Thursday 29 March 2018

End of Spring Term

So it's the end of the spring term at school and it's so hard to believe that James only has one term left in year one before the summer holidays and he goes into year two! It really does not seem like five minutes since he started the school nursery and now he has almost finished year one!

This term he has gone up a level in his reading books, Started a group with two of his friends to help with speech and language and made a new friend when a new boy started in his class! He comes home full of beans and actually likes doing his reading and his homework! 

He has done another block of forest school which he absolutely adores! I really hope the school can keep up the forest school for when Freddie starts as I think he will love it just as much as James does! He loves being outdoors and Forest School gets him outside and learning lots of new skills! 

He has come on so much since he first started at his school in the nursery back in 2015 that in part to the wonderful staff and family atmosphere at his school!

Next term we have the year one national phonics test coming up eek! Fingers crossed for James passing it!

Wednesday 28 March 2018

End of First Term at Playgroup

So Freddie has finished his first term at playgroup and over all I think it has been really good for him! His speech has come on so much and we are hearing new words virtually every day and he is even starting to form little sentences!

He is such a lovely little boy and if we see any of his Playgroup staff when we are out and about or at Sure Start he will yell hiya hiya and wave!

We still have tears when we drop him off, but he is such a happy little boy when he is collected! He is also starting to make little friends which is so cute. On one of the days he is in, the little brother of one of James classmates is in and they are so cute when they see each other other days at the school run! Freddie will babble his head off and his little friend nods along as if he understands everything he is saying!

We have put in his application for the nursery at James school starting in September 2019 when he will be three rising 4, so Freddie will be one of the older ones in his class rather than the actual youngest like James was!

He will also have the younger siblings of some of James classmates in his class which I think will be lovely for him.

On his second last day of term he went running in with no tears! Mummy was so proud of him!

Over all I think putting Freddie into playgroup has been the best decision we could have made and I'm so glad we did it!

Monday 26 March 2018

Living Arrows 2018 13/53

Welcome to week 13 of Living Arrows 2018!

This week is the last week of term then the boys are off for two weeks Easter Holidays! 
James has been so exhausted lately so I am so glad this week is only a four day week!! 
The boys went to stay with Nana and Gaga on Friday night as mummy and daddy were having a night out to celebrate our wedding anniversary which was last week!

Freddie has been such a little monkey this week! He is definitely way more mischievous than James ever was at his age! But as soon as he sees the camera he stops doing whatever he is doing and shouts Cheese! He has also been playing with his Kevin Carrot from Aldi! Its stems from watching Rebecca Rabbit on Peppa saying Carrot Carrot on one episode!







Living Arrows

Monday 19 March 2018

Living Arrows 2018 12/53

Welcome to week 12 of Living Arrows and today is actually our 7th Wedding Anniversary!

So what have we been up to this last week? Well James had parents evening, so Mummy picked him up from school on Tuesday night and took him and Freddie home as we didn't need to be back at school for parents evening till 5pm so both boys had their tea before we headed back up to the school. James also had his rearranged World Book Day that got postponed due to Snowmageddon! He was really excited to go to school dressed as Spiderman!!



Freddie had his normal two sessions of playgroup which he really enjoyed! We also had our normal group at sure start. It's hard to believe that Freddie has been going to this group since he was seven weeks old when all he did was lie there and sleep and now he's running around the room like a crazy boy chatting his head off at everyone! Freddie is still loving James old VTECH bus although he likes to try and ride it around the lounge! He is also such a poser when he sees the camera! Freddie also ended the week with a doctors appointment to finally get a dietitian referral as we have had concerns for a while that he has issues with dairy product.


 


Living Arrows

Happy Wedding Anniversary Andy!


Seven years ago today we said "I Do" 
I really can't believe its been seven years since we got married! 
A lot has happened in that seven years!
Five house moves!
Two children!
and One house bought!

Seven years ago we were living in Woking in a one bedroomed flat with a Hamster!
Now we have a lovely three bedroomed house, in a lovely neighbourhood with a brilliant school which James is at and that Freddie will go to!

Andy you are not just my husband, you are my best friend and my partner in crime and I love you to the moon and back xx


Saturday 17 March 2018

Easter Crafts

So its nearly Easter again and this year I thought it would be nice for mummy, James and Freddie to do some crafts together after school! Now that Freddie is that little bit older he has really started to get into his crafts especially at Sure Start!

Browsing Pintrest has to be one of my favourite things to do, mostly for recipes, but I do like to search out craft ideas for things the boys could possibly try!

These are my favourite ones that I am thinking about trying out!
Teach Me Mommy
This one looks like so much fun! Making a handprint into air dry clay and adding a photo of each of the boys into the palm once dry and then adding details to turn it into a chick! These would make lovely Easter presents for the boys to give to their Grandparents!

Our Crafts N Things
This wooly sheep looks like something both boys would love to make and getting the supplies to make the sheep aka cotton wool balls, paper plates and black paper can all be bought relatively cheaply from poundland!

The DIY Village
This looks like so much fun for the boys!! We did something like this before with their initials taped onto the canvas and then we let the boys loose with the paint! Again I think this would make a lovely Easter Present for the boys Grandparents!

The Resourceful Mama

This one again looks like so much fun! I think this would be easier for James than Freddie if I'm honest, but I look forward to hopefully trying it out!

So these are a few of my favourite Easter Crafts on Pintrest that I am hopefully going to try out with James and Freddie.

**All images taken from pinterest!**








Thursday 15 March 2018

Siblings 2018 March


Wow I'm so pleased I have got to March this year in the Siblings Project!
This month my boys have spent a lot of time together what with being ill the week before half term and then having the actual half term holiday itself! 

We had a brilliant time when we went down to Surrey to see the boys grandparents and of course our day out in London where most of our photographs were taken!




Once we got back from our trip to London, we went to spend a few days with Nana and Gaga as we had missed them! Before we went to their house Freddie decided he was going to use his brother as a climbing frame!




The Siblings Project - Dear Beautiful

Monday 12 March 2018

Living Arrows 2018 11/53

Welcome back to week 11 of Living Arrows 2018!
James has been back at school now a week after the snow closed his school for two days!

The week started pretty chilled out with Freddie napping while mummy did her work. James had been in trouble before he went to school so he lost the use of his tablet after school. Thankfully his behaviour picked up.

One night after school James was sat watching tv on his chair when Freddie decided he wanted a cuddle off his brother so climbed up onto the chair next to him! I think we might need to invest in a second one of these for Freddie! It;s not the best photograph I've ever taken but it certainly shows the love and bond my boys share!



Freddie had his normal two sessions at playgroup and as normal he cried his head off and clung to me when I dropped him off, but at pick up he was his normal chatty self! He has also been incredibly cuddly, He keeps randomly climbing onto either my lap or daddy's lap for cuddles. He's had a rough few nights going to bed down to teeth we think, but we also think he may have eaten something that bunged him up. When he climbs up he tends to flatten me and lie in odd positions!





Living Arrows

Sunday 11 March 2018

Friday 9 March 2018

Snowmageddon Week!

So James school had to close for two days due to the Beast from the East! 

Tuesday 27th February it was snowy but by the time it was playgroup and school pick up time most paths and the roads were clear, however by the time daddy got in from work at quarter to seven it was coming down heavy again! 

We woke up on February 28th to snow right up to our front door! The boys had been in the garden the night before playing in what little snow we had left and by the morning you couldn't even see their foot prints!

Daddy decided to leave early for work as he had been late the day before due to the snow. and he had some time to make up. He left at around 8am even though he did not start till 10 and it was a good job he did as what is normally about a twenty minute bus journey took an hour and a half!

I couldn't get the pram out the garden so I had to scrabble around and see if we had any old wellie boots that Freddie could wear on the walk up to the school. Poor Freddie struggled so much that mummy ended up carrying him part of the way home and then carrying him most of the way up to playgroup at half past eleven!

At one fifteen I got an alert on Facebook that I had been tagged in a post by one of the school mums. When I went on it was a post from the school saying we could collect the kids from 2pm due to the weather and that school wasn't opening till ten am the following day. 

I rang the playgroup to let them know I would be coming for Freddie early as I was getting James early. On my way up I nipped to one of shops where James pals mum works and she was stuck till end of her shift so I said I would get her boy as well and watch him till she finished. 

Andy had sent me a message saying his office was closing early so he would hopefully be home by five.

Just after five I was tagged on Facebook again this time it was a post saying they were closing on Thursday due to the weather and would let us know on Thursday evening the plans for Friday. 



Thursday came and daddy went into work and got in early but by ten past ten they had decided to close the office and he was sent home. We had quite a nice snow day curled up in the house watching The BFG on Netflix on the TV and Freddie watching Peppa on the iPad.  Then just after five the message came from the school that they were closing on Friday as well. 

Friday Daddy had to go to work but since he got in early he got to leave early! Mummy decided we had to go to Tesco, so we all got wrapped up, Freddie was loaded into the big pram with his raincover on to protect him from the snow that was again still coming down!

Getting to Tesco was fine as it was downhill but on the way back it was up hill and mummy struggled with Freddie and the pram, Poor mummy crashed the pram into a snow drift and hurt my arm. (Saw gp five days later and wrist was sprained again!) We then went home and chilled out! 

So we did survive the Beast from the East! Lets just hope that is the last of the snow for the year!!!!

Thursday 8 March 2018

Be My Bear Review

James has had his favourite teddy bear CB since he was about 18 months old and the bear goes everywhere with us! If we go to Nana and Gaga's the CB comes too! When we went down to Surrey at half term yep CB came with us!

So when Be My Bear got in touch and asked if James would like to choose one of the build a bear kits from their website to try out he was thrilled! 

The kit was due to be dispatched while we were in Surrey so we asked for it to be sent to Nana and Gaga's house so it would be kept safe till we got home! We picked up the kit when we got back from Surrey when we went to stay with Nana and Gaga for a few days!


In the Kit (£10.50)you get: The Bear skin, The stuffing, A carry box, A birth certificate and a courage star. We also got a passport sent out too (£4.00).

We were going to do the kit one night when Freddie had gone to bed early as we didn't  want little fingers getting into things, but we ended up doing the kit when James had a snow day from school and daddy had been sent home from work due to the weather! This meant James wasn't too tired to enjoy the kit and Freddie was being entertained in another room! 

The first thing we did was get all the supply's onto the kitchen floor, James had great fun pulling the stuffing apart and stuffing it into the bear skin!

Mummy helped to make sure all the stuffing got into the Bears arms, legs and back of its head before James put the courage star in and put the rest of the stuffing into its belly! Mummy then zipped up the inside and closed the velcro fastening.

James then named his bear Rainbow the Bear and mummy filled in the birth certificate and the passport! We took some photos of Rainbow and mummy has printed one out at the right size for his passport!

This was such a fun activity for James and mummy to do together, that mummy is now looking to purchase a kit to make a bear for Freddie and we are also looking at the party kits that Be My Bear produce for James birthday party in August!

 

**We were sent the Be My Bear 16" Rainbow Bear kit free of charge in exchange for our honest review. All opinions and pictures are our own**



Wednesday 7 March 2018

Our Weekend Happy!

Welcome back to Our Weekend Happy. 

This weekend it was the end of Snowmageddon or The Beast from the East! 
It has been so cold and snowy up here in Newcastle. Since school was closed on Friday we took a walk to Tesco and poor mummy hurt her wrist pushing the pushchair back! The rest of the day was spent chilling in the house watching Netflix and trying to keep warm!




 Saturday we got up and just spent the morning chilling out in the house, then in the afternoon James had his friends party so mummy and James took a snowy walk over to James friends house. Then after the party mummy went to the shop for some food for tea!

Sunday mummy and Freddie took a snowy walk to tesco, Still struggling with the pram in the snow but it was the only way! Mummy and daddy did a big clean up of the house as well! We even tackled the toy mountain in the lounge with some toys going upstairs, some to charity and some that were broken to the bin! we then put the remainder into the toy box! I'm just hoping the boys don't bring half the upstairs toys back down!

Finally on Sunday the snow started to thaw and then we even had some rain that started to wash the snow away! Although when we got up for school on Monday we still had loads of slushy icey yucky stuff outside and we still struggled to school with the pram!

Next weekend is Mother's Day so hopefully we will see Nana and Gaga at some point to celebrate!




”Mummascribbles”

Monday 5 March 2018

Living Arrows 2018 10/53

Another week of Living Arrows and its week ten!

It has been so COLD this week!! It has been in the minus figures when we have been doing the school run in the mornings! We also had to deal with the loss of my aunt and uncles border collie Max. James adored him and was heartbroken.

James had a doctors appointment before school the other morning so we had to leave home at around 8am so we could pop into aldi on the way down and grab some milk before going for James appointment and then straight to school! And would you credit it, we had a few inches of snow the night before! Luckily we got in and out the doctors pretty quick so James was at school by ten past nine and so mummy and Freddie were home in the warmth by half past nine!

Freddie has been such a cuddly little boy lately. Last weekend he was so cuddly and actually fell asleep cuddled up to mummy on the sofa which he hasn't done in a long time! He had his normal two sessions at playgroup this week and we also went to our sure start group as mummy cancelled her dentist appointment as the weather had been so cold and then we had snow and even more snow!

So yes it's been a cold and snowy week for us, poor James was gutted that school was open on Wednesday but sadly their forest school got cancelled due to the weather! Then all hell broke loose when we got to pick him up early and then suddenly school was closed for two days! That meant they missed having World Book Day! 



Thank goodness that school is back open! This mummy is exhausted!

Living Arrows

Saturday 3 March 2018

SnoozeShade Plus Deluxe Review

When Freddie was younger we reviewed the fantastic SnoozeShade original for his pram and now two years later we are still using it. So when the lovely SnoozeShade team asked if we would like to review the plus deluxe version we jumped at the chance! 

The SnoozeShade Plus Deluxe is absolutely brilliant. It has a zip across the top for a sneak peak of the child, and the snooze panel is made up of two parts, one blocks 80% of uv rays allowing the child to be able to see out. The second part of the panel velcros over and together they block 97.5% of uv rays. The panels can be left open as it gives the child some shelter from the elements.

We were planning to take the plus deluxe on its maiden test drive on a day out in London over half term! But as our original pushchair broke on the way to my in laws house we never got a chance to test it out on the one we replaced it with. 

I had done a test run on our original travel pushchair before we had gone away and I totally fell in love with the plus deluxe! The plus deluxe fastens on with little poppers compared to the velcro that the original has. I love the little pocket to tuck the blackout layer into when it's not in use. 

Our first chance to use the plus deluxe was just after the school holidays! Freddie had been to playgroup on the Tuesday afternoon and I had taken our Mamas and Papas Armadillo up to the school to collect him. It was a bitterly cold afternoon and we had 30 minutes to hang around before we could pick up James. 

It literally took five minutes to fit onto the pushchair, even with Freddie playing peekaboo with it! I love the fact it shelters Freddie from the wind as well as the sun. We had the blackout panel half zipped down so it gave Freddie lots of protection from the elements!

Since then we have used it a few more times to block out the wind and the cold temperatures off Freddie. I'm really looking forward to taking the SnoozeShade Plus Deluxe to Majorca later in the year so much so that  I can't wait to take the SnoozeShade up to my mums house and test it out on the Joie Nitro that we will be taking to Spain with us later in the year! 

**We were sent this product free of charge in exchange for this review. All opinions and photos are our own**