Polo-shirts.co.uk is launching a competition which calls upon your t-shirt designing skills. Your children can enter their design and the winning blogger (and parent of designer) gets £100 given to the charity of their choice. We were sent t-shirts and fabric crayons by the people at Polo Shirts with which to create our masterpieces. I put a piece of card between the front and back of the t-shirt to prevent transfer, and I stuck the … [Read more...]
Center Parcs Challenge: design a water ride
This month Center Parcs and the Tots 100 are challenging us- and you- to come up with our dream Water Ride, ahead of the launch of the world first water ride later this month at Elveden Forest. Our girls are really enjoying the swimming that they are doing lately, and over breakfast one morning, they and DH pooled ideas. I drew the short straw, literally, as I was in charge of translating them to paper. This is what we came up … [Read more...]
Five Simple Yogurt Recipes
Growing up in Cyprus, I have memories of thick creamy yogurt drizzled with golden honey. Most things were covered in honey, to be fair, but it's the yogurt I remember most. Perhaps that's why I love nothing more for breakfast when in warm countries than honeyed yogurt. There is always yogurt in our kitchen: the Girls get through masses of it. And I am happy for them to have it because I know that it is packed full of calcium. What I didn't … [Read more...]
Black dogs and leaden hearts
I feel broken. Not in a completely-irreparably-destroyed way , but in a operating-on-autopilot kind of way. For the last few days I have been carrying a lead box around where my chest should be. I've been tending to my children, keeping them fed, clothed and on schedule. I have been cooking for the husband, comforting the firework-traumatised dog. Other than that I have been staring at a computer screen, hiding from friends, avoiding phone … [Read more...]
Coloured melting bead Diwas: Diwali craft
We were very lucky to be introduced to Hama Beads recently. We've made dogs and princesses and pumpkins but wanted to branch out a little. Diwali fills the post-Halloween Pumpkinfest void perfectly, so it seemed a good idea to use the melting beads to make Diwas. LBG really enjoyed making our saltdough Diwas last year. Following instructions from Creative Jewish Mom, LBG and I filled an oiled bowl with Hama beads and baked them until they were … [Read more...]
Now That’s NOT What I Call a Pension
Now Pensions got in touch with me recently. They want to get bloggers (and their readers) thinking about saving for the future – particularly about saving for retirement. And not at some point in the future, but now. They want me to write about my weekly budget and compare this amount with the state pension of £107.45, to see what the difference between the two is, and how my family life would alter if you only had that amount to live … [Read more...]
366 week eleventy-one-hundred. I mean 45
Sunday: delighted though I was to be awake at 7am it was jolly chilly. We hung out whilst DH worked until at 3pm Dimples and I headed off to a birthday party. Leaving behind a tearful LBG, who was whisked off by DH to go swimming. Arriving back home at the same time The Girls were delighted to be reunited. It was a big night too: once they had been bathed, and our youngest had reverted from Hello Kitty to Dimpled Assassin, we had a job … [Read more...]
