Summer Activities

We have been trying to keep busy this summer and with the lack of funds around we are utilising all our resources in finding free activities for the kids. Oh, when I say we, I actually mean me! Hubby doesn't realise that kids need entertainment as the kids are generally ready for bed by the time he returns home. Let's take a look at what we have been up to today.

Here was our first activity: Baking a Cake.
And I don't mean from a 2 minute ready-made cup cake packet but a traditional, and extremely tasty, Chocolate Banana Cake. We baked it and fell in love with the taste.

You will need:
2 ripe bananas
6oz butter/margarine
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs
2oz cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 - 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Pre Heat Oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4

Mix together the butter and sugar and then add the eggs, alternately with the flour, cocoa and baking powder.
Fold in the bananas and vanilla essence
Pour into a 1lb loaf tin and bake in preheated oven for 40mins (take out when a skewer/knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle)
Cool slightly then turn on to a wire tray.

I would like to thank Vicki at Mums who bake for this fantastic recipe. Why not visit Vicki’s website for some more inspiring recipes: http://www.mumswhobake.co.uk.

Hint: To make the activity last longer and more educational why not do what we did. Josh and I sat down and created the recipe instructions on special paper (to practice his writing) and then after we made the cake while we were waiting for it to bake we made invitations for our friends to come and eat the cake with us at our ‘afternoon tea party’.

So that was my official version of things. How did it really go? Well J decided to grab the chocolate from Josh and as you can see it was mayhem. The boys had so much fun and to be honest after we baked and made the invites I gave both the boys a cloth and we got down to the cleaning. OK so J is only just 13 months so he didn't really clean, but he was happy wiping his little cloth on the floor keeping him quiet while Joshie got down to the real cleaning with me. We had friends over later and the cake went down a treat.

Activity number 2 was building a tent!

Here is the official version from my newsletter:

Don’t panic I haven't gone mad. This is a fun activity that involves a trip to the park, lots of sellotape, a sheet or duvet cover and lot of laughs.





First you need to collect loads of branches to create the frame for your tent so make sure you collect only thick branches. Go to your local park or forest and have fun collecting.

When you get home you need your sellotape and branches. Create your frame by sellotaping the branches together to create 6-8 same length poles.
Join the poles together near the top with your sellotape and get the kids to separate the poles into a circle to create your TeePee shape.

If you can it is recommended to either ensure the poles are dug into the ground or you create a base to make the foundations strong. Throw your old sheet over the top and sit back and watch the fun. Its amazing how much fun kids can have in a tent. Please use a breathable material and not a sheet of plastic just incase it does fall down you don't want to run the risk of suffocation.

Here is the unoffical version - It fell down 6 times before we finally managed to get it stable enough to play in. I never did go to girl guides and maybe those skills would have come in handy. This really was a great activity that took almost the whole day and the best thing about it is you have a free toy to keep the kids amused for the rest of the summer.



The boys have been playing in and around the tent since we built it this morning. I will bring the sheet in later so that they can go and play again tomorrow...

The joys for the School Holidays.


Join me for some more fun in our next post....

Easy Jet do have a heart

Its tiring being a work at home mum especially in the summer holidays and I can't believe how easily distracted I am getting. Let me explain.
Hubby's sister is due to give birth to a little boy in November and his parents really want us there for the birth or shortly after so we decided that we would go during the Christmas break.... So far so easy.
I recently found out that Easy Jet will start to fly to Tel Aviv come November so I had a little peak at their prices. I looked at March 2010 and for a family of 4 (including 1 infant)I was astounded that the price was a ridiculous £350 for all of us..it is usually £300each. I then looked at December, while I was doing this my mum called. She is in Alicante at the moment and...yes...you guessed it, I stupidly chose the destination of Alicante instead of Tel Aviv. Well, in shock that at peak season the price for 4 people was only £348 I called Hubby full of excitement and of course he said book it. WHICH I DID...still not realising I was booking to Alicante. Of course the baby was moaning constantly and I was desperate to get this fantastic price I just clicked OK, I even read the confirmation 5 times as I couldnt get my head around it being so cheap...
Hubby got home and suddenly something clicked in my dozy little head. I don't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. It was too late in the evening to call Easy Jet to explain and I spent the whole of Friday night in shock at my stupidity.
Thankfully when I explained what happened the Easy Jet rep laughed at me and waived the transfer fees. I wasn't allowed my money back so I had to book our Christmas flights at full cost. Again thankfully the prices are still much cheaper than other airlines otherwise I may not have seen the funny side of this. Still I got a good deal in the end and didn't have to pay nearly £200 cancellation fee on a holiday that never existed. Now I am worried what else will happen during these summer holidays, my brain isn't what it used to be...

To Wii or not to Wii

All you hear about these days is how bad it is for a child to be stuck indoors watching TV or on the computer, however I am going to beg to differ and argue that there are some fantastic reasons kids should be allowed to both view TV and play computer games.
First of all, look at the literacy skills a child learns when on the computer. My son is not even 5 but because of his stubborness to want to play certain games on CBBC and other sites he has learnt to read and understand instructions. I don't see this as a bad thing. Also I have seen my son's concentration span increase ten fold. Being a pushy Jewish mum I have tried to sit with Josh after school and help him with his ABC and reading, but he refuses, yet let him surf the net and he will sit for ages reading, concentrating and interacting.
Then we come to the Wii...probably the best invention of a computer game so far. Boy has it helped improve Josh's coordination which I have to say was a little like mine, useless! He doesnt sit aimlessly clicking a little button, he is running back and forth, planning moves and learning a healthly thirst for competition.
Do I think that we can compare our children's childhood to that of our own or that of our parents generation. No, our kids are growing up in a completely different world and need to be armed with the suitable skills to compete in today's society and the computer age it is. I will never let Josh sit at home all day and night on the Net or Wii instead of playing with his friends, doing after school clubs and completing his traditional homework, but neither will I discourage his thirst to learn the technological advances of today.
So, does this make me an irresponsible mum???

Buggy Hell.....

This one is for Denise!!!
After trying to decided if I should stock buggies or not on Kiddycat I got into a conversation with my friend Denise. We both agreed that buying buggies is one of those products, that no matter what, a mother remains adament about - their buggy is the best and if anyone has a bad word about a buggy and wants to warn a new mum against it, they just won't listen.
A buggy for a new mother seems to be like a BMW for a man although I have to say BMWs do generally deliver the comfort they promised!
How many mum's do you see struggling to fold up their extremely large pram with the baby dangled somehow in one arm and the buggy in the other? I now realise how stupid I look attemting to lift my lump into the boot and trying my hardest not to sctrach the car.
yes, I am another of these who jus wouldn't listen. And who wouldn't I isten to? MYSELF! Jadon isn't my first child, I made the mistake of an overly large pram the first time round. I used Joshua's pram for all of 3 months, each time suffering to lift it, but of course Joshua was comfortable. So yet again when Jadon was born I went for a slightly smaller model which just so happens to be the biggest load of rubbish ever. Did I bother attempting to lift it and fold it in the shop? NO. Did I consider the room it would take in the car? NO. And will I admit my mistake and get rid of that damned thing? NO. I have paid my money and no matter what I will use it and suffer in silence like all those other mums.
For anyone that will listen....Please be realistic when choosing your pram/buggy. If you need to fold it daily then don't waste your money on a large one.
Go to a shop and try all of the options out. Go back and try again on another day to make sure you have made the right decision, then go and search online for the cheapest shop to actually purchase it...
Kim
http://www.kiddycat.co.uk (we dont sell prams or buggies yet)

my clean little man........

I guess I should be happy that my little boy is hygienic ...but why is the only body part Jadon will respond to when I ask him to wash in the bath is his 'little man'? Is this a man thing? He loves nothing more than to sit and play with his bits, pulling and twiddling his little life away merrily. You would have thought that maybe he has no toys, no, Jadon's mummy owns a kids catalogue and as our main tester Jadon is allowed to sample all our bath toys before they go online.
At the tender age of 1 year and 1 week Jadon has already learnt that the best toy in the world is one that mummy can't take away from him at the end of bath time. What is making it worse is that Joshua is now mimicking his behaviour and thinks its hysterical to tell his teacher that him and his brother share their 'toys' in the bath. Talk about want to curl up and die...
I believe that kids should be allowed to explore their own bodies and shouldn’t be made to feel guilty but at what point do I draw the line? I tried to explain to Josh that he shouldn’t copy Jadon and play with his 'bits' but I didn't want to tell him off. Joshua replied and asked me why boys has boy bits and girls don't. He is 4 - So I told him to continue playing...:)

Baby Club Dread...Scary mummies...

I am what I consider to be a confident person but I hate going to new baby clubs, there is always that cliche of mothers who sit around gossiping together and glancing in your direction.

Am I the only that feels this way?

Today I went along to a new group near to Joshua's school and being a brave and confident mother I grabbed my friend with me for some support with her 3 year old... Seriously, walking into this room was like I was walking into a death sentence. The room went silent as everyone stared at the newcomers, no one made a sound for what seemed like an eternity. I took my seat in the corner and parked the buggy away and took Jadon out to play.

Watching the interaction with the children made me realise how children's behaviour is learnt from their parents especially in environments like this. No child came up to Jadon to play, each kept to their own group of friends until I decided to take matters into my own hands...

Big brave mummy here, I started to talk to a little boy that was playing near Jadon, gradually he smiled and 'oh my G'd' the mother smiled too and eventually began talking. Of course now I had passed the initiation everything else went swimmingly, the other mothers began to talk to us, OK nothing more than a few words, but the ice had certainly melted.

From now on my approach to baby clubs will differ...First conquer the kid then worry about the mother...

Why are mummies always proud of their monkeys?

Joshua has always been a character from the day he was born, his passion is to make people laugh and ensure everyone is happy. To encourage his confidence and help maintain his sense of belonging we enrolled him into drama classes at Stagecoach. I loved performing as a youngster and I wanted Josh to feel at ease in a crowd too and its working.

Well, after missing 3 lessons Joshua returned from holiday straight into his end of term play and to my surprise he remembered all his lines (all 3 of them!) and all the words of the songs too, so he didnt quite get the actions right, but hey, he was away for 3 weeks and they hadnt yet learnt them so I am the proudest mummy around right now. Don't us mummies always find an excuse as to why their child wasn't quite perfect!

It always seems, no matter how bad the performance really is, every parent only sees perfection. Joshua grinned and giggled his way through the show today, he forgot almost every action to all the songs, but who cares, he had fun and did what he does best, make everyone laugh. For me, Josh's play is now a treasured memory and for Josh it will always be a fond part of his childhood...

What a great day.....

My brain is still asleep

These are the words I heard from my 4 year old Joshua this morning, 'Mummy I can't wake up, by brain is still asleep'. I often wonder where he gets his imagination from, it must be his father!

Getting the kids to bed is something I speak to my friends about frequently, some of them are traditionalists; dinner, bath, story and bed, others are more open minded and let their kids determine when they are tired so they forego the evening drama of attempting to get them into bed. Me, well I am stuck in the middle. Joshua is nearly 5 and Jadon turned 1 last week and they both have the same bed time routine; dinner, bath, DVD and bed. Well Jadon doesnt watch a DVD he has a cuddle in bed with mummy and a bottle.

My mother hates my approach but it works for us. Josh is asleep most nights by his 8pm bedtime and Jadon loves his cuddles and falls to sleep right at the end of his bottle, so, why should I change my routine to fit within the boundaries of being a good mother?

I believe bedtime should be fun, I want Josh and Jadon to enjoy their mummy (and daddy) time, afterall they will soon be dreaded teenagers and hate hugs and kisses. I encourage my boys to want to go to bed and look forward to our cuddles and fun at bedtime. The only thing I don't do is read a bedtime story and the reason for that is that Joshua gets excited by books and will not relax, this puts sleep into a distant memory, so I will stick to DVDs for now...How do you put your babies to bed?

Help Harley

Have my little insignifiant worries and problems been put into perspective this morning after reading about Harvey Slack's fight with meningitis, suddenly it seems irrelevant which side of the bed Joshua and Jadon wake up on!

I know that many times I have worried that I wouldn't see the signs of meningitis in either of my kids and each time they have had a slight fever I panic. But like most parents I also think, it can't happen to my kids, I cant keep running to the doctor with every little fever just beciuase I am a typically paranoid Jewish mother. However, after reading today about brave Harley Slack's incredible feat against the deadly disease I myself vow never to take another chance and check every fever, spot and runny nose.

Mother Nature always seems to throw multiple problems at us, having survived meningitis 4 year old Harley's limbs were affected when septicaemia set in and his parents and Doctors were forced to take the decision to amputate all 4 of his limbs. How can a mother feel watching their child go through such pain and fearing for the future. I guess in the short term the parents have yet to grieve for the future Harley has lost and are embracing the fact their precious little boy is still alive and has a future at all. My heart is with them.

I am sure that with the determination Harley has shown, to have fought such a deadly disease and survived against the odds, he will continue to have a successful future ahead of him and I wish him and his family only the best.

I know I will be giving Joshua and Jadon extra hugs to embrace and saviour their innocence while praying that I will never have to witness firsthand what little Harley and his parents have had to endure.

Please let us help Harley to continue to thrieve by donating to his fund: harleyslackfund.giving.officelive.com

Upside down

Why is it that you always find the kids sleeping upside down? It doesnt matter how many times they do it I still get freaked when I go to wake them up in the morning and I cant see them...
Joshua is nearly 5 now and must be the World's best gymnastic, the positions that he gets in during the night and Jadon who onl turned one last Tuesday is slowly following suit!
I found the baby sleep supports fantastic when Jadon was tiny to stop him rolling, now he just throws them at me. Oh well, it could be worse...for now I need to continue to get freaked out by seeing empty beds in the morning, you would have thought I would learn by now to look at the other end of the bed first. :)

my first blog

So, here I am now in the world of blogging. I am looking forward to the fun times we are going to have here sharing our mummy experiences