i'm still here!

Well, I cannot believe it has been 4 months since i lasted posted , eek, where has the time gone? Christmas has been and gone and now its almost Easter. ...I did get that sewing machine for Christmas, yippi, so I hope to be posting some of my sewing makes on here soon.

I hope you are all well. I have had what seems like continual sinusitis...in fact I am wrapped up on the sofa with it again now! Never mind, I am enjoying Midsomer Murders on play back and planning my next knitting project!

Anyway, I have been continuing some basic scrap booking . I put together an album for my Mum and Dad, of their recent trip caravanning around Spain. They started at Santander and went down to Cadiz then back up to Bilbao...meandering around on the way! They visited Caceres, Seville, Malaga, Cordoba, to name a few places!

It took me quite a while to scrap the whole trip, as the trip was 7 weeks long, and many photos were taken! I included emails, maps, postcards, and a space at the back for leaflets and extra photos they particularly loved and wanted to include. I tried to keep the colour scheme and patterning coordinated through out the album, to show it was all of the same trip. bright and sunny!! My mum and dad had a fantastic time away, and it was the first of what hopes to be many travelling adventures for them. I wanted the album to celebrate their first trip. 

Well, at home we've been continuing our geocaching with the kids. Now that the weather is better and the storms seem long gone, we are able to get out more. I cannot imagine a child hood that is not spent mainly outdoors, so we are out as much as we can :-) . This picture was taken after our streak of 40 days caching in a row...it is very addictive. The kids love it!  Out latest favourite finds include a cache in a fake snail shell, one in a bolt , and one in a piece of false grass! The hides always keep you on your toes these days, and the challenge of a treasure hunt never fails to excite the kids. 

My daughters favourite cache so far was on a walk called "The Great Sausage Hunt"!, that we did during the holidays. 

See www.geocaching.com if you want to give it a go...its FREE!!!

National Trust gardens also continue to amuse the kids too, with trails, letterbox hunts, teddy bears picnics and forest parks. We have never yet actually been inside a property, not had time! We are trying to continue the "50 things" challenge too... my son having completed 25 so far, and my daughter 15. 

https://www.50things.org.uk/

This was some beautiful cyclamen in the half term hols in Devon.

Well, after Easter we are off to the Scilly Isles!  Yippi Yippi Yippi!. They look amazing, and we've always wanted to go... have any of you been there? The Gig racing, pancakes on the beach, sea, moorland, pony rides,  island hopping, bronze age stone sites, bird hides...endless fun. We especially want to go to St. Agnes. That is my dream. A well deserved holiday to blow away the winter cobwebs. What hols have you planned for this year?

http://www.islesofscillyholidays.co.uk/the-islands/stagnes.html

Minnie

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pumpkin madness

Hello Everyone!

Who had a great half term then? We did, and I didn't want it to end :o( !! We had just the right balance of catching up with jobs and having relaxing family time.

One of the fun things we did was a local pumpkin trail. We'd not been to one of these before. Most of the shops in the town had pumpkins in their windows and each had been given a name. The challenge was to find all the pumpkins, list the names and then enter a prize draw.

It was really good fun, the weather was sunny and the kids were on top form. The pumpkins were so creative, from Harry Potter to Humpty Dumpty.

I hope they do it again next year!

I am linking this layout up with http://www.lifepaperscrapbook.com/ as I used their fabulous sketch. Materials used: Bo Bunny Apple Cider collection and various stickers.

Hope you had a great half term too.

x

Apple Day

Hello!

So who celebrated Apple Day this Year then? Apple day is traditionally on October 21st. The first one being held in 1990 in Covent Garden, London.

We have done various things including National Trust events and Coast &Country side events which have included cider tasting, juice making, apple throwing games, apple story telling...etc but this year we decided to have our own apple weekend at home :o)

We have 2 apple trees in the garden but they are still too young to produce much fruit, (only 4 yrs old), but a friend had given me 3lb of cooking apples from her allotment so I thought i'd make some jams! You can see the results above. This is the first success I have had with jam (mine tend to solidify overnight) . Hurrah! I have even given one to a friend, so we shall see what the verdict is. 

We also had some old apples left in the fruit bowl so we did some apple painting and printing with them. The kids had great fun.

We combined our apple day/weekend with some conker and leaf hunting. We collected 123 conkers, that was good counting practice for the kids! We made leaf rubbings, conker animals, conker collages, conker rolling with paint and some other ideas from pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/pieceoflittleme/conkers/.

I love taking the kids outside for the weekends and helping them to have fun in nature. I think too many young kids seem to spend time indoors on computers or in front of the TV.

What did you do for apple day?

x

5 creative kids things for autumn half term

Heeeeelp, its half term soon!

Ok, so , i got up this morning and thought hooray! its the weekend. Don't you just love the weekend?! ...No rushing breakfast (what breakfast), no rushing to get dressed, no rushing to walk to school. Bliss, a whole day of chilling with the kids. Time with the kids is so precious now.

Then i thought i'd start planning half term - only 3 weeks to go, yey! What did we do last year for autumn half term? What did i used to do with the kids before the whole school chapter started?

So don't panic when it gets to half term because here are 5 creative things you can do with the kids.

1. Geocaching.

The kids and I love this. Check out the official website.  http://www.geocaching.com/ . It tells you more about it and will show you where there are caches local to you.

Basically you find where your local ones are, either on the website or download the app to your mobile phone. Then go out with your mobile phone which will direct you to them using the phones GPS signals. The caches to hunt for are all shapes and sizes, from the size of a finger nail to big lunch box size ones. They are hidden all over the place in towns , countryside , residential areas and holiday locations ...ALL OVER THE WORLD! So you will never be short of a cache to find. The large ones are best for kids as they have toys in to swap. The mini ones are great for adults as they are such a challenge to find.

Its a giant world wide treasure hunt.

 Look over there mummy - we've found the cache!!

Some of the geocaches are really cute for kids like this duck one!

Sneakiest we've seen...drilled into a fallen piece of bark!

smallest cache we've seen

2. Leaf printing pictures/autumn posters

Go and collect some gorgeous autumn coloured leaves and print stick and play with them. last year we made an autumn collage and learnt all about the seasons.

3. Go conker hunting to play conker games - 

This website has some great info about conkers and different games to play. my kids love hunting for conkers and then hiding them round the house for me to find.
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/conkers.html

4. Apple days 

I have never been to a bad "apple day" ...not yet anyway. We've been to various ones over the years, but i think the best so far was by the National Trust at Killerton, Devon. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton/things-to-see-and-do/events/. This year it is on 19/20 October, if you get a chance do go along

We were able to make our own apple juice, do apple throwing games, buy apple and blackberry crumbles & apple sauces, listen to apple stories for the kids, take part in morris dancing, wood turning for the kids...it was excellent.

Look out for ones local to you.

Apple art

 Apple throwing games for the kids

Morris dancing

5. Pumpkin carving 

I've not actually done this with the kids yet, but I really want to try some of the kid friendly designs out there. Check out this one of Hello Kitty by pinkblondgittery. My daughter would love it. Plus I've always wanted to try a pumpkin soup or yummy recipe to warm the bones on a damp autumn evening,

http://pinkblondglitteryhellokittyobsession.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/hello-kitty-halloween-c.html

What creative ideas have you got for half term?
Have fun
x

gorilla fun

*The Great Gorillas Project - for Paignton Zoo's 90th anniversary

This summer we were challenged to

take part in the Gorilla trail around Torbay and Exeter! There are 30 life size Gorillas decorated by local artists to spot, and 20 or so half size ones, decorated by schools, to find too. Artists include Kirstie Allsopp http://kirstieallsopp.co.uk/ from Channel 4's Handmade Britain!

The idea is to raise awareness of and funds for gorilla conservation. All 30 of the gorillas will be auctioned on Wednesday 6th November for charity.

If you spot all 30 life size gorillas before October 13th 2013, you can enter a competition to meet Paignton Zoo's real gorillas :o) more info here:  http://www.greatgorillas.org.uk/

                                                                  montage of our 30 gorilla finds

Well, we finished our trail on Sunday, and the kids have LOVED it! Munchkin no.2 cried on the way home because she wanted to see another one, and i had to tell her she'd seen them all now! We have had hugging, kissing and dancing with the gorillas we have met! (the kids, not me!)

The kids favourite one was "Hanky Panky on Holiday" which is in Torquay near the library. He has a hanky hat, shorts and sandals on! My favourite was probably "Poirot", in Hoopers shop window, Torquay.

It is decorated as a murder scene from one of Agatha Christies books; very clever. Although "Darth Vader" in Harlequin shopping centre; Exeter was very clever too, and there are activities (games/colouring) for the kids to do there too. "Skins" in Exeter was pretty amazing too.

                                                                                    "Skins"

There is also a mystery gorilla, "Lilo", to find. "Lilo" moves about every 2 weeks i think. We managed to spot him when he was in Torquay.  I think he is now in Brixham...?!

                                                                          "Lilo"
Well, we had lots of fun and visited lovely places to see them all. There are 2 weeks left to go, so if you get a chance, do pop out and see a few before they are moved back to the zoo. Its a fantastic art exhibition
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