Christmas: Advent Calendars

It's almost the first of November and that means only 4 weeks to get an Advent Calendar in.  Every year I look for one that we would all love, every year I refuse to spend too much money, and every year we tend to end up with about 4!

Here's my favourites from those I've spotted so far, please share your finds in the comments.

Review: The Dinosaur that Pooped the Bed

It's been 10 months since we reviewed the other Dinosaur that Pooped books and they still make an appearance on a daily basis, Noah (4) especially loves them, I often find him curled up under the covers with them in bed when he should be asleep.  He was super excited when I told him Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter has released a new one - The Dinosaur that Pooped the Bed.

Review: Kids Mystery Case Files

When I was little there was this great puzzle magazine called Quiz Kids (ohh it still exists) and I used to love it.   That and the Usbourne Puzzle Adventures series which Ben thinks are fab.  In both cases you followed a story throughout, soving the puzzles and mystery's to solve the crime.  With this in mind when I saw the opportunity for a new e-magazine for children called "Kids Mystery Case Files" I put my name forwards.

The Kids Mystery Case Files are designed to let your child step inside a mystery and turn amateur sleuth to discover whodunnit and why.  By solving puzzles your children discover clues, clear suspects and solve the case.  Here's Detective Cracker to tell you some more.....

The magazines are online, however unless your children are happy doing things in their head you will need to print the activities as they aren't interactive, saying that Microsoft have released a few tools that can be used to highlight and scribble on pages if you know how to use them.

Lets take a look inside the one we reviewed #3 Poison Pen Letters

Moving House: Involving your children on move day

Moving in T- 4 sleeps.  Actually moving day with the kids is not going to be too painful (she says giggling knowing she will be in work!).
Both boys are at school, unfortunately this means hubby will have to pick them up at  3 o'clock and they will be under feet after that time. So around about unpacking the van time unless we can find/ bribe someone to look after them

So just how do you cope with moving with little feet around?  Hopefully this guide will help whether you are going 10 minutes up the road like us and have them for half the day or whether you are going hundreds of miles with them in tow all day long.  If you can think of anything I've missed please mention it in the comments for others to see.

Moving House: Involving your children before the move

My boys are really looking forward to moving house, probably because it's to a familiar location (road we used to live on) and closer to their schools so aside from a new house nothing else will really change for them.  We've involved them along the way, making no secret of the fact we are looking for a new house and for Noah (4 years old) he's even been able to come along on viewings with us.  However it can be stressful and distressing if children are leaving their friends, schools or a home that they've always known (we've only lived here 18 months), it's a great idea to ease them in gently and keep them involved before the move.

A lot of the moving tips below are useful whether moving small distances like 2 miles up the road or longer ones, such as trekking across oceans.
  Hope they help.

Coping with our kids ..... job description

Having a clear out of some of the stuff I was given when Ben was born (6 years ago).... thought you'd enjoy this........

WANTED:
A responsible person, male or female, to undertake a life long project.

Candidates should be totally committed , willing to work up to 24 hours daily, including weekends during the initial 16 year period.

Occasional holidays possible, but may be cancelled at no notice.

Knowledge of health care, nutrition, psychology, child development, health and management in the educational system essential.

Necessary Qualities:

energy, tolerance, negotiation, problem solving, communication, listening, budgeting, time management, decision making, boundary setting, prioritising, providing loving support, patience, good self-esteem, self confidence and a sense of humour.

No training or experience needed, no salary, but very rewarding for the right person.

The Dinosaur that pooped.............

Nothing says Happy Christmas better then pooping dinosaurs does it?  So this year I won't be saying "Happy Christmas" to you, I will be sharing with you the fabulous creations of Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter (yup them guys from McFly) and "Poop, presents and prehistoric creatures".

We were really lucky to be asked to review that funny series and when the postie (eventually) decided to deliver it just before Christmas it was in great time for a 3h train ride to London.

I am sure the rest of the train enjoyed the hysterical laughter from our seats.  From mummy, who found it difficult to actually stop giggling long enough to read some of it, the boys who, well lets face it, it mentions the word poop - need I say more, and even Grandma managed a smile!

101 (ish) things to do with the kids..........

Whilst visiting a farm on holiday with the boys I can across the National Trust's 50 things to do before you are 11 and 3/4.
One of our local schools also has a list ..... 100 things to do before you leave primary school.

OK so my boys are only 2 and a half and 5 but when I look at these lists I can tick off hardly anything already which is quite disappointing. I am therefore going to make 2014 a year of DOING.
Some of these challenges are definitely aimed at older children (so I have missed them off for the time being).  I won't be disappointed if we don't manage everything on this list but even if we can tick off 52 of them in 2014 I'll be a happy mummy.

So through a combination of these 2 lists and some of my own here is my "101 (ish) things to do with the kids" list.

Why don't you join us?? Perhaps choose 4 or 5 a month to achieve?

We've already done some this year which I might link up to, and may complete some more this year if I can (but with so much going on it won't be a deliberate effort).  Some of them I am sure will be ticked off numerous times in their childhood.

My To-Do List 11/10-17/10

This weekends to-do list

Another week.... another to-do list.
You may be wondering why my to-do lists always start on a Friday?  Simples I work Monday to Thursday so for me Fridays are the start of my house week.

My to-do list 4th-10th October

This weekends to-do list

Another jam-packed weekend on the cards, not with social events sadly ..... so as it inspired me so much last weekend I thought I'd make another list to motivate myself.

our Holiday A-Z

A - Ardleigh Car Boot Sale, AA
B  - BBQ, Boules
C - clacton, Colchester, Car
D - daddy
E - escalators
F - farm
G - Great Grandma and Grandad, golf, giraffe
H - hamleys
I - Ice Cream
J - jet plane
K - kids
L - lego! London
M - motorways
N - nene valley railway
O - overground (busses)
P - playground, peacocks, Prezzo, pizza hut, punch and judy
Q - Queen
R - RAIN RAIN RAIN!!!
S - sleep (or lack of)
T - Toby Carvery, trains
U - underground (or lack of)
V - vehicles
W - walking, woods, wasps
X - xylophone
Y - yummy
Z - zoo

Thursday........ the weekend starts here........

YAY it's thursday, for me that means Friday as I only work Mon-Thursday.  Need to think of something to do with the boys over the weekend as I hate being stuck in the house.

Unfortunately the tram company are digging up the tracks again all weekend so, as we don't drive, we are pretty stuffed for going anywhere unless we want to faff with busses (yuck).... unless I dare venture out buggyless (double yuck).

OHHHH it's the Lowedges festival on Sunday, wonder how easy it is to get there from mine?  Looks a really fantastic busy day if the sun comes out.

oppps forgot to get the mince out..............done.  Promised the kids spaghetti bolognaise for tea tomorrow and I'd be in trouble if the mince was still frozen lol.  Check out my foodie page for more info on what we will be cooking/eating this week.

Really please to have finished my little Pole dancer cross-stitch , brilliant for tying in my 2 favourite hobbies.

Have been a tad addicted to Twitter the last couple of days, found Liz @dragonflylotusd who has a great idea for #WIPWednesday  a chance to twitter your cross-stitch update pic every wednesday with the # on the end so the stitching community can follow your progress.... hopefully it'll give me a swift kick up the rear to get my WIPs completed.

I'm feeling really Christmassy, have got a real urge to get some shopping done, but I must restrain myself another couple of weeks, nothing wrong with window-shopping tho right?

Just off to update the spending diary and then picking up London Underground stitch for an hour, night night.