Thursday 31 December 2020

Living Arrows 2020 week 52/52

 

Welcome to the final post of Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 


Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to.

So this was Christmas week. The boys were hutterley spoilt but it was so nice spending time together and seeing them smile after the last year!






Thursday 24 December 2020

The Siblings Project 2020 - December

 Ad so it is December and the final siblings post of 2020! These were taken one night after school when the boys were messing around with a huge box!


And so we have reached the end of the 2020 siblings project. Look out for a review of 2020 coming!

Living Arrows 2020 week 51/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 


Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

This was the boys last week of term before Christmas. They both had a Christmas party which they loved! James also had an online zoom party with Cubs!




Sunday 20 December 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 50/52

 Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

This week James had a cooking session with Cubs on Zoom! 

Freddie had to learn the Christmas story as part of his homework. 





Sunday 13 December 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 49/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"


This week the boys have been getting excited for Christmas even more! We also got our school pictures! 





Tuesday 8 December 2020

Christmas Gifts for Boys

So it's coming up to christmas and this year my gift guide is for boys! Since my pair are now five and eight, we are into getting them things that they can play with either together or on their own! This year this guide is in collaboration with Buzz Retail who have very kindly sent us a few things that the boys can play with together or apart!



First up we have Air Ball! Now this is something I think the boys are going to love! 

This can be played with on most floorings, the ball creates an air bubble underneath it, so its not actually on the ground it is actually hovering above!! 

I think the boys are going to have so much fun playing with this! Everytime one of them has a birthday they end up kicking balloons around the lounge and kitchen, so i think this is going to be a game changer as all we will need to do is keep replacing the batteries! This takes 4AA batteries which are not included!

This is currently retailing at £15.00 and can be purchased here


Next up we have Buzzing Stickerz.

Like most kids, James and Freddie adore stickers! I find them stuck all over the house when they get kids magazines containing them! In fact I still have Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly stickers stuck to the washing machine from when James was about three or four!

This kit can create over 180 3D holographic and metallic stickers! I can see this giving them hours of fun over the Christmas holidays especially if we are still in a high tier and not able to see nana and gaga!

This is currently retailing for £15.00 and can be purchased here

Next up we have Micro Jet!

This is aimed at ages 8 plus, so it is more something that James can play with , although I have a feeling Freddie will be trying to chase it!

James has been asking us for the last couple of years if he can have a drone, so I think this will be the next best thing for him till he is a bit older and can get an actual drone or he goes off the idea!

The drone itsself is rechargeable, but he remote takes 3AA batteries! I cant wait to see what the boys make of this come Christmas

This currently retails at £40.00 and can be purchased here!

And Finally we have Buzz Snow!

This is a polymer powder that when it is hydrated it looks and feels just like real snow except it never actually melts!

What we love about this is that it is eco friendly and non toxic making it safe for children and animals!

It expands to 100x its original size and will last up to two and a half weeks before it dehydrates and returns to its powder form ready to be hydrated and used again!

Where we live, we rarely get much snow, so something like this I can see giving the boys hours of fun, especially if we are stuck at home a lot over the school holidays!

This currently retails at £15.00 and can be purchased here!

Tuesday 1 December 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 48/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

So last week we had Freddie's fifth birthday! He had an absolutely brilliant day! He had a Red Arrows themed cake! Red Arrow themed cookies and to top it off he had a personalised video message from Red Ten - Squadron Leader Adam Collins

James has been loving his virtual Cub sessions and even took part in a virtual camp at the weekend along with mum and Freddie! We watched a movie and James did some zoom crafting!








Wednesday 25 November 2020

Freddie you are Five!

How is it your fifth birthday already gorgeous boy!

It really seems like yesterday that James was in reception and we were celebrating your first birthday and now it's you in reception! 

This last year has seen you attempt the soya ladder and pass steps one and two! You then sadly failed at step three twice! 

You are now sharing a bedroom with James, or well you are meant to. You still find your way in to mummy's bed or mummy into yours most nights!

You still love you cow Moo and sleep with it every night! 

You absolutely love going to school and have some lovely little friends. Two of which have siblings in James class. 

It's been a strange year with the Coronavirus lockdown, this gave us so much time together as a family safely locked away in our house. 

During this time you developed a love of the Red Arrows and you like nothing more than watching them on YouTube and telling us you are going to be Red 10! 

Happy birthday our gorgeous Freddie Bear

We love you so much xx



Monday 23 November 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 47

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

Oops I am over a week later with this post! It was just a typical school week and zoom cubs and zoom beavers for the household while daddy worked from the back bedroom! Mummy had to take a trip to town to get her glasses fixed.




Wednesday 18 November 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 46/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

Last week James had his first Cubs session on zoom. He seemed to really enjoy it from what I could hear. He also got Star of the Day at school on Wednesday

Freddie was also back to school after his two week isolation which included the half term holiday.




Living Arrows

Monday 16 November 2020

The Siblings Project 2020 - November

Welcome to the Siblings Project November 2020 Post.

It's crazy that it is already November and the year that was mostly spent at home in lockdown is almost over although we are currently in a lockdown. 

This months pictures of the boys were taken on Remembrance Sunday. The were taken at  our house with James in Cub uniform and also at our scout hut when we went to see our poppy display. 





Monday 9 November 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 45/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

So this week has been crazy with Freddie being at home and James in school. Andy has been trying to not be on the phone a couple of days when he started at 8am so he could watch Freddie while I dropped James off and similar in the afternoon he's tried to take his break around the time I was leaving to pick James up, just so Freddie wasn't sat on his own!

This was also the week where the second lockdown started and The Scout Association had to stop all face to face meetings again. Luckily we managed to get all the Thursday groups to meet earlier in the week so none of the kids lost out on this week's meetings. James is pretty grumpy about the fact he will not have face to face Cubs for a few weeks. James also received his Chief Scout Bronze Award this week. During the big lockdown earlier in the year, James threw himself into finishing all the badges at Beavers that he had already started as he wanted to get his award. He was one of three members who gained it during the lockdown!











Living Arrows

Friday 6 November 2020

Living Arrows 2020 week 44/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

So this week was half term. We had planned Monday as a quiet day since James had been hiking over the weekend, however it turned pretty manic as at lunchtime mummy received an email from school about Covid cases and until a text message came later on we had no idea which one of the boys the letter was actually about. It ended up being Freddie so he was then in isolation for the rest of the school holiday.

James was pretty grumpy as with Freddie in isolation and daddy working we could not even go out for a walk. Luckily Freddie has had no signs and has been perfectly fine so he will be back to school next week 




Living Arrows

Monday 2 November 2020

#ACEit Challenge with Britmums

 With two boys now in full time primary school, I'm having to wash ten plain white polo shirts a week! And with having one boy in reception class his white tops are coming home pretty dirty every day!

We are now seven weeks into term and the polo shirts that were white at the start of term are now a nice shade of pale grey and I am refusing to buy any more shirts unless I absolutely have too! With James a few years ago I had to replace some of his shirts at the Christmas holidays as they were not only a nice shade of grey, but also stained from him playing with paint!

This is where Ace Ultra for whites comes in! It is specifically formulated to help brighten dull whites, It's gentle on delicate clothes, It tackles germs and odours, including viruses! This means not only do your clothes smell cleaner, they actually are cleaner! Something even more important in the current climate! Its concentrated, making it among the most affordable ways to keep white clothes looking bright!


Here you can see the boys polo tops after being worn and washed for seven weeks! They definitely do not look like they did when they came out of the packets when I bought them in the summer holidays!

The tops had a lovely grey tinge to them and the odd food mark or pen mark! Both my boys are notorious for taking their jumpers off in the classroom for no reason at all lol!

This was how the  polo tops when they came out the washing machine! They definitely looked a lot whiter and they certainly smelt good!  The next challenge was to see how they were when they came out of the tumble dryer.
And they are out of the tumble dryer! And wow the difference in the colour is amazing! These shirts were virtually grey after being worn for seven weeks and washed every weekend! We will definitely keep on using Ace Ultra for whites on the boys school tops! Especially given the current situation with another lockdown looming!


**This post is an entry for the #ACEit Challenge sponsored by Ace. Get ideas on how to wash whites, treat stains and laundry like a boss with tips from the Ace Site!**


Saturday 31 October 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 43/52

 Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

James had a hike with cubs which he loved! Freddie had a pj's day at home. Mummy got a nice cuddle when she got home




Tuesday 27 October 2020

The Siblings Project 2020 - October

 Wow its really October already! This year has gone so fast, but at other times it feels like it has gone so slowly!

This months picture was taken during the school half term holiday. The boys were playing with James connect four game. Literally seconds after the picture was taken James won and Freddie tipped the counters all over the floor!





Sunday 25 October 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 42/52

 Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

Oops incredibly late this week. 
Boys have been loving school and 
James has been loving cubs!







Friday 16 October 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 41/52

 Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

James is still loving being back at school and obviously Cubs. He comes home from Cubs full of stories every week!

Freddie is absolutely loving being at school full time and is flying with this 100 key words!









The Importance Of Regular Health Checks for Children

 New motherhood is a wonderful (even though extremely exhausting) experience, but it can also be a stressful time, more so if you are a first-time mother. You don’t know what to expect (even though you have probably read several books through pregnancy), especially regarding your baby’s health and well-being. The slightest shift from normalcy can be hugely worrying:  Why is my baby’s poop a different colour? What is that rash on his back? Why is he asking for more milk? 


And while this is normal, it is also essential to make sure you are on top of things as far as your baby’s medical checks and vaccinations are concerned. And this applies to older children too. As they say, prevention is better than cure, so if you suspect something is not right or aren’t sure of a particular symptom your baby/child has, don’t think twice and have it checked.


Here are a few checks to keep in mind during your child’s growing-up years.



  1. The Newborn Physical Examination

This is one of the first checks your baby will have; it is carried out a few hours

(or within the first 72 hours) after the baby is born. This check aims to spot any

problems early on, in which case treatment can be started at the earliest. 


The baby’s eyes, heart, hip joints and testicles (for boys) are examined to see

if everything is normal. 



Image credit: Pixabay


  1. The Six-Eight Week Check

When your baby is between six to eight weeks old, there is another check to see if

everything is fine and whether your baby is developing well. Your baby will be measured

for weight and height again at this check, which will also give an idea if he or she

is feeding well. 


  1. Eye Test

While serious eye problems in children are rare, it is vital to have regular eye tests for

them. Children might not realise there is a problem until it is too late or unless they suffer

from constant headaches. And with children today being exposed to screens far more

than before, it is essential to regularly check their eyesight. Contact us for all your eye

concerns or for a wide range of glasses.  


After birth, your child’s eyes might be tested again during the vision screening check

when they are around four or five years old, once they start school.


  1. Hearing Test


Your baby’s hearing will also be checked around 4-5 weeks of age. There will not be a

need to check your child’s hearing in later years if all is well; however, if your child is not

speaking or interacting as other children their age, it might be worth doing another hearing

test to see if that is, in fact, the problem for their speech delay. 


  1. Allergy test

It is not routine to have an allergy test for your child; however, if you feel your baby or

toddler is allergic to certain food groups (like dairy or nuts), or something external like

pollen, it is better to have an allergy test sooner than later. Some allergies might be mild,

but sometimes allergies can flare up and become serious, so it’s best to find out and be safe.


  1. Dyslexia test

Again, dyslexia is something you should only test your child for IF you find your child

struggling with basic reading, writing, spelling and numbers. It is a very specific learning

disability, and if detected earlier on, it can help both the child and the parents deal with it

more effectively and help the child get the support he or she needs.


  1. ADHD Tests

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is not always simple to diagnose as it ranges through

a broad spectrum. Some children are considered borderline ADHD but it often takes years to

come to a valid conclusion on the same. However, if you feel your child is on the spectrum or

shows signs of having ADHD, do see a specialist and ask for your child to be screened and

tested as again, early detection can help your child. 



Vaccinations


It is also crucial to keep abreast of the necessary vaccinations for your child, from their

routine vaccinations as babies through their toddler years and then teen years. The NHS

offers children of school-going age the flu vaccination every year via their school, so keep a

note of that and help protect your child against the flu during the winter months. 


The Meningitis B vaccine was previously not part of the routine immunisation programme, but has been made mandatory for babies born after 1 July 2015. For those children born before that, the vaccine is available privately.

**Collaborative Post**

Monday 5 October 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 40/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

This week James finally got his Cub uniform and he was very excited to wear it to their meeting!

Freddie was very excited to hear the new single from Shawn Mendes so he had to steal mummy's headphones and have a listen before he went to school!






Living Arrows

Friday 2 October 2020

Living Arrows 2020 Week 39/52

Welcome to Living Arrows 2020! This is the third year I have taken part in this linky and I love taking part each week! If you haven't heard of the linky before, This was set up by Donna at What the Redhead Said and the name comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" 

Each week I share one photograph of James and one of Freddie and share what they have been up to during the previous week.

This week James had Cubs and Freddie had a lovely week at school!














Living Arrows