Life from the back of the pack: Everything is awesome!

We were invited to join some friends and her grandchildren at the cinema to watch the lego movie.

I have to confess it would not have been my first choice, but it didn't take too long for me to be completely involved with the film, and caring about what happened to these little plastic people! The girls on the other hand loved it from the start!

Some reviewers were quite harsh on this film, describing it as a glorified advert for Lego and to be truthful if it was then it did a good job because this is the result ...

Sophie has spent days making houses and shops and the cafe pictured here. I mistakenly thought the black object on the left hand side of the house was a light .... No it's a CCTV camera!!

And what Sophie does ....

It's great, not just because they are absorbed for hours but because they are building stuff, designing it, thinking about it, working out which bits they need to complete their design.
So I guess it really is awesome!

 

Life from the back of the pack: Half term part one.

Holidays with young children are hard work, there's no getting round it, pretending its easy! Morning comes just as early and though not having to rush around is great by ten o'clock they are four hours into their day and need to be out of the house! But they are good, they are good for lots of reasons ( most of which seem to bypass Mr Gove!) they are time to spend time together as a family, to have adventures. to learn things you can't learn in a classroom.

So here are just some of our highlights...

Anglesey Abby

We were kindly given a national trust membership in January.

So we headed off to Anglesey Abbey about 20 minutes drive from us.

The snow drops were beautiful as we wandered through the winter gardens on our way to the water mill.

Going up was bad, coming back down was horrendous, but it was great seeing the whole process from wheat to flour. I didn't manage to stop Annie eating the flour they gave her to feel. - she did the same last time we went to a mill, she says she likes it! Still it's an improvement on eating hand gel!

More high places!

A collection of interesting woodland things - well that was what it was supposed to be, in fact it was a zapper that depending on the setting made human beings spin round in circles or be happy depending on the setting!

The girls were reluctant to leave and we still have loads to explore so I think this may become a regular hang out.

Life from the back of the pack: Barbie party!

One of the great things about having a through lounge is that it is now possible to have parties at home, though it also means inviting less children which is not such a bad thing!
Annie decided to have a Barbie partie so she invited only girls! in her class so just five children! And her cousins!
In addition to the usual games, we had a barbie bingo game - I purchased a barbie pairs game then photocopied six cards at a time to make the game cards, one of the sets was used to decorate the room and the other shuffled to use to call the bingo game.

Another barbie specific game was the 'shoe game' I purchased 20 pairs or barbie shoes online for about £3, these were hidden around the party room. The girls spotted them quickly and were desperate to play the game! There were two teams, the rules were that only one girl at a time from a team could be collecting and they were only allowed to collect one shoe at a time. They scored one point per shoe and a bonus point for each pair! It was very funny watching them trying to collect a pair rather than collecting as many as possible and then seeing what pairs they had!
And somewhere in my house those shoes are now hidden hence no photo!
Annie's present from us and her grandparents was a little shop and so instead of prizes the girls received coins, then just before tea we opened Annie's shop stocked with whistles, necklaces, rubbers, notebooks, pencils and a selection of small packets of sweets.

They all queued up beautifully to spend their money and just loved it, carefully choosing their items and paying their money - their purchases then went into a named party bag ready to take home.

It was great to be able to fit all the children round the table to eat.

We used barbie tableware so lots of pink (just for a change) and each place setting had a Chelsea doll for the girl to take home ( 3 for 2 at Argos!)

And for the third year in a row Annie had a princess cake!

As the girls finished tea and waited to be collected, they had some Barbie colouring sheets (printed from Argos Barbie site) to colour.

It was quieter than some of her parties but good to get to know some of Annie's school friends and their mums and Annie loved it. So now the question is what party featuring a princess cake will she come up with for next year!

Life from the back of the pack: Annie is 5!

It doesn't' seem that long ago that I held this tiny scrap in my arms, but she really is 5 at school and a real mischievous bundle!

Her party is not till the 15th, so this week we had cup cakes for school and a treasure chest before I make yet another princess cake! For her barbie party!

Just for fun: or not! Sewing!!

So ten years ago with curtains to make and adjust I bought a sewing machine, and though I did do the curtains it has rarely seen the light of day since! On the few occasions I attempted to save time and use the machine, I ended up stressed, grumpy and sewing by hand so eventually I stopped trying and just spent days hand sewing stuff!
At the new house there are four sets of curtains that require shortening! So when the opportunity arose to attend a basic sewing machine session with the Material Girls I thought it was time to bite the bullet.
Lots of cake, coffee and experts on hand added up to a great evening, I didn't shout at the machine once and am so pleased with the end result!

The dilemma now is do I take up the curtains - or make more cushions!!