Father's Day is fast approaching (15th June this year here in the UK) and so it's the perfect time for children to find a book to share with their dad and to help them realise just what makes their Dad so special. My Amazing Dad is exactly that book. Snip the crocodile isn't too sure what his dad does all day. His best friend Max's dad swings through the jungle. Stripe the zebra's Dad is the best at hiding. Trunkle the elephant's dad can spray water higher than the tallest trees. Max, Stripe and Trunkle all want to be like their dads when they grow up. But what about Snip and his dad? Is he ... read more
The Sleepy Train – Mark Marshall
I've said it many time on here, but I love books that promote conversation and prompt Little Miss C to ask questions and discover new things. The Sleepy Train is a sweet book in which Bear and his friends take a journey on the sleepy train all the way to the Land of Nod. Written in rhyming couplets it's got a good rhythm to read out loud at bedtime and has lovely illustrations with lots for young children to recognise and spot, especially in terms of animals. I did have to explain the whole concept of the Land of Nod to LMC as it was a phrase that she wasn't at all familiar with. What ... read more
The Mouse Who Ate the Moon – Petr Horacek
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind about the benefits of reading with young children. In fact, Chris Evans wrote about it beautifully in the run up to last week's 500 words competition that he ran on Radio 2 in conjunction with the Hay Festival. I love reading with my children, not just at bedtime, but what fascinates me most is how their thoughts and questions are influenced by what we've been reading. So often we'll be reading one book and Little Miss C will reference back to another one and talk about how they're similar or different. She'll even spot themes that I haven't even really ... read more
Sticky peacock and dragonfly crafting with Bostik
I'm going to be honest and say that half term here wasn't exactly a roaring success. Combined with grotty weather we also had Master C come down with a dose of hand, foot and mouth disease. As a result he woke up pretty much every hour, every night bar two in the whole 10 days. He wasn't eating and was super cranky. That crankiness passed on to his parents, who in turn were probably a bit short tempered than they should have been with Little Miss C. Overnight roadworks on the road which we live on added to the night-time woes but at least provided some evening entertainment through the front ... read more
The Color Run London 2014
The start may have been slow - 75 minutes after the published start time we finally crossed the start line! - but we did it and we had a ball. The Color Run London 2014 can most definitely be classed as well and truly done on life's list. Five km round the streets of Wembley in north London on a very hot Sunday afternoon, and every kilometre marker we passed resulted in another colour of paint being thrown at us. In the colour zones it all went a bit mad. Not only were there official paint throwers, but runners were scooping up handfuls of paint from the road and throwing it around. ... read more
seven days
Way, way back here on Being Mrs C, I used to do a weekly look back over the last seven days and saving a special moment from the week. For some reason it seemed to come to an end in the busy few months before Master C's birth. Now just seems like the right time to bring it back. The wonder and magic of a first trip on a fairground ride. A weekly photograph capturing one of the magic moments of the last seven days. ... read more
Remembering why I’m running
I promised no more running talk until The Color Run is over, and I'm going to keep to that. However seeing as it is TOMORROW (argh!) I do just want to take a few moments to reflect on exactly why I agreed to this challenge. As I said when I took this all on, the Save the Children Bloggers conference back in February really inspired me to try to help people less fortunate than myself. Hearing of the work that Save the Children do all around the world is both shocking and fantastic in equal measure. Just this last week they have published their latest report, A Fair Start for Ever Child, ... read more
Disney’s Sleeping Beauty
As I'm sure regular readers will know, I'm a huge fan of all sorts of children's vintage stuff, especially books, but I also love introducing my children to some of the television programmes and films that I also remember watching as a child. Little Miss C has really taken to some of the older stuff and regularly asks for specific films or DVDs to be put on when she wants to watch them. I was therefore really pleased to hear that Disney were re-releasing their classic Sleeping Beauty on DVD and Blue-ray. It was 1959 when this film was originally released, and it holds it's own bit of Disney ... read more
Couch to 5k – so nearly there!
Yesterday's post brought two exciting packages. First my race number, and t-shirt for The Color Run which is happening THIS SUNDAY and then also my race number for the main 5km race that I'm doing in St Albans just one week later. Suddenly this is all feeling very, very real! The good news is that all my training seems to be on track. On Saturday I finished the Couch to 5k training programme with a 30 minute run (sandwiched between two 5 minute walks) at the National Trust's Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire. It was my first time running there and in away it felt strange not going ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Helping at Home
This original Ladybird Tuesday post has now been revised and is over on Penny Reads. You can find it here. ... read more