, we hope to go to the museum and anything else we can fit in.

It may seem that we have done loads and you haven't but most of these have happened at home and not cost us any money to do.  The craft bits have happened via stuff that is saved in the craft cupboard, the beach and rock pools are both less than 2miles from home so not cost much for fuel,

August 23rd 2015 - Tubes

August 23rd 2015 - Tubes

A few years ago I picked up these plastic tubes in a charity shop for few pence.  They each have a wide and narrow end so can be connected together.  Some are straight, some are curved, some are cross and some are "T" shaped.  This is so that you can make various things.

I gave them to the boys to play with and lil man absolutely loved them, he makes loads of things but moans that he needs more.  Well I hunted high and low with no luck, I posted on facebook asking my friends and a few said they thought they were called ...... or ........ etc.  I searched the net under the names given and still hit a blank. 

After months of searching I found some from a company based in Croatia who would ship to the UK, so I ordered them.  Only to be very disapointed when they arrived - yes they were the same thing as my tubes, all different shapes etc BUT (and a big but) they were about 10x bigger than the ones I had.  So I was still no nearer getting lil man some more.  But I did find a lot of "things to make with them" in images on google.

Then a few weeks back I happened to be on the works website and guess what I found - Yep Smart Buliders Puzzle set.  Identical to what I have.  So I ordered 2 boxes.  When they arrived they were the same size and colours as to what we had, so they got put up for lil mans birthday.  Well his birthday isn't until friday but as we are seeing his godmother thursday (who they are from) we have let him have them today.  He is sooooo Happy that he has more tubes to build with.

August 22nd 2015 - toilet roll owl

August 22nd 2015 - toilet roll owl

Lil man had seen this toilet roll owl on pinterest and asked if we could make 1.  I agreed.  Well his owl is different to the pic as he had been and collected scraps of brown and white material and googly eyes and that is what we used.

The brown material offcuts were shaped like triangles of sort but he said they were going to be the wings.  So They were double sided taped to the toilet roll tube.  The white pieces were originally a cover of a new pillow and were going to be used as marshmallows for day camp but I had cut too many.  So the big squares were cut into 4 to use as feathers, these were double sided taped to the toilet roll overlaping each other.

He then stick his googly eyes and a triangle of orange to the front and a few small bits of brown as the tufts out of the top of the owls head.  It looks really good and he said its for Nanny!