Being Mrs C

Ladybird Tuesday: Lost at the Fair

29. July 2014 · 2 comments · Categories: Books, Ladybird Tuesday, Vintage · Tags: Ladybird books, Lost at the Fair, Old Ladybird Books, series 401, vintage Ladybird books

We’re jumping about a bit between the years here on Ladybird Tuesday as we’re going from the 1980s last week to a book that was first published in the 1940s – 1948 to be precise (although this is a 1970s reprint I think). Lost at the Fair is part of the Animal Rhymes series (series 401) which was a set of lovely stories, all written in verse, making them perfect to be read out loud to young children.

Lost at the Fair is the story of two little dormice whose mother is woken one morning by Mr Squirrel telling her that the fair has some to town. She wakes up her chidden and as soon as they hear the exciting news they bounce out of bed and rush to eat their breakfast before heading to the fair. On the way there they bump into another little mouse who has been left behind. Mrs Dormouse scoops him up and off they all go to the fair.

Once there they all have a lovely time winning coconuts and buying candy. Then they spot an elephant (possibly the done thing at fairs in the 1940s?) and Mrs Dormouse pays for them to all go for a ride on its back. The children are thoroughly enjoying their ride when one of them spots some acorns on a tree and greedily reaches out to pick them.

The acorns don’t budge and the little dormouse is left hanging there as the elephant plods on. Luckily a friendly blackbird comes to his aid and catches him by the tail before flying back to the fair with him and returning him to his mother.

It’s a lovely, if slightly strange, little tale, but the rhyming text makes it almost sing as you read it out loud. Such a different style of book to those 80s ones that I looked at last week, but still holding a lovely bit of Ladybird magic.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you’re feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thank you!

Summer 2014: Day 5 – Fun in Luton

28. July 2014 · 5 comments · Categories: Life, Master C, Shopping, Summer 2014, Toys · Tags: Aldi, Luton, Play-doh, shopping, toys

Yes, you did read that title correctly, and no it’s not one that I ever expected to write either.

When I started keeping track of what we’re getting up to this summer I did realise that we couldn’t go out and do an amazing day trip every day, and nor did I want to. Sometimes the simplest of things can be the most rewarding, and sometimes something that might have appeared very mundane actually turns out to be quite exciting.

We started today without any real plans and the only things that we had to get done were to get some food shopping in and to buy a birthday present for a little boy whose birthday party we’re going to tomorrow. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and do something a bit different so we all headed off in the car to Luton where I knew I’d be able to find our local branch of Toys R Us and also an Aldi supermarket.

Now when it comes to buying toys I tend to shop in our local independent toy shop most of the time and I just don’t let on to LMC about how many toys are actually out there. Today though she got an insight into what is really available and to say she was blown away was an understatement. Before we went in I’d given her very clear instructions that we were only going to come home with a gift for her friend and nothing else and she actually kept to that really well, but there was just so much for her to look at and marvel at. I think we were in there for over an hour in the end and if it hadn’t been for Master C getting a bit bored (only because I put him back in his buggy as he kept trying to run off) I think we might still be there. I too was pretty blown away by some of the huge Lego sets they had. Maybe I could start writing my own list for Father Christmas.

Then on to Aldi – after a bit of a detour when my SatNav took me to the wrong end of a very very long street. Here I have to say that I feel under the influence of the famous middle aisle and so when we came home our garden had a bit of a new attraction in it.

Still – the kids had a ball. I got to go somewhere new (can you tell I don’t get out much?) and actually they were both incredibly well behaved too. Master C seems to be going through a huge development spurt right now and it’s fascinating to see his behaviour and communications develop every single day. He’s turning into such a little boy and has been quite delightful today.

LMC’s also starting to really enjoy all her time at home and being able to have more time to play with her toys and generally do what she wants. This afternoon she opened the Play-doh that I’d bought in the morning (to replace our dried out supplies) and decided she wanted to create the car on the packaging. Bearing in mind her age (and ignoring the fact I made the wheels) I’m really rather impressed with her end result.

Where Bear? – Sophy Henn

28. July 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: Children's Books · Tags: children's books, puffin books, soppy henna, vintage, Where bear

There are some children’s books that I love. Ones that I remember fondly from my own childhood and ones that I know my children have loved and that I’ve enjoyed sharing with them. It’s rare though to fall completely and utterly in love with a children’s book on first reading, but that’s exactly what happened with Where Bear? by new writer and illustrator Sophy Henn.

There’s an old fashioned simplicity that’s just utterly perfect in Where Bear? and the vintage style of the illustrations had me at first thinking that this must be a re-publication of a much-loved old title. The beauty of it combined with it being a hardback book really makes it perfect as a gift for someone.

As for the story, well “Once there was a bear who lived with a little boy…” and they became the best of friends. However, bears don’t stay small, cute and cuddly for ever and bear grows a bit too big to live in the little boy’s house any more. So, together they set off to find somewhere new for bear to call home. It’s a lovely story of their friendship, but also has so much in it to interest children and spark questions from them.

Little Miss C absolutely loved the story and we chatted away lots about so many of the pictures in the book. Master C (nearly 2) also enjoyed it, but more just to be able to shout “bear” at every page and point at the pictures. It’s aimed at ages 3+ which seems about right, although I think younger siblings would also enjoy it if you’re reading it together.

It’s lovely to find a new author and illustrator with such a gorgeous old fashioned style and I’m fascinated to see what she comes up with next.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Where Bear? for the purposes of this review. This post contains affiliate links.

Where Bear? Written and illustrated by Sophy Henn is published by Puffin in hardback on 7th August 2014.

Summer 2014: Days 3 & 4 – A weekend without Daddy

28. July 2014 · 9 comments · Categories: Days Out, Little Miss C, Master C, Summer 2014, Travel · Tags: days out, loom bands, tea, travel, visiting friends, Weekend, weekend without daddy

It’s been a bit of a funny old weekend in that most of it didn’t feel like a weekend at all. Mr C’s been away in the Netherlands at a wedding, and without him about it’s kind of made the days merge into last week a bit, and it certainly hasn’t given me the break that I so need by the end of a busy week, especially when we’re in the school holidays.

The first alarm went off at 2.50am on Saturday morning for Mr C to get up for a 6am flight to Amsterdam and combining that with a couple of wake-ups from Master C – who was struggling with the heat – it meant that Saturday started feeling pretty exhausted. I’d planned another road trip for us, but this time we headed north-ish to Cambridge to visit the lovely Liz from Cambridge Mummy and her boys.

I’ve got to know Liz online over the last couple of years and we’ve gradually got to know each other in person over the last year or so, mainly at blogging conferences but also making time for a child-free coffee a couple of months ago – a rare treat for both of us. I’m delighted to now be able to report that like all fine Northerners Liz can make a mighty fine cup of tea and it was lovely to just be able to sit and chat to her whilst all the children played together. I did realise on the way home that there were several conversations that we never got round to finishing, but I’m trying to just look on that as an excuse to have to meet again.

Saturday night wasn’t exactly my favourite part of the weekend. Master C has a bit of an obsession with taking his nappy off whenever he’s in bed at the moment, so I think I had to go and put it back on for him about once an hour Saturday night. Little Miss C also had a bit of an over-tired melt-down over the exact positioning of her duvet on her bed. Needless to say the heat (over 20 degrees at midnight!) really didn’t help matters. Nor did my grumpy mood caused my Mr C having a somewhat different expectation from me as to what “keeping in touch” means when he’s away having fun and I’m left at home with the kids.

Luckily Sunday started off a bit better and the morning was just spent mooching around at home, playing in the garden, catching up with laundry and watching TV. It was also when LMC decided that she needed to learn how to make her own loom band bracelets. Thanks to a bit of You Tube help, the loom I reviewed last year for Cuthberts and the loom bands that I’d been sent in my goodie box from Craft Merrily she actually did quite well. She’s only 4 so I wasn’t sure quite how much to expect from her, but she managed to put all the bands on the loom for a simple design and then I just did all the looping over for her. It still gave her a good sense of ownership of the whole thing though – and massively helped to develop her patience and manual dexterity. She’s got grand plans now for her next bracelet designs and I’ve got tips to go and look up how you make them without a loom too, so I don’t think this is going to be the end of her loom band experiments.

After an early lunch I packed the kids up in the car and headed round the M25 to Gatwick to pick up Mr C with the hope that we could squeeze in a quick trip somewhere to allow the kids some important “daddy time” before he went back to work on Monday morning. In that way that things so often go wrong it took us an absolute age to get to Gatwick thanks to there just being loads of traffic and then when we got to the airport we discovered his flight was late and then when it did finally land they couldn’t find a gate for it for ages. There’s not exactly much to do to amuse two young children in North Terminal arrivals – short of walking up and down outside and bus spotting! LMC has decided that she likes airports and flying though and spent a large part of the car journey and our time walking up and down telling me about the places around the world that she wants to travel to. Completely suits me – I just think we’d better start saving soon!

Once Daddy was back we quickly headed to Polesden Lacey, a nearby National Trust property, where we had a quick run around and an ice cream before they shut. It wasn’t quite a full day out, but the kids enjoyed themselves and reconnected with their Daddy which was important as I think they’d both really missed him. After that we did something that was actually quite daring for us. We went out for dinner. With the kids!

I should caveat all this by saying that it was only Pizza Express in nearby Dorking, but just being able to go out on a whim like this is something that I’ve been wanting to do for ages. Yes, it was touch with Master C, but it seems that we happened on somewhere where loads of local families go for tea and for once Master C wasn’t the loudest child in there. OK, so he didn’t eat much, but he did try dough balls for the first time ever, and even ate a bit of my pizza crust. He threw things, but luckily mainly the paper they’d given him to colour in, and we’d managed to find a table that was somewhat separate from everyone else, so hopefully we didn’t disturb them too much. For the first time he actually enjoyed doing some stickers (something that was always a life saver with LMC) and he also stayed in his highchair for a large part of the meal. In other words it was a resounding success and gives me so much more confidence about going on holiday next week. I don’t want to pin too many hopes on this, but fingers crossed that we’re (slowly) turning a corner. I’d certainly never realised that I’d be so excited by a pizza out.

So that was our weekend. Nothing hugely exciting, but some memories made and some definite milestones reached too. So, what did you get up to on the first weekend of the holidays?

#RealMumsAllBran 5-Day Challenge

27. July 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink · Tags: #RealMumsAllBran, All Bran, breakfast, breakfast cereal

I’ll let you in on a bit of a secret. I’m a breakfast cereal addict. I love the stuff. The sweet ones. The healthy ones. The ones that turn the milk chocolately. The whole lot. When I’m home alone my guilty pleasure is a bowl before bed, and it’s rare that a morning passes when I don’t have a bowl of some cereal. When I heard that BritMums were looking for bloggers to take part in the #RealMumsAllBran 5-Day Challenge I stuck my hand in the air instantly.

The way the challenge worked is that we were sent three All-Bran flavours (Golden Crunch, Red Berry Crunch and new Chocolate Wheats) and we were asked to try them for five consecutive days to see if I noticed a difference in my general digestive well-being. You see all that fibre that you get from All-Bran is perfect to help your tummy feel good and to put an end to that bloated feeling that so many of us get. A huge 52% of 1000 women studies experience digestive complaints and as 90 to 95 % of the “happy” hormone serotonin being made in the gut it’s no wonder that so many of us feel a bit down and sluggish.

Now I should admit that recently I have been eating quite a lot of Bran Flakes at breakfast time as I was finding that they were making me feel so much better – and, bizarrely I thought, making me feel generally happier. To try to make this a fair test I gave up the bran flakes (just writing that makes them sound like some sort of a happy drug!)for a few days first, and those sluggish feelings crept back.

I love the 5-day challenge and definitely found myself feeling better again. I lost that bloated feeling and felt so much happier, despite it being in a rather busy week.

I think it’s a sign of how much I gained from the challenge when I was posting this picture on Instagram on day 6.

It may have just been a five day #realmumsallbran challenge, but on day 6 I’m still eating it and love this one.

I liked all three flavours, but have to admit that the Golden Crunch was probably my favourite. The texture was one that I hadn’t had in any other breakfast cereal and I really liked the crunch it had. The Red Berry one adds an extra fruity dimension that I also like, but for some reason I can’t put my finger on I just don’t want that every day.

As with so many things like this I finished the boxes that I’d been sent and then went back to eating whatever other cereal we had in the kitchen cupboard. Just a few days later I noticed that the sluggish feeling was back again and I was starting to feel all bloated and just not happy in the tummy department. The next shop I did I picked up some more of the Golden Crunch and the Red Berry Crunch and hey presto – happy tummy and happy Mrs C again.

Needless to say I’m pretty sure I know what my breakfast is going to look like from now on. Certainly the sign of a positive review is when you go and spend your own money on the product after trying it for free first!

Disclaimer: This post is an entry for the Real Mums of All-Bran Linky Challenge, sponsored by Kelloggs. Details of the 5-day challenge can be found here.

Summer 2014: Day 2 – Old friends and new experiences

25. July 2014 · 3 comments · Categories: Days Out, Summer 2014 · Tags: Children, days out, London, London Zoo, summer

In the middle of the usual morning rush of trying to get up and through the shower before the kids awoke (which I failed at thanks to Little Miss C’s 6.30am wake up!) I’m pretty sure I heard Chris Evans say something about thunderstorms and torrential rain in London today. There was other stuff going on so I asked Mr C. Nope, he had no recollection of hearing it, so I just kind of forgot about the weather forecast. Bit of a big mistake it seems when you’re having a day out with the kids.

An old university friend of mine is currently over from China with his wife and one year old son, so we’d arranged to meet with them and other mutual friends at London Zoo. A perfect place for us as it’s easy to drive to and as we’re ZSL members (using Whipsnade regularly) we got free entry to the zoo itself and just had to pay for the parking (which was less than the train and tube would have been – and also much less hassle with two kids). So with the car packed with everything we might need (or so I thought) and a picnic lunch (thinking thrifty) off we headed.

I had a great time catching up with friends and Little Miss C had a ball with another girl who is only a year older than she is. Master C had a good run around – even if he did completely ignore several no entry signs and enjoy exploring a service area behind part of the Tiger enclosure before I caught up with him! – and seemed to enjoy seeing lots of animals that he recognised. It was a good opportunity to test out some of the words that he knows and also interesting to see how he interacted with people that he’d not met before.

As well as having fun it was also a pretty challenging day. Looking after two enthusiastic kids in a busy place like London Zoo can be hard work, but with Master C’s meal time “issues” I just knew that trying to eat with our friends in the restaurant would be pretty much impossible – hence taking a picnic with us. It made me feel rather sad though waving goodbye to them at lunchtime as we instead went and sat at a picnic bench in the kids play area and I tried to get Master C to eat any of the range of things I’d taken with me. In the end I think he just had a picnic egg, but I suppose that’s better than nothing. What he did do though was thoroughly enjoy the play area there. Once he’d mastered the smaller bit (aimed at under 5s) he then moved on to the over 5s one and impressed me as he managed a cargo net bridge with only small amounts of input from me. I swear that boy was a monkey in a former life!

Over lunch we felt a few spots of rain but it was in the early afternoon when the thunderclaps started and the heavens really opened. It probably wasn’t ideal that I chose to wear a white T-shirt today… We spent quite a while sheltering in the tunnel that connects that two sides of the zoo and then made a dash for the Aquarium for some indoor fun. As well as seeing the fish LMC and her new friend also found a desk area which they sat behind and suddenly they were role playing a zoo information desk and then a cafe serving cups of tea and ice creams to tired mums and dads. I love it watching kids use their imaginations like this.

We bailed out after the aquarium and decided to head back north before we ran the risk of Friday evening traffic on the M1. Both kids crashed out once we were on the road and I had the luxury of ten minutes sheltering from the rain and listening to the radio when I got home whilst they snored sweetly behind me. Us busy mums have to take any moments we can for “me time”.

So all in all a busy day and it’s left me feeling shattered. Adding to that exhausted feeling is the knowledge that our alarm is going to be going off before 3 tomorrow morning for Mr C to head to the airport for a crazy early flight to go to a wedding in The Netherlands. This is going to be fun…

Summer 2014: Day 1 – Crafts and contradictions

24. July 2014 · 4 comments · Categories: Life, Little Miss C, Master C, Summer 2014 · Tags: childhood, crafting, hama beads, photography, School holidays, summer, Summer holidays

It’s funny how just yesterday morning we were getting up to do yet another school run, yet this morning school runs almost felt like they were in another lifetime. Little Miss C has fully embraced the idea of getting up and not having to put her school uniform on and in that sod’s law kind of way she bounced out of bed without any encouragement at 7.15am and by 7.30 was dressed and raring to go. School morning’s normally take lots of me hurrying her along and yet the morning I don’t need her to get up on time she does!

Thursday is the girls day here as Master C goes off to nursery for the day, so in that as it was a nice easy start to the holiday. LMC was keen to get stuck into the craft stuff the came from Craft Merrily yesterday and so I let her do exactly that this morning. It was her first proper attempt at following a Hama beads pattern and she actually did OK until something else caught her attention.

She was very keen to try out the gel crayons, despite my best attempts to save them for Master C. Having had a very quick play myself I think these would be idea for him as they really don’t require much pressure to be applied to use them. I managed to make rather a nice effect with them, but LMC was keen to press down as hard as possible, leaving a bit of a sticky mess and a now blue oilcloth tablecloth in her wake. She had lots of fun though!

The other thing that kept her very amused was playing with the camera that we were sent last year as part of a kids’ summer photography challenge. Not only was she busy snapping away around the house, but she also documented the whole car journey to the supermarket and all the clothes that I looked at whilst we were there. Much to the amusement of the staff running the M&S changing rooms today I did finally manage to convince her that taking photos of everyone in there wasn’t such a good idea. She did get plenty of old people stopping her to give her photography tips though which confused her slightly.

Thursday is also the day that LMC goes to her swimming lesson – something that she’s started to love again in recent weeks. Sadly today’s lesson was disrupted somewhat by the lifeguard spotting a suspect brown object on the pool floor and evacuating it for a “poo check”. Luckily one dad who was swimming with his family was pretty convinced that it wasn’t one and once they’d raised the pool floor up happily scooped it up in his hand and demonstrated that it was only a leaf. Still – five minutes of lesson wasted and it ruined the flow of the lesson for the kids somewhat too.

The day went somewhat downhill from there. I had a meeting scheduled at Master C’s nursery to talk to the staff about him and that threw up some real contradictions from our trip to the paediatrician yesterday. I finished yesterday thinking that I was somewhat on top of everything, but then it turns out that behaviours that I was worried about at home aren’t demonstrated at nursery at all, and things that he does or doesn’t do at home are actually opposite to what he does at nursery, giving them concerns that I didn’t have before. Suddenly it’s all got much more complicated that I thought and the rest of my evening tonight is going to be busy researching other things that I thought I didn’t need to worry about. Ho hum.

Combining this feeling of everything being different to our expectations yesterday with the heat we’ve had today and the kids’ exhaustion meant that bedtime tonight was a bit fraught, but we survived. Even if we did turn to cider immediately afterwards.

Tomorrow I’m going to brave taking them both to London in this heat to meet with an old friend. This could go one of two ways…

Summer 2014: Day 0 – School’s out for summer!

23. July 2014 · 7 comments · Categories: Life, Summer 2014 · Tags: childhood, Craft Merrily, crafts, Play, School holidays, Splash Park, Summer holidays, Westons Wyld Wood

Well that’s it. Final school run done. Book bag assigned to the cupboard. School uniform all in the laundry basket Cute teddy bear gift from her teacher (another example of just how much I love this school!) cuddled up in bed with her as she’s drifted off to sleep. Little Miss C’s first year at our local infant school and her time as a pre-schooler is finished.

Whist in a way I did feel a bit sad dropping her off for the last time this morning to the pre-school class room I also shared the excitement that she felt for what is to come. A summer “playing with my toys” and “lots of sleep and films” is what LMC seems excited about – along with a trip to sleep on a farm (we’re visiting Coombe Mill next month too). I had been dreading the holiday somewhat, but now it’s here I’m really hoping to turn things around and use our time together to have fun and make some memories.

Now I’m one of those people who when asked on a Monday morning what we got up to over the weekend really has to stop and think. And on one occasion even consult my diary as I was sure we hadn’t just stayed at home all weekend, but I was damned if I could actually remember what we’d done or where we’d been. I’m determined not to let this happen this summer, so I’m planning to document our whole summer. What we’ve been up to, the games we’ve played, the crafts we’ve done and the places we’ve been.

It seems somewhat appropriate that the day that’s kicked off the holidays is also the one on which we took Master C to the hospital to see the paediatrician about all the problems we’ve been having with him. As expected, there was no magic answer, but her views did align very clearly with my own, especially after everything I’ve learnt from talking to fellow blogger Joy and reading her amazing blog The Sensory Seeker. It’s likely to be a long journey with blood tests, more appointments and I’m sure plenty of frustrations, but at least I now feel like it’s not all in my head and hopefully we’re now in a system to get some of the help and support that I think we need.

It’s not just been a day of hospital visits though. LMC finished school at 1pm and we then headed down to the local splash park where the pair of them ran around with LMC’s school friends and their siblings. They both had an absolute ball and it was so lovely seeing Master C enjoying his first visit there and being so so confident despite all the much older children running around too. It was also wonderful to see LMC spending time with the friends that she has made at school over this last year. She’s grown so much in confidence in that time and even just this last week again seems to have come on in leaps and bounds.

I’m yet to really plan our summer, but a couple of things have fallen into the calendar over the next week or so that the kids are looking forward to, and we’ve able been fortunate in that I’ve just teamed up with the wonderful Craft Merrily to be one of their crafting social media champions over the summer. Craft Merrily is where we buy all our Hama bead kits and boards and we’re all really excited to be working with them – wonderful customer service, great range, competitive prices, fair postage costs and speedy dispatch and delivery. And I would have happily said all that last week too. Today the postman brought us a wonderful box of goodies to play with and share on social media and not only did it contain some of our beloved Hama beads, but also some Fimo (which is completely new to us), loom bands, a Melissa and Doug stamp kit and some Staedtler gel crayons which look perfect for Master C. LMC is beyond excited.

So that’s the kids entertained, but luckily a bit later another delivery driver turned up with something to make Mr C happy – 16 litres of Westons Wyld Wood organic cider to review. Bingo! I’m sat here with my first glass right now and I’m pretty impressed. Watch out for a full review later in the summer – probably not immediately after we’ve drunk it all!

Day 0 complete then and just 41 days to go before the alarm will wake us and the uniform goes back on. In a way it seems like an eternity, but at the same time I’m sure it will fly by. Lots to do, lots we want to do, and lots of adventures to have. I hope you’ll join us for the ride.

Kids go free with CBeebies Magazine #CBeebiesMagKidsGoFree

22. July 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: Days Out, Thrifty, Thrifty Mrs C · Tags: Alton Towers, Chessington, days out, Kids go free, Legoland, money saving, Sealife, thrifty, Warwick Castle

There’s no denying it any longer – the summer holidays are here and across the country parents are desperately trying to come up with ways to entertain their little ones without blowing the household budget in the process. School holidays are perfect for days out, but it’s not a cheap thing to do. Entry ticket prices can seem very high and then you also need to contemplate the costs of getting there, plus refreshments whilst there (unless you’re thrifty enough to bring a picnic). Help is at hand though as CBeebies magazine have teamed up with Merlin Entertainments for a summer long campaign where parents can save up to £355 on top kids’ attractions across the UK with their kids go free promotion.

Every issue from 16th July until 7th October will contain two vouchers for children to go free to a different attraction – ranging from Legoland to Chessington World of Adventure and Sealife. Bearing in mind that the CBeebies magazine only costs £2.99 per issue, it’s a brilliant investment to save a whole load more money. Add on the fact that the magazine’s actually fantastic for children too – packed with great educational activities and loads of stickers, making it ideal to keep children busy during the car journey to the attraction.

Here’s the full list of which vouchers are available when.

Issue 409 (16^th July) – Sealife Centres and Seal sanctuaries – Save £39 (£19.50 per ticket)
Issue 410 (30^th July) – Chessington World of Adventures – Save £68 (£34 per ticket)
Issue 411 (13^th Aug) – Alton Towers Resort inc. CBeebies Land – Save £86.40 (£43.20 per ticket)
Issue 412 (27^th Aug) – Warwick Castle – Save £39.60 (£19.80 per ticket)
Issue 413 (10^th Sept) – Legoland and Legoland Discovery Centre – Save £82.80 (£41.40 per ticket)
Issue 414 (24^th Sept) – Sealife Centres and Seal sanctuaries – Save £39 (£19.50 per ticket)

Full terms and conditions will be in the CBeebies magazine each fortnight, along with the dates for which the vouchers are valid.

If you’re planning to be out and about this summer (and into the autumn) with your children then CBeebies magazine will most definitely save you money.

Disclaimer: Compensation has been received for this post.

Ladybird Tuesday: my day

22. July 2014 · 15 comments · Categories: Books, Ladybird Tuesday, Vintage

I’m going through an 80s phase with Ladybird books at the moment. After ignoring all the glossy covered ones for years I’m suddenly finding some absolute gems in charity shops and in a big pile that a friend passed on recently. I thought I’d got my collecting habit nicely limited, but it seems maybe not.

Series 833 was called Toddler Books and they’re just perfect for Master C now that’s heading towards his second birthday. Now I think there were seven books in this series, but I have to admit that I’m not totally sure. I originally picked up one of these for 20p when Master C showed an interest in it – mainly as it had a digger on the cover – but I’m now actively trying to seek them out.

My day is a lovely little book to simply show a toddler what their day looks like in terms of the regular things that they do. Published in 1983 the day has changed a bit for some children, especially in terms of parents working or how often children go on trips out, but the basic shape of the day is very similar.

Obviously there’s no mention of toddlers being given an iPad to amuse themselves with whilst mum (or dad) cooks dinner or does some other job around the house, but I do find it quite interesting to see how much more children appeared to just get on and play without requiring input from their parents. Or maybe it’s just my children who demand my time a lot! I love this picture of a typical morning scene though. My only chance of a hot cup of tea in a morning is getting up before they wake – and even then it doesn’t always happen!

Being taken to the supermarket to do a “big shop” was often quite an event for toddlers. I certainly remember being taken round the supermarket like this.

Somehow it seems that if I try “being busy” with anything it’s a guarantee that one or both children will need my attention right then. Normally as one of them’s decided to do something dangerous, whilst the other one screams at me so I notice. Yet, if I’m trying to get them upstairs for bath time suddenly they’re capable of playing nicely on their own for as long as I’ll let them. Funny that. Did this not happen in the 80s then?

With a little one who still refuses his food, it’s actually quite nice to see similar happening in this picture – although to be honest if someone who looked as creepy as that was trying to spoon feed me something I think I’d refuse too!

How can you not fall completely in love with a bit of 80s nostalgia like this?

Ladybird Tuesday: Lost at the Fair

Summer 2014: Day 5 – Fun in Luton

Where Bear? – Sophy Henn

Summer 2014: Days 3 & 4 – A weekend without Daddy

#RealMumsAllBran 5-Day Challenge

Summer 2014: Day 2 – Old friends and new experiences

Summer 2014: Day 1 – Crafts and contradictions

Summer 2014: Day 0 – School’s out for summer!

Kids go free with CBeebies Magazine #CBeebiesMagKidsGoFree

Ladybird Tuesday: my day

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