The toddler and baby relationship - an update

As I mentioned a few days ago, thanks to Photobucket I am having to go back through every single one of my old blog posts and update them with new images. It's quite a mission but it's not all bad, and one of the positive things is that it's giving me the chance to go back to some of my very early posts and re-live some of those memories - one of the main reasons that I started blogging in the first place.

I started my blog when Mia was just six weeks old, and I'm really enjoying re-reading about those early months when I was learning to cope with two little ones. One post I found that I particularly loved was this one - The toddler and baby relationship. It's now almost six years later, and so I thought that it was time for an update!

From the moment Mia was born, Harry adored her. He would introduce her to people when we were about and about, even strangers, as his little sister. Mia wasn't nearly as disruptive to Harry's play as I thought she might be, she has generally been respectful of his Lego models and other set ups. He's always been very patient with her, and he has quickly learned how to deal with her tantrums, even though that's often giving in to her and giving her what she wants!

Now when we are at home, Mia is always looking for Harry. When he isn't around, she's lost without anyone to play with and she gets upset if he wants to play his own game. Harry is an introvert and needs time to himself whereas Mia is more extroverted and thrives off spending time with others - which can cause problems between them sometimes if she won't leave him alone!

Mia wants to do everything that Harry does, and she isn't always impressed if he's sometimes allowed to stay up a bit later or to watch something that isn't quite suitable for her. They can also both get jealous if the other gets more attention, for example if they perceive that the other has had more hugs that day.

I learned quite early on that they would both need parenting differently. Harry is a sensitive chap, Mia is very temperamental (especially when she's hungry). While Harry's mood barely changes throughout the day, Mia's mood can swing from happy to angry in an instant, and then back again just as quickly. When I take Harry out by himself I just need a drink, when I take Mia out alone I need to pack a bag of snacks.

Both children miss each other during the school day, and they always greet each other after school with a big hug. They always want to know where the other one is and what they are doing. I really love how close they are, and I hope that it continues as they get older.

Go Ape Junior at Tilgate Park, Crawley

At the weekend we were invited to try out Go Ape in Tilgate Park, Crawley. I completed the adult course there last year for my Dad's birthday and enjoyed it very much, so I thought that it was time for the children to have a turn. We've seen similar courses in several forest locations recently and so they knew what to expect, and as they've both really come on lately in confidence we thought that they would be able to manage and enjoy it.

Go Ape Junior is aimed at children aged 6 - 12, although younger children can take part as long as they are over 1 metre tall and accompanied around the course by an adult. We had decided that the children were old and confident enough to go around the course by themselves and it was the right decision - I think that if one of us had been up there with them there might have been a few more wobbles, but as it was they just had to get on with it!

We booked for the 11am session on a Saturday in the school holidays. After we had signed in and run through some written safety instructions with the children they were fitted with their harnesses. They were both very excited, although Mia in particular was a bit nervous which surprised me as she's usually the most confident of the two! 

They were shown how to attach their harness to the cable on a small practice area, and they had a go at moving around it. This was really good as it gave them the chance to get used to the process of moving along the cable, and they were then very excited to get started. You are given a full hour to spend on the course, and your time starts from when your safety briefing has finished. 

There are two courses at Tilgate. Course 1 is quite short and a lot easier. Course 2 is a fair bit longer and has more more tricky crossings to navigate. Both courses end with a zip wire. Harry breezed through both courses, but Mia found Course 2 a little more difficult. There were a couple of moments when she hesitated, I could see her lip trembling a little bit and I was wishing that I was up there with her. But then with encouragement from Harry and the other children, and us on the ground, she steeled herself up to it and finished without any problems. She had such a big smile on her face when she finished a crossing that she had found challenging!

The time that they started was written on their wristband and they could go around as many times as they liked within their hour. Harry managed Course 1 three times and Course 2 twice, Mia finished Course 1 four times and Course 2 once. They both found that they had plenty of time.

The zip wire was definitely the best bit of the course, even though neither of them really mastered the act of a smooth landing!

Both children had such a sense of achievement when they had finished the course, it was really good to see how they had challenged themselves, as well as having a lot of fun.

Here's a short video showing the course in action!

Our Junior Go Ape experience was complimentary in exchange for this review. At time of writing a child's adventure on Go Ape Junior at Tilgate costs £18.

Crafting is my Therapy August 2017

The Crafting is my Therapy creative community on Instagram continues to grow and grow! Me, You and Magoo and I are so pleased to see so many people linking up and sharing some gorgeous projects. We always share lots of our favourite projects over on Instagram, and for example here's a collection of bags that caught my eye during July.

If you want to find us this month you just need to look for the #craftingismytherapy_august hashtag, and we are delighted to announce that we have another giveaway for one lucky person that shares a crafty image using our hashtag. Please see the full terms and conditions at the bottom of this post.

This month we are collaborating with Posca Pens to giveaway a ‘uni-Posca Pastel Packs’, which includes a set of Signo Pastel Ink pens and a pack of Pastel Posca PC-5M pens. These pastel pens are perfect for summer crafting. The Posca pens work brilliantly on all sorts of surfaces so you could use them for decorating stones and shells from the beach or even for drawing some summery designs on your windows (don't worry they will wash off!). The Pastel Ink Pens would be perfect for writing those holiday postcards or filling out a holiday journal or scrapbook.

I really love crafting with these pens, and you can see some my most recent project here - decorating plant pots with Posca pens.

This month we are delighted to welcome Teresa from Shirley Rainbow as a co-host. You can find Teresa on Instagram here shirleyrainbow_tb where she shares some gorgeous pictures of her recent makes.

So pop on over to Instagram and check out the hashtag, we would love to see you there!

Giveaway terms and conditions 

 The prize is a set of Pastel Posca and Signo Pastel Ink pens. 

The prize can be sent to a UK address only.

To enter the giveaway you must tag at least one relevant photograph on Instagram with the hashtag #craftingismytherapy_august. 

At the end of the month we will pick a winner at random from everyone that has used the hashtag.

The winner will be contacted by direct message on Instagram. 

If the winner does not respond within 28 days then we reserve the right to reallocate the prize. 

The prize will be provided and dispatched by uni-ball

Decorating flower pots with uni-Posca Pastel pens

You might remember that I've written before about crafting with Posca pens. At Christmas I decorated some wooden Christmas ornaments, and I've also used Posca pens to decorate notebooks and stones. The lovely Pastel Posca PC-5M pens come in a great range of colours for some summer crafting, and I've been using them to decorate some simple plastic flower pots.

I was sent a range of lovely pastel colours, which all work really well together in different colour combinations.

I used the pens to decorate some simple plastic flower pots. First I cleaned the pots thoroughly, and then I gave them a light sanding to make sure that the colour would stick. Posca pens are really good at covering different surfaces though, and to be honest this wasn't needed!

The colour goes on from the pen with a really smooth application and dries very quickly to a matt finish. It dries quickly enough that you can use another colour next to it almost straight away. The colours go on top of each other really well too, even if you are using a lighter colour on top of a darker colour, meaning that it's easy to touch up your design and make sure that the lines between different colours remain smooth. It's also easy to embellish your design after putting down a base colour.

I have three little cactii in my bathroom that were previously sitting in plain white pots, popping them inside my new brightly coloured pots has really brightened them up!

These plant pots will withstand a small amount of water, but if you think that the pot will get very wet then it would be a good idea to varnish them. Alternatively you could just use them for storage around the home, perhaps for pens or paintbrushes! This would also be a great craft for children to make as a gift which could be planted with a flower or even just filled with sweets or other treats.

This post was written in collaboration with Posca pens.

Harry and his piano

Harry has been learning the piano for over a year now, ever since we bought our fab digital piano. At first he progressed very quickly, speeding through the books and picking it up no problems. Then a few months in he reached the point at which it started to become a little more difficult, and that was when he really had to work on his practice. He's used to learning things without much effort, which is one of the reasons that we wanted him to have piano lessons - to give him something more challenging that he couldn't do straightaway.

Because of the way the exam system works, we missed the deadline to enter him for the Prep Test, something new since I had lessons. It's an exam but there is no pass or fail, it's a chance for the candidate to get some exam practice without any pressure. Because we would have ended up waiting months we made the decision to push him straight towards the Grade 1, and again because of the way the system works we had a choice of waiting either a couple of months or over six months.

So we decided to enter him for the next exam period, and we prepared for a couple of months of hard work. And he really did work very hard. I sat down with him every day to go through his pieces, we went after school to play on the closest 'real' piano that we have access to, and his teacher also worked very hard with him, giving us lots to improve on, and fitting in some extra lessons.

When the day of the exam came I must admit that I wasn't completely confident. He could play his pieces beautifully once he was warmed up, but he still made frequent mistakes that would throw him off completely. I wasn't sure how he would react to the exam conditions as it was the first time he'd done anything like it. I think I was much more nervous than he was!

Before the exam itself he had plenty of time to warm up in the waiting room, and we chose an order for him to play his pieces. We started with the one that he could play easily, followed by the one he found most challenging, finishing with the piece that sounded the most impressive. He was taken away and I waited for him to come back, with no idea how he was getting on. When he came out he seemed very confident, although I think a large part of that was the relief that it was all over!

We had to wait a couple of weeks for the result. Results come by e-mail, and although I didn't tell Harry I knew the first day that the result might appear and I was glued to my phone all day. I was desperately hoping that he would pass, I knew that it would be a massive dent to his confidence if he didn't. So we were all delighted to find out that not only did he pass - he managed to pass with a distinction! He lost a few marks on his pieces but did brilliantly in the other parts of the exam (the scales, sight reading and aural tests) and the written notes from the exam are full of praise.

We are so proud of him and he's very proud of himself. Since the exam he's been playing the piano a lot, playing his exam pieces again and starting some new pieces, and after the slog of playing the same three pieces over and over for weeks he's enjoying the freedom to play what he wants to for a bit. We will be entering him for his Grade 2 but not straight away, we'll let him enjoy the piano for a bit first!

WWT Arundel Wetland Centre

This week we enjoyed a lovely day at the Arundel Wetland Centre with friends. Despite living close by we've never been, although my friend is a member and has been recommending it for ages, so we finally managed to plan a visit! We visited on a sunny day during the week when a number of local schools hadn't yet broken up for the holidays, so it wasn't too busy.

The Wetlands Centre covers a large area, and there are lots of different things to do. The children were given a free Wildlife Ranger log book (something which is running throughout the summer holidays) which contained a number of different activities. When they had completed each one they were given a sticker, and when they had collected six stickers they could claim a special large sticker.

We began by buying the children some duck food so that they could feed the ducks although the ducks didn't seem that bothered, perhaps they were full! Then we spent a bit of time in one of the hides, where the children could try and spot some of the birds on the top ten list posted in the cabin. There were lots of reference books, binoculars and telescopes to help them and it was a really peaceful place to sit for a while.

Then we headed to the pond dipping. My children have never done pond dipping before which was definitely something that needed rectifying. A very friendly ranger explained the process to them and was on hand to help them identify what they found. They had a great time filling up a plastic tray with various wriggling pond creatures, then we headed inside to have a closer look. There were magnifying glasses and books to help with identification, then particularly interesting creatures could be carefully transferred to a little pot and placed underneath a microscope which displayed the image onto a screen, fascinating stuff. Mia caught a dragonfly nymph and we gathered lots of little worms and snails.

There are a couple of little playgrounds which entertained the children for quite a while, then we went for a walk through the reed bed to the boat safari. The small boats leave every fifteen minutes or so depending on how busy it is, and we didn't have to wait for long. The boat trip was definitely my highlight of the day, it was so peaceful gliding along through the water and the guide pointed out lots of interesting things and told us little anecdotes about things that we could see. 

We took a picnic and there were plenty of places to sit down and eat your own food as well as a large cafe. After lunch the children had fun carrying out some of the other activities around the site, like working out which minibeast had committed a crime by eliminating bugs based on their characteristics, and identifying a grass snake based on the markings. Then we finished with some crafting - Harry made an owl mask and Mia made a butterfly card.

I made a little video showing some of the fun that we had!

We had a lovely day out. I paid £11.18 for adult entry and £5.64 each for the children, if you live locally it's worth looking into an annual membership as you can save quite a bit by visiting regularly and it's also valid at eight other Wetland Centres.  

You can find out more information about the Arundel Wetland Centre, including current opening hours and admission prices, on the WWT Arundel website.

Ten things I love about the school summer holidays

We are already two weeks in to the summer holidays, and the beginning of September still seems quite a long way off. We've had our short break away to Center Parcs, and now we have some play dates scheduled, a couple of special events, as well as plenty of empty days stretching ahead.

I do love the school summer holidays, but come September I'm usually well ready for some peace and quiet and to get the children back into a structured routine. So I thought I'd write a list of ten things that I love about the summer holiday, so that I can re-read it towards the end of August when the novelty has worn off!

Ten things that I love about the school summer holidays

* Turning off the alarm after the last morning of term. In our household that doesn't necessarily mean a huge amount as our children get up early anyway, but just occasionally they will both surprise us with a lie in!

* Not having to make lunchboxes. Well I still do make sandwiches for Ram, but it's a lot quicker than faffing about washing up all the little pots and chopping up bits of fruit and veg.

* No school run. I'm lucky that Ram will do the school run in the morning if he's about, but I'm not very fond of the afternoon school run. The school is in the town centre and I always fret about finding a parking space (although to be fair it has never been a problem) and dealing with the busy roads, buses, cyclists and so on.

* Later bedtimes and no pressure for an early night. Both children do need to be in bed quite early on a school night as they get very tired, but in the holidays I don't feel the same need to make sure they are tucked up at a sensible time. Unless they are completely knackered, in which case these days they do fortunately now agree that it's time for bed, albeit reluctantly.

* No swimming lessons. I know how important swimming lessons are for children, but I do find swimming lessons a bit of a pain. Fortunately both children are in the same class for the time being which is nice as it's not too much of a rush from school and it means that I can take myself off for a swim at the same time, but it's still such a mission getting everyone dried and dressed afterwards and then battling home through rush hour traffic so that dinner isn't desperately late. Taking them swimming during the holidays is much more relaxed!

* Seeing the children discover forgotten toys that they don't normally have the time to play with, it makes it worth storing them during term time. I also build up a stash of craft and activity kits that they've received as Christmas and birthday presents, and it's lovely to be able to get them out and have the time to work on them. They've been busy rediscovering old favourite jigsaws and board games.

* Similarly seeing them wear all their lovely clothes, as they normally stay in their uniforms after school, In particular Mia has been wearing one or another of her princess dresses pretty much every day of the holiday so far!

* Enjoying the chance to do some longer activities that can be spread over several days, like our papier mache volcanoes. This week we've been watching seeds grow from a Trunkaroo activity box that we have been sent to try out, the children love coming down each morning to see how they are getting on.

* Enjoying what is hopefully some nice weather, or at least it not being too cold. I must admit that I'm not a very outdoorsy type, but it's nice to at least have the option to spend time outside!

* Having the children around all the time. I'm aware that this can also be a negative point, and I do miss the lack of time to myself, but I really do love having them about. They are both very affectionate children and they don't like to be very far away from me, even in the house, but it's so lovely having them around.

We were sent the Trunkaroo activity box in exchange for sharing across social media.