The Great School Holiday Challenge Week 3

The Great School Holiday Challenge whizzes into its third week (well not quite whizzes, more like drifts).

Day 15: I have learned that Misty Moo is not entirely appreciative of being tied up outside the library for 30 minutes while the Big One and Princess 'debate' which film they are going to borrow. Neither does she like Waitrose car park while the same two children decide which comics they are going to buy. Having said that, the Big One chose a great "Make and do" comic and made a shark.

Day 16: My brother and his family popped over for the day on the way to their caravan. When I say popped, they actually drove about 2 hours out of their way so bless them. It was a joy to see the children playing with their big cousins and brought a lovely big grin to my face!

Day 17: Sent the Big One off to a friends for the morning where a snow storm was artificially created in their living room. Lesson: do not allow boys and polystyrene packaging to mix! One part of me wishes I had been there to capture the scene for posterity. The other part of me is soooo glad I wasn't. Hoovering hell! They were suitably admonished, given a carrier bag each and sent to clear it up.

Day 18: A Pizza Express voucher magically appeared in my hot little hand inbox so we HAD to go! A family favourite. They have had a makeover and have some lovely art on the walls. One of which is this bull. Along side it a plaque describes the traditional bull-running that took place in my own town, albeit up until 674 years ago. See, Pizza Express is educational.

In other news, the Big One gained a new bike and lost a tooth.

Day 19: Cycling practice with gears for the first time had the Big One flummoxed for a bit until I explained that it wasn't obligatory to only use gears 1 and 6. You hear that clunking whirring grinding noise every time you go between gear 1 and 6? That's the other 4 gears you could be using. To unwind we baked these fab cookies from Sticky Fingers blog.

Day 20: Today was a bit of a non-day :-( You know, when you don't achieve anything. When nothing really gets done and the kids watch a wee bit too much telly. I have admonished myself sufficiently to ensure that this will not happen again. The "I'm Bored" box was used and bubbles were blown (thereby ticking off #42 on the Challenge list - yay).

Day 21: Secret Seven lives again (apparently). I was a HUGE Secret Seven fan in my youth and the love of mysteries has stayed with me. A friend of the Big One has just discovered the series with the help of his Mum (another big fan) and has instigated a Secret Seven Club all of his own. The Big one is a member and a meeting was called today. I would love to tell you what they did, what plans were concocted, what mysteries were solved but I can't. They're secret. And hence, no photo.

Three down and three to go. School holiday fatigue is starting to kick in so the bottoms of barrels may be scraped shortly. Stay tuned to see what new depths we can reach!

The Great School Holiday Challenge Week 2

Survived another week of the Great School Holiday Challenge. Yes I did need gin round about, oh Saturday night so not bad all things considered!

I interrupt this post to point out that I am not alcohol dependent. Just saying.

Day 8: To Beans Coffee Shop to try to rid my fuddled brain of it's sleep starved state. One Maltesers milkshake and waffle later. Semi-normal service was resumed.

Hit the library and lost (then found) one of Wee One's shoe. "I'm Bored" jar came out today and the Big One picked 'Make a picture Frame' and Princess got 'Paint your toes'. Much cutting of cardboard, hoovering up of glitter, wiping paint off floorboards and painty footprints off tiles later, I started to consider the possibility that some of the 'I'm Bored' suggestions may be a little ambitious :-/

Day 9: Nature trail on Stamford Meadows. Duly printed naturedetectives.com spotters sheets and we were off. Discovered Stamford's Spa, caught (and released) butterflies (unharmed, I think), lost Misty Moo in the stinging nettles (do dogs feel stinging nettles?). I had bigger ideas than the children had attention span for, so we also picked a few flowers from the back garden to press.

Day 10: Is it only Monday? Bribed kids to help me hoover and dust. To be perfectly honest, their help, although valiant, was to very little effect. Changed beds. Lost Princess inside a duvet cover. Walked dog. I was so bored, I reached for the "I'm Bored" jar! So we had salt dough modelling, badminton in the garden, finger painting (I couldn't believe it was the first time that the Wee One and paint had been introduced. Result - messy) and made courgette muffins for tea.

Day 11: Daddy's home! And so to Burghley Garden's of Surprise. A FANTASTIC afternoon was had by all in lovely sunshine. The Gardens are awesome and well worth a vsiit if you happen to be passing Stamford. A separate post on this one for sure. And something ticked off the Challenge list -yay!

Day 12: Mum's gone to ... Ikea! Yep. Another fail as far as the Challenge list is concerned but who can resist hot dogs and Daims. Well you could have knocked me down with a bite size Daim... if you could have found one! There weren't any Daims to be had. Sooooo, hot dogs, plastic beakers, paper napkins, glass tumblers, step stools x2, groovy rug, cuddly rats (?) x2, filter coffee x3 and Pear Cider (yes, I know. Who knew?). A successful trip I'd say. And we managed to miss the freak thunder storm.

Day 13: Princess to nursery and the Big One invited to a soft play place. Result! Me and the Wee One went to Tesco to buy the bits that I forgot in Ikea, namely wine glasses, muffin tin and crafty bits. So I should have been making muffins while the children made a lovely picture for me. The children did indeed use their new metallic pens to do some rather impressive colouring (I'm biased) but I got sucked into twitter and only emerged to cook tea. I blame myself for having started this process probably 30 minutes later than a mother who had been paying more attention to her children would have judged as ideal. Soooo, teatime hell commenced. Damn you twitter!

Day 14: The end of another week. Two down, four to go (not that I am counting). Misty Moo needs a walk every day. The children need to get out of the house everyday. The result is daily dog walking monotony with 3 children in tow. However, today, cunning Supermum pulled it out of the bag. Oh yes. I give you Dog Walking BINGO. Here's what I rustled up over breakfast. (Top left is a map and bottom right is a duck. I do not claim to have any artistic talent.)

So simple. Get the kids spotting things on their walk. What do points make? Prizes. Yes folks, bribery was involved as were sweets but mission dog walk was successful. Oh and we played cricket in the park too. Oh and built a rocket, as you do.

Until next week x

Mummy Mojo and the Great Summer Holiday Challenge

School holidays are imminent *pauses to breathe deeply* and I am getting more and more anxious as each day passes and the time comes when "I'm bored" and "I'm hungry" get stuck on repeat. I know I have been guilty recently of being a bit of a lazy parent, lacking in the 'entertaining the kids' department and probably relying on their self motivation and the digital babysitter a bit too much.

Through self counselling (read: giving myself a good talking to) I have recognised that I am a bored Mother. There. I've said it. I've lost my mummy mojo. Not quite sure where I left it but have so far searched the immediate area of the under stairs cupboard where most lost things turn up and the kitchen messy drawer without even a sniff. I thought I would look online and found some great retail therapy sites that all had a little something to offer in way of entertaining the kids which I have shamelessly borrowed but, regrettably, nothing on finding my Mummy Mojo.

I have decided on a two pronged attack. The first is to have a list of things to do with the kids (who are 6, 3 and 18 months) and then (assuming that they are suitably entertained and not screaming at each other or at me) find a bit of quality time for myself to work out why I am bored and what I can do about it.

So, stage 1: The list (because I do like a good list) of 'things to do' that can be called upon to fill the looming days ahead (all 42 of them *gulp*).

1. Make an "I'm Bored" jar
2. Paint paperweight stones
3. Declutter toys
4. Do a car boot sale selling of the decluttered toys
5. Visit Burghley Water Gardens and Sculpture Park
6. Visit Belton House Gardens
7. Learn to ride scooters and balance bikes
8. Go cycling at Rutland Water
9. Refashion a T-shirt
10. Read The Twits
11. Go to see Cars 2
12. Make a playlist for rainy afternoon ipod discos
13. Camp in the garden
14. Go to the outside pool at Tallington
15. Go sledging at Tallington
16. Go rock climbing at Tallington
17. Make a scrapbook of the holidays
18. Make a shell-stone-seaweed picture on the beach
19. Play crazy golf
20. Catch crabs
21. Make a puppet
22. Bake cakes
23. Visit the Lincolnshire Home and Antiques Fair
24. Make a junk robot
25. Make multi-coloured popcorn
26. Foot & hand painting
27. Collect flowers to press and make bookmarks for Grandparents
28. Go bug spotting
29. Go fishing
30. Make glitter jelly
31. Make a theatre
32. Put on a show
33. Refurbish a bookcase for the boys
34. Refurbish a wardrobe for the Princess
35. Make a shoe tidy for the hall
36. Sort old photographs into albums
37. Watch the Railway Children
38. Go to a museum
39. Make a cut out comic book
40. Go boating on Rutland Water
41. Make garden decorations & wind chimes
42. Blow the biggest bubble ever

I intend to do a little photo log of the school holidays by taking a picture a day of what we have done to amuse ourselves (family friendly of course for anyone sniggering at the back) and posting these once a week.

As for the second part of my two-pronged attack, well, I hope part one will force me into a bit of action and fend off some of the boredom but I will absolutely try to get some time off to work it all out.

Come back for regular progress reports.