It was French Day on Friday for LBG. I had two days' notice to whip up a costume from stuff lying around the house. A pair of navy leggings, a stripey blue and white top- with red rosette, and her velvet jacket and some of my fake pearls was the simplest way of fulfilling the brief. But I had a delivery that day which came in a large cardboard box. And the large cardboard box spoke to me. It said: I want to be the Eiffel Tower. So armed with … [Read more...]
Pretty Paper Angel Garland
We have been reading Milly-Molly-Mandy- Granny's favourite stories- at bedtime of late. In one tale, 'Teacher' comes to stay at Milly-Molly-Mandy's home and astounds the child by making 'little sailor girls'. I remember making the same thing from newspaper as a child. My Girls were interested to know what these little sailor girls were, so I showed them how you make a string of 'little girls' by concertina-ing a length of paper, and cutting … [Read more...]
Back to School Games and Land’s End #roughandtumbleplay campaign
A couple of weeks ago The Girls and I were invited by Land's End to spend the afternoon at Freightliner's Farm in Islington. It's a City Farm that I am familiar with, as Islington was one of my old stomping grounds in my past life as a nanny. But it didn't feature the touchable Ben Shephard then. … [Read more...]
Back to School Starburst Pencil Wreath
I'm so pleased with this wreath: fixed on the door in celebration of School starting this week, but also because we held a Back to School tea party for a few friends this week. … [Read more...]
The Back to School Essentials List
It's that time of year. Don't panic, I'm not talking about Christmas (although you really should be making a list so that you allow yourself enough time to check it twice *ahem*). I refer to the day that most parents come to really value as a yearly high: Back to School. I know it's awful to say but I am exhausted by the antics of my children and am metaphorically counting the hours. What I am actually doing is ticking things off a list (told … [Read more...]
100 things to do before starting school
A couple of weeks ago, one of Mari's posts caught my eye: she found a great list of things your children should do before starting Kindergarten. As DH was peering over my shoulder, we printed off a copy of the list and set to work seeing whether we had provided our children with productive Pre-School years*. And it turns out that in terms of experiences and achievements, our Little Misses are well-placed for when they start back in … [Read more...]
Anti-ageing Zabaglione
When I was in Upper Sixth our Small Common Room was turned into a library/dining room. I think the Housemaster was trying to stop it being used as a dumping ground, but he encouraged us nevertheless to make use of the facility so we decided to host a Dinner Party. Naturally we went with Italian, being the sophisticated young things that we were (that, and the fact that Italian is often budget-friendly and easy-to-cook) and we sallied forth into … [Read more...]
