One of Me, Three of You

We spent the half term week in North Norfolk, which it turns out is a long way from Hampshire when navigating the M25 on a Friday! We stayed further east a couple of years ago and found there were lots of things to do with children so decided to have a return trip. I will write more about the trials and tribulations of holidays with three small boys but, for now, here is a list of the places we would recommend if you ever find yourself over that way. 1. Seal Watching from Morston Quay This activity was surprisingly successful - it was my husband's idea and I have to admit I wasn't convinced but it turned out to be everyone's favourite activity of the holiday. It didn't start off particularly well - when we arrived to get our tickets the crew were warning everyone that seal sightings had been slim the previous day. And the boat was looking pretty full as we stood waiting at the back of the queue. But there was plenty of space for us in the end and, it turned out,...

Our seasons table was a little unloved over the summer but now we're into autumn it's getting a lot more attention. Autumn is my favourite time of year for craft - I love the colours and being able to bring lots of things in from outside to use inside. And with the nights picking in and the boys less willing to spend time in the garden there is more time to fill after school. It is a mix of things that featured last year, our seasons table staples and a couple of new things for this autumn. As usual, I had plans to do a couple more things that I haven't got around to yet but there are a few more weeks until the brown of November and Martinmas takes over so there is still time. I discovered that my wool stores can cope with the reds, oranges and yellows of autumn but I have very little in the way of brown or any green that isn't bottle green! I made the little felt dragon one evening last year, after admiring some felt animals in a catalogue. I didn't feel ...

All three boys helped me make rainbow pasta after school today - lucky me! It was going pretty well until the bag of yellow pasta that W was shaking (whilst sat on the dining room table) came open and yellow pasta and paint went all over the chair and the floor. Luckily our Crayola washable paints lived up to their name and came off very easily!

I'm pleased to say that this week has involved significantly less poo than last week and long may it continue. T wasn't very well last week - over the previous weekend we had some pretty challenging trips to the toilet and he fell asleep on the sofa on Sunday morning for a couple of hours, unheard of for him. So nursery on Tuesday was out but I thought we were going to be alright for Thursday - oh, how wrong I was. We picked W up from school on Wednesday as usual then headed for the park - we've been making the most of the autumn sunshine before it gets too cold and dark to do things after school. For once I had managed to persuade them to walk a different way home - it is slightly longer but the normal school run gets pretty monotonous so I like the change. We got out the back of the park and T announced he needed a poo. Bother, I had been carrying the portapotty under the buggy since the weekend but must have taken it out when I put the buggy back in the car. Never mind...

I've been posting our tuff tray efforts on my Instagram page but thought I would do a round-up of the recent ones here. It's fair to say we haven't found another one as universally successful as the playdough cupcakes (and we ended up going back to that one earlier this week when T had a friend over) but they have all been played with to some extent. A is definitely enjoying being able to reach the tray and get hold of everything. As I have no plans to send him to nursery as I'm not going back to work this time I feel it's good to make a bit more effort with his sensory play! Our 'tuff tray Tuesday' a couple of weeks ago involved making little sailing boats from washing up sponges, skewers and paper sails. This one went down well although I hadn't thought through the felt tip decoration on the sails and it washed off as soon as the boats fell over on the tray! Coloured ice cubes always go down well - pink lego men, red puzzle pieces and blue fis...

A home birth as desired for child number two, not quite to plan with the midwives arriving shortly after my son!  I have a guest writer this week - my husband! He wrote up T's birth story a couple of years ago when I was producing our NCT branch newsletter and it seemed silly not to use it.  As I cycled through Charlton, I checked my watch. I’d left work later than planned and the journey home had been slow due to the wind. It was well past six which meant Laura will have had to do bath time alone – normally not an issue, but as she was now 39 weeks pregnant, the physical aspects made it much harder – not to mention the fact that she’d be tired by the combination of pregnancy and looking after an excitable 18 month old.  As the road bent round past the car boot sale field on the left, I remembered that it was also the first day of my London marathon training plan, and I was due to run 6 miles this evening. Although I’d rather have not gone out, I knew that I co...

Hooray - I finished another project! I found a pattern for rainbow nesting bowls and colour sorting balls earlier in the year here  (thanks to a link on a crafty Facebook group) and decided that I had to make them. I bought the wool at Easter when visiting my family in Devon - the colours aren't quite right to go with our Grimms rainbow things but I was too impatient to wait for wool to be ordered. (I probably could have waited another week or two for the wool as it's taken me six months to complete them!) I'm really pleased with how interested the smaller two boys are. A is starting to throw everything so having him throw some small crochet balls is a lot more acceptable than other toys he could choose. I might need to investigate whether I can do something to stiffen the bowls up though - he does like to screw the bowls up into balls as well!