Copyright: Richard Joyce Photography – gone but not forgotten
#silentsunday #365 #photooftheweek
Making a difference at christmas time.
The kids broke up on thursday this week and i took the advantage of having three little helpers with me and we hit the supermarkets to do a little bit of christmas food shopping. As the trolley was filling up and the were asking for little extras and bits to pop in the trolley. Little extra special treats that i am fortunately able to agree to as its christmas as yes we can splash out a little as its christmas. Most of us can can’t we.
When we got to the till we had a full trolley of treats and christmas, festive loveliness. As it all beeped through my son made a comment as he watched the total get higher. “WOW..how MUCH?’ I think i rolled my eyes at him and said ‘i know!!..but its christmas!’
As we walked away I said him ‘how lucky are we to be able to afford extra this christmas?’
Made me think about those who are not able to afford the basic food that we all take for granted every week. Not just the special occasion stuff but the ordinary every day essentials.
With so many of the basics of life increasing in price it seems that there are more people who fall into that category and are struggling just to keep body and soul together. When i was contacted by M&S to see if I could spread some christmas cheer to those in need with some festive vouchers. The food banks and the work they do was one of my first thoughts.
Please click on the video link to watch the work of our local food bank, this is where we will be using our M&S vouchers to spread some festive cheer this christmas and hopefully give our kids a little perspective on how lucky they are to have full tummies with lots of lovely treats at christmas time!
Thanks to M&S for giving us this incredibly important opportunity to make a difference!
A bit of a dis-aa-ster #countrykids
Its that time of year isnt it when there seems like an endless list of things to do and none of them are remotely interesting to a bunch of lively little over excited kids. This week at school has been a whirlwind of trips, nativity plays, gymnastic displays and parties. It seems like we have been rushing from one event to another. So we thought it was really important to get the kids out of the house for a bit of a run one afternoon. It was starting to get towards dusk a little.
I cannot wait until the evenings get longer!!
But we headed out and it was one of those occasions (that im sure we all have) when i thought it might have been better off staying inside! We had planned to go to a local forest but it is a bit of a drive and it wasn’t going to be doable with me needing to get back to work so we had to go for a local park that we don’t often go to. When we got their, within a couple of minutes, I remembered why we didnt go there very often!
The park is very close to a large housing estate and so get a LOT of dog walkers. Which whilst i have nothing against dog walkers, unless they don’t pick up their dog’s mess then i have a really BIG problem with them. No, we have a dog and to be honest he isnt the best with other dogs. He is fabulous with the kids and people in general but with other dogs it is all a bit handbags and whilst i dont think he would actually fight another dog..what inevitably happens if things it a bit agro with another dog is that my kids in their well meaning ‘lets help the dog’ way start to run up to him, especially my three year old who has NO fear of dogs at all.
I have told them all so many times the dangers of getting in between dogs that are going for each other. But they seem unable to help themselves which properly freaks me out.
So…we started out trying to head round the park and we ran into a whole bunch of dog walkers and one particularly snarly dog that wanted to have a bit of our dog…once we got past them we then headed to a hilly part of the park. One of my girls decided to roll down the bank and came back to me a few minutes later saying she thought she had rolled in dog muck…!!!
It started to rain and so we decided to make a u turn and head back to the car..we spied a pretty little plant on the way back and ventured into the leaves to see it when ….squissh..you guessed it..more dog muck and our three year old fell over in the dirt just missing it.
A little frayed around the edges..and angry at people who don’t pick up their dog’s mess. We headed back to the car and then home to recover with a movie, pyjamas and tea.
Phew.
A bit of a country kids dis-a-ster..but we made it out there!!
🙂
A teenage ninja turtle giveaway!
Do you remember them? The teengae mutant ninja turtles? They are having a little bit of a comeback aren’t they it would seem.
So i was happy to be offered a BOX set of the entire season i as a giveaway on the the old blogola. Perfect for this season of giving! So if you have a little turtle fan in your house do have a go and enter!
Get ready to relive all the nonstop ninja action in this awesome boxset that includes all 26 episodes of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Straight from the sewers they enter NYC and face forces of evil beyond their imagination. Join the four crime-fighting brothers Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo as they take down robotic kraangdroids, mutated villains, and the merciless leader of the Foot Clan, Shredder!
ladybird ladybird fly away home #whatsthestory #magicmoments
This past week the weather hasnt been too great and so we have been inside quite a bit. Coming up with things to do with a lively toddler is a little bit of a challenge sometimes. When we were shopping in the week i noticed some ready to roll icing on special offer and wondered if we could have a go at making some cupcakes with a ladybird theme. I had seen some on pinterest and thought it would be fun to have a go! 🙂
Our little ones love baking and always get stuck in when they hear the mixer fire up. They could probably all make a batch of cupcakes without much input from me to be honest!! After the baking the fun began as we had to colour the white icing paste..which resulted in quite a lot of red hands and my black icing turned a little grey…but i quite like the finished effect. We used little circle cutters i have for the spots and the face. The eyes got a little fiddly! I dont know how these professional cake bakers do it! Mine all looked a bit squiffy but with a toddlers input it was going to take on a much more ‘fluid’ look!!
She was thrilled with them though and had great delight in showing them to her siblings…met with lots of ‘awwww…so cute!’ and ‘ooh are they ladybirds?’
Phew 😉 at least they could tell what they were!!
🙂
this post is a competition entry to win some vouchers with Littlewoods!!