Hoops & Crosses House Lunch

When I heard about the Tots100 #HoopsandCrosses competition I was really excited as its been a while since I made a fun lunch for the boys (find our letter C lunch here). We all like Walkers new Hoops & Crosses crisps, the boys like the fun shapes (letter X & O) & I like that they have wholegrain & are only 4 syns a pack (beef are 4.5) on Slimming World. 

As we are now working on the letter H I decided to make a house with a checker board to play noughts hoops & crosses on. The white squares are cheese spread with pickle, the wholemeal are marmite & the triangles for the roof have marmalade filling. I then used cucumber for the grass With raisins & lettuce for a tree.

I made it as a plate to share for the boys, which worked well as each took what they wanted. They even made a small house once some of the sandwiches had been eaten.

x Jo x

CD Stickers & We Love Weekends Blog Hop

 When Nanny came up for Daniels Birthday she had brought some stickers for the boys. Normally we tend to either use stickers for a specific project or I have a stash that I forget to give out as rewards! So when faced with a whole sheet each, they didn't really want to put them on their t-shirts. Joseph (4.5) wanted to stick them on the walls & Daniel (3) wanted to stick them on toys! So amidst the chaos of greeting & settling in my mum, I had a rummage in my 'to keep to make something with one day' box & found these old CDs. 

We've used CDs for crafts before & the boys have been wary as I'm always telling them to be careful with CDs & DVDs, so I stressed the point that these were old ones that Daddy didn't need any more. The boys were happy to use the shiny CDs as a base for their creativity & I breathed a sigh of relief that my walls were safe! Peeling stickers from a sheet is a great fine motor activity, Joseph finds this quite easy but depending on the type of sticker Daniel can struggle. Once finished I added some ribbon so that they became decorations. They are now hung on the boys wardrobe doors & are a useful place to keep stickers that are coming off of t-shirts at the end of the day, which saves me having to sneak them in the bin!

 

We Love Weekends Blog Hop

What To Do With The Children Has asked me to co-host her weekly blog hop again. 

Its a place for other bloggers to link up with ideas of all kinds and information they think you might find useful or just for a good read. Anything goes on We love weekends, so if you are a blogger please feel free to link up a post & grab the button if you'd like. And if your a follower, crafter, or reader please take a look at all the wonderful ideas being linked up. Bloggers love comments so if you like a post a comment is always appreciated. If your not a blogger but would like to share your fun ideas or what you are up to this weekend, please leave a comment on this post.

Why not take a look back at last weeks blog hop to see some of the great ideas that were linked. My favourite was these Summer Sun Catchers from JB Mum Of One.

x Jo x

<div align="center"><a href="http://whattodowiththechildren.com/category/we-love-weekends/" title="What to do with the children"><img src="http://whattodowiththechildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/we-love-weekends-button-150x150.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="What to do with the children" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

G is for...

Firstly apologies for the delay in my letter of the week, series of posts, what with birthdays, holidays & days out we have been so busy! To start off the Letter G, we went on a Nature Walk searching for Green things, more details here.

We made Green jelly & also had a chocolate fondue with Green Grapes, 

which I will post about soon.

Both boys have been spending lots of time in the Garden, Daniel (3) is loving playing football (in his unique way) with the new Goal he got for his birthday.

Joseph made some elastic band Guitars, details here.

At a toddler group we drew around a flat wooden giraffe, then coloured him in, we also printed off a couple of colouring sheets & used our dot markers (ELC easy painters) to 'paint' them.

Whilst at Legoland (post to follow) we spotted this amazing Giraffe, which had a moving head!

We have also been Growing & Gardening:

Celery stalk & Carrot Top

Joseph re-homing some snails, from my pots to a nearby hedge.

Planting some sunflower seeds (lets hope they do better than last year!)

x Jo x

Elastic Band Guitars

Joseph (4.5) asked to make an elastic band guitar, after seeing the idea on cbeebies. They used a tissue box but as we didn't have one we raided the recycling box. 

I wrote a G on the cheese triangle box to reinforce G for guitar. Joseph was able to stretch most of the elastic bands on himself, only asking for help on a couple of the tighter ones. 

Daniel didn't want to join in so Joseph made 2 so that they could each play with them. The cardboard one soon collapsed, however the black plastic tub is still going strong a few days later.

x Jo X

Green Nature Walk

As part of our letter G activities, we went on a Green nature walk, I'd originally seen this idea on pintrest, but once again can't locate it! We only went on a short walk to our local (tiny) park.

We used wide masking tape to make a bracelet, sticky side out. We then went on a search for anything green, that we could collect & stick on the tape. They are both fond of picking flowers etc & collecting things, so this was a great way for them to do this & for me not to end up holding it all!

 We had a play at the park, then headed back home collecting more on the way.. 

x Jo x

P.s. Don't forget we are now on twitter please follow us @LeBaby Bakery

Frog Pond - We love Weekends Blog Hop

After our finding tadpoles on our picnic last weekend we decided to make a small world frog pond. Firstly the table needed a good clean after being stood up for the winter. After tipping out the water & wiping away the worst of the algae with kitchen roll & anti-bac spray, I re-filled it & let the boys help me finish cleaning it with some old cloths. Another empty & refill & we were good to go.

Ewww yucky water table!

We then gathered our collection of plastic frogs (yes its growing) & I cut some lilly pads out of craft foam. The frogs had lots of fun in our 'pond' they even had a float on the lilly pads. They were then joined by some rocks to play on & some boats (came with water table from Argos). The boys had lots of fun & got very wet even with their aprons on. Joseph (4.5) is getting so tall that he now has to kneel to play. The water table was one of Daniels (now 3) Birthday presents last year.

We Love Weekends Blog Hop

A fellow UK blog What To Do With The Children is launching a weekly blog hop & to celebrate has asked several other blog's including Le Baby Bakery to join in. This will be the first blog hop or linky (as they are also known) we have co-hosted so let me know what you think & if you would like to see more. Why not check out the other blogs who are co-hosting:
Peakle Pie
Diapers-n-Heels
Lalymom

<div align="center"><a href="http://whattodowiththechildren.com/category/we-love-weekends/" title="What to do with the children"><img src="http://whattodowiththechildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/we-love-weekends-button-150x150.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="What to do with the children" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Its a place for other bloggers to link up with ideas of all kinds and information they think you might find useful or just for a good read. Anything goes on We love weekends, so if you are a blogger please feel free to link up a post & grab the above button if you'd like. And if your a follower, crafter, or reader please take a look at all the wonderful ideas being linked up. Bloggers love comments so if you like a post a comment is always appreciated. If your not a blogger but would like to share your fun ideas or what you are up to this weekend, please leave a comment on this post.

Our Family Holiday - At Butlins

 

The day after Daniels birthday party, we all packed up & headed off to Butlins - Minehead. Crazy going the day after the party, but it meant that Nanny was already up from Devon to look after the cats, rats & fish. She also manages to make my home look all sparkly & new, thanks Mum!

The first 2 days we had glorious sunshine, however the English weather returned to the status quo of could & (some) rain! It didn't spoil the holiday though as there is so much to do inside, however the early evening we spent in the pub garden whilst the boys played in the park was nice.

Whilst we were away it was Daniels actual Birthday, he had a great day swimming & enjoying the rides & shows. In the evening we ordered the party package so or dinner table was decorated, he had a card from Billy Bear & a cake. This really made the day special & was worth the £14.99.

There was so many great things on resort, that we didn't get around to going on the beach until after the weather had turned. We did however find a dry (if a little windy) morning to visit the beach. Joseph (4.5) really loves everything to do with the beach so was in his element.

The same day the 2 (much older) girls who were in the apartment opposite us had also been on the beach & had collected rocks, shells, old coins, a toy solider & they had even caught 3 crabs (2 were tiny). They invited the boys to take a look before they took them back to the sea. They were in a washing up bowl & it was like a sea sensory box. Both boys loved this & enjoyed holding & watching the crabs, it was hard to tear them away.

They also enjoyed watching the Skyline Gang shows & were really thrilled to be able to meet some of them after the show. Daniel was to shy to go up to Candy (pink one), possibly because she was a girl!

Being on the go everyday really tired he boys out & even though they were in bed by 7/8 each night & slept well, its going to take them some time to recover. It was a really great family holiday & we are already thinking about booking again.

x Jo x

P.s. If you would like a more detailed review of Minehead Butlins why not check out Mummy Mishaps recent post.

Swans, Tadpoles & A Picnic

 On Fridays the boys go to pre-school just for the morning. Normally I pick them up & we go home for lunch. As the weather was looking good I thought we would take advantage & go for a picnic. 

I quickly packed a lunch before going to pick them up, I only had 15 mins so no time for anything fancy!

Ham sandwiches, seafood sticks, grapes, cucumber & a packet of wotsits for the boys to share. I'm having to be very good at the moment & stick to my Slimming World plan 100% after gaining 3.5lbs at Butlins (post to follow about our holiday).

Daniel was obviously tired after pre-school...

We went to a local nature reserve, the boys probably would have chosen one of our parks however I find the play equipment soon distracts them from their food! Even though the sun was shining on us, the wind was chilly, hence the coats.

After we had finished our lunch, we went over to feed the 'ducks'. There weren't any ducks today but a slightly over friendly swan came over to eat our bread. I think I saw the other one sat on a nest in the reads. Then along came a family of coots, daddy, mummy & 4 fluffy babies. Both Joseph (4.5) & Daniel (3) loved the babies & thought the were 'very coot'.

Next we went along the 'bridge', which is more of a raised walkway over some boggy grass/pond area. This area is perfect for frogs, so we went looking for some tadpoles.

 We saw a few here & there & it wasn't until the very end that we found a whole cloud (thanks goggle) of them. They were right at the edge which gave the boys a good view. I did get asked the question 'can we take one home?' so we might think about getting some frog spawn next year...

x Jo x