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: Brewers Fayre

I used to love Brewers Fayre when I was living at home, we used to have one on the doorstep (and conveniently one that my sister went on to get a job at).  We moved to Sheffield and visited a couple but they gradually got taken over by another company until there are none left.
  When FrankPR asked us to try out their new Autumn menu I was, initially, disappointed at the thought of having to turn down such a great offer but then remembered we were off to Chesterfield at the weekend for Ben's Birthday and they have a lovely Brewers Fayre, Lock Keeper, which sits near the Chesterfield Canal and is only a short walk from the bus stop.

So presents opened we set off for Chesterfield, Ben had no idea what we were doing so we headed off for a little walk along the canal path before turning round and making our way to the Brewers Fayre, which is conveniently sited next door to the Premier Inn if you ever stay there.

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.

HuntFun - a great way to get kids walking and considering their surroundings.

Do you remember in my post about Ambleside I mentioned that we'd explored the area with a HuntFun treasure hunt?  Well let me tell you some more about it.

The boys love to be out in the open air and we often try and find a walk to do at the weekend, or make our own scavenger type hunts so when I saw you could buy treasure hunts (treasure not included) I started to find out more, they kindly sent me a couple of printable ones, Ambleside and Windermere, and I bought another for Carlisle.   Needless to say being the organised person I am I forgot to print the hunts out so they sent me a link to access the clues on my phone so we could still complete it.

Huntfun say that their hunts will open your eyes to so many things you would ordinarily just walk straight past!  I was dubious, I'd lived in Ambleside for 3 years there wasn't going to be much I didn't know was there.  I cannot believe how wrong I was.  The trail took me to a church just minutes from where my old house was that I didn't know even existed.

Our Budget Holiday - Step 2: Planning the journey

Well all our holiday is booked and I must remember to go and pick up the tickets from the train station.  If you missed Step 1 of my #BudgetHoliday series then you can catch up here.

The next step is to plan the train journey, because when you have kids nothing is as simple getting on a train and reading your book until it gets there.  Especially when the journey takes 3 hours (each way) and the kids happen to be 3 and 6.

They do have tablets, portable dvd players and ds's but to be honest I quite enjoy the 'family time', that and you are never guaranteed a seat - let alone one with a plug socket (and these things do seem to eat the battery). 
  On the other hand we are on a train with 2 small boys for a 5 night holiday - there is a limit as to how much we can carry..... I have learnt that lesson!

My aim on journey's is for each boy to have their own rucksack with everything they will need for the journey (including their favourite soft toy, drink and a snack or 2).  This is no easy feet, especially when you think the 3h journey involves 2 or more trains, and but here is my guide as to those little extras that either I have used historically or have spotted online that can make a very long journey fly. 

The Chapter Book Challenge 2015

Last year we really enjoyed joining in with Child-Led Chaos' 300 Picture Book Challenge, it really made us think about just how much we were reading.  However it took a long time to keep track of everything and. as you will have noticed, we forgot to record it quite a bit.

This year the boys are a bit older and we are moving onto bigger books, that's not to say we won't be reading Thomas, Topsy and Tim, Elmer, Puddle Lane and all our other favourites (Noah is still only 3 after all) but it does mean we can crack on with some of out Chapter (or books with lots of various stories in) books.

My aim is to read at least 26 of these with the boys, initially I was going for 52 but that's pushing it a bit as quite a few would take longer then a week to read.
I've made a start with the list from those that are already on our shelves but it's not complete yet as I want to leave room for ones they might choose themselves or ones we may encounter on our journey this year.

Camping Adventures ..... 2 kids, 2 adults .... no car - A packing checklist.

Please note this picture is
from a camping trip WITH a car!

Impossible I hear you cry.... and you know what that's pretty much the reaction I always receive when I mention it..... which is why I am even more determined to make it work lol.

I'm not mad or crazy, we're only planning 2 nights not a week but if we can go on a caravan holiday with a weeks worth (plus extras)  of clothes etc for 2 adults and 2 children (right from when they were babies) then I am pretty confident we can do 2 night camping.

We have the tent (bought last year on a really good offer) including airbeds (4) and sleeping bags (4).  over the last year tho the kids have got new sleeping bags (Spiderman!) which are smaller and lighter (bonus).

We made the decision to have a real 'basics' camping experience.  Personally I would have happily taken the tent up a fell (like when I was at uni) but apparently you aren't supposed to do that any more so I looked around for a 'real site'.  As we don't have electric hook up facilities we don't need an electric pitch (please don't die on me phone/ camera) and I wasn't paying for a cable just for phones and cameras, not to mention their weight.

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.