Beating The Bank Holiday Blues

Bank holidays seem to follow suit throughout the year. With them comes rain, reruns on the TV and a whole lot of boredom for those fortunate enough to be off work. Whether you are watching you weight or not they bank holidays can also be a one way ticket to over eating and zero activity.

Check out the following info-graphic for some inspiration on ways you can keep those cravings at bay and do something productive.

What do you have planned this bank holiday? Whatever it is I hope you have a fun filled , productive day..

Bringing The Outside In

I would say the only thing I miss about moving from a house to a flat is my old garden. It was huge! Granted it was some what over grown in places and needed work but that didn't matter, we loved it all the same. I am lucky as I am in a ground floor flat and because its such a small block we do have a decent sized outdoor area, both grass and paved. So when were sent out a fantastic little gardening kit and asked to take part in the #KidsGrowWild Challenge, we happily agreed. 

Sadly the garden area has been flooded and needs some essential maintenance so we were unable to get outside, but that didn't stop us! We decided to make the most of a bad situation and bring the outside in and make our very own little garden on Eden. Aalliyah loved the idea of growing things that we could eat so we came up with ideas on what we could grow. It was a struggle as our garden was now a "windowsill" but nether the less we came up with some great choices. Granted some of them should be grown outdoors, but I've seen many a fine pepper or onion grown on a windowsill so thought why not give it a bash. 

Armed with her gloves and trowel Aalliyah was keen to get planting. 

We decided on some sweet strawberries, mini sweet red peppers, mixed chilies, tomatoes, rocket salad leaves and even a lucky shamrock plant. I wont say no to some good old Irish luck.
Aalliyah had a blast planting all the different seeds in their pots. We even made our own propagator lid using freezer bags, which Aalliyah simply sellotaped to the pots. Once the seeds were planted Aalliyah cut out the handy little labels which were included and wrote out her different plants so she could keep track of what was growing where.

 All that was left to do now was water them which Aalliyah had been itching to do the from the start, so she filled up her funky new watering can and gave them all a sprinkle. I could see how proud Aalliyah was of her efforts and know she must have felt a real sense of accomplishment. She is eager to watch how they grow and if our garden of Eden will bear any food.

This post is an entry for BritMums’ "#KidsGrowWild Challenge"

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel - Review

Sneaky snacky squirrel is another fantastic game from Learning Resources. Designed to help build up fine motor skills , easy enough for children to play from approximately 3 years old, but fun enough to still be enjoyed by children of any age and even by the parents too!

In a nut shell (pardon the squirrel related pun) the object of the game is to fill your piece of tree stump with one of each colour acorn. Players take it in turns to spin the spinner and follow the given instructions.

The first thing that struck me with this game was the box. I was so impressed with how funky it looked! Every single board game in Aalliyahs bedroom (and there's ALOT)  has a bog standard square box but this was so quirky and fun. I love the fact that the box was tree shaped, something so simple but immediately catches the attention of children and in my case the mums too!

I must admit when I quickly read the back of the box, I did have my reservations on weather or not the game would actually be as fun and or entertaining as it sounded and was worried it would be for a much younger audience. I do love being proved wrong...

Me and Aalliyah both had a whale of a time playing, and it didn't get boring even after the 6th or 7th time round. Aalliyah loved the squirrel shaped tongs that you had to use to pick up the acorns and loved the fact that I kept landing on the windy spot, which meant I had to put all my acorns back and start from scratch.

Overall I was extremely impressed with this game. I love the fact that it is so simple to follow and yet can entertain children of all ages. This game will fast become one of Aalliyahs favourites to pull out on rainy days.

If you fancy buying the game for yourself, why not head over to Learning Resources. Click on the following link where you will taken directly to there site where you can purchase Sneaky Snacky Squirrel as well as check out other products in their fantastic range.

Click Here To Buy Sneaky Snacky Squirrel

My little Picasso ..

Being totally rubbish at Art myself, I can only imagine that Aalliyah must get her arty skills from her Auntie (My sister) who is fantastic at art. I on the other hand can barely draw a stick man! :-)

Aalliyah has always been a huge fan of anything arty. I am always surrounded by sketches, painting, sculptures and models she has made. She has a huge art trunk bursting with pens, paints, sequins and more. She is constantly on the "Google" look out for fun crafty activities to do.

Obviously I have a totally biased opinion, but I think Aalliyah is very talented and will always encourage her with her art, weather she decides to continue with in in secondary school or not.

If you have any ideas of things to make and do, please leave a comment and we will check out your blog for some ideas. Or if you are an arty/crafy blog we would love to hear from you!