One of Me, Three of You

I'm new to blogging. So far my mum and my husband have read my blog so I thought I would have a go at increasing my readership by taking part in this month's Living Linky on Getting Active Outdoors with tots100. As usual I have left it right until the end of the month to write this, partly because life with three boys is pretty busy but mainly because I am a little nervous about putting myself out there.  Our new favourite hangout we have discovered this month is Blackbushe Airport. The first time

Feeling very proud of myself this week with the new noticeboard I made for the boys' room. I dismantled the old notice board, put together the new one and got it on the wall less than a week after the material had arrived - much faster than my usual completion rate!

We 'acquired' a couple of big pine cones from a very nice garden we frequent and finally got round to trying pom pom pine cones. The first time I got it out it led to hours of play for the boys. I gave them some tongs with the pom poms and pine cones as I had read about playing with tongs to help with fine motor skills and strengthening their muscles ready for writing. The tongs weren't so popular (I think they were a bit stiff to be fair) but once they had filled the pine cones with their hands they moved on to colour sorting with our Grimms rainbow boxes and then cooking and weighing on their wooden balancing scales. I had to get them to do the pine cones again the other day so I could take a photo!

We had a go at a Whitsun season table last week (prompted by a very useful email from Myriad) - I think the boys zoned in on the part about the table being white.

Crowns successfully constructed for the Royal Wedding Street Party last weekend, even if I spent longer making the gold crown shape than the boys spent decorating! W managed to win the crown competition with his crown with the flags - very impressed that he coped with the attention and went up to receive his prize.

I try very hard not to moan about the NHS as it is generally full of hard working people trying to do their best, but after a string of fairly average experiences I'm struggling! We went in to the doctor's surgery after school yesterday to get T his 3 year and 4 month jabs. We get to the front desk and the exchange with the receptionist goes something like this:

I discovered how to keep A happy before tea - give him half an apple (literally, T had eaten all of one side before stopping at the core) and let him get on with it. He is generally into anything that doesn't look like a baby toy. The best way of keeping him happy on the changing mat at the moment is to hand over a large bag of pistachios to crinkle and shake.

I have been saving egg cartons for about 18 months to try some craft activities with the boys. There are lots of good pictures on Pinterest and the like of people making egg carton caterpillars and trains. It turns out that it isn't as easy as it looks to attach them together with pipe cleaners and, at 3 and 4, the boys were fairly uninterested anyway. After I had a go, W turned the egg box lid into a boat for his lego men which was much more successful. 

We had another trip that didn’t quite go to plan at the weekend. I generally get quite grumpy if we spend all day at home and we needed some food so we had to go out but Mark was working so I thought we would have early lunch then head out for the afternoon. I obviously didn’t make the most of A’s three hour nap in the morning though and, despite my best efforts, we didn’t get out the house until 2pm. So we scaled down our plans and settled on a trip to the supermarket with a walk to the nearby park first to make it more appealing to the boys. I’m not sure what takes us so long to get out sometimes. I don’t feel like I am faffing but I do catch myself doing completely unnecessary things when I’m panicking about leaving on time, like rinsing out the glass recycling or folding clean nappies. It started raining about 30 seconds after we got out of the car.

The seasons table has been a bit neglected of late (since autumn if I'm honest as that is the easiest time of year to do!) but I'm keen to persevere before the boys are too old to be interested. Unusually the latest idea came from Mark - last week we cobbled together a maypole from an egg carton, a cheery pencil and some bits of ribbon. The gnomies are a bit lacking in hands so I had to tuck the ribbons under their hats (thought that was more appropriate than tying them round their necks!) but was quite pleased with our efforts.

The trouble with having more than one child is that when one of them seems to be on the up, someone else is having a tricky phase. I have been tentatively saying that things with W seem to be a bit calmer - he still has his moments but we seem to be dealing with school much better this term. I think I am generally feeling calmer and more accepting of my lot as well which helps. And at the same time T is having one of his three year old phases.

Most mornings I am glad that the bigger two are old enough to get themselves up and play in their room for a while so I don't have to start the day with quite such a bang. Although on days like these when they decide to recarpet their bedroom floor with the entire contents of their bookcase I could probably do without the extra few minutes in bed!

I felt quite a lot like supermum after our trip to Ikea last week - managed a baby in a carrier, a three year old close to the edge and a trolley full of dining room chair boxes. I turned down the offer of car park assistance from the lady at the checkout so quite pleased I managed it. Good job I bought a doormat to sit them on while I packed the car!

..of a carefully organised craft box. It won't last 30 seconds in the boys' hands but I'm pleased with my efforts!

Not the greatest picture, but this photo sums up the eating situation in our house at the moment. For our soft play trip last week I took a big Goodies bar for T and a little one for A - T decided he preferred the look of the little bar (a flavour he was always reluctant to eat as a baby) so swapped them over, he ate the little bar and A ate the big one.