May you only have to buy 3 Eggs (or make 3 chocolate covered hard boiled eggs) and may you not have to eat a million gift eggs!
A Fool’s Easter
This Easter falls on April Fool’s Day. So this is what I am doing…
Chocolate Covered Hard Boiled Eggs!
Go on… you know you want to.. get Cracking!
Baking time!
Today I decided to have some “fun” time with the children. By that I mean do something that the children keep asking to do and I put off because of the work that goes hand in hand.
We baked yummy Easter goodies!
It took us 3 hours and towards the end I was thinking, “what I have done, I have to clean all this up by myself after we finish and I am shattered!”. There was keeping the peace as well as the actual following a recipe and getting the children to co-ordinate and the baking itself. Exhausting!
Bearing in mind that it took 3 hours, I was expecting them to be long gone before we finished. But here was the surprising bit, they stayed to help clear up! I was unbelievable impressed. We cleaned the kitchen in under 20 minutes. Can you believe that? Well, I was impressed enough to let them sample their efforts. Happy all round. Might do this again!
Bagels
It is the small things that make me happy. We all love bagels and they make a great alternative to a sandwich. Our favourite is Salmon and cream cheese but there is so much you can do with them. Chicken and Avocado, BLT, toasted with butter, I could go on! But what really makes my day is buying a pack of bagels, have 1 each and there are no left overs and you don’t need a second packet because there aren’t enough. Perfect!
Snow!
The children have been all excited with the snow. Makes me wish that I was young again.
The snow was not awful enough to stop our day to day life, so life went on and the children did not get as much playtime as they wanted. I felt awful that I let the snow go past without taking advantage of it. So in a final bid with the left over melting snow pelted my daughter with mini snowballs. It brought a smile to her face. Must take advantage of these little moments more often!
Five
I typed five into google and came up with the boy band FIVE. It tickled me. I know weird sense of humour. Completely forgot about them, could not every recognise them but they were something once. They sold 20 Million copies and then faded into obscurity. Ah well!
Valentine’s
We live in a world where everything is commercialised. Valentine’s day is no exception. In fact it is one of the worst. However I love Valentine’s Day. I use it as an excuse to show my whole family how much I love them. The interesting thing is that now they also contribute to making it special whilst not spending lots of money.
We choose a special meal and an even more special dessert. We lay the table as though it were Christmas down to a candle in the middle. The children make cards and pick some flowers from our garden. We make an extra effort to spend some time together too.
It is just perfect to show each other how much we care!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Things to do over half-term
One of the side effects of half-term is the extra cost that automatically comes with the activities that we seem to do. Having 3 or more kids, this builds up substantially as you know. So after a little thought I have come up with some options. Feel free to pop your own ideas in our comment section.
- Museums. Luckily here in the UK museums are free for everyone (though donations are always appreciated). Many of them will also have children’s activity packs. You can really easily spend a whole day at a museum. With a packed lunch, it is a cheap and educational day out.
- The Great Outdoors. Weather permitting, children love a day in the park. Pack a picnic. Perhaps some extra bread / bird feed to feed the ducks. Just take a camera to capture the moments.
- Geo Caching. Show me a child who isn’t technology obsessed. This is great as they get their Tech fix and they are getting some fresh air at the same time!
- English Heritage. Children go free when an adult is a member. It is not just one child per adult but up to 6 children. Isn’t that fantastic. They also get a dose of our great heritage.
- Watch a film. If the weather is bad, a trip to the cinema is a real treat. Lots of cinemas offer children’s viewings and cost around £2.50 a show. Don’t forget to get some popcorn!
- Grow a Garden. Now is a great time to plan a garden. Even if you only have space for some small pots inside the house, you can always grow some kitchen herbs. Children get really happy with starting something from scratch and reaping the benefits.
- Cook. Not your everyday cooking. Turn it into a treat. Bake a cake (even if just a packet mix) or some cookies. Everyone loves a treat. Let them muck in and shut your eyes to the mess! It will be worth it.
- Libraries. They have their own events going on. Some events are even free! Plus they can bring home a book and fall into an alternative world! Should kill an hour or two. If they don’t like reading suggest they get a comic style book. My children found some Star Wars ones in our local library. They were thrilled.
- Board Games. Do you remember the fun we had when we were children playing Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuits, Hangman, etc. Go on, introduce them to board games.
Half Term Coming Up!
It has just dawned on me that half term is just coming up! I am in panic. Not usually the case as I tend to take it in my stride. However we have had many changes in our household which means that I need to be more organised. I have to move my derriere and plan out the children. Now what to do….
Game Consoles!
As always, the children want want and want. And when they asked for a new console I said No. So they asked again and again until they wore me down. So I sort of gave in. I said why don’t you ask for vouchers when it is your birthday. Save them until you have enough and then buy whichever console you want. You see, there was a debate about that too. They wanted both a Nintendo Switch and a PS4. I repeated and said ask for Amazon or Game vouchers and then buy whatever you want. Buy both if you save enough! I did warn them to choose from where they wanted to buy as they did not want a mix of both vouchers but all from the same place.
Game offered loyalty points but Amazon was cheaper. Also if they went for Amazon, they could also buy a few extra bits if they had left over money. Trust me, there is always something more that they want! They sound spoilt don’t they. Actually they are very good children and unfortunately we do live in a materialistic world. So much so, they liked my plan. It was a win win situation. We were not going to be inundated with toys they did not want and they were going to get what they desired. So two birthdays came up and between them they saved enough money to buy a console. They decided on the PS4 that came with a Star Wars Game.
We ordered it and impressively still had some left over vouchers.
The children discovered that they could get second hand games at Game, which worked out cheaper than the second hand games (or new ones on Amazon). As I knew I would happily use their vouchers because I spend way too much at Amazon, I swapped their vouchers for cash and let them head to Game. They bought themselves Disney Infinity and Skylanders. Oh boy how many accessories they each need. Gulp! Each second hand figure is a fiver! I dread to seek the price of an original!
You would think that happiness would ensue. However WE ARE A FO5! The games are 2 player! This means that a child is always left out. Oh! The arguments! Oh! The Grief! What were they thinking? Why did they not make it them able to accommodate up to say 6 players. Can’t imagine it would have taken much to do. I know they have many Wii games that they could all play together on. I has MISTAKENLY assumed it would be the same here. Boy was I wrong. In fact it appears that the PS4 is aimed at lone players who want to connect to the internet and have an abundance of money to buy extras. I am so unhappy with this. It was meant to bring Joy! Anger came too!
Seriously speaking. The fights over the PS4 have been huge. I played with one of the children yesterday for 10 minutes. This morning I was told that it was not fair that I played because that meant that he could not play! 10 minutes – and I was told I was being unfair! Come on SONY! You can do better than that. Cater games for families and remember families do not consist of exactly 2 children!
And another thing. You would think that automatically the console would come with a couple of remotes. It doesn’t. Just the one! And here is the worst of it. A control costs around a quarter of the console.
Our PS4 was £225 and included a game. The Star Wars Game is worth £43.48 at Amazon. A PS4 Controller is around £50. We needed 3 of them! Although the third one feels pointless, we are hoping there are games out there that will allow 3 children to play together on a PS4 (and are age appropriate). If you have any game recommendations, I would really appreciate your leaving a comment with the game. Currently all my children are under 12 but depending on the game might stretch to a 15 / 16 – eg Star Wars is a 16 (though had not realised when we bought the console – another mistaken assumption).
Any thoughts or suggestions?
What is the Switch like?