This week, as so many children are preparing to go back to school, we've been reading a few books about starting school including Maisy Goes to Nursery.  



It's a great book for us as it goes through a typical day at nursery, and it is really similar to what Ethan does at his nursery.  He is really able to relate to it and enjoys asking questions about what the children are doing.  It's also a great starting point for conversations about what he did in nursery that day.



What have you been reading this week?

I can not believe where the time has gone, and that we've reached birthday party season already!  Ethan's birthday is in October, and since most of his friends are close to the same age as him, birthday party season has well and truly started for us, Ethan's already had a few invitations for parties in September and October!  I absolutely love birthdays (and any excuse to celebrate!) So when I was asked by 'Really Kid Friendly' to write an article about How to Plan the Perfect Birthday Party I jumped at the chance!



Please have a read and let me know what you think.  Did I miss anything?  What else can we do to make every detail perfect for our little ones' birthdays?

We were sent a variety of lovely crafts from Baker Ross to keep us busy over the summer, and they certainly have!  A few of the crafts we did at home on our own, and some we brought over to friends' houses for play date craftiness!  Their kits are so fabulous, many of them come with everything that you need to make simple but brilliant crafts (and others need very simple additions like scissors and glue) which make them easy to do when you don't have time to prepare complicated projects.



We made 3D Pirate Ships at home one day, Ethan was able to put these together mostly on his own, just peeling the sticky backs off the parts and assembling them.  I had to give him a little bit of help with the sails, but otherwise he did it all and was so proud that after just a few minutes of careful peeling and sticking he had produced these lovely boats!



We brought Football Mosaic Coasters and Turtle Scratch Art Decorations over to a friends' house for a play date one day.  There were 4 toddlers (and 4 babies crawling around) and the older ones were able to make these crafts really easily with little adult help.  The football mosaics were also made of foam with sticky backs, so the hardest part was peeling the backing paper off (but it is very good for their fine motor control) and then they had to match up the stickers to the shape outlines.  For the turtles all they had to do was take the special scratching tools and draw all around the turtles in any way they liked to make the rainbow colours beneath appear.  



Another day we made Butterfly Stained Glass Decorations at home, these were the only ones that required scissors and glue to make.  Ethan was able to easily press out all of the shapes from the butterflies, then put glue all around and place the coloured cellophane over top to make the designs, then glue the top butterfly and stick it on, then I just had to trim the sides to make a beautiful butterfly!



Baker Ross were kind enough to also send us some Foam Flower Stickers, which we've been sticking on lots of cards for friends, some Seaside Ducks which Ivy gets to play with in the bath and some Bug Window Crawlers which we've been playing with.

You are probably thinking that it's a bit late in the season to be making more summer crafts, but luckily Baker Ross already have their Autumn Crafts, Halloween Crafts and Christmas Crafts on their website and ready to order (but surely it's too early for Christmas, isn't it?)


* This is a review post, Baker Ross sent us these summer crafts to try out and to write an honest review. * 

Ethan loves all vehicles, but on our trip to Canada last year he definitely fell in love with school buses!  So even though we don't have them here in the UK and he won't ride one to school, we still decided to make one to help with his transition into nursery.  Ethan actually started nursery back in July, but as he only goes a couple of mornings a week it is still quite new, and perfect timing to coincide with many children going back to school!  This school bus craft is not only cute, but as he has drawn pictures of his friends from nursery in the windows, it is also reinforcing the importance of building those relationships with other children.

• 4 mini cereal boxes
• 1 small tube box
• yellow paper
• 4 lids
• white paper
• glue

It's almost time to go back to school!  As someone who spent my whole life in school, either as a student or a teacher, these past couple of years as a stay at home Mum have left me feeling like I was missing something at the beginning of September each year.  Well, now that Ethan's in nursery, (even though he goes throughout the summer), I feel like I can properly embrace 'back to school' season again! 


Something that I've been seeing crop up on Pinterest and Facebook is the idea of teacher gifts at the start of a school year, and I think that it can be a really fun way of getting your little ones excited for school and showing your appreciation for the teacher whom you know has been preparing all summer for the children to have an easy transition from summer to school days. So we've made a little card for Ethan's teacher, just to show her how much we appreciate all that she does for us.  I love the apple theme for 'back to school' so we did some colourful apple printing along with the letter 'a' as we're starting to learn about initial sounds in words.


Ethan loved that we were using a real apple to paint on the card!  We simply cut an apple in half, put out some red and green paint and stamped away on the card.  As it was going so well, I also got out the big roll of paper and we made some wrapping paper too, this we can use to wrap up a special little gift to go along with the card.


I had a look on Pinterest for some ideas of start of the year teacher gifts, and found loads that I really love, basically really simple things with a cute little note to go along with them.  So we'll decide between giving cookies or cupcakes (that we decorate to look like school supplies), antibacterial hand gel, hand cream, chocolate or a coffee voucher in a reusable cup.

We've just been to Odds Farm Park for a fun day of playing and learning about farm animals. There is so much to see and do there, that we didn't actually get around to doing everything in one day, we'll just have to go back another time to finish the rest!  

We did do a lot of fun things though, the first thing that we did was feed the animals!  We went to the animal barn and fed the sheep and goats.  Ethan was a bit nervous at first and held his hand back cautiously, but by the end of the day when we went back to feed them one last time he was confidently holding his hand out to feed them all.  He absolutely loved it and giggled away as they tickled his hand.



We also went on a tractor ride, which was of course very exciting for Ethan, being a big fan of tractors!  But it was also great because we could bring Ivy on as well, she just sat on Daddy's lap and watched as we passed by loads of different animals.  Both Ethan and Ivy enjoyed seeing the animals from the tractor, and being able to see a few (like the bulls) that you can't really see from the pathways through the farm.



There are plenty of outdoor toys and play areas scattered around the farm.  Ethan especially enjoyed the tractors that he could pedal around and the go karts that he rode on with Daddy.  But he also loved playing in the sand and water area and the various climbing frames and playgrounds throughout the farm.  



We also went around the adventure maze, which Ethan loved!  He ran around so quickly, turning corners and leading the way.  He was shouting out, 'this way next, now turn this way' and confidently navigating his way through the maze, finding the different pictures of tractors as we went.  We didn't actually make it to the other end of the farm for the maize maze, that will have to wait until next time.  Unfortunately we didn't get our timing right for many of the shows either, but I heard people raving about the circus, so I am sad that we missed it.  There are also animal shows in the barn throughout the day, as well as sheep races!



Then there's the play barn!  A huge indoor soft play area alongside the cafe and tea room.  We had our lunch there, you can bring your own picnic to have at any of the tables throughout the farm, but we weren't that organised.  Ethan liked his kids lunch pack, but I'll be honest and say that my jacket potato wasn't fantastic.  The play area, on the other hand, was fantastic!  There were separate soft play zones for babies, toddlers and older children.  The largest area also had these massive slides, which Ethan could have played on all day long.  A few of them are basically just a vertical drop, which Ethan is slightly too young for, but he did love the big wavy slides that you sit on a rug to go down.  One tip to remember, if your little one isn't so little and does want to go on the biggest slides, is that they have to be fully covered for safety, so that means long trousers and long sleeved tops must be worn.



Overall we had a really fun day, and we could have stayed there for much longer if we weren't all completely exhausted!  I noticed on the way out that not only do they have fun things to do over the summer, but they also have special events leading up to Halloween and Christmas, so we will definitely be going back soon!
* This is a review post, we were given passes to explore Odds Farm Park for the day, so that we could write an honest review. *

While we're still having a few nice days, between the rainy days, we've been spending as much time as we can in the garden.  So we take out our mat and our play tent and some toys and books to play with and read.  Ethan chooses which books to bring, and we read them all together.  One that he's been choosing to share with Ivy is Peekaboo Pets.

A few monthss ago Ethan was sent his very first chain letter.  It didn't come as a surprise, as the lovely Mummy who sent it to us was kind enough to ask us first if we wanted to participate (which is more than I can say for myself, as the other Mums who I've roped into doing it had no choice, sorry!)  It is a fun chain letter though, so we were more than happy to take part.  Basically all we had to do was send some stickers on to the child listed on the letter (a friend of my friend) then send the letter (and some stickers) on to six of our friends, who would then have to send stickers to the friend who sent the letter to me.  The idea is that your little one then ends up with 36 sets of stickers arriving in the post!



We had fun getting everything ready together, for us it was all about the preparation!  Of course I hoped that Ethan would receive some stickers back, as he does love getting post (he was very excited to get that original letter!) but I certainly didn't expect to get 36 more letters!  So to prepare we went together to the shops to buy some stickers. He chose a specific set for each of his friends that he thought that they would like.  Then we came home and made copies of the letters and filled in our name and address.  After that I addressed the envelopes and Ethan decorated them with some other stickers, making them look lovely for his friends.  We put the stamps on together, and walked to the post box to post them.  Ethan really loved the whole process, and it was so nice to see him being so thoughtful and generous with the stickers that he sent his friends.

Well, it has been a couple of months, and I am sad to report that Ethan has not yet received any stickers back...I guess chain letters really don't work!  Oh well, we had fun sending them anyway (and I'm still optimistic that he might get some one day, and I'd still do it again!)

We started giving Ivy solid foods a few weeks ago, and it's going quite well so far.  She's happily eating a combination of puréed foods and finger foods that we prepare for her at home.  We've been using the Beaba Babycook Solo 4 in 1 Babyfood Maker to steam fruit and vegetables and then we purée some of them (the others we leave in sticks for Ivy to hold and feed herself).



Ethan loves helping to prepare Ivy's food for her.  He sits with me to chop up the fruit and vegetables and put them into the basket of the Beaba, then he watches as the steamer works to make the food for Ivy. (He did give me a fright one day, he saw all of the steam coming out and came running over to me shouting 'fire, fire, it's an emergency!!!'  This lead to a lesson in the difference between steam and smoke, ha ha!)

The Beaba is really easy to use, we just prepare the food and put it in the steaming basket, then put the desired amount of water into the machine, press the button and let it do it's magic.  It turns itself off when it's finished, which works great for me as I get easily distracted by the two little ones (and burnt the bottom of a pot on the stove already when the water boiled dry) so this is much safer for us.  Once the vegetables are steamed we take them out of the basket and put them directly into the jug (keeping a few out for Ivy to eat whole), put the lid on and set the Beaba to puree the vegetables.  Then voila, ready to eat!



Ivy really is doing well with her meals, she loves squishing the steamed vegetables in her hands and attempts to eat them all by herself.  It is taking a while for her to get the hang of eating, so she is only having very small quantities now, but we've been making big batches in the Babycook and freezing them in small pots to keep us going over the next few weeks.  There are a lot more fruit and vegetable combinations that we'll be creating for Ivy with this handy little machine.  I highly recommend it, it has made preparing food for Ivy a whole lot easier.


* This is a review post and also contains an affiliate link, we were sent the Beaba Babycook to use and write an honest review. *

Ethan absolutely loves fire trucks, so I decided one day that we would make one together, out of materials that we had around the house.  If you would like to see how we did it, you can go to the Family Crafts page of About.com where I've posted the instructions:

We have just been given a Sparkup Magical Book Reader to try out, and are finding it a really useful little device!  It attaches to the back of any book, then can be used to record your voice reading each page of the book to your child.  It then saves the recording (of up to 50 different books) and when the device is attached to the book, it then plays the recording, page by page. (There's a little camera in the front of it that recognises the pages to identify which book to read.)  


It's great for us for a few different reasons; I'm able to record books for Ethan to then look at on his own when I'm busy doing things for Ivy, and it's also great for others who aren't here to record books for Ethan and Ivy.  Daddy can record books for them to hear his voice when he's at work, but I'm also looking forward to when we have any of the grandparents or aunts and uncles visit from overseas to record some stories for the kiddies as well!  It will be so nice for them to hear their relatives who live far away read to them whenever they like.


It's really easy to use, you just push a button on the front to start and a button on the side to record.  The device even talks you through the process to make it easier the first time that you're doing it!  My only concern is that the record button is easily accessible, so I worry that Ethan might record over a book accidentally.  He hasn't done it yet though, so hopefully he's just so happy reading the books that he won't be tempted to play with the buttons.  It does also come with a usb cord to connect it to the computer, so you can save your recordings, so if something does get erased you can restore the story.  

We are really loving using ours, I've recorded quite a few books for Ethan already, and he's quickly learned how to attach the Sparkup to the back of a book to listen to the story.  It's really cute to watch him sit and have a story read to him as he turns the pages.  I especially love that when I've done a few of the recordings he has been chatting away about the characters as well, so that's all in the recording (which I will now save to the computer and keep!)  The Sparkup Magical Book Reader sells for £39.99 and can be bought from shops as well as Amazon.

What's your little one's favourite book?  Would you like to have a Sparkup Magical Book Reader?  Enter below for a chance to win one of your very own!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to residents of the UK. Winner will be randomly selected from all correctly completed entries and contacted by email. Prize supplied directly from Sparkup.

* This is a review post and also contains an affiliate link.  We were sent the Sparkup to use and write an honest review. *

Now that Ivy is more actively joining in with playtime, I find myself searching for ways that she and Ethan can play together. One thing that she has been loving to explore is any type of treasure basket.  I decided to have a go at making a treasure basket that they could play with together, by making it interesting and safe for Ivy with large smooth objects, while fun and educational for Ethan in learning about shapes.


Ivy loves to pick up all of the different items inside as well as holding onto the side of the basket  itself for extra sitting support! She was very intrigued by the shapes, picking them up one at a time, then putting it in her mouth for further examining.  We've also got a few blocks that have beads or bells inside, so they make a sound when shaken.  When she discovered this she was then shaking and rolling the different shapes around to hear the sounds they made as well.


Ethan knows all the names of the shapes, but does still mix them up sometimes, so it is something worth going over through play.  Even though we were using three dimensional shapes today I was still using the 2 dimensional shape names (saying square instead of cube) so as not to confuse him at this point.  I asked him to find certain shapes for me from the basket, to find a shape in a particular colour and to find shapes that fit in the outline.  He did quite well and enjoyed being able to play alongside his baby sister.


They did play together for a little while as well, Ethan would build little block towers for Ivy to then knock down!  It was actually very sweet, because he knew that she was going to knock them over, so he didn't get upset, he just thought that it was funny.  His goal was to try and put as many blocks on top of each other before Ivy could send them tumbling down, and they were both giggling away as they did!

We took Ethan and Ivy to the newly renovated Snakes and Ladders Indoor Playground in Brentford the other day to play.  It was closed for a few months for a huge revamp, and is now bigger and better than ever!  There is a baby and toddler play area, a small world play area and the massive climbing area for children aged 3 and over.  Ethan was so amazed when we walked in the door, he didn't know where to start!



We walked over to the big climbing frame to have a look, told Ethan that he would have to take his shoes off, and zoom he was off!  He was all the way at the top (the third level) before we could even blink an eye (when did he get so brave?) He was running around and looking down at us, waving excitedly!  It had all of the elements that you would expect from a large soft play frame, climbing, sliding, tunnels, trampolines, a maze and ball play area.  



Ethan loved playing with the balls as well, there were different places that sucked the balls in and then showered them down on the children waiting below or blew them up in the air.  Ethan was amazed!  We spent ages in there putting balls into the different chutes,  and rolling around in the balls on the floor.



My favourite area was probably the imagination play zone.  There was a house, a bus, a shop, a post office, a hospital and a construction site.  Ethan desperately wanted to drive the bus, but as it was so busy and other children can be a bit pushy he didn't get a chance.  We'll have to go back another day when it's not quite so busy so that he can get a real go at everything.  



We did have a look at all of the other imagination play areas, Ethan had a quick play in each, but to be honest he was just so excited to run around that he went straight back to the climbing area to explore some more.  He could have stayed there all day, there are so many different things to do and he just loved it all.

We had to tear him away from it for a little while to have some lunch and a bit of a rest.  He was boiling hot from running around, we really should have thought to dress him in lighter clothes, it does get quite hot in there!  We got lunch from the cafe, which to be quite honest wasn't fantastic, but we weren't expected gourmet food from an indoor playground!  I did see other families bring in their own food, so that is an option as well.



Ivy also had her fun in the baby and toddler area, she loved sitting in the ball pit and rolling the balls around.  There were soft climbing apparatus for smaller children, a small climbing frame and little bikes to ride on.  Those were still a bit advanced for Ivy, but she did get to try her first swing while we were there as well, she had the biggest smile on her face swinging back and forth!  It's a nice little area for the smaller children, and I liked that the staff really made the effort to keep the older children out of this area to make it safer for babies and toddlers to play.


* This is a review post, we were invited to visit Snakes and Ladders and provided with a family ticket in order to try out the new equipment and write an honest review. *

This week Ethan is loving his Curious George books and asking for them to be read to him everyday before his nap and at bedtime.


His favourite is probably Curious George and the Firefighters, because he really does love firefighters and he is quite the little monkey!  The stories are a little bit silly, but Ethan likes to have a little giggle while we read them, and I'm not too worried that he's going to try to imitate the things that Curious George does!


* This post contains affiliate links if you are interested in purchasing some Curious George books from Amazon. *

I often look at other blogs for inspiration of activities to do with Ethan, and one of the ones that I can always count on is Kids Activities Blog.  Well, the good news is that the creators of the blog (Holly Homer and Rachel Miller) have now written a book, 101 Kids Activities That Are The Bestest, Funnest Ever!  

I was looking on Pinterest and found hundreds of different recipes for overnight oatmeal! I thought that this would be the perfect food to prepare with Ethan, and what could be more fun than making porridge for the three bears? Reading through many different recipes I noticed that the ingredient ratios varied, but some were close, so I decided to simplify things and try equal parts, and it worked! 

After our first visit to Chessington World of Adventures a couple of weeks ago (I wrote about it here) we loved it so much that we got ourselves invited to the launch of the new Azteca Hotel!  It was a great opportunity to see the new hotel before anyone else, to have a mini family getaway, and to get another day in the park!

The Hotel

The Azteca Hotel is attached to the Safari Hotel which was already on the resort.  They share a reception area and other facilities (such as the pool and soon to open splash area) between them. There are a few animals to see and huge giraffe statues in the reception area, to get you into the adventure spirit right away!


There is also a kids club in the reception area which can be accessed (but we didn't get a chance to try it out).  The hotels are in a great location within the park, close to the Wanyama Reserve, and Amazu Treetop Adventure which gives you lovely views from all the areas of the hotel, so you feel more like you're on a safari than in a theme park.

The Hotel Room


We stayed in a Discovery room of the hotel, they are less themed than the other rooms, but still fantastically decorated and fun.  All of the rooms in the hotel have a separate area for the children to sleep with bunk beds, and in our case a cot as well (more about baby and child friendly facilities later).  There's also a tv and a safe in the kids room, as well as a third mattress under the bed for another child to sleep.  It's really nice to have a separate area for the kids, it makes it much easier in the evening to have lights on and watch TV in the main area without worrying about waking them up or disturbing them.  The rest of the room is lovely, as you would expect in a good hotel, comfy bed, kettle, iron, bathroom with nice products, etc.  

Baby and Child Friendly Facilities


As I mentioned, the children's area of the room has bunk beds (which Ethan loved!) and we requested a cot for Ivy in advance so that we wouldn't have to bring our travel cot with us.  There is a TV in the children's area, as well as one in the main room, so you could be watching different shows at the same time (if you have any time to watch TV!)


The hotel provides a kids club and plays children's movies near to the reception area in the evenings, so that parents can have some time to relax as well.  The hotel is fully accessible and easy to get around with a pram, there are ramps everywhere as well as lifts to get to the various levels.  
Food

Each hotel has a restaurant, the new one in the Azteca Hotel is called the Temple Restaurant and serves a buffet dinner as well as a full buffet breakfast. 


The restaurant is jungle themed, with sights and sounds of the jungle surrounding each table.  There is a large fountain in the centre, which all of the children loved to look at.  There are screens all around, showing different animals moving around and interacting with each other.  There were sounds of the jungle, and every once in a while there was a big storm, with lights flickering and thunder crashing.  Ethan was very entertained by all of this (as well as a bit distracted from his food) but for Ivy this really wasn't ideal.  We had intended for her to sleep in her pram while we had dinner, but it was just so noisy that she couldn't settle, which meant we had to pace around with her and couldn't fully enjoy dinner ourselves.  I am happy to say that the restaurant was much quieter in the morning, while still keeping with it's fun jungle theme.

The food was very good, there was plenty of selection (even for a picky toddler) and we all found food that we enjoyed for dinner as well as breakfast the next morning.  Breakfast is also special because characters from the park come to visit!  When we were there Alex from Madagascar joined us for breakfast, and Ethan was very excited to meet him!

Perks of Staying in the Hotel 

As we stayed for the launch of the hotel there was a lot of wonderful entertainment in the evening, including tribal dancers and a fire show (which we missed as we were putting the children to bed).  They also had face painting and even caricature drawings being done!  


They regularly have animal meet and greets, evening access to the Amazu Treetop Adventure (you get to climb through different areas with monkeys swinging in the trees around you) as well as the Wanyama Reserve, where animals such as the meercats and zebras live.  


You also get early access to the park the next day, which is a huge bonus and you can get on so many rides before the park opens and the queues start to build up.  That in itself is reason enough to stay in the hotel!

Another Day of Play at Chessington World of Adventures

We were very excited to get another day of fun at Chessington, as even though we were just there two weeks ago, we didn't manage to do everything that we wanted to.  And I'm disappointed to say, that yet again we couldn't fit it all in!