Book review - Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr

This year marks the 90th birthday of children's author Judith Kerr OBE, and to celebrate her classic book Mog the Forgetful Cat (affiliate link) has been published in a special hardback edition. Mog the Forgetful Cat was first published in 1970, and I remember it from my own childhood. I've enjoyed reading The Tiger that Came to Tea by Judith Kerr with Harry, and I have loved sharing this story about Mog with him too.

The story is about Mog the cat, who is very forgetful. She often forgets things like how to get back into the house, or whether or not she has eaten her dinner, and this means that the rest of the family find her rather annoying. She always seems to be in trouble, until one night her forgetfulness comes in very useful!

I love the classic illustrations in the book with their depictions of milk floats, a black and white television and period furniture. There's plenty to talk about as you go along, and plenty to smile about too. A lovely book to share with your child!

I received a copy of Mog the Forgetful Cat to review, links are Amazon affiliate links.

Bean bag comet with ribbons

I was looking for a simple sewing project when I found these bean bag comets. I first saw them over at Entertaining Monsters and followed back to the original tutorial at Twig and Toadstool. I'm not very good at sewing, I lack the ability to make neat stitches in a straight line, but even I managed to make one. I was actually able to complete it during one of Mia's rare, short naps, and if you have a sewing machine you could make these up very quickly.

I was recently lucky enough to win the monthly prize from the PinAddicts challenge which was a voucher to spend at Abakhan. Never having bought fabric before I thoughtthat  I'd treat myself to a fat quarter of pretty flowered fabric, and I've used some of it to make this bean bag. I will admit that the fabric I used was my least favourite in the selection, but it reminds me a little bit of garden furniture so it's a good choice for a garden toy! I've never bought ribbon before but I seem to have loads of it, I hoard it from chocolate boxes and other gifts, and so I easily found some in co-ordinating colours. I used rice to fill the bean bag.

I was really, really pleased with this project. Like I say, I'm not really a sewer, and yet this was so quick and easy to make. I have another sewing project in mind, and this success has inspired me to make a start!

Ladybird Tuesday: A First Book of Aesop's Fables

I love Ladybird books, and I've been meaning to take part in Ladybird Tuesday at Being Mrs C for ages. Recently I cleared out Harry's bookshelves and shifted all the baby and toddler books into Mia's room. This left a huge space that was looking a bit sad, so I raided my own bookshelves and filled the gaps with the few Ladybird books that I have. I realised at this point that I need more in my life, so I'm going to start hunting them down in charity shops, and I decided to start writing about one that I purchased fairly recently - A First Book of Aesop's Fables.

Like most Ladybird books, this one particularly stood out to me in the charity shop where I found it because of the illustrations. This book was published in 1974 and is part of series 740 - Classics. Aesop's Fables are a collection of tales attributed to Aesop, a slave and story teller who is believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. You can read more about Aesop and his fables here, they are basically a collection of short stories, each teaching a moral lesson.

I was quite familiar with some of the fables, for example "The shepherd boy and the wolf" and "The goose that laid the golden eggs". Each story is very short, only a couple of pages long, with several illustrations and the moral clearly signposted at the end.

The stories are very simply written, and would be a good starting point for discussion with a child about different moral issues. I'll definitely be reading them through with Harry, and it would also be a good book for us to look at when he is learning to read as the stories are so short and manageable.

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Orlando, Florida

The first thing that you notice about the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Odditorium on International Drive in Orlando is the unusual building, which is tipping to one side. Apparently the entire building is falling into a Florida sinkhole! Although that fact might not be strictly true, the building is full of things which really are genuine, even though they might seem unbelievable.

We visited with our four year old son and nearly two year old daughter. You take a self-guided tour around the museum, which is crammed full of interesting, eclectic exhibits. My children's favourite item was this car, which has been customised with different musical instruments attached in a variety of ways. It was designed as a performance piece of art, and I can imagine how much fun it must be when taken out and about. Although I'm not sure what sort of a racket it would make, it was noisy enough with just my two bashing away at it!

An enormous chair was another hit, with both children desperate to clamber on top of it. We loved that so many of the exhibits were interactive and captured the interest of both young children. There was plenty for them to touch and explore, like the strange room where snooker balls run uphill, and an interactive whiteboard with flowing water that you could direct around the screen by positioning magnetic shapes. They also loved the rotating tunnel at the end which makes you feel as though you are falling over, initial apprehensiveness led to eager excitement as they ran round and round over and over again.

My four year old did find some of the rooms a bit intimidating, so we rushed him past those, in particular a pretend dungeon with some torture equipment. The two year old was too young to notice anything scary, and had a delightful time exploring.

I'd definitely recommend Ripley's Believe it or Not! for a visit, and not just if you have children, it is a fascinating and enjoyable place to visit for adults too.

We received two adult complimentary admissions to Ripley's Believe it or Not!, we paid for the rest of our party.

Making a sticker book

I recently saw this sticker story book idea over at Nurture Store and I thought it was a lovely idea, I knew that Harry would enjoy making his own story book. To start with I made him a simple folded book from a sheet of A4 paper using instructions similar to these - Make a six page book out of one piece of paper.

Then I found a selection of different stickers and let him stick them on to the pages. We did one page at a time, and as we went along he told me the story and I wrote it down. We ended up with a long, involved story about a cat and the things that it saw in the pond and over a hedge.

I love these little insights into Harry's mind and the things that his imagination comes up with. We'll definitely be making more of these!

How our holidays have changed since children came along

My husband and I love to travel, and we've been lucky enough to enjoy some fantastic holidays all around the world. When we were booking a holiday for just the two of us, we always avoided booking all inclusive package holidays because we preferred to do our own thing. Although everything was booked in advance, we would make our own way to and from accommodation, and all the different elements were booked separately.

Of course it's a lot easier to be so independent when you don't have small children to worry about, and since we started taking family holidays we discovered that a stay at an all inclusive resort is what works best for us at the moment. We've had two very successful family holidays in Lanzarote at a lovely resort, and knowing that all your food is provided is much easier than having to find somewhere to eat out every evening. You can also enjoy included facilities and entertainment, and if you don't do too many day trips out you know that most of your holiday costs have already been paid for before you leave.

Another big change to our holiday routine is due to come about very soon. We've always done our best to avoid school holidays when booking any break away. Unfortunately, with Harry starting school in September it's going to cause us a few problems. Our local authority is very strict with regard to taking children out of school during term time, and so we are going to have to brave the extra cost associated with a break away during school holidays. The prices can be shockingly high, so it's going to make sense to look out for some summer holiday deals. We've been doing a bit of preliminary research, and it does seem that there are offers around if you are prepared to be flexible and wait until the last minute before you book. There are also of course some places that are less popular than others, so I can see us visiting a variety of new and interesting destinations over the next few years!

I'd love to hear any tips for making going away during the school holidays a bit cheaper, there must be some way of doing it!

Our playdough ice cream parlour

Harry is always asking for "a new activity. Something we haven't done before". Fortunately he is quite happy with the activity to be just a new twist on something that we've done lots of times, and in these cases I often turn to play dough. Play dough is so versatile that you can use it for all sorts of play. If you are looking for play dough inspiration you really can't beat The Imagination Tree, and I'm a big fan of Anna's no cook, four minute play dough recipe. Harry had a lot of fun making his own ice cream on holiday, so I thought that I'd make him a little ice cream parlour.

We used the simple play dough recipe above, and I added some vanilla essence so that it had a nice ice cream smell. You could also add some food colouring for different 'flavours'. Then I put the dough into a suitable container and gave him an ice cream scoop - this is a simple plastic one from Ikea. I also put out a selection of sprinkles and bowls, and some old candles. Then we set his small plastic table with a checked table cloth and napkins, and invited along Mia and some stuffed toys.

Harry got to work making the ice creams and I delivered them to the table. Harry loved both the making of the ice creams, and the role play aspect.

Mia was delighted to be presented with her own bowl of ice cream. Of course like usual she had a taste, but soon realised that it was only pretend!

This activity was a lot of fun, and I've kept the play dough in the fridge so that I can recycle it for another activity when Harry requests one. I'm thinking that we could use it to make pretend cakes, sweets or biscuits.

Do you make your own play dough? What are your favourite play dough themes?